Place Names, Symbolic Power and the Chinese State

25 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2013

See all articles by Jonathan Hassid

Jonathan Hassid

Iowa State University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: August 1, 2013

Abstract

Place and street names, although apparently an apolitical part of everyday life, are in fact often determined by the state for political ends. In the democratic West, the political aspect of street names is most often revealed in the controversy that can accompany name changes, but authoritarian states often put politics front and center. China, for example, has passed national legislation that restricts street and place names to those that support “national unity and the establishment of socialist modernization,” while prohibiting those that “damage sovereignty or national dignity.” Using a unique dataset of 4.8 million Chinese street names, in this paper I analyze the factors that are associated with unity-promoting names across 122 major Chinese cities. Quantitative analysis and historical data suggest that the central government is most concerned with promoting “correct” names in areas with high ethnic tension or large numbers of ethnic minorities. These results suggest that Beijing sees geographic naming as an important promoter of national unity.

Keywords: symbolic power, Chinese politics, political geography, toponymy, soft power

Suggested Citation

Hassid, Jonathan, Place Names, Symbolic Power and the Chinese State (August 1, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2308814 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2308814

Jonathan Hassid (Contact Author)

Iowa State University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Ames, IA 50011
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
127
Abstract Views
883
Rank
402,244
PlumX Metrics