Identity Hunters
Saturday 30th of September 2017. Demonstrators gather in Madrid in protest of the Catalonian referendum. In front of the city hall, some perform the fascist salute while singing the Falangist hymn Cara al Sol (Facing the Sun), an official anthem of the Francoist regime. You’re probably thinking: something must be going wrong if an increasing number of citizens resort to symbols of the dictatorship to defend the unity of their country.
Ever since its exciting entrance in the global economy, China has undergone the scrutiny of many. Specifically, that of the Western world, trying to comprehend and justify its unpredictably successful communist authoritarian regime. In fact, since the economic boom initiated by Deng Xiaoping in the 1990s, China has been growing at stunningly fast rates that the West can, as of today, only dream of.
Taiwan throughout history had been given the status of terra nullius, until the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty was able to see the strategic value of the island. He eventually brought Taiwan onto the map, and ever since Taiwan has been considered as part of China. However, the First Sino-Japanese War changed the history of Taiwan, sparking a first identity struggle on the island. Suddenly, Taiwan was no longer part of the Han civilization but under the colonial control of the Japanese, where it remained for 50 years.
On the 3rd and 10th December of 2017, the Corsicans were called upon to vote in order to elect the 51 members of the Corsican Assembly who in turn would elect the Executive Council of Corsica. This vote followed the 2015 election which finalised the planned creation of a single region within Corsica; the merge of the two departments of the island: Haute-Corse and Corse-Du-Sud, taking effect from the 1st of January 2018.
The formation of the Serbian state and development of competing forms of Serbian nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century, prior to the calamitous visit of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Princess Sophie of Hohenberg to Sarajevo, have their genesis in the century of nation-building which followed Serbia’s founding.
How did it happen that the Jews and the Czechs were labelled as the “enemies of the Slovak nation” by its highest authority and member of the Church at the same time?
The Taiwan issue is concerned with the political status of Taiwan: whether it should reunify with Mainland China, declare independence as Republic of Taiwan, or maintain the status quo of being de facto independent but de jure remaining within the ‘One China’ framework.
Since the 2000s, the Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP – Swiss People’s Party) has become strongly involved in debates on immigrants, citizenship, and the integration of foreigners.
Something has been absent from Brexit commentary and discourse. We’ve heard plenty about the single-market debate, the rights of EU citizens in Britain, the perplexing Irish border issue and the looming spectre of Nicola Sturgeon’s Indyref2. But little has been said about the plainly apparent rise of a distinctively English national identity and its role in this saga – and yes, I do mean English.
Identity Hunters 