sinocentrism
/ˌsaɪnoʊˈsɛntɹɪzəm/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The belief, held by the ancient Chinese, that China was literally the centre of the world.
Uncountable
noun
The practice of viewing the world from a Chinese perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the pre-eminence of Chinese culture.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Up to now, China's encounter with the West has more or less been exclusively researched under the perspective of Sinocentrism, both by Western and Chinese scholars. [...] Nobody, however biased, can deny the existence, historical and actual, of Sinocentrism, which I at one time called the Celestial Empire Syndrome. It is well known that China had considered itself as the centre of the world since the beginning of the written record until its utter humiliation brought about by the Opium Wars in the 19ᵗʰ century and the Boxers' Revolt later."
- "The so-called ancient Chinese patriotism that has been repeatedly discussed by many people was only sinocentrism (huaxia zhongxing zhuyi)."
- "The early tenet of sinocentrism was that the superiority of Zhongguo, the Central State, in wen (culture and civilization) would inevitably dominate the mere military violence (wu) of the Inner Asian tribes."
- "Finally, Sinocentrism culminated in China's self-adulation when Malindi sent an emissary with a giraffe to the Ming Emperor via Cheng Ho's imperial fleet in 1419."
- "Intellectual activity during the Edo period can be broadly classified into three categories: [...] (2) Japanese learning (kokugaku), which arose in mid-Tokugawa times as a reaction to the sinocentrism that then prevailed in scholarly circles; [...]"
- "Thus, he [Yokoi Shōnan] repudiated Sinocentrism, which viewed both China and Japan as Chinese in the broader sense of the word and the West as barbarian."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌsaɪnoʊˈsɛntɹɪzəm/
- British English: /ˌsaɪnəʊˈsɛntɹɪzəm/