China 's Rural Crisis : China

Europe seemed to remain the most neutral in this desperate silver trade, choosing to remain only involved enough to observe. British merchants were not entirely reliant on trade to or from the Asian worlds so merely recorded how China received “nothing but silver” (Doc. 4) and the Portuguese use this to “their good advantage in China”. However, England could not remain completely unaffected as scholars such as Charles D’Avenant observed. Luxury goods especially spices and silks have become prominent in European culture. While Europe draws from Asia “nothing on solid use” it has “tasted of this luxury” (Doc. 8) and it is not advisable for England to pull out of this silver trade. England could afford to remain more objective, but it could not pull out entirely. It had roots planted early on, and it would cause severe social disturbance to tear them up.

Before the arrival of western powers, China was very stable, agricultural, and ethnocentric. They had many factories that produced silk, cotton, and porcelain with their natural resources: salt, tin, silver, and iron mines. They had no interest of trade or interaction with foreigners. From the early eighteenth century, European and American Imperialism spread throughout China with a goal to extend their nation’s power. China was one of many territories that undertook the changes of New Imperialism. By 1912, the country was governed by outside nations: Great Britain (mostly), Russia, Germany, France, and Japan. Their influence on China resulted malignantly on the country’s economy, political ties, and lifestyle; in spite of the few

1. Trade networks in the post-Classical era has seen a range variety of the established and new networks of people’s exchanges crossing several regions. Extraordinary amount of wealth and growth emerged through cultural exchanges. Advanced transportation, the many different governing policies and business practices led to the widespread connection of networks which also contributed to the cultural, biological and technological spread throughout societies.

The Qing Dynasty’s collapse was due to three main influences, with underlying reasons involved in each. The first being foreign intervention related strongly to militarism, gunboat diplomacy, imperialism and the rise of unequal treaty systems. The second influence was China’s failure to reform and uprisings, such as the boxer rebellion and lastly economic decline. These three factors ultimately resulted in the downfall of the dynasty.

The Qing empire ruled China with Confucianism as the main imperial system used until the very end. However, the beginning of Qing downfall result of the exam system became corrupted and filled with bribery. Instead of the fair examination on the knowledge of Confucianism, the wealthy use their power to get their ways, result in not the most qualified politicians. Additionally, it shows the lack of Confucius value in the Qing system. On the other hand, bureaucracy meant to improve the lives of the wealthy not the poor. Also, the money was given to the people with power and wealth, not to infrastructure.

Some internal struggles that led to the fall of the Ottoman and the Qing were similar. Both civilizations strode to implement reforms to help restructure society. These reforms were more concentrated and more far-reaching in the Ottoman Empire, but we're just as ineffective as the Qing reforms. One of the Ottomans last sultans, Selim III, attempted to westernize society and the military. He exchanged ambassadors with European powers and allowed them to supervise Ottoman training. Over time, the westerners saw the Ottomans as barriers to more radical reforms. Thus, they began to clash with many classes in society, causing more conflict to arise. In China, many reforms were proposed and backed by radicals. The most well known radicals were the Taipings. Led by Hong Xuiquan, they sponsored

Many European countries such as Germany, France, and Great Britain, as well as Russia, Japan and the United States wanted to gain control of the Chinese market and dominate the trade and goods of that country. The result of

A major effect of the global flow of silver is the economic dependency required.In Document 5, Xu Dunqui Ming purposefully explains the growing of heavy silver use in his city’s economics in 1610, leading to silver becoming the required and standard payment for cloth dying and other services, along with silver now a necesity in their lives.Wth this new standard payment of silver in China, where it is unaccessible in their own environment, they depend on Europe and Spain to in exhange for China’s goods pay in silver to make it readily available for China’s inhabitants. In

The Qing dynasty (1916-1912) is the last imperial dynasty of China, it was consider as the most powerful country during the “golden age” ruled by Kang Xi and Qian Long, and it has over 400 million population and has the 1st ranked GDP in the world at the moment. The Qing has the supreme power at the time and has the significant influence in East Asian. However, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty made a humiliate history of China. The Qing dynasty doesn't fall suddenly, and the collapse of Qing is not just simply because domestic revolution and alien invasion. The failure of the Qing government is worthy to study, we need to take a deep step and explore the root cause of the collapse of Qing.

