National Content Research Articles

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF CIVIL IDENTITY AND PATRIOTISM FORMATION IN A SCHOOL AT THE PRESENT STAGE OF EDUCATION

The problem of a person's civic identity formation accompanies society modernization, and it is especially relevant today, not only for the development of personality traits, but also for the younger generation, who should be active citizens of their state, their homeland. Awareness of an individual to belong to a community of citizens of a certain state, on a general cultural basis, determines civic identity. Due to the fact that students of different ages have different life experiences, they need the help of a teacher when choosing life guidelines. Adolescents do not have well-established social motives, interests and sufficient experience, just as the desire for independence is not always supported by interests and sufficient experience. The requirements of the Federal State Standard state that the basis of civic identity is the basic national values. The purpose of the research is to diagnose the formation of civic identity and patriotism among adolescents and the possible psychological and pedagogical conditions for their formation in the lessons at school, using the example of geography lessons in the course of "Geography of Russia". The research methods used are theoretical and empirical methods, including the study of methodological approaches to understanding the problem of civic identity and patriotism formation; questioning, methods of mathematical statistics. The results of the research have led to the following key conclusions: 1. Methodological approaches of philosophers, teachers and psychologists were used: N.A. Berdyaev, M.S. Kagan, K.D. Ushinsky, V.A. Sukhomlinsky, V.I. Galperin, who studied the spiritual and moral basis of a personality, psychological and spiritual mentality of people, and folk values in education. 2. Analysis of the results of the survey of students of 8-9 grades of MBOU "Maikop Gymnasium No. 22" in the 2021/2022 academic year, the positive results of the pedagogical experiment proved the validity of the proposed methodology for teaching the course of the "Geography of Russia", the effectiveness of psychological and pedagogical conditions in the formation of knowledge of patriotic content, increasing the level of formation of civic identity and moral and patriotic position.

Evolution of moral and patriotic content of the Timur movement in modern students’ ideas on volunteering

Evolution of moral and patriotic content of the Timur movement in modern students’ ideas on volunteering

Russian Propaganda in Social Media: Threats and Ways of Countering

The article researches social media in the context of Russian-Ukrainian information warfare. The author has defined the main purposes of Russian information propaganda and provides examples of pro-Russian narratives which were promoted in social media during 2020–2021. It is noted that nowadays Russian propaganda describes Ukraine only in a negative aspect: as a country suffering from corruption, disorder, emigration and poverty. Such messages are promoted both by national media resources and bloggers-opinion leaders with pro-Russian rhetoric. Particular attention is paid to analysis of anti-vaccine messages which are widely spread through some social media groups under Russia’s control. Transparency of information and lack of control over the social media, on the one hand, give them a status of alternative media and, on the other hand, may cause the destructive behavior of the users (trolling, elfing) and manipulative external influences, in particular, information attacks aiming to spread panic and depression among population, disruption of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country etc.The research has revealed that making “fake” news both with “fake” virtual followers (bots or trolls) is an efficient method of promoting necessary messages. Emotional posts or videos with provocative titles, supported by “necessary” comments of bots or trolls have invisible but powerful impact on the consciousness and will of the users. The author has examined algorithms of fake news making, analyzed the ways of combating disinformation and information propaganda (state control, public initiatives, conscious media consumption by citizens). The efficient methods of counteracting Russian propaganda are the following: increase of the proportion of Ukrainian patriotic content in social media, making research and educational projects, implementing lessons on information security and media literacy at secondary and higher educational institutions, involving Ukrainian citizens into advanced training in media literacy.

The countenance of the value of patriotism among young and mature pre-service teachers during their apprenticeship at school

ABSTRACT This articles examines the countenance of patriotism and its tendencies among young and mature pre-service teachers during their apprenticeship at school. In order to answer the research questions, we applied mixed methods, both qualitative and quantitative. Our findings show that both the younger and the older students believe that patriotic content should be included in the curriculum. Yet younger students defined patriotism as mere ‘connection’ to the country while the older students defined patriotism in more emotional terms, showing more intense attachment to the country.

Introduction: The transnational circulation of digital nationalism

AbstractThis themed section aims to examine the offline implications of a thriving online nationalist culture fostered by various social media platforms. Several studies have concluded that social media have enhanced nationalism, but there is still a significant lacuna in understanding the deep social, political, and cultural transformations produced by online platforms. How is nationalism different in the digital age? How do nationalists harness the transnational character of social media to disseminate and channel their message simultaneously to various cultural groups? How is the message composed and translated to appeal to various groups, and how does nationalist content cross language and cultural boundaries? The papers that make up this themed section explore the transnational aspects of digital cultures and provide new insights into the methodological difficulties of understanding the offline impact of the contents of social media.

