Forging Unity within Diversity: a Discourse-Theoretical Approach to Nation-Building Politics in the Chinese and Taiwanese Contexts

This article presents a theoretical framework on discursive nation-building processes in the Chinese and Taiwanese contexts by drawing on key notions in the discourse-theoretical account about identity construction, hegemonic articulation and myth-building, as proposed by prominent scholars of Discourse Theory, like Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (1985). The framework is based on existing literature as well as findings from two case studies about discourses belonging to two different epochs in Chinese history: (1) Chinese and Taiwanese media narratives about the 1997 Hong Kong handover, published between mid-June and mid-July 1997; (2) Lectures on Nationalism, presented in 1924 by dr. Sun Yat-sen, an early proponent of Chinese nationalism.

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Open