What do you think?
Rate this book
Contemporary Asia in the World
Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations
How could the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) not only survive but even thrive, regaining the support of many Chinese citizens after the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989? Why has popular sentiment turned toward anti-Western nationalism despite the anti-dictatorship democratic movements of the 1980s? And why has China been more assertive toward the United States and Japan in foreign policy but relatively conciliatory toward smaller countries in conflict?
Offering an explanation for these unexpected trends, Zheng Wang follows the Communist government's ideological reeducation of the public, which relentlessly portrays China as the victim of foreign imperialist bullying during "one hundred years of humiliation." By concentrating on the telling and teaching of history in today's China, Wang illuminates the thinking of the young patriots who will lead this rising power in the twenty-first century.
Wang visits China's primary schools and memory sites and reads its history textbooks, arguing that China's rise should not be viewed through a single lens, such as economics or military growth, but from a more comprehensive perspective that takes national identity and domestic discourse into account. Since it is the prime raw material for constructing China's national identity, historical memory is the key to unlocking the inner mystery of the Chinese. From this vantage point, Wang tracks the CCP's use of history education to glorify the party, reestablish its legitimacy, consolidate national identity, and justify one-party rule in the post-Tiananmen and post–Cold War era. The institutionalization of this manipulated historical consciousness now directs political discourse and foreign policy, and Wang demonstrates its important role in China's rise.
Offering an explanation for these unexpected trends, Zheng Wang follows the Communist government's ideological reeducation of the public, which relentlessly portrays China as the victim of foreign imperialist bullying during "one hundred years of humiliation." By concentrating on the telling and teaching of history in today's China, Wang illuminates the thinking of the young patriots who will lead this rising power in the twenty-first century.
Wang visits China's primary schools and memory sites and reads its history textbooks, arguing that China's rise should not be viewed through a single lens, such as economics or military growth, but from a more comprehensive perspective that takes national identity and domestic discourse into account. Since it is the prime raw material for constructing China's national identity, historical memory is the key to unlocking the inner mystery of the Chinese. From this vantage point, Wang tracks the CCP's use of history education to glorify the party, reestablish its legitimacy, consolidate national identity, and justify one-party rule in the post-Tiananmen and post–Cold War era. The institutionalization of this manipulated historical consciousness now directs political discourse and foreign policy, and Wang demonstrates its important role in China's rise.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2012
25 people are currently reading
374 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 12, 2024
Read for class and enjoyed. Got a bit repetitive but I really like the overall theme of understanding Chinese history and historical memory to understand China’s foreign policy.
Read
July 10, 2021published quite a while back. ok read for a survey of national/historical education in China, but i am not entirely comfortable with what sounds like cultural essentialist arguments for difference etc.
March 18, 2020
When I first saw the bolded title of the book, “Never Forget National Humiliation”, the Chinese idiom translation popped in my head, along with images of the Chinese empire facing imperial invasions, the country fighting against fascist Japan during WWII, and many other historical events that were considered shameful in the Chinese history. As someone who understands the Chinese language, culture, and history, the reading process has become extremely interesting for me—I have my understanding of most historical events Wang talk about in the book; I know most of the historical figures, authors, poets, scholars, and figures that Wang refers to; I can understand both the Chinese and English translations of one language; I have learned history in China, and I can contest and testify many of the reference in the history textbooks. Understanding my special perspective as a reader, I tried to eliminate my own bias in the reading process. I tried to understand the thesis Wang makes, look for his sources and evidence, and put myself in the shoes of the author himself and other readers without the same background that I have. I wondered how they would react, what perception of the subject country that would form from reading the book and wondered Wang’s purposes of writing the book.
The book has its merits: it focuses on an interesting aspect of the Chinese history and culture and connects the aspect in the lens of historical memory to politics and foreign policies of China. It is clear from the prologue and introduction that the book is intended for the audience to understand China, the subject of the book, better in the contexts of “chosen glories and traumas”. The connection Wang makes is important for learners and scholars to understand every political body. However, the book is extremely problematic in terms of its language, editorialization, bias, redundancy, irrelevance to topics of discussion, misinformation, and personal prejudice of the author himself who purports to be an authoritative and trustworthy figure. The problems of the book mislead the readers, and they reveal a larger and more general problem in the process of studying, learning, and understanding a country, culture, and its history.
