The purpose of this article is to clarify how the nationalism of an individual is constructed and enforced, from the "social fields" which surround the individual. In particular, I want to describe some aspects of the historical sociological condition of Chinese nationalism in the early twentieth century, by examining the nationalist discourse and social fields of Chen Duxiu, one of the most famous intellectuals in modern China. The following are the social fields from which Chen' s nationalism was constructed.
First, there was the social field of the state. Because he was a student of the examination in the Chinese Dynasty, he accepted the nationalism of "Zhongguo" which elites of the examination, such as Liang Qichao, advocated. Second, there was the social field of journalism. Chen endeavored to activate debates and communication that that rescued from extinction and rebirth the nation as "Zhongguo" by radically denying the existing traditional "Zhongguo". Finally, there was the social field of the urban popular movement. For Chen, the May 4th movement in 1919 was an event that could connect the "patriotism" of defending a territory with a universal idea of "the people".
Thus, though Chen did not consciously insist on a political ideology of nationalism, he interpreted the experience of life and of nationalism within social fields as a particular form of discourse. In this sense, nationalism could be described as a "collective unconscious", constructed by the tacit power of the social fields within which individuals are living.
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