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ASIAN HISTORY & MODERN SOCIETY
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:25:25 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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China during the early Ming Dynasty had the opportunity to set sail and reach the Americas, centuries before Europe even had any semblance of naval power.

The Ming Chinese reached distant places such as India, Arabia and the eastern coasts of Africa.

Had the Chinese reached the Americas and influenced the natives, I doubt their cultures and identities would have been obliterated by the Spanish.

Just look at the Vietnamese. Even the French colonized, their culture, language and identity remained intact because they already had a higher civilization than the French did. The Chinese influence on their Vietnamese culture enabled them to take bits and pieces of the modern French/European technologies and laws to combine it with the local culture (which is heavily derived from the Chinese traditions).

The Chinese could have also helped the Amerindians fight off Old World diseases. The polio vaccination was said to be inspired by observing traditional Chinese methods of containing it.

And, look at Corea. It is a Tunguzic race of people. But, they have an admixture of Chinese race and culture. Long when the Russians wiped out the native Tunguzic tribes in Siberia, the Coreans today are the only significant group to represent the Tunguz nations. Why? Again, it is because of the higher Chinese learning which enabled them to withstand white encroachment. Something their Siberian cousins unfortunately did not have.

And, China? The whites had to use 14 nations to fight the emperor banner troops in the Boxer Revolt. They come and go but they can never colonize or rule China. Long when the Chinese had no need for British products, they suddenly introduce opium. Chinese fought long battles against these white drug lords to liquidate the use of drugs, but the whites used superior firearms to prevail and force these drugs upon their shores. The Chinese got addicted and got dubbed "the sick man of East Asia." It was an insult upon insult.

But, Mao Zedong, despite his later crimes, drove the last of the white imperialists and drug lords away from China. They did not raise an arm as they knew it would be sure defeat to fight a healed, rejuvenated, determined and reawakened "sick patient."

It was a battle hard won from street to street, wall to wall, tooth to tooth and nail by nail. In the end, righteousness prevailed. It was a holy war against injustice and racism.

That is why the West still hates China to this day. Because Chinese culture can never be conquered.
let's see it from the big picture Sunday, May 26, 2002 at 02:06:28 (PDT)

ka,

OK, I admit that Asian religion, spirituality etc are not necessarily "primitive",but on the other hand my "primitive" spirituality, religion, attitude etc is Asian because I'm Asian. Among whites it is very hard to find common people who have made experiences with spirits,on the contrary I have even been introduced into the belief in spirits by my Cantonese grandmother.The world religions are now trying to extinguish the belief in spirits (of the folk beliefs) and I criticize their pretension on a religious monopoly.

By the way: I don't think that I'm too "primitive" for survival,but rather too unspecialized or not gifted enough.
rare stuff Saturday, May 25, 2002 at 14:59:56 (PDT)

Hey guys,

I mean where do u place asian indians (and Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Afghans)? Why are they sandwiched between Caucasians and orientals. They should be called Asians. After all Asia doesn't just comprise of china, japan, korea.
whywhy Saturday, May 25, 2002 at 13:21:17 (PDT)

ka,

I have tried to understand your emphasis on human rights. Probably my view on "human rights" discussions seems to be more or less twisted because I'm far from having influence on my political evironment at the moment.However,human rights have a rather philosophical basis than a religious one.From a religious point of view I prefer to speak of "bad luck" (or bad "karma"),not of a "violations of human rights".Declaring "human rights" would mean to interpret mankind as a unity while I'm still trying to seperate myself from the domination of the "Aryan superhumans" among others...
rare stuff Saturday, May 25, 2002 at 08:28:50 (PDT)

I would humbly put my two cents worth and state that Corea has the most promising future. She has the most democratic multi-party system known in Asia, although far from being examplery, the recent govts have shed the image of heavy-handed dictatorships of Park and Chun era. In terms of culture, it has highly active civil society, labor unions, diversity of religions (there is no one dominant religion in Korea since it is evenly split between Buddhism and Christianity making up around 70% of the population.
Though racially homogeneous, politically and religiously, there is a healthy diversity which are often cause for friction but nevertheless high level of participation in the public square of political and social issues... which in my humble opinion is partly a by-product of university students' activism for democratization and justice in the 60's until the 80's.

The survival instinct of the Corean people, coupled with their resiliency demonstrated in their quick rebounding from the 1997-8 IMF financial crisis bodes well for their 21st century.
Remember, these are people who were completely stripped of all resources and infrastructure in the aftermath of the Corean conflict not to mention cruel occupation for 35 years by Japan which left them with nothing but a ravaged nation with demoralized people.

DylanM Monday, May 20, 2002 at 21:05:19 (PDT)

Rare Stuff--

I must reiterate that I do agree with you in that many people in the West fail to see the differneces in cultural values each societies have. I think that many feminists in the West thinks that all gender discriminations in other parts of the world is essentially a male conspiracy of some sorts. I think many western feminists fail to see that even religions like Islam and traditions such as wearing Burkas are largely carried on by women, and dare may I say it, might even have been created by women. It is ridiculous to think that over half of the arab population did not contribute in the evolution of Islamic ideals--including those that appear to us in the West to disfavour women. Self-deprecation is nothing new to religion, and I think that western women definitely do have bias when they recognize other culture's biases, but not their own. Why do American women continue to shave their armpits? This is not considered a big deal for Americans, but when they see a muslim women wearing a headscarf, they see it as an immediate symbol of male domination--they don't think for one moment that it might be a women's declaration of her Islamic heritage, and her greater role in "submitting" to the will of God.

But this being said, I think that there are definite instances when an entire culture may be wrong--just because there are being hypocritical, does not mean that they are wrong--it just means that they fail to see their own failings. What this simply means is that those each of us must edify each other's faults.
ka Tuesday, May 07, 2002 at 07:27:54 (PDT)

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