We were visiting General Yue Fei’s tomb in Hangzhou. Hundreds of Chinese tourists were there. It was early October 2008. This was our third trip to the city in ten years, and I was watching people spitting on the kneeling, life sized metal statues of men dead for more than eight centuries. Those metal effigies with their hands tied behind their backs had been traitors.
It may be difficult to understand what honor means to of the Chinese people if one isn’t Chinese. One way to possibly understand the importance of this concept is to examine two of China’s historical moral heroes.
General Yue Fei died on January 27, 1142. He was a famous Chinese patriot and military general who fought for the Southern Song Dynasty against the Jurchen armies of the Jin Dynasty.
Several, jealous Song ministers lied to the emperor saying that Yue Fei was planning to kill him and take over. The emperor believed these lies and had General Yue Fei executed. When the truth came out, Yue Fei became a model for loyalty in Chinese culture. By spitting on those statues of those ministers that lied, the Chinese honor Yue Fei’s memory.
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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“Beijing – China suspended military exchanges with the United States and threatened sanctions against American defense companies Saturday, just hours after Washington announced 6.5 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.” by Cara Anna, Associated Press Writer
The private sector’s American Military Industrial Machine thrives on wars like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Military industrial tycoons would have strokes if America didn’t have any enemies to scare the public with. Without fear of the boogieman, would America need the second-largest military on earth? Would America need to spend more money on weapons than the rest of the world combined? These Military Industrial types are like greedy Christmas morning kids who pout when there aren’t enough presents to open.
Don’t read me wrong. We need to fight the nasty Al Qaeda terrorists (the ones hiding in Pakistani caves like flea ridden Neanderthals) who want to burn our underwear and sink our cities from global warming.
Now, slip into China’s shoes. During the 19th century, China was the victim of Western Imperialism. The Chinese emperor didn’t want his people to have access to opium. The West did, and the British and French waged war against China forcing China to allow opium in. American merchants benefited from those wars too. Then China fought with Russia, Germany and Japan and lost more territory. Then along came WWII and a Japanese invasion that cost at least thirty million Chinese their lives.
Is it any wonder that China is upset that the United States industrial military machine is selling Taiwan $6.4 billion in weapons. Geez, these industrialists should be making enough off Iraq and Afghanistan and this “war” (oops, we aren’t supposed to say that—political correctness you know) on terror. Prior to 1949, Taiwan was part of China. After the Nationalists lost China, the people in Taiwan lived with martial law under a dictator for thirty years before being forced to hold democratic elections.
Think about this from the Chinese point of view. The Chinese want was lost to Western Imperialism in the 19th century and the early 20th century. Check China’s maps to see what was lost. Mao reclaimed Tibet, and China has been badmouthed in the Western media ever since. With this history, how would you feel if you were Chinese?
How many wars has China started with other countries in the last century? Make a list and compare it to the wars started by the other major powers (don’t forget America). Once you finish the list, tell me who should worry the most? China or America.
Of course, the Chinese could change the name of their political party to Republican or Democrat. They could do away with the yellow stars on their flag and replace those symbols with a red ass or a blue pachyderm. They could even vote to join America as the next state, but that would make the dreaded double “L” happy. No, not me—Lawyers and Lobbyists. Right now, China has about 110,000 lawyers for 1.3 billion people while America has more than a million to rob less than a quarter of China’s population.
Isn’t it bad enough that we’ve already given China fast food and Ford?
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.
Here are three examples that support what I wrote in “Part 2”. During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, a Chinese man took several foreign tourists hostage. The local police talked him into letting the tourists go, and the kidnapper surrendered. When the police officer went into the building after the tourists were released, the kidnapper was shot dead. It was announced he resisted arrest. Problem solved and out of sight.
Then there was the scandal about the tainted infant formula. Before there could be a trial for the Chinese citizen directly responsible for what happened, the man killed himself. Problem solved and out of sight.
In the Time piece comparing how China handled its 2008 earthquake to how Haiti’s people are responding to their devastating earthquake, it was mentioned “Despite allegations that corruption led to the shoddy construction of schools in the first place, China hasn’t punished anyone for any wrongdoing that occurred before the (May 2008 Sichuan) earthquake. Grieving parents who protested over the deaths of their children in collapsed schools were silenced by payments and by threats of punishment if they continued their agitation.”
It’s obvious from the context of the piece in Time, that the Chinese government was being accused of covering up this scandal and protecting the guilty.
Terrible things did happen under Stalin and Mao. Tens of millions died due to the policies of these dictators. However, that isn’t true today.
Most Chinese do not like to display their dirty laundry in public for the world to see. I believe I talked about this on the The Dr. Pat Show, or one of the other radio talk shows I was a guest on in 2008.
The primary reason for the way the Chinese handle embarrassing situations like these is that most Chinese do not like to lose face. If one Chinese citizen does something wrong and gains the attention of the world’s media, most Chinese feel as if they are seen as guilty too. To learn more, See what Lin Yutang wrote about face.
Two recent pieces in the news focused a spotlight on how most people in the West misunderstand China and the Chinese. On January 19, Time published a piece comparing China’s handling of its earthquake in May 2008 in Sichuan with the way Haiti is handling its current catastrophe. There were striking differences—mostly making China look good.
Today, the Associated Press published a piece about China slamming US criticism of its Internet controls, and it was mentioned how a “few” Chinese bloggers were upset by content controls in China. Don’t forget that China has 1.3 billion people.
Both pieces miss the point because they both assume that Western values should be applied to China. This also goes back to a conservative friend whom, during an e-mail conversation, said Communism was evil. I’m sure many Americans may believe this statement, and they would be both historically correct and currently wrong. To learn more, see what I said in A Media Slugfest Using Taiwan.
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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