Accidental nation‐building in Africa

AbstractNational identity in Africa is routinely viewed as underdeveloped relative to ethnic identity because most states did not follow classic forms of nation‐building, such as mass schooling with nationalist content. Yet recent survey data show that national identity across the continent is more robust than most scholars predicted. What is driving national identification in Africa? What unifies Africans around common national identity? Existing theories are not well suited to explaining this question, because factors that they see as essential, such as higher levels of development and cultural cohesion, often do not exist. In this article, I suggest a new understanding of the strength of national identity, based on the impact of political events, such as peace, political stability and conduct of elections. Drawing on over 200 original interviews with Ghanaian respondents, I demonstrate how political stability in Ghana, contrasted with political turmoil in neighbouring countries, produces narratives about national identity.

Nepalese Nation, Nationalism and Identities in Patriotic Songs

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the different aspects of Nepalese patriotic songs. Here, lyrics of patriotic songs are reviewed and their contents are analyzed. This study is focused on how these patriotic songs assist to promote Nepalese nationalism, national beauties, national identities and national unity. It is the representative expression of all national songs and patriotic songs all over the country. Music in the form of the national songs and patriotic songs were and remain essential components of national identity and national unity. These songs are popular and accepted by Nepalese citizens as a part of their national identity and such affinities are supported by the songs’ repeated broadcast and consumption on Radio Nepal, various other Radios, Nepal Television, private television channels and social media platforms. It is found form the research that patriotic music provides a means for social cohesion, not via the propagation of dogmatic patriotic content, but through the personal and intimate associations that such songs solicit from individual citizens.

СИСТЕМА СУЧАСНИХ ДИДАКТИЧНИХ КРИТЕРІЇВ ФОРМУВАННЯ ЗМІСТУ ВИЩОЇ КРАЄЗНАВЧОЇ ОСВІТИ

The article proposes a number of relevant didactic criteria that can be used in the formation of educational content of higher education in local lore. The application of these criteria (actually pedagogical, personal, scientific-applied, subject and technological) is justified through the study of the functional significance of each of them in the structure of local lore education. In addition, with the help of a systematic approach, the existing fundamental relationships and methodological mechanisms that affect the process of creating curricula for subjects of local lore are analyzed in detail. The scheme presented in the article demonstrates that the above-mentioned didactic criteria are not alienated from each other, but are in close functional-semantic interaction with each other. The unique interdisciplinary importance of local lore is emphasized and the general prospects of its application in scientific research are named. Based on a brief analysis of current world trends in economics, culture and science, the determination of local lore as an applied scientific field is shown. In this regard, the article consistently proves the thesis on the actualization of fundamentally new didactic developments in the practical direction of the content of local history education. The technological criterion of selection of the content of local lore education is especially emphasized, the most popular algorithms of its implementation are briefly considered. The separate semantic and structural value of a patriotic component in higher local lore education is formulated. The patriotic content of local lore education in our conceptual scheme is interpreted as an integral axiological component of the educational and local lore process, which has theoretical and methodological significance and is determined by the personal and motivational sphere of the subjects of study. The key problems that exist in the modern system of curriculum preparation for future local historians are identified. In this context, recommendations are given for the use of certain interactive, statistical and analytical research methods in the educational process.

Musical and dramatic creativity by Olena Pchilka in the development of children musical theater in Ukraine

Musical and dramatic creativity by Olena Pchilka in the development of children musical theater in Ukraine

MALAYSIAN MUSIC AND SOCIAL COHESION: CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES TO POPULAR PATRIOTIC SONGS FROM THE 1950s – 1990s

