Re-examining 'national humiliation'
- Source: Global Times
- [00:08 June 13 2011]
- Comments
Illustration inside The Scramble for China.
By Zhang Lei
Empire Made Me author Robert Bickers has moved back in time from his study of the British Empire in 1920s Shanghai, to look at the roots of the foreign involvement in China.
The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 is an examination of the dying days of the last imperial dynasty in China, and examines the private legacies of the thousands of "devils" who came to the Middle Kingdom and – depending on your point of view – either helped establish its modern footing in the world or used the country for their own ends.
Mutual humiliation
For Bickers, this is a story of national humiliation – which might not sound like anything new (indeed, a lengthy Chinese book, The Dictionary of National Humiliation, exists to exactly measure and define this aspect of Chinese historical education) but Bickers argues that this is not just a story of China's humiliation but also the West's.
"What interests me is national humiliation; its role in the presentation of the Chinese, especially over the last 150 years," Bickers told his audience during a recent promotional visit to Beijing.
There are two competing, coexisting narratives of humiliation, he explained: "The British [believed] they were living in an era of individual and national humiliation at the hands of Qing officials… [due to the British] inability to establish relationships with China on any equal footing."
Numerous British delegations had, since the 1793 Macartney Embassy (snubbed after Lord McCartney refused to kowtow to the Qing emperor), been frustrated in their attempts to established what the British increasingly considered their natural right: To establish free and equal trade relations and routes across the globe.
Having failed to progress beyond coastal cities and the Canton System of trade, restrictions in currency (the Chinese would only accept silver), geography and tariffs saw the British import large quantities of opium to make up for their trade deficit.
Tolerated at first, this trade eventually led to confrontation in 1842 and the first Opium War. Advanced Western technology and poor Qing leadership quickly led to the first of several "Unfair Treaties," which saw the Qing giving concessions to foreign trade but still ineffectively, in their view, containing foreign elements and allowing them to "deal with themselves" without bothering the rest of China.
Forgotten fortunes
According to Bickers, this period of history is mainly neglected in the West today "as the Europeans are very good at forgetting."
But, he argued, the Chinese are also apt to ignore positive aspects of foreign heritage – the "sunny side" of colonialism, as it were. The closed door of a xenophobic China needed to be forced open and a new era ushered in by a more "civilized" culture.
Today, under the influence of China's nationalistic education, few ever give a second thought to the conventional take on the Opium Wars: They were all about foreign invasion, looted treasures, unequal treaties, violated sovereignty and grim crimes.
Indeed, Bickers was once shocked by a 10-year-old's hostile reaction toward Britain, learned at school.
One audience member in Beijing recalled her mixed feelings seeing exhibits from China at the British Museum – though whether those exhibits would have survived the cultural destruction of the late-20th century's most turbulent periods is another matter.
Bickers pointed out that signs of Britain's incursions in China are evident all over London, offering uncomfortable reminders for those who look – for example, a monument within a short walk from Buckingham Palace memorializing lost soldiers and featuring a British soldier bayoneting a Chinese combatant.
The Scramble for China gives a voice to the people who made history during that confused period, adding color and balance to their different perspectives and motives.
