Ebook: The Chinese National Character: From Nationhood to Individuality

This unique survey of the evolution of the modern Chinese national character incorporates a rich blend of history and theory as well as nation, gender, and film studies. It begins with the dawn of the concept of "nation" in China at the end of the Imperial period, and follows its development from early Republican China to the present People's Republic, drawing on themes of national identity, "Orientalness," racial evolution and purity, cultural and gender roles, regional animosities, historical impediments, and more. The book also takes up the changing American perceptions of Chinese personality development and gender, using materials from American popular culture.

Historian Sun chronologically examines the development of the discourse related to the idea of Chinese identity. He defines six distinct periods in the discourse of Chinese opinion leaders. Beginning with the demise of the Confucian ecumenism, he argues that, after a failed experiment with "yellow racialism," a concept of "national psychology" (a meld of several Western schools of thought mediated through the Japanese) held sway. In the May Fourth era (1917-1921) two movements arose employing a broader category of civilization, alternately emphasizing cosmopolitanism or the unity of Eastern peoples. Lu Xun would go on to stress a form of nationalism conflated with biologism until the rise of anthropogeographical ideas in the 1930s and 1940s that stressed the link between character and specific Chinese regions. Finally, Sun argues the discourse of individualism was imported from the Americans and their post-WWII studies of different nations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

From Library Journal

A thoroughly researched and footnoted study of 20th-century China's assessment of its own national character, this rather dense tome makes for fascinating reading. Sun (history, Washington Univ.) begins with a discussion of early ideas that militated against nationhood, then moves into various Chinese scholars' ideas of the national character. Most of the scholars make comparisons with Western personality traits, almost always to the detriment of the Chinese, whom they characterize as dependent, cowardly, lazy, and selfish, mostly owing to military defeats in the early part of the century. Other studies make a sharp dichotomy between northern China (energetic but stupid) and southern China (lazy but smart). Freud, the interest in eugenics, and changing sex roles allow for even more theories. Less intent on exploding myths than on exploring types of people and the move to individuality, Sun eventually acknowledges that the national characteristics of almost all peoples derive mostly from mass media portrayals, namely, movies and television, and that China is no exception. Recommended for academic libraries. Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Lung-kee Sun was born in China but grew up in Hong Kong. He spent his college years in Taiwan and went on to advanced studies in the United States, first getting a masters degree in Russian history from the University of Minnesota and then his Ph.D. in East Asian history from Stanford University. Dr. Sun has taught at the University of Kansas, Washington University (St. Louis), the University of Alberta, and the University of Memphis. Among his numerous publications, the most influential one was The “Deep Structure” of Chinese Culture, excerpts of which have been translated into English; a complete German translation, Des Ummauerte Ich: Die Tiefenstruktur der chinesischen Mentalitat, was published in 1994.