Imagining “Us” and “Them”: Emotional Logics of Sovereignty among Chinese Youth

Weirong Guo, University of California, Riverside
Wendy Weile Zhou, University of Virginia

How do people emotionally imagine potential adversaries and the legitimacy of coercion in sovereignty conflicts, and how are these imaginaries shaped by competing visions of the collective “us”? Drawing on 93 interviews with Chinese college students in China and the United States (2019–2021), this study examines how youths’ visions of China’s future shape their emotional responses to Taiwan and Hong Kong. We develop a typology along two dimensions: visions of China’s future (stronger versus freer) and the degree of concern with Hong Kong and Taiwan. A strong-China vision paired with deep concern produces a defensive nationalism that frames autonomy claims as threats to national dignity and renders coercive unification thinkable or justified. A free-China vision with high concern yields admiration and identification with democratic freedoms. Where concern is weaker, a strong-China orientation leads to apathy and disengagement, while a free-China orientation generates ambivalence or envy—admiration tempered by doubts about feasibility. By foregrounding the interplay between imagined futures of “us” and emotional evaluations of “them,” this study shows how sovereignty debates are mediated through everyday emotions and national imaginaries at the micro level, bridging research on state propaganda and public opinion on territorial sovereignty.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 194. Socialist Construction, Economic Reform, and Ideological Production in China and Taiwan