China's view of Europe

Volume 3 No 1 - 1999

China's view of Europe - A Changing Perspective?

Perry W. Ma

Associate professor of English, English Department,

Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

Historically China's view of Europe has never been clear-cut. In any period of time over the last four hundred years and so of recent Chinese history- the period before the Opium War in 1839, from 1840 to the founding of the new China in 1949, from 1949 to the end of the cultural revolution in 1978 and the period of economic reform since 1978 - it appears always to be a mixed response of amazement, admiration, bewilderment and resentment, a polemic acceptance of conflict and compromise. This complex sentiment transcends political, economic, social and cultural issues and owes its origins to more than an epistemological or an ideological difference. However, it is the historical background which governs the way in which modern China is refashioning its perspective of Europe in an ever-increasingly global situation.

In the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the major part of the Qing Dynasty(1664-1911) before the Opium War, China was a country, isolated for the most part in its satisfaction with its ancient brilliance of culture and ignorant of the arrival of the modern Europe civilisation which had been ushered in by the Industrial Revolution. Admittedly the western relationship with China can be traced back to Marco Polo's journey to China in the thirteenth century. Then the years to follow saw an increasing number of European explorers and missionaries going to the great oriental land to disseminate Christianity and European culture. But this proud country of five thousand years of civilisation, little impressed by European industrial achievements, still considered the Forbidden City as the centre of world worship and any region beyond the Great Wall as barbarous. However, this blend of ignorance and self-esteem did not allow China to avoid the outbreak of the Opium War, which threw the country into chaos and, in fact, intensified the process of westernisation and modernisation.

The European invasions in the nineteenth century made China conscious of the agony of infamy and humiliation that as a nation it had experienced for the first time in its history and led to the admiration of modern western advances in science, technology, philosophy and art. During the half a century subsequent to 1839, China was to know defeat in a succession of wars against foreign forces - after the First Opium War against Britain, there came the Second Opium War against the British and French Allied forces(1858-1860), the Sino-French War (1884-85) and the Boxier Uprising against the Allied forces of Britain, France, the United States,. Austria, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Japan (1899-1900).[1] It gradually yielded to Western control and influence, even though the Chinese resistance to the European powers never ceased along the east coast from Guangzhou to Tianjin.

In modern China the Chinese see the European invasion as barbarous, ruthless and as an example of contemptuous aggression. In particular, the looting and despoiling of the imperial summer garden of the Qing Dynasty, the Yuanming Landscape Gardens in Beijing, carried out by the Allied forces of Britain and France in 1860, is judged to have been an act of most brutal atrocity. In history books and school textbooks, China's outrage on this event is clearly visible in the way Victor Hugo is frequently quoted for having criticised the invasion and described the British and French Allied forces as "two robbers".[2]

But China's fury over its defeat in the wars and its meditation on its weakness were immediately accompanied by its interest in, and admiration for, the achievements of modern European civilisation in repeated attempts to make a concerted effort to learn from the West in the following years. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Yan Fu's translation of Montesquieu and Adam Smith and Lin Shu's translation of English and other European works of fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries opened the eyes of the Chinese to the wonders of modern European civilisation. From the 1870s onwards, groups of students were sent by the central government and local communities to Europe, Japan and the USA, including some of the most prominent figures of modern China. In the eyes of the Chinese young learned generation, Europe was not only a remote economic and military power but a continent with a splendid past and present as well. As a young Man on the eve of his departure for what was going to be an eight-year trip to Europe, Xu Beihong (1895-1915), the best known modern Chinese painter, said, "We should revive Chinese painting by learning the remarkable European styles of the art".[3] Later, in Paris, deeply impressed by "Ophelia", the French oil painting on Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, Xu succeeded in getting together sufficient money and bought it.[4] Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping were in the first groups of revolutionary students who went to France and Germany to learn the sciences and Marxism in the second decade of the twentieth century.