Upon its independence in 1957, Malaysia was in the process of becoming a modern nation and therefore required modern totems to bind together its diverse population. Malaysia’s postcolonial plural society would be brought under the imagined ‘nation-of-intent’ of the government of the day (Shamsul A. B., 2001). Music in the form of the national anthem and patriotic songs were and remained essential components of these totems; mobilised by the state to foster a sense of national cohesion and collective identity. These songs are popular and accepted by Malaysian citizens from diverse backgrounds as a part of their national identity, and such affinities are supported by the songs’ repeated broadcast and consumption on national radio, television and social media platforms. For this study, several focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted in Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and the Klang Valley. This research intends to observe and analyse whether selected popular patriotic songs in Malaysia, composed and written between the 1960s to 2000 could promote and harness a sense of collective identity and belonging amongst Malaysians. There exists an evident lacuna in the study of the responses and attitudes of Malaysians, specifically as music listeners and consumers of popular patriotic songs. The study finds that unlike initially hypothesised, patriotic songs – instead of commercial popular songs – are more popular and wide-reaching in appeal across different professions, ethnicities, religions and geographic locations of Malaysians. Patriotic music provides a means for social cohesion, not via the propagation of dogmatic patriotic content, but through the personal, intimate and affective associations that such songs solicit from individual citizens.

On the Issue of the Painting Technique of the Marine Artist V.I. Shilyaev

Seascape is a special genre of painting. To show the vivid life of the sea is not an easy task for an artist. The creative heritage of marine painters not only delights, but also encourages modern artists to look for their own style, to develop their own painting technique to achieve it. The author analyzes the genesis of the special manner of the Far Eastern marine painter V.I. Shilyaev in the representation of a live transformation of the sea wave, attempts to characterize his original painting technique to perform a frozen in time moment of life of the dynamic volume on the plane of the canvas. Maintaining the creative tradition of the great marinists of the past, V.I. Shilyaev filled his works with patriotic content of self-identification of the Russian Far East, developed the art of depicting legendary ships on an aesthetically irresistible sea wave. The author claims that the mixed improvisational technique of visualizing the constantly changing volume and color of the sea wave is V.I. Shilyaev's innovative contribution to the achievements of the Russian seascape painting school.

Lingvo-Pedagogical Understanding of the Concepts of “Discourse Competence” and “Patriotic Discourse”

The article attempts to comprehend the essence and possibility of forming discourse competence among foreign and Russian students with simultaneous immersion in patriotic discourse. It is highlighted that the addition of the humanitarian series of “History of Civilizations” and “Features of Russian Civilization” to the educational process at the university creates the necessary pedagogical conditions for organizing a special linguo-ethno-cultural environment that forms active social interaction of authors within the framework of the medical and patriotic linguistic scenario.The authors of the article conducted a semantic and historical analysis of interpretations of the concept of “patriotism” that were studied from the point of view of traditional and liberal culture. The article presents the results of a socio-pedagogical study of students' perceptions of this concept. The article describes various theoretical and methodological approaches to the definition of the concepts of “discourse” and “discursive picture of the world” as well as psycholinguistic features of the method of semantic differential. Special attention in the article is paid to the typologies of discourse presented in the scientific literature. The authors of the article present the principle of genre and the principle of thematic correlation as the basis for distinguishing between types of discourse and highlight differences in language and discursive pictures of the world. The tasks of educators is to form not only purely medical discursive competence, but also to immerse the listener in “correctly” interpreted picture, saturated with verbal patterns that allow to create statements of patriotic content.

Ethnic and Cultural Aspects of Nationalism Transformation in the Context of Globalization: The Global Trends and Russian Specifics

Formation and development of nations is a historical process accompanied by the constant transformation of nationalist ideologies, which often represent a reaction to the processes of globalization. In the acceleration period of globalization processes, there deepens the ethno-cultural dimension of nationalistic ideologies, which determines the purpose and novelty of this study.The classical works of constructivists (E. Gellner, E. Hobsbawm, B. Anderson, etc.) and primordialists (A. Smith, etc.) provide the methodological basis for the study of transformation of nationalism and its ethno-cultural components in the context of globalization. Within the framework of the constructivist approach, nationalism can be interpreted in the spirit of the creation and development of modern civilized nations. Primordialism gives grounds to consider the nation through the prism of its ethnic roots and ethno-cultural features. The socio-philosophical approach of the Russian author Zh.T. Toshchenko, aimed at analyzing the ethnocratic aspects that form the essence of most nationalist ideologies, is methodologically significant for the study of Russian nationalism transformation specifics.The analysis of nationalism revealed that this phenomenon arises from the idea of creating and developing a modern nation and is closely related to the approaches of understanding and interpretation of this socio-political phenomenon. It is also impossible to separate it from the ethnic and cultural aspects in one form or another involved in the process of nation-building.The article reveals that there can be quite acceptable and even historically contingent forms of nationalism associated with its patriotic content, which, for example, can serve as a resource for mobilizing the population in acute international conflicts and large-scale wars.

