The Century of Humiliation and Its Influence on the Construction of China's National Identity

Abstract

Century of National Humiliation is a narrative framework used by some Chinese scholars and politicians to describe the history of China from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Although it is an unforgettable story, the concept of a century of national humiliation has become a widely used term to represent the central idea of patriotism in China, so that people take history as a warning. This work aims to present the content of the Century of Humiliation and to discover its influence on the rise of Chinese Nationalism and, consequently, on the construction of China's national identity. The importance of national humiliation education for the Chinese people in building national identity is also confirmed in this work. However, we need to make a good distinction between nationalism and extreme patriotism in order not to amplify existing problems such as Chinese anti-Japanese sentiment, Chinese anti-Western sentiment and the rise of radical Chinese nationalists.