The Narrative Of Territorial Space In The Construction Of National Identity ——Taking The Current Junior Middle School Geography Textbook Of People’s Education Edition As The Analysis Center

On December 26,1991,the Soviet Union,once one of the "poles" and jointly dominated the international order after World War II with the United States for nearly half a century,collapsed.Since then,"national identity" has become a hot issue of great concern to the global political and academic circles.In general,the issue of national identity is the number one political problem related to national unity,national governance and national development.Among the many issues related to national identity,the territorial issue is the top priority.Because the concept of occasional territory is an important dimension of national identity.There are neither countries nor nations separated from territorial space.In human history,any ethnic group often occupies a specific geographical space and corresponds to each other.The production and living activities of the ethnic group and its ancestors in this geographical space often brand their unique brand in this geographical space in various forms.In modern times,after stepping on the stage of history,all ethnic countries almost invariably chose to artificially strengthen the relationship between man and land through national forces.Stable national borders,accurate national maps and pamphlets that publicize and explain the geographical situation of the country have appeared one after another.Therefore,the natural geographical space has been politicized and transformed into territorial space.One of the main strategies for modern nation-state to use state power to strengthen this man land relationship is the universal national education system,which is also one of the most powerful means of political socialization.In the process of national education constructing national identity,most of the existing studies pay attention to the history curriculum and Chinese curriculum.In contrast,geography teaching is a field to be explored that is still less focused in the academic circles and less focused in the political and social circles.The uniqueness of geography is that it studies the long-term development process of human society from conforming to nature to transforming nature and then to respecting nature from natural geographical space.As far as the construction of national identity is concerned,the advantage of geography is that it is the only discipline that can systematically impart relevant knowledge about the space of national territory（including territorial land and territorial sea）to the educated.This makes geography teaching have unique advantages that other courses do not have.Based on the text analysis of the current junior middle school geography textbooks,this paper attempts to clarify that public geography education has shaped the national sense of identity,dependence and pride through the introduction of national territory,and then promoted the construction of China’s national identity.First of all,geography textbooks shape the national sense of identity.Geography textbooks impart the knowledge system of national territory and space to students,which reflects the national ownership status that is very different from that of pre-modern countries;The geography textbook selects several key areas in all four geographical divisions of China as the explanation content,breaks the students’ inherent and narrow regional consciousness and local consciousness,and cultivates their concept of the Chinese national community of national unity and pluralism;At the same time,geography textbooks also use maps as the main medium to instill knowledge about national boundaries and China’s main neighbors into students,so as to make students aware of the specific existence of "the other",so as to establish a sense of belonging to their own country.Thus,geography textbooks shape students’ sense of national identity of subjectivity,identity and exclusivity.Secondly,geography textbooks shape people’s sense of dependence.Geography textbooks systematically introduce all kinds of natural water and soil resources in China,so that students can understand their material dependence on national territory;This paper introduces the political status,cultural and historical status of key geographical regions such as the Loess Plateau,the Yangtze River Delta,Beijing,Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan,so that students can establish their spiritual dependence on the country.Geography textbooks thus shaped the national sense of dependence.Finally,through the introduction of the country’s vast land and sea territory,magnificent natural scenery and great achievements in economic construction and transformation of nature,geography textbooks shape the national pride.