MCLC: rising China needs new national story

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: rising China needs new national story
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Source: Wall Street Journal (7/12/13):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324425204578599633633456090.h
tml

A Rising China Needs a New National Story
To move forward, the country must move on from its emphasis on a century
of 'national humiliation'
By ORVILLE SCHELL and JOHN DELURY

Every July, amid festivities and fireworks, the U.S. and France mark their
birth as nations. Accustomed as we are in the West to histories that begin
with triumph—the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the storming
of the Bastille—it may seem strange that China, the fast-rising dynamo of
the East, marks the beginning of its journey to modern nationhood in a
very different way: with the shock of unexpected defeat and the loss of
national greatness.

Many Chinese date the start of their modern history to Aug. 11, 1842, when
the Qing Dynasty, by signing the Treaty of Nanjing, capitulated to Great
Britain in order to end the disastrous First Opium War (1839-42). It was
from this and many other subsequent defeats that China's political
elites—including the most progressive 20th-century reformers and
revolutionaries—wove an entire national narrative of foreign exploitation
and victimization. Even today, this fabric of ideas continues to hold
powerful sway over China's relations with the rest of the world.

The artifacts of China's formative moment can be seen at the Temple of the
Tranquil Seas, which sits on a narrow slice of land in the northwest part
of Nanjing on the banks of the Yangtze River. It was here, in the
oppressive heat of August 1842, that Chinese negotiators were forced to
sit with their British counterparts and hammer out the crushing terms of
the treaty. The negotiating chamber in the old temple has now been
restored to something resembling its original state. A nearby exhibition
covers the painful history of "China's unequal treaties," which imposed
territorial concessions and onerous indemnities that remained in force
until the 1940s.

The Temple of the Tranquil Seas serves as a curious porthole into this
bitter past of foreign incursion and exploitation, from which both the
Nationalist and Chinese Communist parties later constructed their
ideologies. As the historical exhibit's first panel explains: "Those
unequal treaties were like fettering ropes of humiliation that made China
lose control of her political and military affairs…. It was one of the
major causes that rendered China poor and weak in modern history…and has
become a symbol of the commencement of China's modern history."

For Chinese reformers, however, there was, in this record of impotence and
inferiority, also a paradoxical promise of redemption. Being overwhelmed
by materially stronger but culturally inferior foreign powers—Chinese
leaders called them "barbarians"—may have been a profound humiliation, but
it also served as motivation for China to regenerate itself as a great
power. As Mao Zedong declared in founding the People's Republic in 1949,
"The Chinese have always been a great courageous and industrious nation;
it is only in modern times that they have fallen behind…. Ours will no
longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation."

This morality play continues to shape the Chinese imagination. As the last
panel in the exhibit room of the Temple of Tranquil Seas explains: "It is
hard to look back upon this humiliating history…. But the abolishment of
the unequal treaties has shown the Chinese people's unwavering spirit of
struggle for independence and self-strengthening. To feel shame is to
approach courage."

In this authorized version of modern Chinese history, 1842 is Year One.
Every Chinese high-school student is expected to know the official
narrative dividing Chinese history neatly into pre-Opium War and
post-Opium War periods. It is China's counterpart to the familiar American
exercise of learning the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

To fully appreciate the trauma of these historical experiences, one must
understand not just the shock of China's defeat in the First Opium War but
also the cascade of further defeats that soon followed. Historically, the
Chinese had very little experience in questioning the fundamental
assumptions of their culture and ways of governance. When imperial
officials finally began to understand that their country had become the
hapless "sick man of Asia," in the words of Liang Qichao, a towering
intellectual figure at the turn of the last century, they established an
abiding view of China as having been preyed upon by its foreign rivals.

Today, the psychological and cultural habits developed during this dismal
era of Chinese history continue to color and distort China's relations
with the rest of the world, especially the U.S., which has taken the place
of Great Britain as the world's superpower. In one of his first speeches
as General Secretary of the Communist Party, President Xi Jinping
recollected the "unusual hardship and sacrifice" suffered by his country
in modern times. "But the Chinese people have never given in," Mr. Xi
continued.

The historical memories on display at the Temple of the Tranquil Seas have
had positive effects as well. One can hear their echo in China's
determination to rejuvenate itself regain wealth and power, and become a
nation of consequence once again. It is this urge that Mr. Xi tries to
encourage by speaking proudly of a "China dream."

Still, it is time for China and the more vociferous propagandists in
Beijing to move beyond declarations about China's "one hundred years of
national humiliation." That period has come to an end. The world has
changed, China and the West have changed, and a new narrative is necessary
for China to achieve its declared aim of equality and a "new type of great
power relationship."

Only when China is ready to define itself with a more constructive
national story will it be able to take its place in full partnership with
a nation born, in a moment of affirmation, on a distant Fourth of July.

—Mr. Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China
Relations at the Asia Society in New York City. Mr. Delury is a professor
of history at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. They are the
co-authors of "Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the 21st Century,"
which has just been published by Random House.

A version of this article appeared July 13, 2013, on page C3 in the U.S.
edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: A Rising China
Needs a New National Story.