Nationalism and Bourgeois Hegemony in Northeast China

Abstract

This study rethinks the intersection of class and nation in the questions of peasant

mobilization and formation of nation-states in twentieth century northeast China. It

explores the independent impacts of nationalism on the class relations of the peasants and the material basis of nationalism. The triangular relationships among the Japanese, the Chinese military government, and the Chinese bourgeoisie were expressed not through direct conflicts, but around ethnic nationalism. To counteract Japan's use of Koreans as surrogates for its economic penetration, the government revoked Koreans' economic and civil rights. The Chinese bourgeoisie, meanwhile, mobilized Chinese peasants to confront Korean peasants, inhibiting peasant class unity even into the 1930s.