Chinese Youth Nationalism in a Pressure Cooker

This paper hinges on why the once unimportant Diaoyu islands became an indivisible part of Republic of China in 1972 for the young generation in Taiwan. It also makes a contrast with China, by exploring why the authorities in China, for three decades, downplayed the issue regarding the Diaoyu islands and suddenly decided to claim Diaoyu as an inseparable territory of China. This paper goes further to ask why Chinese youth nationalism concerning the Diaoyu islands disputes erupted in 2012. As demonstrated by content analysis, it was ambivalence toward the CCP that eventually galvanized the post-1980 generation to advance from virtual reality to radical action. It also indicates structural factors that facilitated raging youth nationalism in China. Finally, this study points out that interactions between the Internet and globalization precipitated the resurgence of outraged nationalism in 2012, as nationalism is always affirmed against a foreign enemy.