ASIA 2021 - Culture & Identities in Contemporary China

Cultures & Identities in Contemporary China give students an insight into the complexity of China's past and present and highlights analytical principles that can be applied more or less universally. Key socio-political and cultural ideas, together with institutions underpinning the bases of the myriad of Chinese identities, particularly those with religious beliefs, are examined with an eye to emphasising China's diversity and revealing underlying belief systems. We examine some of the key ideas shaping Chinese identities, including ('Han') Chineseness, ethnic and other minorities and how ideas of 'Confucianism' distorted Western analysis. Chinese cultural variety is highlighted by showing how important Buddhism, Daoism, and folk religion concepts including beliefs in fate, ghosts, fengshui and divination shape much Chinese thinking.

More recent influences such as Christianity and Islam, Communism under Mao Zedong, nationalism and modern syncretic movements such as Falun Gong may be scrutinised to show how divisions between politics and religions can become blurred.

Many of these ideas remain relevant both in China and in international relations when governments or others appeal to or against them. The role of identity politics in the disputes between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan are the most salient of these.