context: Xi Jinping 习近平 first proposed the concept of a ‘Zhonghua nation community’ in 2014, and entrenching it as the leitmotif of PRC ethnic work in 2021. After the promulgation of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture in 2023, detailed explanations of relevant policies emerged. Zhonghua (Chinese) identification is cultivated by united cultural norms and historical experiences between the 56 ethnic groups within the PRC. Xi stresses the need to build PRC-oriented ethnic theories to back national unity, reshaping historiography to suit contemporary needs.
The ‘Zhonghua national community’ is nurtured and sustained by traditional Chinese culture, contends Liu Zongling 刘宗灵 Chengdu College of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Marxist School vice director. As such, it is naturally bounded to the concept of a contemporary Chinese civilisation, notably on three aspects.
Both concepts share the common cultural and literary DNA.
- For 5,000 years, the Chinese civilisation has never been discontinued
- history shaped the Zhonghua nation as it is
- fostered undying cultural genes
- shaped an outstanding civilisation system
- history shaped the Zhonghua nation as it is
- remained innovative while preserving cultural essence
- founded on the basis of ‘great unity’
- a common faith upheld by all Zhonghua ethnic groups
- prefer to remain united rather than break off from the great state
- allowed the Zhonghua nation to remain united in face of
- external and internal threats
- end of civilisations
- external invasion
- founded on the basis of ‘great unity’
- retained an embracing attitude to others
- upheld a historical view of ‘unity and harmony’
- allow different ethnic groups to blend together in the most harmonious way
- allowed differences to coexist within a higher level of unity
- remain peaceful
- does not adopt hegemony
- founded the community of shared future of mankind based on the spirit of the Zhonghua national community
- upheld a historical view of ‘unity and harmony’
Meanwhile, both upholds the same cultural mission: to elevate Chinese experience into Chinese theory, resulting in spiritual independence.
Similarly, both seek to paint the same vision of civilisational development.
- sustaining and redefining the Zhonghua nation
- Zhonghua culture provides the nation with the ability to develop
- Zhonghua nation supports its culture to be promoted into the broader human contemporary civilisation
- promotes a socialist theoretical alternative to the world
- seek to demonstrate the perks of socialism and the two integrations
- counter anti-Chinese forces’ rhetoric on
- the historical irrelevance of Marxism
- the failure of socialism
- domestic separatism