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It is well known and documented that China has a very long and storied history, 6000 years or more. If you are from the United States, a baby in historical time, try to imagine that. As a nation, U.S. history is less than 4% of China's history. When one first arrives in China and visits a few of the many great museums, one's mouth may drop open in sheer astonishment! One learns a dazzling array of facts. I particularly remember a museum section on Chinese Ceramics where I learned the Chinese invented porcelain 1500 years B.C. Let me repeat - That is B.C.!!!!! I thought that was incredible. I have discovered many such historical facts in my travels around China. The USA is a baby in diapers in time and European history merely a small child itself. The Middle East is an old man and China is a very old man.
As another example, football (soccer), or "cuju" in Chinese, was played in China nearly 400 years BC! It was originally developed as a game for military exercise and training as seen in historical records from 2500 years ago. The ball was round leather but originally filled with solid material, air coming a thousand years later. Even women began playing "cuju" in China about a thousand years ago. Polo first appeared in China about 1900 years ago, also originally to train military personnel, in this case horsemen.
I am often reminded that Xi'an, then called Chang'an, was considered the most advanced and greatest city in the world about seven hundred years ago, during the time of Marco Polo's travels. It had 1.5 million people and was the sixth largest city in the world at that time. It is amazing how advanced China was and how many things they invented or created long before the west ever heard of such things. The longer you are here and the more you learn, the more fascinated you become by this both ancient and modern nation.
In reading more and more on Chinese history and the Chinese "renaissance" over the last century, one begins to see and understand more fully the changes that have been occurring in this fascinating place. The most important one was the takeover by the communist party in 1949 without which none of China's current progress would have been possible. China was a feudal society at the time, ruled by various emperors and dynasties for thousand of years. "Old" ways, slavery and poverty were ingrained in the populace. It took a revolution to throw out the old ways and begin to change the country. I highly recommend reading Edgar Snow's classic novel, "Red Star over China." Snow, an American, traveled with Mao and the Red Army during much of the revolution. In digesting his novel one clearly comes to understand why the Red Army was supported by the large majority of the Chinese populace, why they were eventually victorious and why they "deserved" to win over the wealthy ruling warlords of the time and the rich and brutal Nationalist Party regime. Mao Zedong was the George Washington of China, the true "father of his country."
China was more advanced than Europe through the 1600's, but then fell behind after that as Europe took on new science and technology, new ways, while China retained the old until recent times and following several "internal" revolutions. Now China is becoming more and more similar to the western world virtually daily with the greater equality and inclusion of women, more democratic processes, greater emphasis on education, science and technology, and, perhaps most unfortunately, the greater mobility and breakdown of the extended family. Attempting to maintain the best of the old ways, while integrating only the best of the new is a great challenge for this country.
Change will always come. Mankind has no choice for nothing can stop the movement and changing of mankind. The real argument is over what kind of change will prevail and at what speed it will come. It does not matter what nation we are talking about, each generation has to muddle its way over the now dead or tired bodies of previous pioneers and reformers. Lin Yutang called war among politicians, "Chiefly a war over the length of their respective funeral notices, to see which dead man shall have a longer smile from his coffin when he hears his honors being read." They come and they go and like others before them will all eventually die and be forgotten, remembered not much more than you or I in terms of history. Change, however, will go on, for better or worse. In China, it is clearly for the better of the country and its people.
FALSE IMPRESSIONS AND BASIC TRUTHS
When I first arrived in China I was, like many Westerners, thinking I would come teach for a year and experience a bit of China. I also, like most again, discovered I knew nothing about the real China or the "truth" of China. My students, primarily masters' degree students, and my travels have taught me so much and I have discovered China is nothing like what we had been and are told in the western world via print, television news or our government in the U.S. or most western countries In fact, what is reported is often shameful in its inaccuracies and, frankly, often outright lies.
BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES
My students told me I have grown a "Chinese heart." There is great truth in their words in so many ways. Where we are born and raised is truly an "accident of birth," meaning that none of us chooses the place, it is simply, for better or worse, thrust upon us by the circumstances of our parents and family. We are, for example, an "American" by our own accident of birth. As we grow, learn and establish our own beliefs, we may find ourselves quite different from others around us, though it takes us many years to "find" ourselves. I have found there are three key points, major philosophical differences, one must accept about China to fully understand the country and the people:
1- Philosophically, China does not believe in interfering in the affairs of another nation. Most Americans, fail to understand that very basic philosophical difference. The U.S., Britain and other western countries often sticks its nose in everywhere in the world and thinks it has a "right" or "obligation" to do that - the Chinese believe just the opposite. The Chinese are very "peace loving" which is why they do not interfere in other nations, spend a very small part of their national budget on military (much smaller than the U.S.), and use the military primarily for domestic needs and national emergencies. China has never invaded any other nation nor taken territory from any other nation - nor has one single soldier ever been permanently stationed in any other nation. They believe that each nation is its own entity and has the right to do as that nation chooses within its own borders. Outside of border skirmishes over the years, such as with Korea or Vietnam, philosophically, the Chinese choose to not interfere in the business of others. This is a very basic philosophical difference in the thinking of our nations. My mother used to say, "Sweep in front of your own door." Maybe my ethnic German mother's heart was also Chinese?
