How Xi is remodelling Chinese identity

Emily Feng’s Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China is, in her words, “a book about identity in China, how the state controls expressions of identity, and who gets to be considered Chinese”.

- GUNJAN SINGH

Historically, identity construction has played a crucial role in nation building; in Xi’s China, it is intertwined with “the project of Chinese rejuvenation, and in the process, [has] redrawn the contours of Chinese identity”. Xi has successfully redefined the idea of what it means to be Chinese and of an ideal Chinese citizen. Absolute, blind and unquestioning loyalty to the Party is nonnegotiable.

The legitimacy of this loyalty is interlinked to whether one is ethnically Han or non-Han, atheist or religious.

Xi’s programme not only questions but also verifies loyalty in all domains: Politics, economics or the personal. When it comes to economics, Xi has not hesitated from trimming the private sector and its supporters. Jack Ma’s fate is well known, highlighting the dictum that there is no seat of power outside of the Party and wealth does not necessarily translate into security. “In the end, the Party trumped all. It gave you opportunities to create fabulous wealth and it could also take everything away in an instant,” Feng writes. The relentless anti-corruption drive has also reasserted the supremacy of the Party.