Training National and Vocational Women: Characteristics of Curriculum of Female Secondary Education in Colonized Manchuria

Background: The Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (1932-1945) set up a specialized curriculum and published textbooks specifically for girls, with the purpose of training girls to become “good wives and wise mothers”. Over the course of the state’s existence, the regime adjusted its curriculum, following the policies and needs of the Japanese Empire. This paper assesses how the government changed the curriculum, focusing on and what kind of female roles they tried to teach to the Chinese girls.
 Methodology: This paper compares and analyzes the content and classroom hours of the curriculum of public women’s secondary schools in Manchuria in three periods: 1) 1926-1937, 2) 1938-1941, and 3) 1941-1945. The data of this study was collected from material published by the Fengtian Female Normal School, and the Manchukuo provincial education magazine Fengtian Education.
 Results: From the state’s earliest period, Manchukuo education officials emphasized females’ “natural duty” as “Good Wives, Wise Mothers.” Over time, however, they also increasingly emphasized learning the Japanese language, vocational skills, and patriotic content, in order to serve the goals of Japan during the World War II.
 Conclusion: Despite the consistent rhetoric which emphasized women becoming mothers, and possibly teachers, the curriculum and contents of the education changed according to the interests of the state and the needs of the war, encouraging women to serve the state by taking up some of the roles that men had played.

Towards a Fanonian Poetics: Cultural Decolonization as Translation

Towards a Fanonian PoeticsCultural Decolonization as Translation Richard L. W. Clarke In what follows, I shall attempt to provide a close reading of Fanon's often cited but dense, highly complex, richly allusive and rarely carefully dissected "On National Culture," the seminal fourth chapter of The Wretched of the Earth, with a few passing gestures along the way to related essays of his such as "Racism and Culture." My thesis here is that much light is shed on Fanon's theory of cultural decolonization by conceptualizing cultural history as predicated on processes of translation, perhaps the best guide to which is George Steiner's After Babel. I argue, in light of this, that Fanon advances a dialectical model of post-colonial national culture as developing in three principal stages. During the first (the thesis), which I shall term the dominant neo-classical phase, the assumption that human nature is universal informs the tendency of the colonized artist to regurgitate not only many of the preoccupations but also, most importantly, the forms of the colonizer's cultural practices. The cultural production specific to this stage is analogous to what, in the world of translation studies, is termed "word-by-word" translation. During the second stage (the antithesis), which I shall call the residualist neo-romantic phase, the colonized artist conceives of his/her identity as distinct from that of the colonizer and angrily rejects cultural practices imported from the "mother country" with a view to resurrecting not only a largely suppressed pre-colonial identity but also, equally importantly, the forms through which that self had traditionally been expressed. Fanon's point is, however, that this is an impossible undertaking precisely because as a result of imbibing through education the colonizer's epistemological and aesthetic frameworks, the chances of recuperating that self and its traditional modes of expression in their pristine form are next to nil. Cultural production at this stage turns out to be, ironically, something ultimately akin to a "sense-for-sense" translation of many of the concerns to which the colonizer's cultural practices are devoted, albeit by means of a style that purports to be different. During the third stage (the synthesis), which I shall label the emergent nationalist phase, the colonized artist fuses modes of making sense and forms of artistic expression undeniably inherited from the colonizer (most importantly, the Marxist theory of culture favored by Fanon) with nationalist content to produce hybrid forms of cultural praxis grounded in the specific economic, social and [End Page 261] political circumstances in which a colony struggling to throw off the yoke of colonialism finds itself. This stage corresponds to that ideal of translation which Steiner terms, for reasons which I shall explain in the next section, "interanimation."1 steiner on translation I have argued elsewhere that the process by which ideas "travel" (to use Edward Said's metaphor) from one person and, by extension, community living in a particular place and time to another and, in so doing, are altered may best be understood as a form of translation.2 This is true, I believe, of all forms of discourse, including the arts in general and literature in particular. The most compelling philosophies of translation which I have found are those offered by Walter Benjamin (see especially his "On Language as Such and on the Language of Man" [1916] and "The Task of the Translator" [1923]) and George Steiner in After Babel (1975), itself deeply influenced by Benjamin's model of translation, all of which have become classics in and cornerstones of the field of translation studies. A thorough treatment of the transmission of ideas constitutive of intellectual history is beyond the remit of this essay. Suffice it to say, however, that I am of the view that there are few better guides to understanding the precise processes involved in translation than Steiner's complex and massive tome, After Babel, a cursory overview of which I shall attempt to provide in this section. Steiner's starting-point is hermeneutical, to be precise, the view that any act of listening or reading is tantamount to one of "interpretation" (18), the goal of which is the comprehension of the speaker...

