ABSTRACT
Building up identities in general, and national identities in particular, takes place in specific contexts of unequal power relationships. Building up an identity implies an agreement between different social actors involved in it. Dominant groups in possession of greater power are able to define certain identities which are taken up by other groups as their own. In that sense, it is important to identify which actors produce identities, and for what reason they build them.2 The state constitutes one of the main agents in the construction and transmission of a national identity. In the particular case of China, such state identity transmission is not only limited to citizens living inside its borders, but it also extends to Chinese communities outside the country, i.e. the Chinese diaspora.