At the time when the majority of Chinese were suffering in the constant civil wars (1911-37) and from the Japanese invasion (1931-45), the intellectual elite studying in Europe found itself torn between learning from the West and facing the reality of China's perilous political state, an ideological clash between worship and patriotism. Li Siguang (1889-1971), often called the father of modern Chinese geology and who studied geology from 1912-18 at the University of Birmingham, UK, believed that European prosperity arose from the appropriate use of its natural resources, which could be a lesson for making China industrially strong.[5]On his second trip to Britain fourteen years later, Li delivered an address on the geological analysis of Tibet, showing how it could not be separated from China and attacking the West's effort to bring about a split between Tibet and China, and he appealed for China to achieve strength through industrialisation [6] In fact, the sense of pride that China had long enjoyed in its cultural heritage was so painfully repressed that any tolerance of humiliation and infamy imposed by European powers was seen as an insult. The Boxers, who took the lead in fighting against western invasion in north China around the end of the nineteenth century, wrote on their flag, "Help the Qing government and wipe out westerners" and resolved to rout the British and French forces by "destroying their railways and wrecking their boats so as to strike fear into the hearts of the British, the French and the Russians." [7]

This nationalist discontent surfaced again during the Second World War, when China, though a victorious country, was not represented at the Yalta Conference.[8] But when we step outside the political arena, the favourable attitude of the Chinese towards the people of Europe seems to be a strong undercurrent in the rough tide of international tension. In terms of social contact on the other hand, the Chinese felt they were better treated in their relationship with Europeans when fighting fascism. In his A Traveller without a Map: an Autobiography, Xiao Qian, a European correspondent of the Chongqing-based newspaper Dagongbao during World War II, recounts many of his warm and sincere encounters with the British and French during his seven year stay in war-torn Europe.[9] During the war, the warm feelings felt by the Chinese for westerners can also be seen in the many stories of local Chinese risking their lives and rushing to the rescue of American pilots, shot down by Japanese aeroplanes.

If we take a look at the new China's perception of Europe underwent an evolution in the period 1949-78, but, at that time, political concerns were predominant. During that period China became involved in the Korean War (1950-53) against the West, and an endless and ever-more intensive political strategies to remove western and Soviet influence (1954-76). The Chinese, who were in the tight grip of Mao Tse-tung's revolutionary fundamentalism, saw European countries as politically hostile and European culture as a confusion of alienation. Learning modern science and technology from European countries was encouraged but little was achieved, due to the almost three decade isolation from the West. Western literature and art were studied with critical scrutiny, as the Chinese public read, with great fascination and admiration, more and more the translated works of Dumas, Balzac, Ibsen, Zola, Shaw, Romain Rolland,Goethe, Shakespeare, Milton, Baron, Shelley, Keats, Dickens, Hardy, T.S.Eliot, Hardy, etc. To most Chinese, Europeans were still foreign and mysterious, as all social interaction was suspended on an individual basis through a long cold spell of East-West international relations.

The view of China on Europe has become much more complex and diversified in the last two decades since the third plenary session of the eleventh congress of the CPC. held in 1978, when China started to embark on its ambitious campaign for economic reform and opening up to the world. As contention and co-operation remained the theme of China's relations with the West at government level, the ordinary Chinese saw European countries and their people as being multi-dimensional and sophisticated, when the open policy brought more Chinese to interact with Westerners and to have access to European culture. However, Europe appeared admirable, disturbing and confusing for the Chinese. During this period the world saw the Chinese military crack-down in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the collapse of the East European Communist Bloc in 1990, the successful development of the Chinese economy and the making of a post-cold-war world order featuring US superpower dominance and the rise of European Union. Politically, European industrial powers were viewed by the Chinese government as holding on to their ideological hostility toward China, particularly in the case of the British handling of Hong Kong's return to China in 1997.According to He Xin, a well-known Chinese scholar of political science, some European countries were working together to engineer the separation of Tibet from China and they paid more lip service than effort in making investments and providing financial assistance in China.[10]In his article "How Do Westerners View China," Yan Xuetong, another internationally famous Chinese scholar of political science, argues that the increasing clamour of European countries for China's fast economic growth illustrates the theory of "China's Potential Threat to the West," which would jeopardise the job market of European countries and the global environment.[11] One critic sees western countries' assistance to developing countries as more hypocritical than genuine.[12]

