Global perspective: The resurgence of nationalism
July 20, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
High school students hold Chinese flags while standing in formation in front of bronzes of Mao Zedong and other "leaders of the national foundation" in Shijiazhuang, China's Hebei province, in this May 2021 file photo. (Mainichi)
In China, tourism of famous sites of the Communist revolution is booming. It seems to be a way of tracing a proud century of the Communist Party's founding on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.
One tends to see this phenomenon as something involving poor people who have been poisoned by the one-party dictatorship that sometimes treats human rights and democracy as if they were nothing. However, in an emerging country that has overcome its "history of humiliation" and is on the verge of becoming the strongest country in the world, there are many people who seem to naturally become patriotic, likening their lives to the "Chinese dream." Regardless of whether you are on the left or the right side of the political spectrum, if you are pressured by two successive U.S. administrations, the Trump and Biden administrations, across the political spectrum, you may well feel bullied. There must be many people who reflexively want to defend their country.