Шевченківські мотиви в малій прозі письменників-емігрантів 20–30-х років

The article studies images and motifs of Shevchenko based on the materials of works of another row of Ukrainian emigration writers of the 20-30ies years. Using the theory of archetypes of Jung, we identified an intermediate archetype acting on the verge between a Hero (a Savior) and a Sage, this is what Taras Shevchenko became for the Diaspora writers.Particular attention is being drawn to the genre palette of Shevchenkiana, artistic and stylistic features of the stories of the following writers are being defined: K. Polishchuk, B. Lepky, Dmytro Tyahnyhore, and Lesya Verhovynka. The Shevchenko motifs we discovered in the short fiction of the 20-30ies are usually united around the magnificent figure of Shevchenko, his portrait and his “Kobzar”. The archetypal figure of Shevchenko represents a symbol of a rebellious spirit and a national talisman for Ukrainian writers of the emigration. It is being determined that the portrait of the great son of the Ukraine serves as an icon for his people and is frightening for the others; words of the works of Shevchenko inspire heroes to fight for the liberation of the native land and act like a prayer; “Kobzar” serves as a talisman. Thus, motives of Shevchenko in the works of short fiction emphasize saving function for the characters and for their authors.As a result, it is being concluded that a dominant in all the stories and novels was both a respectful and a panegyric relationship towards the Savior of the Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko, and that his name and works became a philosophical guide that inspired artists to create Diaspora of the short fiction with patriotic content.

Transforming the Nation? The Bolivarian Education Reform in Venezuela

AbstractThe Chávez government introduced a ‘Bolivarian’ national curriculum to promote radically different understandings of Venezuelan history and identity. We place the fate of this reform initiative within the broader study of state formation and nationalism. Scholars have long identified mass schooling as the key institution for socialising citizens and cultivating national loyalties, and many states have attempted to alter the nationalist content of schooling with these ends in mind. Venezuela constitutes an ideal case for identifying the specific conditions under which transformations of official national ideologies do and do not gain broader resonance. Using evidence derived from textbook analysis and semi-structured interviews with educational officials and teachers in Caracas, we highlight a new argument, showing that intrastate tensions between the central government and teachers, heightened by a well-established cultural machinery and by teachers’ increasing exclusion from the Chavista political coalition, explain the limited success in government efforts to implement Bolivarian nationalism through the school curriculum.

‘Stories That Find their Place’: Retelling the Protest at Brandfort, 1901–1949

This paper concerns eight women's testimonies produced over a period of some 50 years, which describe a protest about meat rations at Brandfort concentration camp in November 1901, during the 1899–1902 South African War. The focus here is not the ‘event itself’, which cannot now be recovered except in its archival or documentary forms, but on the subsequent re/telling of this incident, and on the politicised, (proto-) nationalist content and tone of the Brandfort protest testimonies. While proto-nationalism is present from the earliest extant testimony, the development of this is traced over time, showing how the later testimonies evince a strongly triumphalist nationalist tone. The retrospectively inscribed testimonies of the protest are examined to show how, over time, the story of the Brandfort protest became universalised, retold well away from specificities of time and place. If nationalism depends on the creation of ‘stories that find their place’, then it was partly through the construction and repetition of what Van Heyningen has called ‘costly mythologies’ about women's concentration camp experiences that Afrikaner national unity was achieved. This also supports Bradford’s important claim that the 1899–1902 war regendered Afrikaner nationalism.

Sõjakaadrite sobitamine isamaa ekraanidele. Sõda taasiseseisvumisjärgses eesti mängufilmis / Reframing War for the Nation-state’s Screens

