Racial nationalism

Last updated

Racial nationalism is an ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity. Racial nationalism seeks to preserve "racial purity" of a nation through policies such as banning race mixing and the immigration of other races. To create a justification for such policies, racial nationalism often promotes eugenics, and advocates political and legislative solutions based on eugenic and other racial theories. [1]

Contents

Nationalism in Northeast Asia (China, Korea and Japan) [2] is partly related to 'racial nationalism' (民族主義), [3] [4] it was influenced by the German ethnonationalist tradition (Völkisch movement and Blood and soil) of the 19th century, which was imported from Japan during the Meiji period. [2] [5] This kind of nationalism is related to the term 民族 similar to the German word Volk . [6] [7] [8] [9]

By country

China

Chinese nationalism (中国民族主义 or 中华民族主义) claimed by the Chinese Communist Party in mainland China is multi-ethnic nationalism based on the concept of Zhonghua minzu (中华民族, lit: "Chinese folk"). Zhonghua minzu is translated as "Chinese nation", "Chinese people", "Chinese ethnicity" and "Chinese race". [10] [11] [12] Some critics have referred to Chinese nationalism as "racial nationalism". [4]

Some argue that the term Zhonghua minzu is intended to justify the Han race (汉族 or 汉民族) [2] based "assimilationist" policy. Jamil Anderlini, an editor for the Financial Times , said that the concept of "Chinese race" nominally includes 56 officially recognized ethnicities (including Tibetans and Uyghurs) in China, but is "almost universally understood to mean the majority Han ethnic group, who make up more than 90 per cent of the population." [11]

Germany

Japan

Korea

Korean racial nationalism is related to the concept of minjok, which often translates as "race" in the English-speaking world. In the 20th century, racial nationalist sentiment was shared on all political spectrums in South Korea, including not just right-wing dictatorships, but liberals and leftists who resisted it. [13] [14] When the racialist expressions were removed from South Korea's Pledge of Allegance in 2007, it is opposed by some left-wing nationalists who wished for Korean reunification. [15] According to Brian Reynolds Myers, racial nationalism in North Korea is the main ideology of maintaining the system. [16]

Many modern Korean nationalists deny the connection to "race" by limiting the meaning of minjok to the meanings of "nation", "people" and "ethnic group", [17] [18] because minjok (민족, lit: "folk") and injong (인종, lit: race) are distinct concepts in Korean language. [18] [19] [20] However, many non-Korean observers actually recognize minjok as meaning of "race" because "Korean minjok" (한민족 or 조선민족) is defined by 'pure Korean blood'. [17] [21] [22] [23] [24]

Peru

See also

Related Research Articles

Ethnic minorities in China are the non-Han population in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Han nationalism</span> Ethnicity-exclusive form of Chinese nationalism

Han nationalism is a form of ethnic nationalism asserting ethnically Han people as the exclusive constituents of the Chinese nation. It is often in dialogue with other conceptions of Chinese nationalism, often mutually-exclusive or otherwise contradictory ones. Han people are the dominant ethnic group in both states claiming to represent the Chinese nation: the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese people</span> Ethnic groups

The Chinese people, or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yamato people</span> Ethnic group native to Japan

The Yamato people or the Wajin is a term to describe the ethnic group that comprises over 98% of the population of Japan. Genetic and anthropometric studies have shown that the Yamato are predominantly descended from the Kofun and Yayoi, who migrated from mainland East Asia and Northeast Asia beginning during the first millennium BC via the Korean Peninsula, as well as a minority from the indigenous Jōmon that were already living on the Japanese archipelago for thousands of years prior.

Korean nationalism can be viewed in two different contexts. One encompasses various movements throughout history to maintain a Korean cultural identity, history, and ethnicity. This ethnic nationalism was mainly forged in opposition to foreign incursion and rule. The second context encompasses how Korean nationalism changed after the partition in 1945. Today, the former tends to predominate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shin Chae-ho</span> Korean historian (1880–1936)

Shin Chae-ho, or Sin Chaeho, was a Korean independence activist, historian, anarchist, nationalist, and a founder of Korean nationalist historiography. He is held in high esteem in both North and South Korea.

An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus was a Japanese government report created by the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Institute of Population Problems, and completed on July 1, 1943.

