The Construction Of Hui National Identity In The Republic Of China

Modern nation-states are faced with the important task of constructing national identity.Especially at the beginning of the establishment of nation-states,the question of how to construct national identity is a problem that must be solved.Modern China has similar problems.After the founding of the Republic of China,it was necessary to build a unified national identity among ethnic groups with complex composition in order to successfully complete the transition from a dynasty state to a modern nationstate.The construction of the Hui national identity is one of them.Since the middle and late Qing Dynasty,the Hui has long maintained a negative attitude towards the state power,with a weak national concept and low national identity.This situation continued until the Republic of China.The Hui intellectuals and political elites realized the seriousness of the problem,and the country also saw the need to awaken the national consciousness of ethnic minorities and strengthen national identity.Especially in the context of the War of Resistance Against Japan,mobilizing all forces to participate in the War of Resistance is a top priority,and the construction of Hui national identity is an important part of it.This article takes the representative Hui newspaper Yue Hua in the period of the Republic of China as the analysis object to study the construction of modern China’s Hui national identity.Through the combing of Yue Hua(1929-1948),it is found that in the first period(1929-1937),the newspaper mainly focused on the problems of the ethnic group.It appealed to the Hui education and the attention of the Hui society.There is no obvious tendency to build national identity,but in the second period(1938-1942),it was largely influenced by the government and reflected the will of the country.The "Guidelines for the War of Resistance and the Founding of the People’s Republic" called on the people of the whole country to participate in the war of resistance.Yue Hua responded it positively,and to a certain extent received the support of politicians.In this period,Yue Hua turned to the construction of national identity.There have also been changes in the themes of concern.The content of confrontation and the founding of the country,the Three People’s Principles,and calling for national unity has increased significantly.This paper takes Yue Hua as the object of this period to analyze,using the theory of national identity construction and media construction theory to analyze it,and find that Yue Hua mainly constructs national identity through three methods:awakening history memory,shaping the "other" and the promise of protecting the interests of the group.And these three methods are all developed on the basis that the Hui has a certain ethnic identity and pays attention to the development of its own ethnic group.First,in the construction of historical memory,it emphasizes the coincidence of Hui history and national history,and promotes the historical tradition of "protecting the country" of the Hui.Second,in the shaping of the "other",it highlights the invader’s influence on the Hui itself.The aggression described the aggressor as the common enemy of Hui and the country,emphasizing that the fate of the Hui is closely linked to the fate of the country.Third,in terms of group interests,promise to build the country based on the principles of the Three People’s Principles to ensure ethnic equality,while ethnic equality is the group interests that the Hui people have long pursued.