Racial nationalism
Ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Racial nationalism is an ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity. Racial nationalism seeks to preserve "racial purity" of a nation through policies such as banning race mixing and the immigration of other races. To create a justification for such policies, racial nationalism often promotes eugenics and advocates political and legislative solutions based on eugenic and other racial theories.[1]
Nationalism in Northeast Asia (China, Korea and Japan)[2] is partly related to 'racial nationalism' (民族主義),[3][4] it was influenced by the German ethnonationalist tradition (Völkisch movement and Blood and soil) of the 19th century, which was imported from Japan during the Meiji period.[2][5] This kind of nationalism is related to the term 民族 similar to the German word Volk.[6][7][8][9]
By country
China
Chinese nationalism (中国民族主义 or 中华民族主义) in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is based on the concept of Zhonghua minzu (中华民族, lit: "Chinese folk"). Zhonghua minzu is translated as "Chinese nation", "Chinese people", "Chinese ethnicity" and "Chinese race".[10][11][12] Some academics have referred to Chinese nationalism as "racial nationalism".[4][13]
Some academics state that the term Zhonghua minzu is intended to justify the Han-based assimilationist policy.[2] Jamil Anderlini, an editor for the Financial Times, said that the concept of "Chinese race" nominally includes 56 officially recognized ethnicities (including Tibetans and Uyghurs) in the PRC, but is "almost universally understood to mean the majority Han ethnic group, who make up more than 90 per cent of the population."[11] Since the mid-1990s, the CCP has utilized Peking Man as an instrument of its racial nationalist discourse.[14][15]
Germany
Italy
Japan
Japanese ethnic nationalism (Japanese: 日本民族主義, Hepburn: nihon minzoku shugi) is related to minzoku (民族), the Japanese word that translates to "people", "ethnic group", and "nation". Minzoku does not originally mean "race" in the general sense, and jinshu (人種) means "race", but some Japanese nationalists also use minzoku in a closer sense to "race"; Taro Aso has called Japan a "one race" or "one minzoku".[16][17] Prominent Japanese politicians have often kindled controversies by invoking the images of Japanese racial superiority.[18]
Korea
Korean racial nationalism is related to the concept of minjok, which variously translates as "nation", "ethnicity" or "race" in the English-speaking world. In the 20th century, racial nationalist sentiment was shared on all political spectrums in South Korea, including not just right-wing dictatorships, but liberals and leftists who resisted it.[19][20] When the references to minjok were removed from South Korea's Pledge of Allegiance in 2007, it is opposed by some left-wing nationalists who wished for Korean reunification.[21] According to Brian Reynolds Myers in 2010, racial nationalism in North Korea is the main ideology of maintaining the system.[22] In 2023, however, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un officially declared that North Korea was abandoning reunification as a goal. In January 2024, he said that "independence, peace, and solidarity on the basis of minjok [must] henceforth be erased from the [North Korean] constitution", adding that "the very concepts of unification, reconciliation, and a shared [Korean] minjok must be eliminated".[23]
Many modern Korean nationalists deny the connection to "race" by limiting the meaning of minjok to the meanings of "nation", "people" and "ethnic group",[24][25] because minjok (민족, lit: "folk") and injong (인종, lit: race) are distinct concepts in Korean language.[25][26][27] However, Myers argues minjok as meaning of "race" because "Korean minjok" (한민족 or 조선민족) is defined by 'pure Korean blood'.[24][28][29][30][31] According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ethnicity-based nationalism has been decreasing among younger generations of South Koreans, who have taken more in pride from the country's democratic system, technological innovation, and cultural soft power.[32]