<i>Zhonghua minzu</i> Political term in modern Chinese nationalism

Zhonghua minzu is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality.

<i>Volk</i> German noun meaning "people"

The German noun Volk translates to people, both uncountable in the sense of people as in a crowd, and countable in the sense of a people as in an ethnic group or nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean ethnic nationalism</span>

Korean ethnic nationalism, minjok nationalism, or Korean racial nationalism, is a political ideology and a form of ethnic and racial identity for Korean people. It is based on the belief that Koreans form a nation, a race, and an ethnic group that shares a unified bloodline and a distinct culture. It is centered on the notion of the minjok, a term that had been coined in Imperial Japan ("minzoku") in the early Meiji period. Minjok is a similar meaning to the Volk, officially translated as "nation", "people", and "ethnic group", but critics of Korean ethnic nationalism are translating it as "race". It has been described by several observers as racist, chauvinist, and ethnosupremacist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchurian nationalism</span> Ethnic nationalism of the Manchu people of China

Manchurian nationalism or Manchu nationalism refers to the ethnic nationalism of the Manchu people or the territorial nationalism of the inhabitants of Manchuria, regardless of ethnic origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pledge of Allegiance (South Korea)</span>

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag is the pledge to the national flag of South Korea. The pledge is recited at flag ceremonies immediately before the South Korean national anthem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean nationalist historiography</span> Pro-Korean view of history

Korean nationalist historiography is a way of writing Korean history that centers on the Korean minjok, an ethnically defined Korean nation. This kind of nationalist historiography emerged in the early twentieth century among Korean intellectuals who wanted to foster national consciousness to achieve Korean independence from Japanese domination. Its first proponent was journalist and independence activist Shin Chaeho (1880–1936). In his polemical New Reading of History, which was published in 1908 three years after Korea became a Japanese protectorate, Shin proclaimed that Korean history was the history of the Korean minjok, a distinct race descended from the god Dangun that had once controlled not only the Korean peninsula but also large parts of Manchuria. Nationalist historians made expansive claims to the territory of these ancient Korean kingdoms, by which the present state of the minjok was to be judged.

<i>The Cleanest Race</i> 2010 book by Brian Reynolds Myers

The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters is a 2010 book by Brian Reynolds Myers. Based on a study of the propaganda produced in North Korea for internal consumption, Myers argues that the guiding ideology of North Korea is a race-based far-right nationalism derived from Japanese fascism, rather than any form of communism. The book is based on author's study of the material in the Information Center on North Korea.

Events from the year 2007 in South Korea.

Minjok may refer to:

Local ethnic nationalism, simply local nationalism or local ethnic chauvinism refers to the tendency of minority nationalities to secede from China.

Ethnic nationalism in Japan or minzoku nationalism means nationalism that emerges from Japan's dominant Yamato people or ethnic minorities.

In China, the word minzu means a community that inherits culture (文化) or consanguinity (血缘). Depending on the context, the word has various meanings, such as "nation", "race" and "ethnic group". In modern Chinese languages, minzu has a stronger cultural meaning than racial meaning.

