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Article published In:
Manufacturing Knowledge
Edited by Alfonso Del Percio and Cécile B. Vigouroux
[Language, Culture and Society 5:2] 2023
► pp. 246–268

Modern ancient Chinese

A discursive construction of Hanfu identity across spatiotemporal scales

| Maastricht University
This article adopts the notions of chronotope and scalar intimacy to discuss collective identification, in particular Hanfu identity among Chinese youth in the context of contemporary Chinese nationalism. Drawing upon ethnographic interviews and observations of self-identified Hanfu fans in Beijing, China, this paper analyzes how they, through invoking and shifting back and forth across multiple spatiotemporal scales, discursively enact collective and intimate identification among individuals, among Hanfu fan groups (on a local scale), and the general Chinese population (on a larger, national scale). This paper suggests that the great ancient China chronotope (GACC) has played a crucial role in establishing continuity between the present (or other time-spaces) and the ‘past,’ ultimately legitimizing the inseparable link between Hanfu groups and collectives and solidifying great China and collective identity ideologies. It also demonstrates that modern Chinese youth are internalizing the Chinese nationalist ideology in order to establish a sociocultural relationship of belonging to and sharing with Chinese collectives as a way to empower themselves to cope with uncertainty.
Keywords: the great ancient China chronotope, Hanfu identity, scalar intimacy, narrative, Chinese youth, nationalism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical foundations
    • 2.1Chronotopes and identities
    • 2.2Scalar intimacy
  • 3.The methodology and data
  • 4.Intimately emergent collective (Hanfu) identities through time and space
    • 4.1Invokable Chinese history and ‘genetic’ intimacy through narrating Hanfu attire in the Hanfu revival
    • 4.2Greeting across spatiotemporal realms and the generation of ‘advanced’ meaning configurations in narrating the Zuoyi gesture
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 August 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.22025.jia
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