Event
From Empire to Nation-State: War, Emulation, and National Identity in China
Peng Peng, Assistant Professor of Political Science & Global Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Professor Peng examines when, why, and how national identity emerged in China. She argues that war acted as a catalyst for two distinct psychological mechanisms: enmity (humiliation and other negative emotions) and emulation (learning from adversaries). While conventional wisdom highlights enmity, we contend that emulation—a forward-looking process where latecomers learn about nationhood from their rivals—is equally significant. To test this theory, she analyzes two newly compiled datasets containing nearly three million news articles from historical newspapers covering the period 1872–1911, a transformative era during which China transitioned from the Qing Empire to the Republic. Using references to ``Zhongguo'' as a marker of national identity, she finds that wars significantly increased both the frequency and proportion of mentions of ``Zhongguo'' in Chinese newspapers. Further qualitative evidence supports this argument. This study underscores the pivotal role of war in nation-building and demonstrates how national identity is shaped through learning from others.