Many Nationalisms, One Disaster: Categories, Attitudes and Evolution of Chinese Nationalism on Social Media during the COVID -19 Pandemic

Previous research has shown the increase of Chinese nationalism in some international events. However, it is unclear how a specific event fosters the rise of a particular type of nationalism, and how these different categories of nationalism relate to globalism. Given that, this study collected the most popular comments on 164 international COVID-19 events on Weibo to categorize different types of nationalism and measure the popularity index. The distribution of nationalism-categories across different topics was later estimated through semantic analysis, so as to explore how nationalism implies netizens’ anti-globalization and pro-globalization sentiments. Specifically, the study categorized two different expressions of nationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a counterattack posture to external threats that is reflected as the Suppression of Ambivalent Attitudes, or a comparative response to global competition that serves as a stimulate to the Feeling of National Superiority. While the first expression is aligned with anti-globalization feelings, the second nationalistic sentiment stems from a sense of national superiority, which does not pose a threat to globalization. Our research revealed that a political global crisis not only influences the rise of nationalism but also its evolution.