Teesid: Artikkel vaatleb kriitiliselt 21. sajandi eesti mängufilmides peegelduvaid katseid rakendada militaartemaatika heroilise rahvusnarratiivi kujundamise ja edasikandmise teenistusse. Vaatluse keskmes on suund, mis koosneb seni kolmest mängufilmist ning ühest telesarjast ja telemängufilmist: „Nimed marmortahvlil“ (2002), „Detsembrikuumus“ (2008), „1944“ (2015) ja „Tuulepealne maa“ (2008, 2013). Teosed moodustavad temaatikalt ja lähenemiselt küllaltki homogeense terviku ning ka retseptsioon on kaldunud neid käsitlema sama riiklikult toetatud propagandadiskursuse osadena. Artikkel tõstab problemaatilisena esile, et filmide tootmises on osalenud ajaloolase taustaga poliitikud.SU M M A R YThis article traces and critiques attempts to reclaim militarism for patriotic purposes, as evidenced in early 21st century Estonian war-centred fiction films and TV series. Military themes were scarce in Estonia’s cinematic output during the 1990s, not so much due to their lingering association with Soviet propaganda, but rather because of economic hardship, which severely limited film budgets. However, as the ideological focus of the re-established nation-state came to rely heavily on nostalgia towards the interwar independence era, with its glorification of the victorious War of Independence, the emergence of „our own“ war films, intended to establish and perpetuate a heroic national narrative complete with military glory, seems to have been inevitable.The works primarily discussed here include the domestic box office hits Names in Marble (dir. Elmo Nüganen, 2002), December Heat (Asko Kase, 2008) and 1944 (Elmo Nüganen, 2015) as well as the popular TV series Windswept Land (Ain Prosa, 2008, 2013). While these productions are similar in many other ways, they are united by their straightforward patriotic pathos. There is a clear genre preference for epic historical dramas presented in a populist key, complete with spectacular action sequences and romantic subplots. The preferred subject matter initially involved armed conflicts of the early 20th century – the War for Independence from 1918 to 1920, as well as the communist coup attempt in 1924, but more recent works have focused on WWII, a topic that remains divisive in contemporary Estonia. These productions have been relatively lavish for Estonia’s limited means, but their scripts have inclined towards the simplistic and conservative end of the dramatic spectrum, relying on clichés, and lacking in creativity and psychological depth. Despite attempts to encompass different social classes and some minority groups, the works perpetuate rigidly conservative values. Thus the message tends to ring hollow to many contemporary ears, and alienates parts of the audience, instead of uniting everyone in patriotic fervor.While these productions have clearly sought to meet an existing public demand and have proved popular domestically (not abroad, despite some hopes of marketing them internationally), they have also faced mounting, increasingly sharp criticism. This stems from both their artistic shortcomings and the fact that in addition to these productions being primarily state-funded (as is nearly all of Estonian cinema), they have all received outright backing from the right-wing conservative party, Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit, that has been either Estonia’s ruling party or part of the ruling coalition for most of the time since the country re-established its independence in 1991. Two of the key figures in this party, the former prime minister Mart Laar and long-term parliament member Lauri Vahtre (both are practising historians in addition to their political careers), served either as script authors or consultants during the production of all the works mentioned. Thus, these works can be regarded as attempts to harness the emotive power of war-related themes in cinema for official purposes once again, albeit this time for the benefit of the Estonian nation-state; perhaps more accurately, for the benefit of one political party’s conceptualization of this state.The films have also been closely tied to the state through official events, either by premiering on Independence Day or being promoted as part of the public celebrations of the state’s 90th and 95th anniversaries. This can be interpreted as an attempt to place these productions above criticism due to their patriotic content. Vahtre has even publicly challenged film critics who complain about the films being far too blatantlypropagandistic. However, it remains questionable whether such films could ever be very effective as vehicles for patriotic propaganda, as their excessive propagandistic pathos turns out to be off-putting even for domestic audiences.

“Civil Religion” and Confucianism: Japan's Past, China's Present, and the Current Boom in Scholarship on Confucianism

This article employs the history of Confucianism in modern Japan to critique current scholarship on the resurgence of Confucianism in contemporary China. It argues that current scholarship employs modernist formulations of Confucianism that originated in Japan's twentieth-century confrontation with Republican China, without understanding the inherent nationalist applications of these formulations. Current scholarly approaches to Confucianism trace a history through Japanese-influenced U.S. scholars of the mid-twentieth century like Robert Bellah to Japanese imperialist and Chinese Republican nationalist scholarship of the early twentieth century. This scholarship employed new individualistic and modernist visions of religion and philosophy to isolate fields of “Confucian values” or “Confucian philosophy” apart from the realities of social practice and tradition, transforming Confucianism into a purely intellectualized “empty box” ripe to be filled with cultural nationalist content. This article contends that current scholarship, by continuing this modernist approach, may unwittingly facilitate similar nationalist exploitations of Confucianism.