The China Boom Summary

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.

China remains a current world super power that has been around for thousands of years. It was one of the first civilizations ever created and it has evolved into an enormous country. China is a large territory, but only 10% of the land can be farmed on. This continues to be a tremendous problem, especially with the large population that mostly lives in rural areas. In the past China was seen as a fragile nation that was still stuck in the past, although after the Four Humiliations this began to change. The Four Humiliations were a group of events that forced China to modernize due to the losses it faced. After the last of the four humiliations and the fall of the dynasty era during 1911, China began to catch up to the westernized world by modernizing their government, military, and education. The Chinese

McNeil is also critical of Landes’ preoccupation in the happenings of Europe alone, while remaining dismissive of all economic and technological accomplishments of China after 1 000 A.D. While Landes dismisses the economic demise of China as a “weird pattern of isolated initiatives and Sisyphean discontinuities,” McNeil instead portrays the rapid innovations of the Sung era, and how they were damaged and disrupted by Mongol conquests and contained within the Ming dynasty, thereby showing that Europe did not surpass Europe in achievement due to their own pre-eminence.

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.

The Chinese Empire is a land of innovation, mystery, culture, and art. From mysterious trade partners to military expansionists, the Chinese people have faced a constant evolution of change over their vast history. China’s innovative and advanced mindset has made the West wonder in awe for centuries, and it is difficult to realize that, unlike the West, the East has been the center of technological and industrial advancements for centuries until their eventual decline. Due to China’s vibrant and long past, many have debated which time period was China’s strongest age, and it is difficult to answer this question without clear and precise evidence. Although many Dynasties have been both influential

China has experienced several changes and evolutions throughout the centuries, though some of the most marked and influential changes stem from the transitionary period of the Tang dynasty to the Song dynasty. These changes, which include the re-definition of gendered space, the rise of the scholar’s status and the prominence of Neo-Confucianism (among other things) were not only political and economic evolutions, but also cultural shifts that would later characterize Chinese history. Let us begin by examining Neo-Confucianism.

After the collapse of the Han dynasty, China had fallen into a period of civil wars, disruption, and a lack of a strong leadership. It wasn’t until the year 581, when the Sui was formed (Stearns 230). This was the beginning to the postclassical era of China that ran from the year 580 to 1279 C.E.. The Sui were not the only dynasty in China’s postclassical era, it was soon followed by the Golden age dynasties, Tang and Song. These three empires have made major contributions to the changes and development in China’s political, social, and economic grounding. They came to power in a similar action, but how they ran political varied between all three. Socially, they did have different views on many areas, but their economic situations were fairly

The rise in China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest success stories in these present times. With China receiving an increase in the amount of trade business from many countries around the world, they may soon be a major competitor to surpass the U.S. China became the second largest economy, last year, overtaking Japan which had held that position since 1968 (Gallup). China could become the world’s largest economy in decades.

In Susan Shirk’s book ‘Fragile Superpower’, the author illustrates that the multitude of internal problems that China faces and will continue to face could potentially undermine its peaceful rise. Although the Chinese people have experienced a major upgrade in their living standards in just twenty-five years, the Chinese economic transformation has not been without significant social and environmental costs. As a consequence of its economic transformation, China has developed a number of internal stresses, which have posed existential threats to its national economy and political structure. One of these stresses is a growing shortage of natural resources in China. One significant systemic level cause for the rise in Chinese developmental finance

"Washington State University." Fall 2014 British Imperialism in China and the Spread of Western Ideals. N.p., 28 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.

Ming sea power in the fifteenth century can also be viewed as the expression of a self-assertive and self-confident Rising China. This has become highly relevant to China’s approach to high politics as the twenty-first century begins. Such reimaging of Ming times as an outward-looking age when China embraced innovation and novelty comports well with how the post-Mao leadership has wanted Chinese to view their country (Horner p42).

Twentieth century China was a period when the nation experienced the biggest changes in Chinese history. By comparing the Maoist period with the reform era, I argue that there is a drastic transformation between the two periods in context of their impacts on political ideology, social movements and cultural identities. For this reason, the transition was essential to China’s current fast-growing economy and its strong position in the world today.

The need to understand this current Global Superpower has never been more pressing than in the present day. When I found my first interest in the topic of China, it was in large part because we hear so much of how economic status teetering on the economic dependency we have developed over the last couple of decades. This paper will introduce philosophy, culture, and the evolutions and revolutions that took course threw the last 100 years of China’s timeline. Important events will be brought to light and discussed in detail about their impact then and how it has shaped the modern ideals and communist government. Taking it a step further we will see what current impacts the culture and government is having on a country so diverse, and what is to be expected in the future.

On October 27th 2016, the world watched as China officially named its President Xi Jinping the ‘core leader’ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the Sixth Plenum of the 18th CCP Central Committee. In the new directive released through state media, all party members should “closely unite around the party center with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core...and unswervingly safeguard the party leadership’s authority and centralized unity.” It is not simply a trivial label – it is a title that has significant symbolic and historical meaning – one that could potentially signify the rise of a new China in the immediate future, a China that could wield more power on the global stage than ever before anticipated. The world must watch out; this latest power shift in Asia is not an isolated one, it marks the beginning of a crucial and changing dynamic in the world’s balance of power which highly favours Chinese influence. The West has failed to adapt to or contain such a dynamic – and has perhaps even facilitated it, albeit unwittingly.

As China becomes a rising superpower on the geopolitical stage, it now faces itself in challenging situations that can undermine its foreign policies. To say the least, even if China’s economy and power is growing in a rapid rate, the nation now faces itself in a series of political tensions that can affect its standing in the region and in the world. Though as China continues to expand its foreign influences around the globe through its growing military and economic power, the world is current watching and waiting for the Chinese government’s next big move.