At first, I was fascinated by the thesis of understanding a country’s politics through the collective memory and culture. Many observations Wang makes are very insightful; and connections between history and modern-day politics is a creative aspect to look at. The book is not completely worthless—Wang argues in depth about the strong connection between historical memory and Chinese politics and foreign relations.
However, as I continued reading, I had the impression that the book is telling different stories from the Chinese narrative—it is still written from an outsider perspective, and Wang is so caught up in the historical lens and proving his theory that the points of view inevitably become biased. There are small details that I find problematic, including the comments and interpretations of specific events and certain translation issues, but the biggest problem is Wang’s biased stance as a scholar whose job is to inform the audiences objectively.
The specific language and diction go against the innate ethics as researchers and scholars. Wang is not showcasing his findings unbiasedly. For example, Wang uses the word “glorify” and the term “glorification of the party” over and over and makes the assertion that China has a general anti-Western sentiment. Another example is that when explaining the difference between history and memory, Wang very implicitly conveys the idea that historical memory is not based on facts and history, implying that the chosen traumas and glories are not fact-based. Another example is the translation of “very sorry” and “shenbiaobaoqian”. Wang makes the case that the Chinese translation overexaggerates the sincerity of the apology and spends pages to arguing that China over-values apologies because of the “historical traumas”. To me, someone fluent in both languages, the translation is appropriate and conveys the right message and idea.
Besides problematic language, attitudes, biases, there is also too much editorializing and random assumptions in the book. Admittedly, there are many meaningful arguments in the book that are backed up by historical evidence and reasoning, but it doesn’t mean that everything in the book is valid. Wang editorializes too much in the book. He could have explained everything in less than ten pages but spends the rest of the book writing about things irrelevant to the lens of his choice. For instance, Wang makes an abrupt statement like “in China, bronze medals mean failure” without offering any support of such statements.
Despite Wang’s intentions, his arguments can even change reader’s understanding of historical events by undermining the traumas and destructions of war. By arguing that the Chinese uses events like anti-Japanese war and specifically the Nanjing Massacre to fuel nationalism, Wang also reshapes the perception of such inhumane events in human history.
For many audiences, however, Wang is a trustworthy figure. Many audiences are likely to become gullible and even misled by such arguments, only ending up believing whatever Wang says in the book. Wang manages to forge an authoritative and trustworthy tone just because he is Chinese American and possesses unique experience growing up learning from the Chinese history textbooks. To most readers, he appears to be a reliable figure—whatever he says about the Chinese language and culture is right because most readers do not understand the language at all. Gaining the trust from the gullible readers, Wang then editorializes and talks about his own political opinions, which for the readers, seem to be the absolute truth as well.
Wang talks a lot about Chinese propaganda, but his book itself is a form of propaganda that contains “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”
Wang’s book itself is more haunting given the larger context of international relations. The book perpetuates hostility and even a sense of superiority among the readers, and it is the typical Western narrative of a story that belongs to a different nation. I would prefer to truly hear from the Chinese perspective of what the glories and traumas mean to them as Chinese citizens and inheritors of the culture, instead of reading a biased book.
It is the same problem in the Western process of understanding China. Because so many people talk in the voice of people from the free democratic world, the same prejudice and bias against the Chinese history, government, and culture become inevitable in the understanding of the country, which possesses more complexities than Wang talks about in the book.
Overall, the book alleviates the importance of learning from a different point of view by generalizing and simplifying the Chinese history textbook contents as political tools that reinforce nationalism.
In “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, Horace Miner argues that in the study of anthropology, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the subject instead of judging them using our own standards. Likewise, when studying the history, politics, and culture of a group of people, we need to tackle the issue objectively and truly learn about them, instead of ignorantly and arrogantly imposing our original standards on the studies subjects. This is something Wang fails to do or understand.
Instead of reading books like this, why don’t we go back to primary sources, truly learn about the history of China and other countries, and form our own understanding of what the historical memory means to China and the Chinese foreign policies? In such a process, we will no longer be blind or fooled, and we will be a step closer to the longed truth.
