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I’m still trying to figure out, in XJP rhetoric, when 中华 is used and when it’s 中国. How long has Zhongguo been used directly as an adjective this way, as opposed to 中国似的or 中国性？Is a 中国味different from a 中华味？Which smells better? pic.twitter.com/9CARnICZSu

— James Millward 米華健 (@JimMillward) September 4, 2024

For non-specialists to understand this tweet, a considerable amount of annotation and explication is necessary.

Key terms

Zhōngguó 中國/国 — usually rendered as "China; Chinese", literally "central / middle kingdom"

Zhōnghuá 中華/华 — usually rendered as "China; Chinese", literally "central / middle florescence"

So named because the first ancient Chinese settlements were around the Yellow River, which was considered to be the center, and because the culture was considered to be magnificent and flourishing.

• • In traditional East Asian thought, 華／华 (Huá) or 中華／中华 (Zhōnghuá), often translated as "Chinese", has a philosophical connotation of civilizedness and decorous behavior that transcends a strictly ethnic definition. This is in opposition to "foreigners" or "barbarians", 夷 (yí) or 夷狄 (yídí), whose cultures are uncivilized and lacking in proper morality. Therefore, in certain contexts, other nations of the East Asian cultural sphere could refer to themselves as 中華／中华 (Zhōnghuá) in the sense that they were civilized people following the classical traditions first established in Ancient China, without meaning that they saw themselves as Chinese in an ethnic sense.
  • Although also used in the formal names of both the Republic and People's Republic of China, the term carries a somewhat broader sense than 中國／中国 (Zhōngguó, “state of China”) and connotes something like the "nation of the Chinese people" or "land of the Chinese culture".

(Wiktionary)

If we compare Zhōngguó 中國/国 and Zhōnghuá 中華/华, the former is more PRCish and the latter is more ROCish.  However, both sides employ both designations at different times and for different purposes.

Other terms raised by James Millward are:

Zhōngguó shì de 中国似的 ("China-like")
Zhōngguó xìng 中国性 ("Chineseness; Chinese nature / character")
Zhōngguó wèi 中国味 ("Central Kingdom flavor")
Zhōnghuá wèi 中华味 ("Central Florescence flavor")

Here's the quotation from Xi Jinping printed against a blue background at the bottom of the tweet (with a few small modifications from online sources):

Wǒmen de jiàoyù… jué bùnéng péiyǎng chū yīxiē “zhǎngzhe Zhōngguó liǎn, bùshì Zhōngguó xīn, méiyǒu Zhòngguó qíng, quēshǎo “Zhōngguó wèi” de rén!

我们的教育…绝不能培养出一些“长着中国脸， 不是中国心，没有中国情，缺少中国味”的人！

"Our education… must not cultivate people who have "Chinese faces but not Chinese hearts, no Chinese feelings, and lack 'Chinese flavor'!"

Make of it what you will.  For myself, I am savoring what Xi Jinping meant by his rather peculiar reference to a Chinese wèi 味 ("taste; flavor; smell; odor") as applied to people.

Selected readings

• "Mee Tu flavor" (11/29/18)
• "Xi Jinping's faux classicism" (7/2/23) — with lengthy bibliography

P.S.:  If you want to see the whole of Xi Jniping's smiling face, click on the X at the top right of the tweet.

[Thanks to Bruce Humes]

September 6, 2024 @ 10:45 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics, Names, Usage

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