Author(s)

Jiayan Tu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Department of Sociology, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, United States

Corresponding Author

Jiayan Tu

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the evolution of symbolic power in modern China from the Qing Dynasty to the present. By analyzing theories from scholars like Bourdieu, Loveman, Gorski, and Weber, it explores how symbolic power shapes societal structures, cultural narratives, and collective identities. The study delves into the interaction between symbolic power and state formation, focusing on the dynamics of assimilation and exclusion. Through case studies, including the Cultural Revolution and the repression of Uyghurs in northwestern region of China, it highlights the mechanisms of symbolic power in maintaining and contesting social hierarchies. The paper also discusses the role of infrastructural power in these processes and compares the use of symbolic power during significant political shifts. The findings reveal that symbolic power, combined with military force, plays a crucial role in China's centralization of power and consolidation of state control, impacting both individual perceptions and institutional practices.

KEYWORDS

Symbolic Power, Political Sociology, State Formation, Assimilation, Exclusion, Confucianism, Communism, Infrastructural Power, China, Cultural Revolution

CITE THIS PAPER

Jiayan Tu, The Evolution of Symbolic Power in Modern China: Assimilation and Exclusion Dynamics from the Qing Dynasty to Present. Journal of Political Science Research (2024) Vol. 5: 113-120. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.23977/polsr.2024.050116.

REFERENCES

[1] Loveman, Mara. "The Modern State and the Primitive Accumulation of Symbolic Power." American Journal of Sociology, vol. 110, no. 6, May 2005, pp. 1651–1683.  
[2] Luft, Aliza, and Susan Thomson. "Race, Nation, and Resistance to State Symbolic Power in Rwanda since the 1994 Genocide." Political Power and Social Theory, vol. 38, 2021, pp. 105-134.  
[3] Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York (N.Y.): Norton and Company, 2013
[4] Sabbagh-Khoury, Areej. "Citizenship as Accumulation by Dispossession: The Paradox of Settler Colonial Citizenship." Sociological Theory, vol. 40, no. 2, May 6, 2022, pp. 151–178.
[5] Esherick, Joseph W. The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2007. 
[6] Maizland, Lindsay. 2022. "China's Repression of Uyghurs" Council on Foreign Relations (September 22). Accessed April 28, 2024. 
[7] Saeed, Sadia. "Political Fields and Religious Movements: The Exclusion of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan." Political Power and Social Theory, August 23, 2012, 189–223.  
[8] Morgan, Kimberly J. "Hostile Environments: State Infrastructural Power and the Exclusion of Unauthorized Migrants in Western Europe." American Journal of Sociology 128, no. 4 (January 1, 2023): 1077–1113.
[9] Zhang, Li. Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power and the Social Networks with China's Floating Population. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2006.   
[10] Mann Michael. The Sources of Social Power, University of California, December 28, 2012.

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