China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy. By Peter Hays Gries. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 224p. $24.95.Arguments in the West over the existence of a “China threat” frequently atomize and even demonize China, as the author of the book points out at the beginning. Is Chinese nationalism benign or malign? The rise of Chinese nationalism in recent times has become an issue of great interest and importance to the world because of concerns over China's intentions as economic growth propels the country's ascendance onto the world stage. This timely account analyzes the sources and dimensions of the new nationalism, from what Peter Hays Gries calls the “rarely told Chinese side of the story” (p. 4). It is premised on a refreshing perspective that “to understand Chinese nationalism, we must listen to the Chinese” (p. 4). Gries's attempt to introduce Western scholars to the views of these new nationalists is an important contribution in itself, as so often mainstream views of Chinese nationalism in the West construe it as a tool to legitimize Communist Party rule. This book gets it right by taking Chinese nationalism seriously and treats it as a matter of genuine popular base and emotional content.

China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy

“Rising nationalism” has been a major meme in commentary on the development of China’s material power since the early 1990s. Analysts often claim that rising nationalism, especially among China’s youth, is an important force compelling the Chinese leadership to take a tougher stand on a range of foreign policy issues, particularly maritime disputes in East Asia. The rising nationalism meme is one element in the “newly assertive China” narrative that generalizes from China’s coercive diplomacy in these disputes to claim that a dissatisaed China is challenging a U.S.-dominated liberal international order writ large. But is this meme accurate? Generally, research on Chinese nationalism has lacked a baseline against which to measure changing levels of nationalism across time. The data from the Beijing Area Study survey of Beijing residents from 1998 to 2015 suggest that the rising popular nationalism meme is empirically inaccurate. This anding implies that there are other factors that may be more important in explaining China’s coercive diplomacy on maritime issues, such as elite opinion, the personal preferences of top leaders, security dilemma dynamics, organizational interests, or some combination thereof.

Is Chinese Nationalism Rising?: Evidence from Beijing

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National Belonging And Everyday Life The Significance Of Nationhood In An Uncertain World

Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China: The Search for National Identity Under Reform, by Yingjie Guo. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. xvi +192 pp. £65.00 (hardcover). In this thought-provoking work Yingjie Guo analyzes the nationalist ideas and intellectual currents prevalent in elite circles in China during the last twenty years or so, and particularly in the 1990s. Making good use of theoretical discussions of nationalism by Anthony Smith, Ernest Gellner, Prasenjit Duara and others, Guo makes a distinction between his primary interest, which he describes as cultural nationalism, and the state nationalism with which-as he argues-Chinese nationalism is too often identified. Guo defines cultural nationalism as an ideological movement concerned not just with political autonomy but also with the creation of a self-aware, morally innovative national community with shared ethnic values, myths and memories. This sounds quite like the ethnic or popular nationalism that other writers (Anthony Smith, James Townsend and others) have identified as an element of nationalism distinct from, though overlapping with, state or civic nationalism. In any event the distinction between these two broad forms of nationalism, whatever they are called, is a valuable one to make, and one that is too frequently neglected with respect not only to China but also to nationalist trends elsewhere as well. Guo says he wants to avoid taking an unremittingly negative view of nationalism, and to distance himself from earlier writers such as Isaiah Berlin who gave nationalism a bad reputation by treating it as pathological and destructive (p. xiii). In this respect he somewhat misrepresents these writers' views. Berlin in particular was always careful to distinguish between more benign, Herderian forms of nationalism and the more negative forms of nationalism associated with ethnic exclusivity and intolerance. Guo is surely right, though, in characterizing much of the recent discussion about nationalism in China as negative in outlook and intent. Guo's principal argument is that in China today cultural nationalism overlaps with state nationalism, but is in conflict with it to the extent that state nationalism reflects the ideology of the Communist Party. He concedes, however, that this conflict is lessening as the Party gradually abandons its classbased ideology in favour of being a national party. He concludes the book by predicting that the Party is likely to go on shifting its ground so as to take on board some of the ideas and elements of cultural nationalism, so that in the end "China will look more Chinese than in the greater part of the last century" (p. 143). Guo also argues that, for the time being anyway, the potential for a more civic-minded form of state nationalism remains limited. He takes the view that, despite the collapse of its Marxist-Maoist legitimacy and its abandonment of class politics, the state or rather the Party finds it difficult to nurture a new kind of civic or constitutional patriotism (p. 46). This is because in China civic identity, laws and political institutions are all still too weak to be depended on, and also because Party leaders are reluctant to face up to the full implications of nurturing citizenship, which would involve observing the rights as well as the duties of citizens (a line of discussion which needs further exploration). The nationalist high ground is thus left to cultural nationalists seeking to rebuild a sense of history, tradition, shared language and identity, something state nationalists also find themselves driven to doing, but much more hesitantly. …

Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China: The Search for National Identity under Reform

Review(s) of: The Making and Selling of Post-Mao Beijing, by Anne-Marie Broudehoux, New York: Routledge, 2004, x + 270 pp. US$105.00/ 57.50 (Hardcover).

The Making and Selling of Post-Mao Beijing [Book Review]

This is a sociological analysis of empirical data regarding the alleged rising nationalism in contemporary China. Different from most of the studies of Chinese nationalism with a focus on the offic...

China’s Rising Nationalism and Its Forefront Politically Apathetic Youth

Effects of Urban Green Infrastructure Designs on Soil Bacterial Community Composition and Function

Widespread global grassland destruction motivates restoration efforts. However, little research on public preferences exists to inform restoration decisions, and reduced exposure to nature, such as grasslands, could diminish public willingness-to-pay (WTP) for it. We conduct a choice experiment to estimate preferences over Tallgrass Prairie grassland restorations and quantify how those preferences are correlated with childhood experiences. We find that WTP for grassland restoration can be large, especially with recreational opportunities. Furthermore, people who participated in outdoor activities or grew up near grasslands during their childhood would place a higher value on grassland restoration than people who did not.

/pdf/early-exposure-to-nature-and-willingness-to-pay-for-it-3igqqouz.pdf

Early Exposure to Nature and Willingness-To-Pay for It

Environmental goods provision and gentrification: Evidence from MillionTreesNYC


 Bison is an important and iconic mammal in the U.S. that is being reintroduced in many places after being driven nearly to extinction. This paper provides a nationwide assessment of the local economic impacts of bison reintroduction so that rural communities can take economic well-being into account when considering decisions regarding future bison restorations. We estimate the causal impacts of bison herd establishment on county-level income, employment, and population growth using staggered difference-in-difference and the synthetic control approaches. The simple positive correlation between local per capita income and bison herds might lead planners to think that bison reintroduction is good for the local economy. However, none of the causal inference analyses find statistically significant effects of bison reintroduction.

Liqing Li

Papers

China’s Rising Nationalism and Its Forefront Politically Apathetic Youth

Effects of Urban Green Infrastructure Designs on Soil Bacterial Community Composition and Function

Early Exposure to Nature and Willingness-To-Pay for It

Environmental goods provision and gentrification: Evidence from MillionTreesNYC

The impact of bison reintroduction on local economies