References

  1. Turda & Weindling 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 Kelly, Robert E. (24 May 2010). "More on Asian Multiculturalism: 5 Masters Theses to be Written" . Retrieved 10 February 2024. Northeast Asians (NEA – Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) strike me as quite nationalistic, and nationalism up here is still tied up in right-Hegelian, 19th century notions of blood and soil. In China, the Han race is the focus of the government's newfound, post-communist nationalism. In Korea, it is only the racial unity of minjeok that has helped keep Korea independent all these centuries. In Japan, the Yamato race is so important that even ethnic Koreans living there for generations can't get citizenship and there's no immigration despite a contracting population. MC in NEA faces huge political opposition that the already existing multiculturalism of South and Southeast Asia (SEA) don't face.
  3. Gi-Wook Shin, Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (Stanford University Press, 2006), p. 223.
  4. 1 2 Ko-wu Huang, Max (15 March 2008). The Meaning of Freedom: Yan Fu and Origins of Chinese Liberalism. Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. p. 97. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1x0kc5b. ISBN   978-962-996-278-4. JSTOR   j.ctv1x0kc5b. S2CID   261749245. ... racial nationalism (minzu zhuyi 民族主義) was characteristic of any race, but he asked: "Will racial nationalism strengthen our race? In my opinion, it definitely will not."...
  5. Ryôta Nishino (2011). Changing Histories: Japanese and South African Textbooks in Comparison (1945–1995). V&R Unipress. p. 26. ... minzoku nationalism rested on the twin pillars of 'blood and soil' and 'proper place'.
  6. Michael Rudolph (2003). Taiwans multi-ethnische Gesellschaft und die Bewegung der Ureinwohner: Assimilation oder kulturelle Revitalisierung? (in German). Lit. p. 207. ISBN   978-3-8258-6828-4. Zwar hatte man sich bei der Referenz auf das 'Chinesische Volk' (zhonghua minzu) sowie auf ' ethnische Chinesen ' ( hanren minzu ) durchaus schon lange des japanisch / chinesischen Begriffs ' minzoku ' bzw. ' minzu ' ( = Volk , Nation , Volk ) bedient , allein hatte man es vermieden ... zwischen 'Volk (minzu) und 'Ethnie' (zuqun) im chinesischen Kontext darin bestehe, ...
  7. Charles K. Armstrong (18 June 2013). Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950–1992. Cornell University Press. ISBN   978-0-8014-6893-3. ... (minjok, similar to the German Volk) ...
  8. Gayle, Curtis Anderson (2003-08-29). Marxist History and Postwar Japanese Nationalism. Routledge.
  9. Shiyuan Hao (30 November 2015). How the Communist Party of China Manages the Issue of Nationality: An Evolving Topic. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 39. ISBN   978-3-662-48462-3. ... minzu to translate the German word volk and the English words ethnos and nation. After the Japanese philosopher Enryou Inoue founded the magazine Nihonjin in 1888, the term minzu became widely used in Japan and influenced the whole news ...
  10. Olsson, Jojje (10 January 2018). "Racial Thinking in Modern China: A Bridge to Ethnonationalism?". Taiwan Sentinel. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  11. 1 2 Anderlini, Jamil (21 June 2017). "The dark side of China's national renewal" . Financial Times . Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  12. Tobin, David (October 2022). Securing China's Northwest Frontier: Identity and Insecurity in Xinjiang. Cambridge University Press. p. 235. doi:10.1017/9781108770408. ISBN   978-1-108-77040-8. S2CID   240707164. Repeated use of what should now be translated as 'Chinese race, (Zhonghua Minzu 中华民族), alongside omission of ethnic minorities in official narratives ...
  13. Sang-hoon Jang (20 January 2020). A Representation of Nationhood in the Museum. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   978-0-429-75396-1.
  14. Gi-wook Shin (2006). Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy. Stanford University Press. p. 175.
  15. Myers, Brian Reynolds (20 May 2018). "North Korea's state-loyalty advantage". Free Online Library. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Although the change was inspired by the increase in multiethnic households, not by the drive to bolster state-patriotism per se, the left-wing media objected ...
  16. B. R. Myers (2010). The Cleanest Race .
  17. 1 2 Kristol, Bill; Eberstadt, Nicholas. "Nicholas Eberstadt Transcript". Conversations with Bill Kristol. The hum in their ideology is the Korean word minjok, which they would translate for us as "nationality," but is much closer in the way they use it to race.
  18. 1 2 "민족 (民族)". National Institute of Korean Language's: Korean-English Learners' Dictionary (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-02-14. people; ethnic group
  19. "인종 (人種)". National Institute of Korean Language's: Korean-English Learners' Dictionary (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-02-14. race
  20. Clark W. Sorensen; Donald Baker (2013). The Journal of Korean Studies, Volume 18, Number 1 (Spring 2013). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 47. ... injong (race) or minjok (ethnos) in the historical context.
  21. Kelly, Robert E. (June 4, 2015). "Why South Korea is So Obsessed with Japan". Real Clear Defense. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  22. Myers, Brian Reynolds (September 14, 2010). "South Korea: The Unloved Republic?". Archived from the original on May 19, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  23. Kristol, Bill; Eberstadt, Nicholas. "Nicholas Eberstadt on Understanding North Korea". Conversations with Bill Kristol.
  24. "South Korea: The Unloved Republic? | Asia Society". www.asiasociety.org. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2022.

Sources