Journal of East China Normal University (Philosoph ›› 2011, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5): 80-86.

• 中国近代史研究 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Between Imperial Subject and Republican Citizen 
——A Focus on the Emperor’s Birthday in the 1900s in China

XIAO Ye-Si-Shi-Lang   

  • Online:2011-09-15 Published:2011-10-12
  • Contact: XIAO Ye-Si-Shi-Lang
  • About author: XIAO Ye-Si-Shi-Lang

Abstract: Recently, there are a lot of researches on the national day ceremony of the Republic of China. But before the 1911 revolution, China already had a kind of culture of celebrating a memorial day. After the 1900 Boxer Movement, the Qing Dynasty started a political reform, and at that time introduced the Western new political culture according to which all the subject should raise national flags and celebrate the Emperor’s Birthday. On the other hand, Liang Qichao introduced the French Bastille Day and the American Independence Day to China in his article in 1901. Thus, in the 1900s China, it was already popular for the Reformists and Revolutionaries to celebrate such a memorial day for cultivating people’s patriotism. So, these new political cultures, before constructing the identity of the Republican citizen, were expected to construct a new identity of the Imperial subject.

Key words: Emperor&rsquo, s Birthday, National Day, memorial day, political culture