San Francisco Public Library

The great Han, race, nationalism, and tradition in China today, Kevin Carrico

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-257) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The great Han

bibliography

975087475

Kevin Carrico

race, nationalism, and tradition in China today

"The Great Han is an ethnographic study of the Han Clothing movement (Hanfu yundong), a neo-traditionalist and majority racial nationalist movement that has emerged in China since 2001. Participants come together both online and in person in cities across China to revitalize their utopian vision of the authentic "Great Han" and corresponding "real China" through pseudo-traditional ethnic dress, reinvented Confucian ritual, and anti-foreign sentiment. Employing close analysis of movement ideas and practices, this book finds that the movement's "real China," envisioning a pure, perfectly ordered, ethnically homogeneous, and secure society, is in fact an imaginary vision constructed in response to the challenging realities of the present. Yet this national imaginary is reproduced precisely through its own perpetual elusiveness. The Great Han is a pioneering analysis of Han identity, nationalism, and social movements in a rapidly changing China."--Provided by publisher

Introduction: eternal apparel -- Imaginary communities: fantasy and failure in nationalist identification -- Han trouble and the ethnic cure -- The personal origins of collective identity -- Reenacting the land of rites and etiquette: between the virtual and the material -- The Manchu in the mirror -- Producing purity -- Conclusion: neo-traditionalism in China today