Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong Consciousness
The struggle to break away from the parent state and claim for independence often results in political unrest, terrorist activities and even ethnic cleansing. In East Asia, the hostilities between people from Hong Kong and mainland China also intensify rapidly in recent years. The late 2000s and ear...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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National Sun Yat-sen University
2017-07-01
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| Series: | Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://rpb115.nsysu.edu.tw/var/file/131/1131/img/2374/CCPS3(2)-Yu-Kwan.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828973928291237888 |
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| author | Fu-Lai Tony Yu Diana S. Kwan |
| author_facet | Fu-Lai Tony Yu Diana S. Kwan |
| author_sort | Fu-Lai Tony Yu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The struggle to break away from the parent state and claim for independence often results in political unrest, terrorist activities and even ethnic cleansing. In East Asia, the hostilities between people from Hong Kong and mainland China also intensify rapidly in recent years. The late 2000s and early 2010s witness a surge in anti-Mainlander sentiment in Hong Kong and a call for self-determination, resulting in a series of political upheavals. In literatures, irredentist and secessionist advocators generally defend themselves in terms of common blood, race and culture. None of them regards the issue from human agency theory. This paper has two objectives. Firstly, based largely on the works of Max Weber, W.I. Thomas, Alfred Schutz and Peter Berger, this paper constructs a theoretical framework, namely, the social construction of national reality, which allows us to explain the origin of national identity and the reason for people to call for autonomy or secession. It will argue that collective consciousness originates from everyday life experience taken for granted during socialization. Individuals make sense of the external world. Experiences taken for granted become the actor’s stock of knowledge. A common scheme of knowledge shared by the community serves to differentiate in-group (nationals) and out-group (foreigners). Collective consciousness thus defines national identity and hence a nation. Unless people (both in-group and out-group) interact with and learn from each other, different stocks of knowledge taken for granted will create conflict. This theory is applied to explain growing Sinophobia in Hong Kong. The confrontation between traditional Chinese consciousness and emerging Hong Kong consciousness undermines the peaceful coexistence among Hongkongers and Mainlanders, unless both parties redefine their stock of knowledge via dynamic learning. The paper concludes that in order to reduce the conflicts in the regions, understanding the origins of collective consciousness and national identity can help formulate an appropriate policy to resolve growing tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T13:53:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0fadb36e408f4ab692a59efdee017573 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2410-9681 2410-9681 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T13:53:32Z |
| publishDate | 2017-07-01 |
| publisher | National Sun Yat-sen University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-0fadb36e408f4ab692a59efdee0175732022-12-21T22:58:56ZengNational Sun Yat-sen UniversityContemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal2410-96812410-96812017-07-0132657686Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong ConsciousnessFu-Lai Tony Yu0Diana S. Kwan1Hong Kong Shue Yan UniversityThe Chinese University of Hong KongThe struggle to break away from the parent state and claim for independence often results in political unrest, terrorist activities and even ethnic cleansing. In East Asia, the hostilities between people from Hong Kong and mainland China also intensify rapidly in recent years. The late 2000s and early 2010s witness a surge in anti-Mainlander sentiment in Hong Kong and a call for self-determination, resulting in a series of political upheavals. In literatures, irredentist and secessionist advocators generally defend themselves in terms of common blood, race and culture. None of them regards the issue from human agency theory. This paper has two objectives. Firstly, based largely on the works of Max Weber, W.I. Thomas, Alfred Schutz and Peter Berger, this paper constructs a theoretical framework, namely, the social construction of national reality, which allows us to explain the origin of national identity and the reason for people to call for autonomy or secession. It will argue that collective consciousness originates from everyday life experience taken for granted during socialization. Individuals make sense of the external world. Experiences taken for granted become the actor’s stock of knowledge. A common scheme of knowledge shared by the community serves to differentiate in-group (nationals) and out-group (foreigners). Collective consciousness thus defines national identity and hence a nation. Unless people (both in-group and out-group) interact with and learn from each other, different stocks of knowledge taken for granted will create conflict. This theory is applied to explain growing Sinophobia in Hong Kong. The confrontation between traditional Chinese consciousness and emerging Hong Kong consciousness undermines the peaceful coexistence among Hongkongers and Mainlanders, unless both parties redefine their stock of knowledge via dynamic learning. The paper concludes that in order to reduce the conflicts in the regions, understanding the origins of collective consciousness and national identity can help formulate an appropriate policy to resolve growing tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China.http://rpb115.nsysu.edu.tw/var/file/131/1131/img/2374/CCPS3(2)-Yu-Kwan.pdfsocial construction of realitymainland ChinaHong Kongnational identitycollective consciousnesssecessionist movementautonomy |
| spellingShingle | Fu-Lai Tony Yu Diana S. Kwan Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong Consciousness Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal social construction of reality mainland China Hong Kong national identity collective consciousness secessionist movement autonomy |
| title | Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong Consciousness |
| title_full | Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong Consciousness |
| title_fullStr | Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong Consciousness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong Consciousness |
| title_short | Social Construction of National Reality: Chinese Consciousness versus Hong Kong Consciousness |
| title_sort | social construction of national reality chinese consciousness versus hong kong consciousness |
| topic | social construction of reality mainland China Hong Kong national identity collective consciousness secessionist movement autonomy |
| url | http://rpb115.nsysu.edu.tw/var/file/131/1131/img/2374/CCPS3(2)-Yu-Kwan.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fulaitonyyu socialconstructionofnationalrealitychineseconsciousnessversushongkongconsciousness AT dianaskwan socialconstructionofnationalrealitychineseconsciousnessversushongkongconsciousness |