Nationalism and internationalism – thoughts on Zhang Chengzhi’s work and Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference
GUO Chunlin (Translated by Lili LIN)
ABSTRACT Nationalism in the Third World is shaped through the processes of anti-imperial and anti-feudal modernisation, and is closely connected with communist internationalism. It differentiates from the nationalism formed in the context of the European modernisation. Nevertheless, with the establishment of the nation-state, in the context of international politics and geopolitics and during the construction of modernisation in the realms of politics, economy and culture, progressive nationalism can be reactionary. Via analysing the emotions and thinkings of Zhang Chengzhi’s writing on Japan and reviewing the history of Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference in 1950s and 1960s, this essay argues that internationalism is the effective thinking resource to overcome reactionary nationalism.
Keywords: Nationalism, Internationalism, Zhang Chengzhi, Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference
Notes on contributor
Guo Chunlin is Professor of Cultural Studies at the Department of Cultural Studies of Shanghai University.
Notes on translator
Lili Lin is a PhD student of cultural studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. Her research concerns gender, labour and creativity in contemporary China.