History’s Meaning of the Mandate of Heaven – Part 5/5

October 16, 2010


A few Chinese intellectuals pleaded for a more open approach for knowledge. This took place a few decades before the clash between China and the West during the Qing Dynasty.

One Chinese scholar, Chiang Siu Chung, said that the Confucian texts were history and Confucius may be a true guide to life but the time was past to continue following this old curriculum of study.

Two years before this scholar’s death in 1799, he wrote a letter that said that history should no longer concern itself merely with the past but should use the past to reform the present and to look into the future. He predicted the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Near Chiang Sui Chung’s death, China was about to come face to face with another culture whose view of history was diametrically opposed to Chinese tradition.

The Europeans with their Judea-Christian heritage believed that history had a purpose — that it was leading toward an appointed end and they would be the winners.

When The Chinese first met the Westerners, the Chinese had a dark description of the Europeans as a savage people who didn’t just come to sell but came to impose their ideas, their religions and their will on everyone they met.

This era culminated in the Opium Wars, which meant the Europeans wanted to get as many Chinese addicted to Opium as possible.

China was defeated by the very technology they had developed centuries earlier because they had stopped in their development. Unable to cope with the pressure from the West, the Chinese government collapsed and the Western Imperialists treated the Chinese people as if they were animals in their own land.

Then a great time of revolution had arrived as the I-Ching, the book of changes, says. In the I-Ching, there is a hexagram titled revolution.

In a revolution, the I-Ching says there are two mistakes that must be avoided. You must not move with excessive haste nor use excessive ruthlessness against the people.

Return to History of the Mandate of Heaven – Part 4

 

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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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The Sinophobia Epidemic

September 29, 2010

After being called “Pro China” and a “Panda Lover”, along with a few other tags, I wondered how many people in America have the mental illness called Sinophobia.

The Ramblings of a Political Psychology Major provided an answer. “There is a majority opinion in the US that China is a country we should be concerned with. In a February 2010 Gallup poll, 53% of Americans rated China as being unfavorable or very unfavorable.”

Sinophobia is especially common in Japan. If you don’t believe me, read what Japan did to the Chinese during World War II.

After that, check out what the British, French, Americans and a few others did to China in the 19th century during the Opium Wars.


Do you detect anger in this video?

The notion of “yellow peril” manifested itself in government policy with the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which reduced Chinese immigration from 30,000 annually to 105.

Jack London’s 1914 story, The Unparalleled Invasion, takes place in a fictional 1975, and describes a China with an ever-increasing population taking over and colonizing its neighbors with the intention of eventually taking over the Earth. 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that was Hitler’s German Nazis who wanted to do that.

Fili’s World provides an example of Sinophobia in the Israeli media. “You know something is wrong when you hear everyone in the media quoting the exact same clichés, even if they sound so moral and enlightened.… The Chinese have no way of winning the PR battle. If they perform well, they’re described as machine-like and cold. If they mess things up a bit, they are described as losing control. If they tighten up security, they’re violating human rights. If they’re loosening it up a bit, then it’s a sign that China is breaking apart. If they’re on time, they’re fascists. If they’re late, they’re incompetent.”

The Glittering Eye says, “I think I could devote an entire Blog to Sinophobia rather than just to an occasional post seen in the news media.”

Most Chinese Americans I know say they are afraid to speak out about this illness, because a white-faced, round-eyed, big nosed Sinophobe will tell them to go home.

Sinophobia is so serious, it even appears on the Phobia List.

If 53% of Americans have this illness, it should qualify as an epidemic. Along with the annual flu shot, there should be an anti-Sinophobia injection.

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Danger of Arrogance (5/5)

August 18, 2010

In the 18th century, China had no competition, and the Qianlong Emperor was not alone in his belief that China was too civilized and powerful to worry.

However, in less than a century, China would face defeat during the Opium Wars caused by England and France. The century that followed would devastate China until Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power after Mao died.

Other factors that weakened China during the 19th century, were the rebellions caused by converted Chinese Christians and Muslims that would cause more than 30 million deaths.  

Now that China has recovered its power, it would be interesting to see if the Chinese have learned from the Qing Dynasty’s mistakes.  America could also learn something from the British Empire’s arrogance and why the sun stopped shinning twenty-four hours a day on that empire.

I’m not going to hold my breath.

Return to the Danger of Arrogance – Part 4

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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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China Securing Its Future (3/3)

August 14, 2010

Between 1950 and 1955, Mao said that Korea and Vietnam were the gums to China’s teeth, which meant China was next.

After all, China had already lost more than 50 million people due to the West’s meddling in Asia, which started with the first Opium War.

About 5 million civilians and military died in Korea and another 5 million in Vietnam—started by Western nations that took part in the Opium Wars in China and had carved off pieces of China’s territory.

What are Americans and other Westerners going to think when they read Eric Talmadge of the Associated Press, who writes that China is developing  a missile, the Dong Feng 21D (DF21D), which will be designed to get past the defenses of the most advanced American aircraft carriers at a distance of about 1,500 kilometers or 900 miles from China’s shores? 

Since Los Angeles is more than 5 thousand miles from China’s eastern coast, the DF21D is no threat to American noncombatants.

It’s obvious that all China wants is breathing room and the ability to conduct their affairs without interference from the West which caused so much suffering and death for more than a century.

So far, China only shows signs that they take their security seriously.

If America had lost 60 million people due to invasions and war, wouldn’t the American people feel the same way?

See The Long March or return to China Securing Its Future – Part 2

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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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China Securing Its Future (1/3)

August 14, 2010

This three part series is about the reasons behind a new weapon China is developing. This weapon is known as the DF21D, which will be described in part 3.

Suppose that the United States had just ended a century of conflict that started when several foreign nations sent naval/military power halfway around the world to force America to accept cocaine as a product to be sold to all Americans without restrictions.

The United States loses the struggle against this drug being sold to American citizens, and during the next century, more than fifty-million Americans die from more wars indirectly caused by the nations behind the drugs while a third of Americans becomes addicted to the drugs.

As this century of drug and wars end, the same nations invade Mexico and Canada. By the time the wars in Mexico and Canada end, 10 million Canadians and Mexicans have been killed by the invading armies.

For China, what I’m describing is not a “what if”.

Starting in 1839, China fought two Opium Wars and lost about 50,000 troops while the invading nations lost 3,000. The invaders were from the UK, France and, for a limited time, the US. 

These nations forced China’s emperor to allow them to sell opium to his people ruining millions of lives and wrecking families due to drug addiction. 

These invading nations also built enclaves and cities in China—Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau and others.

Imagine China controlling San Francisco, Seattle and New York. How would most American’s feel?

In fact, Western nations are indirectly responsible for an 1850 rebellion started by a Chinese Christian convert who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ. When the Taiping Rebellion ended, 20 million civilians and combatants were dead.

See more about The Opium Wars

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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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