City Identity and the Cleavage of Public Opinion in Contemporary China: Data from Four Rival Metropolises in Mainland China.

This paper provides a group-based analysis of Chinese public opinion towards policy legitimacy. I address how people's collective memories of economic development between the hometown and the rival city cause conflicting feelings towards the rival group and the central authorities. I focus on the data collected from web surveys and content analysis, for the cases of Tianjin vs. Beijing and Chengdu vs. Chongqing. I argue that the public remains complicated feelings in accordance with their judgment of relative economic status across rival cities during the recent history. I name this as “memory effect hypothesis.” People's city identity is hereby consolidated through social narratives and historical memories of the economic vicissitudes. Due to social comparisons, the relatively disadvantaged groups maintain a strong feeling of relative deprivation. The sense of deprivation is aggravated when people believe their disadvantage is caused by policy injustice from the central government. The constructed city identity becomes a significant predictor of people's positions towards the legitimacy of the administrative hierarchy and government policies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]