Chapter 2
Historical perspective of China’s evolution from inward-looking country to an international stage player
Iriye (2012) maintains that the journey of globalisation in China is one that has been a very gradual process, having history that can be traced to several centuries back (p. 83). The slow and steady nature with which China has evolved into what can now be termed as a globalised country is largely attributed to China’s quest to remain inward-looking for a very long time. In most historical accounts, the evolution of China from an inward-looking country to an international stage player who has a lot of influence on other countries and take influence from others have been divided into five major era. These are early dynasties, modern China in the 20th century, modern China in the 21st century, economic shifts in China, and cultural shifts in China (Guo, 1999, p. 344; Lee, 2009, p. p.211; Adshead, 2000, p. 54). Whenever these contexts of evolutionary discussions are done, they are done with a broader overview of China’s inward-looking motive. That is, across each of the major five era, China has exhibited some form of resistance to cultural infiltration as a way of strictly being concerned with its own culture and economy. In the sections that follow, the five evolutionary era are given further exploration by looking at some facts and a discussion of these facts from a broader context of political science literature.
Early dynasties
According to Kirby (1997, p.
Communism in China as we know has played a major role in the countries political system over the past century. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao were the co-founders of the communist party in 1921. At the time China was in a world or turmoil ever since the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. For 10 years China was lost in a world with new ideas coming from all over the world. At the time, Duxiu and Dazhao saw an opportunity to bring change throughout a weakened China and they exploited it. The communist influence being brought by them and powers such as Russia influenced the Chinese way of thinking that Communism had new beliefs of the world and that all people should be seen as equal under the new government. Personally I am a very strong believer in
China has changed in certain ways and remained the same in others from the early Golden Ages to the late 1900s. China has experienced a series of cultural and political transformations, shaping the lives of many Chinese citizens. Culturally, the country’s art and literature hardly changed for almost eight hundred years. Along with their culture, China remained politically the same from the beginning of the Golden Ages all the way until the 1800s. On the other hand, China’s government and society were restructured after new leaders took over. From a monarch to total communism, China’s society had a multitude of new ideas and policies they had to adapt to.
Tracing back the history of China, Xia Dynasty of the second millennium BCE was the earliest dynasty in China, which was centered along the Yellow River. Before China was unified, it was the time during which most of China's cultural tradition arose. Chinese civilization ascended and developed in a vast area, one-third larger than the United States if such dependencies as Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet are included. For centuries China was almost completely isolated from the other centers of civilization by mountains, deserts, and seas. This isolation helps explain the great originality of China's culture. China has many mountain ranges and three river systems that rise close together on the high Tibetan plateau and flow eastward to
1. Why are the centuries of the Tang and song dynasties in China sometimes referred to as a “golden age”?
Mao Zedong, the leader of China during the third quarter of the 20th century, organized two movements in his country in an attempt to develop China 's economy through the establishment of communism. Through The Great Leap Forward, Mao planned to change the layout of the Chinese economy by forcing collectivism on his country and implementing other ways to speed up production. Since this movement failed, he then implemented The Cultural Revolution. It consisted of the same goals but was carried out through violence and was also an utter failure. These two movements failed because of the lack of organization with which they were performed. This lack of organization manifested itself in a number of different ways. The government did not care about their people, the reforms themselves were not planned out in detail, the government did not think about the spontaneity of young people, they did not consider the effect violence would have on their country, they did not realize the decline in education that would result from the participation of students in the revolution, they did not plan well economically, they did not examine the negative effects of communes, and they did not foresee the large number of deaths that would plague their country. Although designed to rapidly increase China 's economic growth through communism, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution had the opposite effects and significantly diminished China 's economy. The two direct causes of the failure
The origins of tea are rooted in China (Food Timeline). According to legend, the beneficial properties of tea were first discovered by the Emperor Shen Nung in the year 2737 B.C. He drank only boiled water for hygienic purposes, and one day while he drank a breeze rustled the branches of a tree and a few leaves fell into his cup. Creating the first cup of tea. It is challenging to know whether or not the emperor was real or just a part of the spiritual and cultural development of ancient China. China was not unified as an empire until the third century, so it is unlikely emperors existed back then. One thing that is known is that tea was popular in China thousands of years ago. The first written reference of tea is in the third century B.C. A famous surgeon recommended the beverage to patients to increase concentration and alertness. Tea was first written as “tu” in ancient texts. This caused a good deal of confusion because the same Chinese character was used for both tea and Chinese sow thistles. Between 206 B.C. and A.D. 220 a Han Dynasty emperor ruled that when referring to tea, the characters should be pronounced as “cha”. From here on, tracing tea’s history became easier because tea acquired its own individual character (Food Timeline).
