Rethinking the discourse of working class in China : a perspective of nationalism

The thesis is to examine the discourse of working class in China from the perspective of nationalism. The contemporary discourse of the working class is characterized by the subsumption of class discourse in domestic debate. It could only be able to understand from the perspective of nationalism and the past discourse of working class. In this thesis, we have found that the issues of building nation-state and modern nationality are almost accompanying with the construction of the discourse of the working class. From the very beginning of introducing Marxism to China, the demand for national independence against imperialism was one of the main pulling factors, while in the process of the discourse construction, different thinkers and Party leaders put nationalism prior to the demand of class politics, although they are different in degree. This tradition can explain the subsumption of class discourse for the stake of the national economic development