The Ming Dynasty ruled China from 1368 until the dynasty commenced deterioration. By the beginning of the 1600s, the Ming began to lose power due to “threats from Barbarians on all sides, political in-fighting,” rebellions, and poor loyalty in the military (Ryder). Likewise, the spread of violence in China contributed to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty (Zarrow). In the year 1644, the Chinese rebels overthrew the dynasty (Williams). At this time, the Ming emperor committed suicide as the rebel armies invaded Beijing (Zarrow). After the rebels overthrew the Ming, the Manchu people stepped in to try and gain power.

China did not need much trade items from other countries, until the Ming Dynasty’s system of paper currency buckled. “This again is one of the signs of early modernity: that they managed to find a medium of exchange that was extraordinarily cheap to produce” (“The Silver Trade”). After this point, silver became China’s currency; silver was used for salaries and taxes. This led to a high demand for silver in China. The problem was that China had to import the silver.

Most importantly, the reestablishment of the hukou system in the early sixties, preceding the failure of Mao’s Great Leap Forward plan, affected factories in China heavily. By law, every worker in the city needed a hukou, an urban residence permit, in order to be allowed to work. This created a huge conflict between China’s urban and rural citizens as it was made extremely difficult for people from rural areas to get hukous, which of course everyone wanted (Naughton, pg. 118). Because of this, the urban and rural areas started to develop in very different ways since city folk had primary access to food, even during the nationwide famine. However, even with the societal uproar, the Chinese government did not make

Dr. Hao Jingfang works for the China Development Research Foundation which helps advance and promote economic development and social progress. She conducts research with an emphasis on rural poverty and presents recommendations to the government. Dr. Hao has witnessed and learned about China’s development over the last century, such as the Cultural Revolution-the birth of communist ideals- and capitalism. China transformed their system and has been ascending economically for the last several decades. Dr. Hao Jingfang had also witnessed its side effects: the excellent ever increasing gross domestic product(GDP) and the not so good effects of increased poverty. Another one of the of the not so spectacular side effects are how the wealth,

The Communist fervor that gripped mainland China under Mao Zedong’s rule had lasting effects on the economy and culture. In particular, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution devastated rural and peasant populations, leading to fatal consequences for a large portion of the chinese demographic. The Great Leap Forward was an attempt at socializing the chinese economy almost ten years after the People's Republic of China was established in 1949. Property and businesses were stripped from private owners by the government and given to community leaders to run with the help of community members. Unfortunately, revolutionary passion blinded community leaders and the government. The former over reported food production while the latter continued to support a failing economic structure and policy. This lead to the Great Chinese Famine, and a decline in economic productivity and revolutionary zeal. The Great Cultural Revolution was meant to reinvigorate the revolutionary spirit. Launched several years after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution targeted the youth. A successful propaganda campaign mobilized groups of mostly disadvantaged youth (red guards) and the working class to purge those antithetical to the movement. Millions were killed in the resulting class warfare which targeted capitalists, rightists, and landlords. The effects of these influential events are still explored in modern chinese cinema many years after their occurrence. An

Rural communities, consisting of primarily minority groups, are predominately found throughout western China, each rich with their own traditions and values. Despite differences in their unique cultures, a large majority of them live underprivileged lives. The wealth gap in China has been increasing rapidly since the opening of the economy to global trade with the creation of a free market in the 1980’s. As a result of the economy’s growth, many residents in urban metropolitan areas of China have obtained extravagant wealth, while the rural western portion of China remains decades behind in development. One minority ethnic group in particular, the Lisu, live in the foothills and mountains that separate southwestern China from Myanmar in Yunnan province. Throughout this paper, I will analyze the documentary, Bridge of Winds, which followed the daily lives of the Lisu people in fall of 1992, to purposefully show the negative effects of the wealth gap towards rural populations within China because of their lack of access to education, the intensive labor required for survival, and the meager lifestyles they are forced lead because of their low income.