Why do people feel "national pride" or "ethnic pride" for achievements that they didn't contribute to?

Question

I mean for example, why do some overseas Chinese, who don't live in China, feel feel "Chinese pride" about the Olympics, when the achievement had nothing to do with them? Isn't it like trying to get credit for someone else's accomplishments?

(This question isn't meant to be as rhetorical as it sounds.)

Answer 1

Because they have some of that inside of them. I hadn't heard of non-Chinese feeling proud about the olympics, but I don't know, it's just about them recognizing their ethnicity.

I guess Americans, for example, don't feel that way because every area is saturated of american products, people, etc.

Answer 2

Those people who are of the same "tribe" as those who are successful probably feel that, since they are similar in ethnicity, that they too can accomplish great things like what they are seeing.  An attitude of "If they can do it, then so can I" and it boosts the morale.

There are some other instances of pride.  In some cases, "black pride" or "g*y pride" is cited because a particular group of people feels that they've been wrongly persecuted.  This repeated persecution lowers the self-esteem of the tribe as a whole.  So that tribe adopts an attitude of pride to say "We do not accept your negative attitude toward us, because we are good, productive and worthwhile people."