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China and the West: A Fascinating Chapter in the 19th Century

China and the West: A Fascinating Chapter in the 19th Century. San-pao Li, Ph.D. Department of Asian and Asian American Studies California State University, Long Beach October 11, 2001. Some Defining Characteristics of a Modern Society. Emphasis on efficiency and utility

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China and the West: A Fascinating Chapter in the 19th Century

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  1. China and the West:A Fascinating Chapter in the 19th Century San-pao Li, Ph.D. Department of Asian and Asian American Studies California State University, Long Beach October 11, 2001

  2. Some Defining Characteristics of a Modern Society • Emphasis on efficiency and utility • Prevalence of rationalism • Scientific and technological advancement • Due respect to individual worth and dignity • The concept of progress • High level of literacy • Sound social welfare system

  3. Some Defining Characteristics of a Modern Society • High GNP and per capita income • High degree of urbanization • L’esprit de lois • A pluralistic society • Shared concern for ecologically healthy environment • Adequate health care delivery system

  4. Some Defining Characteristics of a Modern Society • Generous investment in infrastructure • Rapid transportation and communication • Encourages creativity and fulfillment of individual’s potential and faculty • Rapid change • Clear division of labor • International- mindedness • Other

  5. Modernity (Modernization) • Modernization involves the systematic, sustained, and purposeful application of human energies to the “rational” control of man’s physical and social environment for various human purposes. • Benjamin Schwartz (Harvard University)

  6. Modernity (Modernization) • Modernity is always an incomplete state of becoming.

  7. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  8. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  9. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationForeign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • Trade and Proselytization • The Opium War (1839-1841) • The Nanking Treaty (1842) • Internal Decay and Unrest • The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

  10. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  11. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationT’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Chinese ego was severely battered • Government appeared hopeless and demoralized • The Taipings devastated much of China • British and French navies brushed past Taku defenses • The emperor fled to Jehol and died there

  12. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationT’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • The Restoration, for all its obvious influence on later periods, was NOT the seedbed of 20th-century movements to fashion a new China, but the last great effort to reassert the validity of Chinese traditional institutions.

  13. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationT’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • The Restoration was perhaps • the most elaborate, • the most consistent, and • the most fully documentedconservative program in history. • Mary Wright, The T’ung-chih Restoration

  14. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  15. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) • Arsenals • Shipyards • Railroads • Telegraph Lines • Translation Bureau

  16. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) • The Ti-Yong Dichotomy • Chinese Learning for the essential principles (ti) • Western Learning for the practical applications (yong)

  17. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) • The traditional Chinese state was attacked and mortally wounded • The imperial military was discredited • The agrarian economy was disrupted • The emperor’s prestige was dimmed • Superficial adoption of arms and technology proved unavailing • The old order was unable to respond adequately

  18. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) • Deceptively easy to adopt new technologies • Put a thin veneer over the surface of an ancient civilization

  19. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) • New ideas and attitudes • resulted from contact with the Westremained minor elements • in the broad stream of Chinese tradition

  20. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) • Ideas of change • were spreading, but • veeeeeery slowly.

  21. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) China West

  22. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895) • China’s modernization was inspired by Western examples and yet had to be superimposed upon old indigenous institutions, which persisted so strongly as to slow down the need or demand for innovation.

  23. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Self-Strengthening Movement (1874-1895)

  24. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationFaustian-Prometheanism • Faust • The old philosopher who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. The hero of several medieval German legends and • later literary and operatic works.

  25. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationFaustian-Prometheanism • Prometheus • A giant in Greek mythology who stole fire from heaven, consequently was tied to a huge rock on Caucasus with his liver picked by the eagles. • Having the quality of being life-bringing, creative, and courageously original.

  26. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationFaustian-Prometheanism • Faustian restlessness(be skeptical, critical, and bold in re-evalutating tradition) • and • Promethean defiance(releasing the energy of individuals, concept of linear progress)

  27. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  28. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationReform and Revolution (1898-1912) • China’s defeat by Japan in 1894 • Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki • The 1898 Reform (100 days) • The 1911 Revolution(Dr. Sun Yat-sen) • Founding of theRepublic of China

  29. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationReform and Revolution (1898-1912) • Realization of the true spirit or essence of Western civilization • The emergence and persistence of radical revolt against China’s cultural tradition

  30. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  31. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s) • The patriotic feelings and zeal for reform culminated in the incident of May 4, 1919, from which the movement took its name. • 3,000+ students from 14 universities in Beijing held mass demonstration.

  32. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s) • Began as a socio-political reform movement • Publication of the New Citizen (1902) • Publication of the New Youth (1915) • China’s intellectual revolution • Science and Democracy

  33. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s) • Radical anti-traditionalism • Attacked traditional Chinese ethics, philosophy, religion, and many varieties of social and political institutions • Advocated liberalism, pragmatism, nationalism, anarchism, and socialism

  34. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s) • With 400+ newspapers and magazines • Vigorously spread the tide of new thought and new literature • A period marked by iconoclasm, criticism, and furious destruction • Left unchallenged virtually NO tradition that appeared doubtful

  35. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s) • Decline of traditional ethics • Challenged traditional family system • Emancipation of women • Vernacular literature emerged • The press and public education made progress • Modern intelligentsia became a major factor in China’s subsequent political development

  36. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s) • Emergence of • a new awareness

  37. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s) • Involutionvs. Revolution • The development of certain phenomena within a large cultural context that is not itself undergoing significant or basic change.

  38. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe May Fourth Movement (1919-1923-1930’s)

  39. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationBetween May Fourth and June Fourth • Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) • The Notorious Nanjing Massacre (1937) • 300,000 slaughtered in Nanjing • The Communist Takeover • Founding of PRC on October 1, 1949 • The rule of the Chinese Communists • The Cultural Revolution

  40. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  41. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • Totalistic antitraditionalism • Intellectual holocaust of unprecedented magnitude

  42. China’s Tortuous Process of Modernization • Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellion (1800-1864) • T’ung-chih Restoration (1862-1874) • Self-Strengthening Movement in an Age of Accelerated Foreign Imperialism (1874-1895) • Reform and Revolution (1898-1912) • The May Fourth Movement: Ideological Awakening (1919-1923-1930’s) • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) • The Four Modernizations (1978-present)

  43. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Four Modernizations (1978-present) • Science and technology • Agriculture • Industry • National defense • (Democracy???)

  44. China’s Tortuous Process of ModernizationThe Four Modernizations (1978-present) • From central planning to market economy • From villages to urban centers • Political ideology is losing its magical power and potency

  45. ConclusionA Thought-Provoking Question • Nobel Prize in Literature • 1950 • A Polish novelist • Henryk Sienkiewicz • Quo Vadis • (Whither Goest Thou?)

  46. Thank you! • Your Comments • and Suggestions • Are Welcome!

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