The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan

Download or read book The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan written by Frank Dikötter and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far from being a negligible aspect of contemporary identity, racialised senses of belonging have often been the very foundation of national, identity in East Asia in the twentieth century. As this volume shows, the construction of symbolic boundaries between racial categories has undergone many transformations in China and Japan, but the attempt to rationalise and rank real and imagined differences between population groups remains wide-spread. In an era of economic globalisation and political depolarisation, racial discrimination has increased in East Asia, affecting the human rights of marginalised groups and collective perceptions of the world order. The historical background and contemporary implications of these potentially explosive issues are addressed.