National Narratives in Comparative Politics: Theories, Methods, and Insights From Asia

In this introduction to the special issue, we define and explore the concept of national narratives in East and Southeast Asia. First, we define national narratives as collectively shared stories about a nation’s origins, boundaries and purposes. Second, we discuss three undertheorized elements of the narrative: the identity of the storyteller, the content of the stories, and contestation over the dominant narrative. Finally, we assess some methodological and measurement challenges in the literature before introducing the papers in this special issue. Drawing on cases from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar and the Philippines, we address questions related to the construction of personality cults and colonial memory. We also discuss how democratization impacts the identity of the storytellers, and how this impacts views on national boundaries and political violence.