China's Century of Humiliation
The key to understanding Chinese foreign policy today
From the 1840s through the 1940s, China endured what Chinese people today call “the century of shame and humiliation,” when Western powers, and later Japan, took full advantage of historical happenstance to exploit China as much as they could.
The following video is over an hour and 15 minutes long, but it’s in depth and the only one I found that did a decent job of going back to when the paths of Western and Chinese development split, which is about the time of Confucius, Socrates and Plato, and the Buddha.
The first half is both ancient and cultural history, and does a nice job of explaining the different material circumstances that led to China going one way and Europe the other. This is essential for understanding why the Century of Humiliation was able to ever happen at all.
The second half explores the Opium Wars and all of the ensuing Western imperial shenanigans which followed, and the mostly unsuccessful Chinese attempts to curb their increasing power throughout that time.
China was seriously roiled and injured. Among other things, you’ll learn of the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s, which killed about 30 million people, a figure that makes the American Civil War look like a skirmish.
I think the most fundamentally important thing to take away is that China is a fundamentally conservative culture that places great emphasis on stability, on the State promoting an environment in which its citizens can live in peace and harmony, and which does not include Western conceptions of “liberty,” for which there is no accurate Chinese translation.
There cannot be. They had no Socrates, no Greek democrats, no personal God to judge all men equally. There could not be, for the material historical circumstances were very different. Once you understand that, whether you are Chinese or American, it’s a lot easier to understand the other culture as a whole and maybe even to have a little sympathy for it.
That goes both ways. Just remember that China will never, ever, allow such a thing as the Century of Humiliation to happen again.
I hope you find time for the video and better yet, learn something from it. I know I did.
28 minute mark in that video the question that came to mind, about what the use is of an insular economy, -the video immediately answers: private property and financialization of government for wars. Which brings to mind the state of Europe as Mumford describes it at the beginning of the Conquest of the Americas. Mumford says Europe had significantly tapped the available water power and wind power. IN other words public works were in place to feed the people ( significant means like massive water wheel horsepower to manufacture the commodities but nothing like the raw power of fossil fuels). So the question is why Europe did not undertake a Gutenberg adventure of the mind rather than the territorial expansion that they did? I like the broad generalizations this video ventures, in answer, that Europeans had a sword at their hips because of the centuries of the early nationalist and religious wars. The man with the hammer and what he sees phenomenon, in general applies to us, assign whether we feel at home , rock and roll says "in your shitty apartment", I mean the raw cost of wanting a fully kitted out American house to yourself seems to necessarily involve the numbing of corporate raiding. In general why seek to grasp the cost benefits of the systems in your house if you are "God's Spy", the line is from King Lear. But we are not kings! Who is a king? The west seems to have approached the world feelingly, as if questions of continuance and next gens were particularly indifferent . William Penn put down his sword before he ws gifted Pennsylvania, but one suspects he might have carried a beloved machete.
Thank you for sharing this excellent, informative video of China's last 200 years! Even though it was made in 2011, and there has been tremendous development since, understanding the history, should encourage every Westerner to humble to China's greatness; with ever more respect and understanding of what motivates their goals as a powerful nation, that will no doubt one day take over the world, through their ancient philosophy. Government aside, it will succeed.