Change Mandated by Heaven

April 15, 2010

To many Chinese, the Taiping and Boxer rebellions failed because they were not blessed by Heaven. After World War II, when Mao’s Communists defeated the Nationalists, who— protected by America—fled to Taiwan, a case could be made that it was the Mandate of Heaven that brought about this change since World War II caused many in China to lose their lives demonstrating the Kuomintang’s inability to protect the Chinese people.

Chang Kai Shek - Leader of the Kuomintang

When Mao died, the new chairman of China’s Communist Party, Hua Guofeng, ordered the arrest of the Gang of Four. Almost everyone connected to the Gang of Four, which included Mao’s wife, Jian Qing, became non-persons. Some went to prison and died like Mao’s wife. Others were pushed aside and ignored. Since millions died due to the Cultural Revolution, they had lost the Mandate to rule.

Deng Xiaoping repudiated the Cultural Revolution and in 1977 launched the ‘Beijing Spring’, leading to a market economy and China’s prosperity today. The suffering that occurred during much of Mao’s twenty-seven year rule was criticized openly making if official that Mao had lost the Mandate of Heaven. After all, more than thirty-million Chinese died horrible deaths due to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

See Deng Xiaoping’s 20/20 Vision http://wp.me/pN4pY-2o

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, government, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Heaven Grants the Right to Rule

April 15, 2010

The Mandate of Heaven is based on four principles:

1. The right to rule is granted by Heaven
2. There is only one Heaven therefore, there can be only one ruler.
3. The right to rule is based on the ‘virtue’ of the ruler.
4. The right to rule is not limited to one dynasty

When the Ch’ing Dynasty fell in 1912, and the Nationalists stepped in, a claim could be made that this change occurred because The Mandate of Heaven made it so. After all, history tells us that the Manchu of the Ch’ing Dynasty were brutal rulers. In addition, during the nineteenth century, China suffered through droughts, famines and rebellions that cost millions their lives.

The principals from the Mandate of Heaven and Confucius’s Five Great Relationships must be on the minds of the members for China’s central government. That’s why, after Mao, China’s government revised the constitution and built-in term limits (two five-year terms) unlike the United States and other Western democracies. There is also an age limit in China set at sixty-seven. In China, we will not see deaf men nearing ninety falling asleep in their senate seats.

See Power Corrupts http://wp.me/pN4pY-40

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Farewell, My Concubine

April 2, 2010

Chen Kaige, self-trained as a filmmaker, was the director for this award winning 1993 film. Prior to “Farewell, My Concubine“, Chen received modest acclaim for the “Yellow Earth” and “The Big Parade”. With “Farewell, My Concubine,” he won the Palme d-or in Cannes.

Farewell, My Concubine

Although the film is in Mandarin with English subtitles, the story captured me from the beginning. If you are interested in Chinese history, this film spans several decades beginning near the end of the Ch’ing Dynasty. On the surface, it is just a story of two boys who happen to become famous, but have their difficulties like most of us lesser mortals do. However, the setting shows the  transformation of a nation from the Ch’ing Dynasty to a warlord dominated republic, the Japanese invasion of World War II and then Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

I saw this movie a decade ago and I remember this powerful, dramatic story of one man’s life from the day his mother took a knife and chopped off an extra finger on each hand so he would have five instead of the six he was born with.

The main character is apparently modeled after an actual person—Peking Opera superstar Mei Lanfang—some may imagine that Lanfang was ‘gay’. However, he only specialized in male roles. He was married at least three times and had children.

Discover Not One Less

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.  This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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2 Comments | China, Chinese arts and music, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Orphan’s Life

April 2, 2010

More than 90% of babies in Chinese orphanages are girls. Prior to 1949, it was common for parents to murder girl infants. From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, due to Mao’s leadership and a tough stance for women’s equality, the death rate went down. Then in the 1980s, with the population growing too fast, a desperate government implemented the one-child policy.

After that, many girl babies went missing or were abandoned to state-run orphanages. To end this tragedy, the government eventually allowed rural families to have two children per family—hoping for a boy.

The conditions in these rural, state-run orphanages are often not ideal. Girls, who are not adopted, usually end up being the caregivers for the younger children. Since these orphan caregivers were raised without the love of parents and siblings, they may not be loving themselves creating a cold environment to grow up in.

abandoned at birth

It isn’t as if China’s government has done nothing to stop a practice that has been around for thousands of years. During the 90s, tougher laws were passed but often ignored. Government inspectors were sent to rural areas to enforce these laws, but it isn’t easy controlling a population of 1.3 billion scattered over a mountainous country almost the size of the United States.

I will not criticize the Chinese government for these conditions. I’ve been to China and understand the challenges. What would you do if you had inherited a medieval country in 1949 that was bankrupt due to the Kuomintang looting the banks and treasury as they fled to Taiwan under American protection? Then there is a culture reaching back thousands of years where girls were considered worthless. That is a lot to overcome.

Discover Gendercide in China and India, and also see the conclusion of one orphan’s journey in Saying Goodbye

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Chinese women, family values, government, parenting | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Flexible China – Inflexible America

April 1, 2010

Imagine a piece in the Op-Ed section of the NY Times, a media bastion for liberal democracy, saying China is more open to change than the United States.

“China may be more open to fundamental political reform than the United States. Since the rule of law in America is based upon the notion that the state itself is constrained by a body of pre-existing law that is sovereign, any thought of rewriting the Constitution is anathema.” Source: The Fault Lines of Democracy

Changes in the United States often end up mired in partisanship between the two major political parties. Consider that the Equal Rights Amendment (proposed in 1921) in America still is not part of the Constitution. The movement to gain freedom for women started in 1841 while changes in China to improve women’s lives started in 1949, when Mao said, “Women hold up half the sky.”

Consider that the juvenile justice system in China is considering changes after a delegation from China came to America to examine what the United States juvenile justice system was like.

Discover more about China Law and Justice System

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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. 

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Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Confucianism, government, legal system, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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