Intellectual And Bourgeoisie Nationalism, 1911-1927

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Chinese Nationalism 1901-1949
The Qing Dynasty suffered international humiliation from the Germans, British and French empires in the second half of the 19th century. This was shortly followed by extensive droughts and lack of political and social reforms to align the dynasty with the 20th century. In the early 20th century, nationwide civil disorder led to the ousting of the last emperor by a republican revolution in 1911. Chinese political landscape was disorganized for the period which followed up to 1949 when the Chinese communism founded the people’s republic of china. The embroiled political landscape of the Chinese people was hinged on nationalism as an ideological foundation for creating a modern Chinese state. The Chinese people wanted a build a strong united government able to resist the interest of foreign imperial powers. The nationalism spirit was thus founded on the fundamental goal of sovereignty and independence from foreign influence. However, the political groups of the land during this period used the pursuit of nationalists’ goals to serve their own interest and that is the reason the country was embroiled in war and political instability for the first half of the 20th century.
Warlord Nationalism
After overthrowing the Qing dynasty, the leaders who took up china shortly after encountered many challenges of uniting the people. By 1916, chin had split into several provinces headed by military commanders. These military commanders were known as Chinese warlords and they used the nationalism spirit to propagate their own interest [1]. They convinced their people that they needed to conquer the rest of china and reinstate themselves as the rulers of the land. This continued till 1928. The military commanders of each province sought to secure their military interests. Duan Qirui was one of the warlord who used his influence and authority to further his interests to have china participate in the First World War. He did this not on the national interest, but his own interests. He manipulated the national assembly by surrounding them with a military mob and threatening republican politicians to agree to declare a war on the Germans. This was a personal quest which had no national interest but he used his position coerce the national assembly to agree to his plans. He epitomized the use of nationalism to further individual interests. Xun and Duan exemplified the use of nationalism to legitimize military conflict while on the flip side breaking china politically. As demonstrated by the Kwangsi warlords, in a bid to protect their authority, used their position and resources which were purported to implement social and economic reforms to fund self-serving military campaigns. They suppressed any program that sought to enlighten their subjects on economic and social reforms but masked their corrupt actions as true markers of nationalism.[Edward A McCord, ‘Warlords against Warlordism: The Politics of Anti-Militarism in Early Twentieth Century China’, Modern Asian Studies, 30, 4, (1996), pp. 795-827, p. 802.]
Intellectual and Bourgeoisie Nationalism, 1911-1927
The May 4th Movement (1919) and the May 30th movement (1925) also tapped the spirit of nationalism to liberate china from foreign influence. Foreign powers had humiliated china in the boxer rebellion and Liang Qichao sought to unite the people to build their nation. He envisioned to create a force that could set china on the right foot to modern itself, unite and resist foreign powers. He chose the intellectuals to be the drivers of this movement that would liberate china from the political quagmire that had permeated its politicians. The students took up intellectual nationalism and sough to ‘awaken the Chinese nationalism’ to avoid being ruled and controlled by foreign powers. Though this strategy seemed probable, it failed to interest the peasantry and have them join their quest. It was easily overthrown by Yuan ShiKai whose dictatorship set the precedent for Chinese militarization. The may4th and may 30th movements were unsuccessful to unite china and gear its united efforts towards developing the nation economically and socially. Partly because it was spearheaded by the intellectuals whose antic failed to unite the people and steer them towards formation of a nation state. Their efforts instead further divided the country and made it more vulnerable to foreign influence. On the other hand, the bourgeoisie had ulterior motives for supporting the nationalist dogma of the movements. They sought to manipulate nationalist rhetoric to legitimize their prolonged boycott of Japanese industrial goods, which served their own economic interests by reducing industrial competition. The Intellectual and Bourgeoisie Nationalism was promising on paper but because on individual interests in the pursuit of forming a united modern Chinese government, they failed in their goals. They became indifferent to the warlords who served their interests at the nation’s expense.[Harold Z Shiffrin, Sun Yat-Sen: Reluctant Revolutionary (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1980), p. 94.]
Kuomintang and Communist Nationalism, 1927-1945
The Chinese nationalist party which controlled a small part of southern china throughout the warlord period started to expand its control to other warlord regions. The party under Chiang Kai-Shek led a revolution and defeated most other warlords and united the country. However, their contrasting opinions of nationalism divided the party with the right wing seeking to pursue a limited revolutionary which served the ideals of intellectuals and bourgeoisie. On the other hand, the communist party wanted a mass nationalist movement including the Chinese peasantry. The right-wing revolutionaries which sought similar interests as the intellectuals and bourgeoisie were unsuccessful in uniting the whole country as it excluded the peasantry. However, when japan sought to invade their land the two resolved their differences and formed a united front against a common enemy. The peasantry was enjoined to participate and indoctrinated with the dogma of liberating the Chinese people from foreign influence. The common enemy, Japan, became the new title of nationalism. Post 1937, nationalism meant resistance to Japan.[Chalmers A Johnson, Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power: The Emergence of Revolutionary China 1937-1945 (California: Stanford University Press, 1962), p. 23.]
Japanese violence against ‘our’ land, homes, children and women became the collective agenda that united the people to rally behind their leaders and fight the enemy. The new nationalism wave was successful in uniting the people and though few leaders wanted to exclude the peasantry in the political arena, Mao recognized a all-inclusive nation for the people. The CCP recognized and prioritized the respectful treatment of the people which was different to Yat-Sens primary agenda of land reforms. Mao’s strategy was successful and managed to units the Chinese people to serve in the nation’s interest and protect it from external aggression. The Sino-Japanese war fostered a national consciousness for the Chinese people and ultimately laid the foundation for unifying the people under Chinese communist party in 1949.
Concisely, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, most of the leaders who led the Chinese people up to 1949 sought to propagate their own interests. The warlords aimed at maintaining their military rule at the expense of economic and social reforms. The intellectual and bourgeoisie class excluded the peasantry in their pursuit of a united china for the people. Only the CCP which used nationalism to unite the people including the peasantry to participate in nation-building. CCP propagated the true ideals of nationalism and succeeded in forming the government in 1949.
The concept of Nationalism and how it involved in Japan from 1912 to 1945
Japan had long embraced the concept of isolation, and this happened under the Tokugawa shoguns. Tokugawa was driven towards the ideas of seclusion by their fear of outside invasion, especially by the Europeans. However, once Emperor Meiji came to power in 1868, the country was set on a path of growth and rapid modern...