Editing Nationalism (section)

==== China ====
{{main|Chinese nationalism}}
The awakening of nationalism across Asia helped shape the history of the continent. The key episode was the [[Russo-Japanese War|decisive defeat of Russia]] by Japan in 1905, demonstrating the military advancement of non-Europeans in a modern war. The defeat quickly led to manifestations of a new interest in nationalism in China, as well as Turkey and Persia.<ref>Rotem Kowner, ed., ''The impact of the Russo-Japanese war'' (Routledge, 2006).</ref> In China [[Sun Yat-sen]] (1866–1925) launched his new party the [[Kuomintang]] (National People's Party) in defiance of the decrepit Empire, which was run by outsiders. The Kuomintang recruits pledged:
<blockquote>[F]rom this moment I will destroy the old and build the new, and fight for the self-determination of the people, and will apply all my strength to the support of the Chinese Republic and the realization of democracy through the Three Principles, ... for the progress of good government, the happiness and perpetual peace of the people, and for the strengthening of the foundations of the state in the name of peace throughout the world.<ref>Hans Kohn, ''Nationalism: Its Meaning and History'' (1955) p. 87.</ref></blockquote>

The Kuomintang largely ran China until the Communists took over in 1949. But the latter had also been strongly influenced by Sun's nationalism as well as by the [[May Fourth Movement]] in 1919. It was a nationwide protest movement about the domestic backwardness of China and has often been depicted as the intellectual foundation for Chinese Communism.<ref>Shakhar Rahav, ''The Rise of Political Intellectuals in Modern China: May Fourth Societies and the Roots of Mass-Party Politics'' (Oxford UP, 2015).</ref> The [[New Culture Movement]] stimulated by the May Fourth Movement waxed strong throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Historian [[Patricia Ebrey]] says:
<blockquote>Nationalism, patriotism, progress, science, democracy, and freedom were the goals; [[imperialism]], [[feudalism]], [[warlordism]], autocracy, [[patriarchy]], and blind adherence to tradition were the enemies. Intellectuals struggled with how to be strong and modern and yet Chinese, how to preserve China as a political entity in the world of competing nations.<ref>[[Patricia Buckley Ebrey]], ''Cambridge Illustrated History of China'' (1996) p. 271.</ref></blockquote>

In 1911, following the [[1911 Revolution|Xinhai Revolution]], Sun's multicultural form of Chinese nationalism manifested as [[Zhonghua minzu]], a concept that promoted the idea of [[Five Races Under One Union]], that sidelined [[Han Chinese]] [[Sinocentrism|supremacy]] in favor of coexistence alongside [[Manchu people|Manchus]], [[Mongols]], [[Islam in China|Chinese Muslims]] ([[Hui people|Hui]]/[[Uyghurs]]), and [[Tibetans]], all of which were supposedly equal branches of the Chinese nation.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Duara|first=Prasenjit|title=Rescuing History from the Nation|date=1995|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-16722-0|pages=142|doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226167237.001.0001}}</ref><ref name="sebok">{{Cite book |last=Šebok |first=Filip |title=Contemporary China: a New Superpower? |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-03-239508-1 |editor-last=Kironska |editor-first=Kristina |chapter=Historical Legacy |pages=15–28 |doi=10.4324/9781003350064-3 |editor-last2=Turscanyi |editor-first2=Richard Q.}}</ref>{{Rp|page=19}} The rhetorical move, as China historian [[Joseph Esherick (historian)|Joseph Esherick]] points out, was based on practical concerns about imperial threats from the international environment and conflicts on the Chinese frontiers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|author1=Esherick, Joseph|author2=Kayalı, Hasan |author3=Van Young, Eric|title=Empire to nation : historical perspectives on the making of the modern world|date=2011|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-7815-9|oclc=1030355615}}</ref>