China's political discourse towards the 21st century: Victimhood, identity, and political power

Ye Shiwen, collective memory, and the 2012 London Olympic games: notes on the production and consumption of national victimhood

“…Callahan (2004), for one, observed that the narratives surrounding China's 'national humiliation' were focused on the discourses of 'public histories, textbooks, museums, mass movements, romance novels, prose poems, feature films, and national holidays' (214). Renwick and Cao (1999) also categorized the origins in constituting a contemporary sense of victimhood into the narratives embodied in history (the recounting of humiliating stories), symbolic art (statues of national heroes, museums, novels, music, poetry and paintings) and legendary heroes. It is with respect to this last example that we will expand the discourse to sport, particularly in relation to high-profile mega-events like the Olympic games.…”

Symbols of Diaspora Jewish identity: An international survey and multi-dimensional analysis

“…But the victim image is by no means limited to Jewish culture. Victimhood, real and perceived, has been found to play a role in the ethnic identity of many minority groups (Furedi, 1998;Renwick and Qing, 1999) and in nationalist movements (Khazanov, 1997;Pick, 1997). ''It is self-deluding to think that the ideas of oppression and victimhood lurk far behind the question of ethnicity.…”

“…Ethnicity is partly defined by your likelihood to have suffered because of it,'' (Edmonson, 1998). The politics of victimhood (Meister, 2002;Lu, 2002) have far-reaching repercussions, and symbols are often invoked to reinforce the image of the ''in-group'' as the wronged party (Renwick and Qing, 1999).…”

Japan as China's 'other': China's identity and policy towards Diaoyu/Senkaku islands

“…The CCP in order to restore China from its identity crises and to shore up its waning legitimacy brought up the discursive theme of foreign aggression and Chinese victimization. Renwick and Cao noted the emergence of a new discursive theme of 'victimhood' in the Chinese political discourse since the 1990s (Renwick and Cao 1999). 36 Renwick and Cao note that the discourse has overlapping characteristics and themes which are not new to China, such as anti-foreignism, modernism, nationalism and culturalism, which are related yet different discursive themes.…”

“…After the founding of the PRC, memorials were built for the heroic resistance and not to commemorate the victims (Reilly 2004: 278). Nevertheless, analysts have highlighted the role which history plays in the portrayal of China as a victim of Western and Japanese aggression (Renwick andCao 1999, Wang 2012). …”