POLI 338 Chapter Notes -George Mosse, Nudity, Noble Savage
24 Jan 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Argues: "minority" in china reflects objectivizing of a "majority" nationality discourse that parallels the valorization of gender and political hierarchies. Minority is to majority as female is to male. Widespread notion/representation of "minority" as exotic, colourful, and. "primitive" homogenizes undefined majority as united, monoethnic, and modern. Reveals much about project of "imagined" national identity. Argues that the objectified portrayal of minorities as exoticized, and even eroticized, is essential to the construction of the han chinese majority, the very formulation of the chinese "nation" itself. That is, representation of minorities has more to do with constructing a majority discourse than with minorities themselves. Chinese representation of minorities have strong parallels with western portrayals of the "east"; this is an "oriental orientalism. " Thus, so-called "peripheral minorities" have played a pivotal role in influencing and constructing contemporary chinese society and identity. This objectification of minorities is more than a response to western consumer tourism; it also provides state with symbolic capital.
