Dalla ‘civiltà spirituale’ allo ‘spirito cinese’: strategie di governance nella Cina post-maoista

Jingshen 精神, ‘spirit’, has been a keyword of Chinese political discourse since the late 19th-early 20th century, when it was used to express the need to carve out a nation-mindedness in China. Since the late 1970s it has been brushed up in the formula ‘spiritual civilization’ and recently the formulation ‘China spirit’ has come out. This study traces the evolution of ‘spirit’ in Chinese political discourse and, by doing so, it will point out what the new ‘China spirit’ promoted by the current leadership entails in terms of governance strategy.