Little China (ideology)

Little China Ideology
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese小中華
Simplified Chinese小中华
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXiǎo Zhōnghuá
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetTiểu Trung Hoa
Chữ Hán小中華
Korean name
Hangul소중화
Hanja小中華
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationSojunghwa
Japanese name
Kanji小中華
Kanaしょうちゅうか
Transcriptions
Revised HepburnShōchūka

Little China refers to a politico-cultural ideology and phenomenon in which various Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese regimes identified themselves as the "Central State" and regarded themselves to be legitimate successors to the Chinese civilization. Informed by the traditional Chinese concepts of Sinocentrism and Sino–barbarian dichotomy, this belief became more apparent after the Manchu-led Qing dynasty had superseded the Han-led Ming dynasty in China proper, as Tokugawa Japan, Joseon Korea and Nguyễn Vietnam, among others, perceived that "barbarians" had ruined the center of world civilization.