Confucianism and the Dual Linguistic Mechanisms of Citizenship in China (University of Glasgow)

Description

How do citizens learn to speak, act, and remain silent as citizens in contemporary China? This talk advances a linguistic approach to citizenship by examining how Confucianism operates as a resource for citizen-making. Drawing on state discourse and long-term ethnographic research on grassroots Confucian education, it argues that civic formation unfolds through two structurally asymmetric yet interconnected mechanisms: an authorised language of citizenship at the state level, and a more indirect language for citizenship articulated from below. While the former re-codes citizenship in moral–civilisational terms, the latter enables practices of “civicness without naming” under conditions of constrained speakability. By foregrounding language as a site of power, mediation, and agency, the talk rethinks how citizenship is produced across uneven state–society relations.

Period	4 Feb 2026
Event title	Confucianism and the Dual Linguistic Mechanisms of Citizenship in China
Event type	Seminar
Location	Glasgow, United KingdomShow on map