Exploration Of A New Paradigm Of The Chinese Nation Theory

Based on the theories of paradigm of Thomas Kuhn, the paper will carry out reviews and retrospect on the vested Paradigm of Minzu Theories Study of China, and will bring forward a kind of new idea of the study. From arguing the stratification and native experiences of the Chinese concept of Minzu, the paper will emphasize the diversity of ideal heritages of Minzu Theories Study of China. Four lines of Minzu Theories Study of China will be reviewed as following:First, the founders of Marxism and their followers researched more about National Questions related to class oppressing; thus was the beginning of Minzu Theories Study of socialistic China. The Minzu Theories Study is called to be one of the most socialistic and native social sciences of new China, which was gradually formed and developed during the process of revolution and build of socialism leading by the China Communist Party (CCP). The MinzuTheories Study was bom as an independent academic subject on 1950s based on Marxism and minority policies of the CCP. After several decades of developing, a passel of scholars cohered around the studies of Minzu and minority affairs; through the publishing of original literatures, monographs and dissertations, a main trend paradigm was formed. The core of the paradigm is viewpoints of Karl Marx, Fredrik Angers, Lenin and Stalin, and a series of theories on the engendering, blossoming and withering away of Nation, and theories on origins and policies of national questions. The paradigm, which represents the state interpretation on Minzu concept and national questions, has also been combined with the political practice on minority affairs of new China. It's no doubt that the paradigm and it's actual applying has reached their great success.But since the paradigm came into being, the Minzu Theories Study turned to be a kind of "routine science"; the goal of the Study has been a kind of elaborative research inside the vested Paradigm rather than to discover new things. This kind of elaborative research was useful to the developing of the subject, but at the same time it would have less creativity. In order to protect the originality and integrality of Marxist National Theory System, the Paradigm neglected the native aspects of Minzu Theories and the interaction between the study of Minzu and other related social sciences, especially neglected the distinctive experiences of using the Chinese concept of "Minzu". Because of the confusing of time, space and cultural background, only annotating particular discussions of classical Marxist authors through a viewpoint of this time (modem), this space (China), this man (Chinese), the vested Paradigm was formed to be single-lined and backward-looking and was lose sight of other influential aspects.Second, in the field of politics, theories of Nationalism and Nation-state going with the developing of capitalism, have played an important role in social transition of modern Chinese history. Though nationalism mostly reflecting the political andcultural hegemony of the capitalistic West since the time of colonialism, it did offer a kind of resource for Chinese scholars and politicians to build Minzu Theories of China. The Chinese word "Minzu" and its original definition was advanced and discussed on the level of "nation". But the discourse of nationalism has been an important but neglected field in Minzu Theories Study of new China.Third, in the field of Chinese history of national history studies, tracing the source and scent of "Chinese Nation" has been a main course of modem Chinese history studies. Liang Qichao was the first scholar to put Chinese history in a narrative structure of enlightenment. In an enlightenment pattern of history, the main body of history is "nation", which related to specific territory, evolved to modern times and prepared to enter a future of modernity. The paradigm of this field is the famous pattern of "the Diversity in Unity of Chinese Nation" rose by Prof Fei Xiaotong.Fourth, in the field of anthropology, the concern of ethnicity is an important research...