Grassroots Digital Nationalism: “Dehumanized Foreigners” and “Dignified Chinese” by Discursive Construction

Recent years have seen a surge in Chinese nationalism. Emerging during the time of national crisis in the nineteenth century, Chinese nationalism has persisted over the years and now prevails in the digital space. Historically, nationalism, on the one hand, is a spontaneous bottom-up response to a series of foreign pressures and international events; while on the other, nationalism in China is also partially boosted by state-led nationalist education campaigns. Based on the Regulations on the PRC’s Administration of Permanent Residence of Foreigners released in early 2020, which led to an exceptional wave of xenophobic sentiments and backlashes online, we, using the web scraping tool Octoparse, automatically collected 2 posts and 5126 comments produced by Chinese participants on Weibo, the largest social media platform in China. Subsequently, this study examined the triggering and articulation of bottom- up nationalism in cyberspace deploying a synthesis of thematic analysis and discourse- historical approach. It argues that the discursive construction of an imagined binary between “inferior foreigner” and “superior Chinese” helps to argue against the possible implementation of the regulation. As such, bottom-up nationalism, partially boosted by the State, reproduces itself and turns against the State when it fails to comply with its own nationalist rhetoric, exerting transformative power to the government’s decision on immigration policy. In addition, the foregrounded anti-Black sentiment in the discussion of foreigners reflects a (re)appreciation of the global hierarchy of race in China. Moreover, the discursive representations of a collective history, viz., victimization narrative and common ancestor narrative, constituted a drive for nationalism. Interestingly, while constructing a national sameness, ethnic minorities in China are excluded, reflecting a Han centrism in nationalist disguise. Overall, this study sheds light on the intersection of Chinese nationalism, anti-foreign sentiments (anti-Black racism in particular), global racial hierarchy, and domestic debates on ethnic minorities in the Chinese context. It also further evidences the powerful effect of the digital discourse produced by grassroots citizens in signifying Other identity, constructing an imagined Self community, and promoting their political appeals.