The book has its merits: it focuses on an interesting aspect of the Chinese history and culture and connects the aspect in the lens of historical memory to politics and foreign policies of China. It is clear from the prologue and introduction that the book is intended for the audience to understand China, the subject of the book, better in the contexts of “chosen glories and traumas”. The connection Wang makes is important for learners and scholars to understand every political body. However, the book is extremely problematic in terms of its language, editorialization, bias, redundancy, irrelevance to topics of discussion, misinformation, and personal prejudice of the author himself who purports to be an authoritative and trustworthy figure. The problems of the book mislead the readers, and they reveal a larger and more general problem in the process of studying, learning, and understanding a country, culture, and its history.
At first, I was fascinated by the thesis of understanding a country’s politics through the collective memory and culture. Many observations Wang makes are very insightful; and connections between history and modern-day politics is a creative aspect to look at. The book is not completely worthless—Wang argues in depth about the strong connection between historical memory and Chinese politics and foreign relations.
However, as I continued reading, I had the impression that the book is telling different stories from the Chinese narrative—it is still written from an outsider perspective, and Wang is so caught up in the historical lens and proving his theory that the points of view inevitably become biased. There are small details that I find problematic, including the comments and interpretations of specific events and certain translation issues, but the biggest problem is Wang’s biased stance as a scholar whose job is to inform the audiences objectively.
The specific language and diction go against the innate ethics as researchers and scholars. Wang is not showcasing his findings unbiasedly. For example, Wang uses the word “glorify” and the term “glorification of the party” over and over and makes the assertion that China has a general anti-Western sentiment. Another example is that when explaining the difference between history and memory, Wang very implicitly conveys the idea that historical memory is not based on facts and history, implying that the chosen traumas and glories are not fact-based. Another example is the translation of “very sorry” and “shenbiaobaoqian”. Wang makes the case that the Chinese translation overexaggerates the sincerity of the apology and spends pages to arguing that China over-values apologies because of the “historical traumas”. To me, someone fluent in both languages, the translation is appropriate and conveys the right message and idea.
Besides problematic language, attitudes, biases, there is also too much editorializing and random assumptions in the book. Admittedly, there are many meaningful arguments in the book that are backed up by historical evidence and reasoning, but it doesn’t mean that everything in the book is valid. Wang editorializes too much in the book. He could have explained everything in less than ten pages but spends the rest of the book writing about things irrelevant to the lens of his choice. For instance, Wang makes an abrupt statement like “in China, bronze medals mean failure” without offering any support of such statements.
Despite Wang’s intentions, his arguments can even change reader’s understanding of historical events by undermining the traumas and destructions of war. By arguing that the Chinese uses events like anti-Japanese war and specifically the Nanjing Massacre to fuel nationalism, Wang also reshapes the perception of such inhumane events in human history.
For many audiences, however, Wang is a trustworthy figure. Many audiences are likely to become gullible and even misled by such arguments, only ending up believing whatever Wang says in the book. Wang manages to forge an authoritative and trustworthy tone just because he is Chinese American and possesses unique experience growing up learning from the Chinese history textbooks. To most readers, he appears to be a reliable figure—whatever he says about the Chinese language and culture is right because most readers do not understand the language at all. Gaining the trust from the gullible readers, Wang then editorializes and talks about his own political opinions, which for the readers, seem to be the absolute truth as well.
Wang talks a lot about Chinese propaganda, but his book itself is a form of propaganda that contains “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”
Wang’s book itself is more haunting given the larger context of international relations. The book perpetuates hostility and even a sense of superiority among the readers, and it is the typical Western narrative of a story that belongs to a different nation. I would prefer to truly hear from the Chinese perspective of what the glories and traumas mean to them as Chinese citizens and inheritors of the culture, instead of reading a biased book.
It is the same problem in the Western process of understanding China. Because so many people talk in the voice of people from the free democratic world, the same prejudice and bias against the Chinese history, government, and culture become inevitable in the understanding of the country, which possesses more complexities than Wang talks about in the book.
Overall, the book alleviates the importance of learning from a different point of view by generalizing and simplifying the Chinese history textbook contents as political tools that reinforce nationalism.
