China’s Nationalism on Divide : A case study on the shift of national identity in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Sammanfattning: This thesis paper sets out to explore nationalism and national identity in East Asia, with a specific lens on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as the comparative case-study. By examining the theoretical arguments and concepts of nationalism and national identity, the research questions to analyze in this paper are: (1) If individual actors and societies can define and construct their own national identity, simultaneously combat and resist the imposition of a nationalism ideology? and (2) If the rise of nationalism must result in a corresponding rise in the perception of one’s national identity in society? Despite the rising Chinese nationalism, both cases demonstrate a high peripheral and civic identity as Hongkongers and Taiwanese. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analysis, three hypotheses are process-traced and assessed to elucidate the phenomenon. The findings suggest that there exists a discrepancy of people’s perception of their national identity; individual actors can react differently and combat the imposition of a nationalism ideology, and the expansion of nationalism would not necessarily cause a parallel correlation in people’s national identity.