Reflections on 19th Century China (3/5)

Once again the professor did an excellent job presenting information in a way that keeps me interested. I came into this course knowing very little about China so everything is new and interesting to me. After we got done discussing how during the 19th century things started to fall apart in China as they had internal order and external attacks, and doing our discussion about self-improvement, rebellion and reform, I felt like I was watching a movie and I really wanted to know what happened next during the start of the 1900s. I feel like we just started scratching the surface of how the changes were made during the first half of the 1900s and I want to know more about it. Specifically, I would like to know if the changes and attempts during this period help set up the coming of Mao Zedong, or if came and just changed everything (again, I know very little about this part of the world). I am incredibly intrigued to learn how China got to the spot they are at now; just 100 years ago they seemed to be in desperate times and it seems like they very easily could have been taken over by foreigners forever (especially if you rebels got your way ).
edited by rlaunius on 3/8/2013
edited by rlaunius on 3/8/2013

Information overload! What a great presentation. I found it interesting that there were other thinkers in the various movements that preceded and eventually lead to Mao and Communism. While thumbing through the various Chinese channels, I came across a news item on a non-state channel (read Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.) and they mentioned some arrests, beatings, etc. I looked further into the news item and I came across the following from Hong Kong's South China Morning Post: Outrage and condemnation came after a handful of Hong Kong journalists on assignment in Beijing were brutally attacked. They were abused by a group of men of unknown identity when covering an activist trying to visit Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's wife on Friday. http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1187364/yang-kuang-still-missing-fury-crosses-political-divide The journalists were put on a plane and sent back to Hong Kong. The battle for the minds, hearts, spirit, etc. continues centuries after the first philosophies and religions appeared in China.

This capacity for cruelty, slaughter and mayhem that is so pervasive with humankind on every continent continues to astound. I’m not sure I want to consider a genocidal generation as civilized. We are taught (in the west) that Hitler and Stalin were the prime architects of Holocaust and grandiose disregard for human life and suffering. We are occasionally reminded of the crimes of reprehensible dictators in the news. The American Indian historian Ward Churchill wrote a book exploring the debate on the definitions of genocide and holocausts. State historians promote or denounce these terms according their political agenda. Churchill (discredited by some – politics again) estimates that the Spaniards exterminated 200 million indigenous people over a 200 year span; up to 100 million Indians may have been wiped out in North America over a 300 year period. These numbers are subject to debate and not easily verified. To learn that there were 50 million (20 million according to Wikipedia) victims from a 14 year civil war, the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), begs disbelief. I have to wonder how much the Chinese have taken ownership for the atrocities of the past in their history books. Such statistics do not deserve to be a footnote. Empress Ci Xi and family ought to be shamed for allowing this to happen under their watch. Hong Xiuquan, visionary, revolutionary, or another misguided murderous Jesus freak. To complicate matters, our history books serve a political agenda, the statistics and facts may vary from one to the next. I’ll be he first to admit that I’m reacting hastily to a horrible piece of new information. It will take some further reading to properly formulate a rational understanding of the Taiping incident.

During our last session, I found the greatest interest in the literary figures. Learning about Lu Xun, one of the greatest Chinese writers of the 20th Century and his influence on the literary world was of great importance to me. Apart from learning about the history of China, I have also been eager to learn more about the literature and the authors that people are influenced by. In addition, I enjoyed learning about Lu Xun’s perspective and reason for becoming a writer. I liked the fact that he felt that through the written word, he would be able to heal and help many people, instead of his practice in medicine. Moreover, the section Pearl S. Buck and her family history, reminded me that she is the only Asian writer that students have the option to read about in their independent reading list in HS. This is something that I would like to change and incorporate more multicultural authors into the school’s curriculum.
edited by dcoronel on 3/12/2013

I was struck by how similar the arguments around modernization seemed to reflect the same ideas and concepts we argue about today. I am also interested in the links between mercantile interests and government interest (although it should be no surprise). The role western governments played in pushing drugs in another country is terrifying. I was also excited by the discussions of different writers. I know very little about literature from China - so this is a lot of fun.

I am awe struck by the practice of binding feet. It is truly horrific. Per Qiu Jin, “In a few years, without thinking about whether it is right or wrong, he forcibly binds his daughters soft, white feet with white cloth so that even in her sleep she cannot find comfort and relief until the flesh becomes rotten and the bones broken. What is all this misery for? Is it just so that on the girl’s wedding day friends and neighbors will compliment him, saying, “You’re daughter’s feet are really small”? It is sad and interesting to note that the author was executed in a nationalist uprising. In regards to the smoking of opium, I was especially interested because a former roommate of mine was addicted to opium. Per a newspaper in early 1900, “there have always been only two effective ways to change the people’s habits, persuasion and punishment, or as the saying has it, ‘Warn by mentioning rewards, exhort with a show of force’.” I remind my students that people haven’t changed that much over the course of 2000 years, and definitely not over the last 100. We still deal with similar issues whether it is opium, or marijuana or extra large sodas in New York. The argument of whether it is better to persuade or punish is still up in the air.

Last Tuesday night was jam packed with information. It was pretty amazing how much time we covered in three hours; spanning a little over a century. Like most of you mentioned here, I was also a little shocked to learn how foot-binding was considered an act of love, and then even more shocked to learn that this tradition was commonly carried out by women (sisters, mothers, grandmothers of these girls, etc). I understand that it was well-intentioned; done with the goal of securing or facilitating a "better" life for these girls. However, I still wonder how someone can justify the infliction of something that painful and cruel, as a gesture of love.

I was also very interested by the fact that a woman, Ci Xi, was at the head of China for so long. I'm very intrigued by her tomb, with the Phoenix (empress), being placed above the dragon (emperor). I thought that was very cool.

I'm looking forward to charging ahead in time and learning how China came to be the powerful , vibrant nation it is today.