In “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, Horace Miner argues that in the study of anthropology, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the subject instead of judging them using our own standards. Likewise, when studying the history, politics, and culture of a group of people, we need to tackle the issue objectively and truly learn about them, instead of ignorantly and arrogantly imposing our original standards on the studies subjects. This is something Wang fails to do or understand.
Instead of reading books like this, why don’t we go back to primary sources, truly learn about the history of China and other countries, and form our own understanding of what the historical memory means to China and the Chinese foreign policies? In such a process, we will no longer be blind or fooled, and we will be a step closer to the longed truth.
March 21, 2016
A difficult book to rate for me, mainly because of the stilted prose and inclusion of copious amounts of set up for the book's main message.
The first third of the book sets up the conceptual framework for its remainder, but the dry prose (repetitive usage of academic vocabulary for little benefit) made it seem like the author took much longer than necessary to get to the heart of the matter. Once Zheng moves into applying his framework to actual events, to show its validity, the book picks up greatly. But then, we only have about 150 pages of exposition before it wraps up. So for me, the heavy focus on how to define historical identity, and research methods, while important, drag the overall flow of the book down.
However, I feel that the topics covered by Zheng and timely and relevant, and the many sources cited by Zheng are also diverse and contribute well to his conclusions. So on the one hand, a well researched book on an important topic, but one that makes itself a struggle to read, and makes it harder than necessary to effectively communicate those ideas.
The first third of the book sets up the conceptual framework for its remainder, but the dry prose (repetitive usage of academic vocabulary for little benefit) made it seem like the author took much longer than necessary to get to the heart of the matter. Once Zheng moves into applying his framework to actual events, to show its validity, the book picks up greatly. But then, we only have about 150 pages of exposition before it wraps up. So for me, the heavy focus on how to define historical identity, and research methods, while important, drag the overall flow of the book down.
However, I feel that the topics covered by Zheng and timely and relevant, and the many sources cited by Zheng are also diverse and contribute well to his conclusions. So on the one hand, a well researched book on an important topic, but one that makes itself a struggle to read, and makes it harder than necessary to effectively communicate those ideas.
October 24, 2015
A good, easy read about China's foreign policy and how it is influenced by historical memory- not just historical events, but the sentiments, cultural effects and political manipulation attached to the past. Zheng Wang rejects claims by current IR theories to explain China's sometimes-erratic foreign policy, and instead analyzes foreign policy by dissecting the narrative the CCP has used. It is well-sourced and informed, and attempts to break free from Eurocentrism.
December 31, 2016
Explains unexpected trends in Chinese domestic politics and foreign policy such as the increasing mass support for the CCP after the Tiananmen crackdown of 1989 or the popularity of anti-Westernism in China with a focus on history education in China which casts the country “as the victim of foreign imperialist bullying during one hundred years of humiliation.”
December 5, 2019
A great read on just how cognizant the CCP and the people that it governs are of their past sufferings under foreign powers. Discussing both the education and social reforms the party has undertaken and the events that have driven them, Wang paints a picture of a China that appears to be solidly on its own path.
October 5, 2014
Good read
interesting book from the constructivist perspective. however, a little rosy, as it skims over many shortcomings of the government in inciting nationalism based on historical memory.
interesting book from the constructivist perspective. however, a little rosy, as it skims over many shortcomings of the government in inciting nationalism based on historical memory.
March 17, 2017
The book provides great framework to understand current China's foreign policy through past interactions and conflicts with foreign countries.
Want to read
April 5, 2021Author interviewed in this episode of 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org/episod...
February 21, 2022
Wang seeks to give context for the way the Chinese people react to conflicts with the West. He reaches back both to the historical events themselves of China’s “century of national humiliation” (1839-1949) and the way they have been emphasized or de-emphasized in recent history. Wang marks the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent upheavals in the post-Soviet countries as the point at which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) switched from emphasizing a communist ideology to a nationalist one, seeking its legitimacy in defending the honor of the Chinese people. He focuses on the educational campaign started in 1990s that increased the focus on China’s “century of national humiliation” as well as the erection of thousands of historical monuments to remember some of its pivotal moments throughout the country. With this background completed, Wang then analyzes the conflicts that escalated rapidly between China and the US since the 1990s and contrasts them with similar situations that were more easily de-escalated with both the West and neighboring countries. While there was a fair amount of repetition and technical analysis of the explanatory schema, the book was informative and engaging enough to allow the reader to better understand the current dynamics of China’s foreign policy and how it is received by its domestic audience.