2- For over 2500 years, the teachings of Confucius have formed the philosophical foundation of the Chinese people. It is Confucianism that serves as the moral and ethical "religion" of the people and primarily why the Chinese people feel little need for any other religious thoughts. They are not "judged" by the standards of some far off mystical "God" or "gods," but by their fellow man here in their daily lives. Confucius taught one's first obligation is to the state, one's second obligation is to one's parents and ancestors, and one's third obligation is to one's spouse and children. In addition, every man and woman has an obligation, a family duty, to give birth and to continue the family line. To not become a parent is considered a great shame or great sadness for everyone. Most important to note: There is no obligation to one's self. Your obligation as a person is to others and you are subjugated to that. Philosophically, this is far different than the western thought of individualism and lack of caring for what others may think. This, of course, makes for much stronger families, considered the historical foundation of a harmonious society in China. True, Confucianism may be slightly less prevalent today than it once was, but it still is the foundation of the Chinese spirit and has been for thousands of years.
3- The strength of the Chinese government and the belief of the over-whelming majority percentage of the Chinese people in socialism, again, ties in directly philosophically with the character of the Chinese people. Americans are often told by the western media and/or governments that the Chinese want "democracy" and are "suppressed" by the government. That is really not a correct analysis. Of course, there are a small percentage of people here who claim to want democracy – just like there are a small percentage of people in America who claim to be socialists or communists; but the percentages are not as large as Americans think or the western news media makes them out to be for several reasons:
a) The communist party took control of China in 1949 by having the over-whelming support, near 90%, of the Chinese people, 90% of whom lived in poverty under the then crooked Nationalist regime, the party of the rich, and, unfortunately, backed by the American government at the time. The communists were not a minority party among the people. They started small, of course, as all movements begin, but soon became a vast majority. I would suggest one read American writer Edgar Snow's classic historical novel, "Red Star over China," for background and to best understand Mao Zedong and the successful founding of socialism in China
b) Before the revolution, much of China was controlled by the rich landlords and their warlords who treated others as slaves and women as property and, in truth, women were treated not much different from the way the Taliban treat women today. In the China of today, however, women have near full freedom that they never had before 1949. That has firmed government support among women and, in fact, helped fuel China's rise as a powerful nation. The skill and brainpower of women, half the population and "holding up half the sky," has been released.
c) Philosophically, under historical Confucianism thinking, ones first obligation is to the state – not to the individual. It is the "group," society as a whole that matters, and not "you" as an individual. It is thus the norm to support the state in their quest to build an equitable and "harmonious" society for the people as a whole and to be not or less concerned with "self."
d) Finally, there is the sheer numbers of people in China that must be "governed." Most Americans, I believe, would admit that the problems of our western society have increased dramatically over the last decades. We are also not near as "democratic" as when our population was smaller. We have become a nation of high crime, a gun crazy populous, and a nation of "me first" individuals. We claim "rights" as "individuals" under a constitution that may not be relevant in our "modern" world? Hong Yingming, a Chinese scholar during the Ming Dynasty, said "The ways of the world are changing all the time." This is a statement and philosophy that Americans seem to have a problem understanding and adapting to. We are no longer living in 1776. The world of today is much different than the world of our fathers. Even Confucius has been proven wrong on one important point, human beings have proven not able to police themselves.
China has near four times the population of the U.S. Given that situation, can you not understand what would happen if such a huge population was turned loose and became a "me first" society? Chaos would be the likely result. Order and stability are needed in such a situation and the majority of the Chinese people seem to understand that. They are perfectly content to not own guns, for example, and see no reason why anyone would need to own one. It is also why a small minority complaining about something in China is mostly ignored, contrary to in the west. It is the good of the larger group (society) that matters and not the whining of a small minority. The minority has to adjust, not the great majority. On Chinese phones you do not "touch one" for English. In China, voices and signs are in Chinese. The famous "Terracotta Warriors" will never be renamed Terracotta People.
e) In China, it is not the "name" of the government, be it democracy, socialism, communism, dictatorship or other that matters. It is the wisdom of the leaders and the caring they show for their people as a nation. The Chinese people know that they are far better off and have more "freedoms" today than they had sixty, forty or twenty years ago. They know that is the result of government leadership. The Tiananmen Square "incident" was near thirty years ago and, at the speed China is moving, is ancient history here. When the U.S. talks about Tiananmen, they conveniently forget our own Kent State or Vietnam protest incidents. Can the U.S. say our people are better off than sixty, forty or twenty years ago? I will let you each decide that for yourselves.
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Excerpted from China: In My Eyes by Robert Stanelle "Lao Luo" Copyright © 2012 by Robert Stanelle "Lao Luo". Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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