Odd Arne Westad’s Restless Empire traces China’s participation with other countries over the past 250 years. Westad disputes that China has an ongoing association with the rest of the world through trading of silks and porcelains, allowing China to dominate the international trade market during the Ming and Qing empires. This significant piece of evidence reflects China’s connection with the outside world contrary to the thought that China has been an isolated society detached from most of the world as evidenced by China’s involuntary participation with the foreign countries which stems from colonialism. The author examines China’s foreign affairs over the past three centuries to provide chronological events that underline the advancement in economic growth of China, leading to the establishment of modern China.
Classical China expected women to act and look a certain way. It had been clearly laid out what qualities they were to possess and their prescribed responsibilities. These qualities and responsibilities were typically based off of how it would benefit her husband. Classical China was a patriarch society, so everything revolved around men. Women were typically a reflection of their men so their character and how they acted was to be of a certain standard, so as to make their husbands look good. Classical India also had specific expectations on how women were supposed to behave. The two countries had similar strict gender roles lined out for women with some differences.
Ho-fung Hung’s work attempts to reconcile the widespread expectation that China’s rise would lead to a fundamental change in the global status quo with the observed fact that China has become increasingly connected to and one with the global status quo. To do this, he must first examine China’s rise and prove that it upholds the global status quo, and further must look into the origins of China’s rise, going back to the 13th century, to understand why this rise seemingly changed so little about the global world order.
Globalization is a process that refers to the increased integration between different countries and economies as well as the increased impact of international influences on all aspects of life and economic activity. Over the last 50 years, globalization has had a tremendous impact on the Chinese economy. The impacts brought forth by globalization can be both positive and negative and effect both economic performance, economic growth and the development of China’s economy. Globalization is the main factor responsible for China’s significant growth that has taken place over the last two decades. However, globalization itself is not entirely responsible. The Chinese economy has also implemented strategies which have been very effective in promoting economic growth and development. These strategies include the implantation of“Open door policy”, “Reformation” of China’s agricultural system and joining the World Trade Organisation.
China came to realise that it was no longer at the centre of the world after being invaded multiple times by ‘barbarians’ from the outside who were stronger and possessed an intimidatingly sturdy culture and religion which threatened the Chinese culture and world order (Zhimin, 2005:38). China felt threatened and took to nationalism as a non-Chinese solution to the survival of China (Zhimin, 2005:38). However, “Chinese nationalism was a modern idea, seeping in from Europe. It was bolstered by the resentment of European imperialists, with their own ignorant and ruthless
1900s China saw a century of fluctuating development and progress, which is recognised through various political, economic and social changes. The early division of the period encountered some change for the country yet this was not as significant as the latter change in which China’s political landscape metamorphosed into one of total contrast to the former. Foreign intervention was of course a reason and usually the root cause for the changes that occurred, particularly in the first half of the century until 1962 whereby there were still some minor influences by the foreigners but other factors seemed to have caused these later changes. It could be deduced that yes, foreign powers did have a significant influence over the transformation
In the current anarchic world, The United States acts as the global hegemon. However, China’s recent rise to power has lead international relations experts, Ikenberry, Mearsheimer, Subramanian, and Friedberg, to predict an upcoming power shift in the international system. China’s increasing control over the Asia-Pacific region has threatened U.S. power. According to Waltz, the realism paradigm interprets the anarchic structure of the international community, as a constant power struggle. Although each country may be different, to survive, they must all strive for power. Under the liberalism paradigm, the system is still anarchical but cooperation may be achieved by shared norms, and aligned political and economical interests.
A pattern that was common among the ancient civilizations of China, Rome, Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India was that most of them started as a dictatorship, a monarchy, or a dynasty. Eventually, most of them changed to a democracy, republic, or to class systems. Almost all of the civilizations had one or two great leaders. For example, Egypt had King Tut, Greece had Alexander the Great and Rome had Julius Caesar.
The ongoing economic rise in China effects the US in many ways, including things that some people wouldn’t even consider. It can be seen that the Chinese are beginning to need more jobs, but can that be because some of theirs are being given to us? And, that’s not the only thing they’re giving us. China has the proven to be worst pollution in the world, and it has gotten to the point where the polluted air has travelled overseas to the US, and has begun to take a toll on us. But, they’re not only giving to us. Because of it becoming harder to find jobs, the students push themselves to the limit to become perfect, which could create competition with graduates here in America.