February 2, 2025
Fascinating book. Really well research. Classic academic work. You can skip the first and final sections if you want, it’s all about the analytical frame work and the field of study, etc. The meat of the text in this middle is very compelling. I found the section about the conspiracy minded views of the United States interesting. It’s almost like the concept of Ockham’s razor just doesn’t apply for some in international incidents.
May 10, 2023
This book explains very profoundly the role of national history in China's politics, foreign policy and nationalism. The Chinese Communist Party has utilized the national humiliation to build its legitimacy, to raise the anti-western waves in the country. However, the research is quite boring and lengthy because it focuses on only one topic through nearly 300 pages.
September 17, 2024
another class book! interesting
September 17, 2025
Read it for class… the history was interesting but that was it
September 6, 2025
此时阅读这本书比较应景。
在后天安门时代，中共领导人意识到，党的生存在很大程度上取决于他们能否（以及多快）改变年轻一代对西方列强和中共本身的态度。毛式胜利叙事对培养年轻一代对中国旧敌的仇恨态度没有帮助，这让他们对共产主义革命不那么感激。因此在 1992 年后批准的新教科书中，官方的毛泽东式胜利叙事被一种新的受害叙事所取代，后者将中国的苦难归咎于西方。在民族主义话语中，“中国作为胜利者”逐渐被“中国作为受害者”所取代。这种叙事的变化体现在官方文件、历史教科书和流行文化中。在今天的中国，国家历史的主流叙事仍然基于肉喇叭自上而下灌输的官方说教，而不是公众共识。执政党的合法性建立在扭曲的“历史贡献”之上，这些扭曲的历史贡献实际上已经渗透到中国人民的历史意识中。这种历史记忆的政治为中国的执政党提供了大规模动员和社会凝聚的工具。因此，中国的民主化最终可能从披露党所造成的巨大失败和灾难历史真相开始。
在后天安门时代，中共领导人意识到，党的生存在很大程度上取决于他们能否（以及多快）改变年轻一代对西方列强和中共本身的态度。毛式胜利叙事对培养年轻一代对中国旧敌的仇恨态度没有帮助，这让他们对共产主义革命不那么感激。因此在 1992 年后批准的新教科书中，官方的毛泽东式胜利叙事被一种新的受害叙事所取代，后者将中国的苦难归咎于西方。在民族主义话语中，“中国作为胜利者”逐渐被“中国作为受害者”所取代。这种叙事的变化体现在官方文件、历史教科书和流行文化中。在今天的中国，国家历史的主流叙事仍然基于肉喇叭自上而下灌输的官方说教，而不是公众共识。执政党的合法性建立在扭曲的“历史贡献”之上，这些扭曲的历史贡献实际上已经渗透到中国人民的历史意识中。这种历史记忆的政治为中国的执政党提供了大规模动员和社会凝聚的工具。因此，中国的民主化最终可能从披露党所造成的巨大失败和灾难历史真相开始。
May 10, 2013
Wang Zheng has written an insightful book that identifies and explores a century of humiliation that had and still has a dramatic effect upon how China and the Chinese view themselves and international events. If you are teaching a course that requires a better understanding of China or if you simply want to better understand China's position in word events this is a must read. I'm planning to use portions from the introduction and Chapter 2 in a new college course I am developing on Chinese writers. He succinctly and concisely explains so much so well!
June 9, 2013
This book provides an in-depth look into the way that modern Chinese history has influenced many of the country's recent foreign policy decisions. While not necessarily for the casual reader, it should be essential reading for anyone interested in learning about Chinese politics. This is one of the best books I have read about Chinese politics, and I look forward to reading more books and articles about the issues it raises.
December 5, 2025
An important addition to international relations literature that attempts to explain parts of China's conduct through the lense of national memory. The retelling of the Century of Humiliation was excellent and some of the case studies, such as the one on the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, were fascinating. I found other case studies weak, but I would attribute that to a lack of major diplomatic and military confrontations between the US and China in the past thirty years.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews