Dreams of China: China and the World on the Eve of the Nineteenth Century

Author: Zou Mulu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: In 1840, for China and the Chinese people, it should have been a belated era. If the long-sealed old world was destined to be connected or opened up sooner or later, then China had arrived at an unfavorable time to welcome the troublemaking Westerners. In 1840, the Chinese people's ideal of "being content without desires leads to" was shattered. The Chinese people's contented and simple lifestyle and the tranquil and unpretentious national temperament were shaken by the Westerners. Thus, looking at the world from China, the world seemed to have moved forward, developed. It could also be said to have progressed, but it wasn't necessarily better, nor was it worse—it was just developed. Looking at China from overseas, China was not necessarily lagging behind or regressing, merely stagnating. The interweaving of development and stagnation formed the tragic Sino-Western conflict of modern times. Until today, when the Chinese nation has already emerged from the of, people suddenly look back and ask the question: Was the blood-and-fire war of a century ago a blessing or a curse for the Chinese nation? Let's set aside the inevitable mutual exclusion after the encounter of two civilizations for the time being, and just look at it from the perspective of commercial trade. In today's era of global transportation, everything that the Chinese people strongly rejected back then has become a reality today. A hundred years of struggle, the Westerners finally achieved their goals, and the Chinese people could not resist the trend of the times after all. The difference is that China finally won self-respect from the confrontation. However, this is the result of the Chinese people conforming to the trend, not the achievement of resisting the trend. Moreover, such a result was never something unattainable for the ancient China. To achieve such a result, was it worth paying such a heavy price?