Ressentiment and the Revival of Nationalism in East Asia: Another Road to Modernity?

• In Event: 291 - Regular Session. Nations/Nationalism

Abstract

Since the 1990s, East Asia has witnessed the escalation of nationalist politics, notably in China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. This wave of nationalism, manifested in such issues as territorial disputes, the controversies of the Yasukuni Shrine, and the contestation over war memories and history textbooks, has been characterized as “new,” as distinguished from the old one in the pre-World War Two era. These nationalisms share a common feature of strong emotional drive, especially negative feelings towards each other. While some analysts dismiss these feelings and emotions as merely ephemeral, some argue that they are manipulated under rational calculation by the state in pursuit of political or economic interests. However, feelings and emotions per se have not received sufficient theoretical attention in previous studies, and their key role in shaping nationalism in this region is yet to be explored. Drawing on Max Scheler’s theory of Ressentiment, this paper investigates how Ressentiment has emerged and profoundly shaped nationalist politics in this region. Moreover, echoing Liah Greenfeld’s ground-breaking work Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity, this paper analyzes how nationalisms in East Asia, with implicit or explicit agendas of “overcoming modernity,” embody the efforts to seek for another road to modernity as an alternative to their western precursors. However, if nationalism itself is a constituent part of modernity, such un-reflected efforts to employ nationalism as a means to overcome modernity may lead to an aporia, in which the reconciliation among nations in East Asia is becoming more and more difficult today.

Author

• Horng-luen Wang, Academia Sinica