Sincere Performance, Ruist Ritual, and the Leap from Sincerity to Profilicity

There is a shift afoot in the global semantics of identity, and the previously dominant paradigms of sincerity and authenticity as proposed by Lionel Trilling are being supplanted—although not in toto—by the ascendant paradigm of "profilicity." Crucial to this new paradigm is "second-order observation," in which behaviors are enacted performatively in order to construct an "identity" which is then presented to the observation of a "general peer." Such are the contentions of Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul D'Ambrosio. In the Chinese case, the relationship between sincerity and profilicity becomes particularly important for understanding the transition towards the latter, given that the authenticity paradigm had less influence historically in shaping Chinese identities. For Moeller and D'Ambrosio, the regime of sincerity is represented by the Ruist (Confucian) ritual order. However, on another conception of sincerity also putatively inherited from Trilling, the regime of "sincerity" is explicitly "antiritualistic," and focuses much more on how internal belief states shape individual identities. I contend that this other conception of sincerity (which I call "P-sincerity") in which social behavior is primarily downstream of belief states actually properly belongs to the authenticity paradigm. I then rehearse how Ruist identities are formed subjunctively via the sincere performance of rituals guided by "second-order observation." In this mode, belief states are primarily downstream of social behavior. I conclude by arguing that a leap from this mode of sincerity directly into the new paradigm of profilicity will smooth the way for the formation of digital identities in China.