Customer Reviews

Nationalism, National Identity and Democratization in China

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This book is one of the best academic books that I have ever read. It is clearly organized and well written. It lays out its methodology and its interpretation of the difficult concept of nationalism, which is like many books based on Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities". It is a very descriptive as well as objective book of nationalism and the forces that create a national identity. It compares China to the Soviet Union and Taiwan and comes to the conclusion that Chinese nationalism is opposed to democracy.

Another person who has reviewed this title did not even read this book (or failed to understand the text). The quote mentioned actually should read: "Chen Xi recognizes nationalist fears of the USA, but opposes them, making use of nationalistic emotions to carry out an ideological war against the USA." The book also contains far more text than is suggested!

This book was POORLY written. I am an authority on the issues- and there was no analysis. The so-called "book" simply represents the rantings of a nationalist. On page 193 of his book, he even *advocates*: "...MAKING USE OF [Chinese]NATIONALISTIC EMOTIONS TO CARRY OUT AN IDEOLOGICAL WAR AGAINST THE U.S.A." Why should I bother to critique this book? I believe his statements speak VOLUMES...he's done the work for me.

Out of the 240 pages in this book, only about 80 of the pages contain written material, the rest are appendicies, footnotes and the writing trips and falls over itself into half-baked, obscure and unintelligible oblivion.

I love China and its people and its culture, so this book truly saddens me.