But the Chinese enjoyed seeing their own country's success in bringing about economic co-operation with some European countries due to the lack of vigour in the European economy and the need for China's vast market during the last decade. Both the Chinese government and the people believe western industrial nations have weakened politically and economically in comparison with the USA since the end of World War Two, such as Britain in particular [13] and China will eventually become a strong economy and will be an important force in handling world affairs in the new century. [14] In the meantime, there is a prevailing view among Chinese scholars that shows an understanding of the predicament which European nations experienced in the cold war, the difficult situation of being a target of rivalry between the US and the former Soviet Block and struggling for their own strategic benefits as in the case of Nato's eastern expansion during both cold-war and post-cold-war periods.[15] This understanding was modified as Europe changed in the 1990s and it has been replaced by a welcome acceptance of the appearance of a new Europe in the form of the EU to keep the global tension in balance towards the end of this decade.[16]

On the social and cultural side of the issue, the ordinary Chinese, in the last two decades, indicate a high degree of fascination and admiration for ancient and modern European civilisation, the history, philosophy, science and technology, literature and art, architecture, landscape, living, housing, education, transportation, health care, and social welfare. But one noticeable phenomenon that should be mentioned is that the opinion of things western differs considerably according to ages and education and an ambivalent attitude is maintained among the young generation of China. Last month I conducted a poll amongst115 graduate students at Peking University, aged 21 to 35. In the questionnaires returned, 94% of the students admit their high esteem for European ancient history and civilisation, and 56% agree European culture is more profound and refined than the high-tech contemporary American culture, such as Hollywood movies and pop music. Admittedly, the Chinese teenagers are crazy about things American, such as NBA stars, rock'n'roll, computer games, sports fashions and fast food. Many kids do not know where Buckingham Palace and the Eiffel Tower are, but they can name the teams in which Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Reggie Miller and Alonzo Mourning play basketball. But the middle aged and elderly display a favourable attitude toward European culture, though their view has to beset alongside the ever-rising nation-wide wave of enthusiasm for learning American English and the continued passion for going to live in the US. In the last fifteen years, more than ten thousand young Chinese students on average have gone to the USA for college and graduate study each year, and 25% of the 2000 freshmen entering Peking University each year will leave for America within the four years before graduation. Such a pattern of popularity towards the US in current China, in contrast to a sense of loss toward Europe, will probably not change in the foreseeable future.

Though many Chinese youngsters express their willingness to immigrate to any of European countries if possible, more and more Chinese are aware of the problems that industrialisation has brought about in European countries, and worried about the potential threat China will face in future as well, such as a high rate of unemployment, divorce, pollution, environmental deterioration, drug addition, the spread of AIDS, racial discrimination, and ageing population, etc.[17] Another European syndrome that China experiences is that the Chinese public highly admires and welcomes the courage the Germany government has taken in repenting and making repeated public apology in recent years for the atrocities Nazi Germany committed to Jews and peoples of European countries in World War II, in contrast to the Japanese rejection of responsibility for the suffering of the Chinese during Japan's invasion of China in the war. However, the German right-wing hostility and hatred towards foreigners are dismissed by most Chinese as cowardly and despicable. In this respect, Germany does not stand alone. One critic points out that Britain is also plagued with a disturbing degree of racism for an industrial country, which hurts its image in the mind of the Chinese. [18]

Meanwhile, social and cultural interactions of recent years have also helped shape a standardised pattern of the European stereotype for most Chinese with varying degrees of understanding and response: the British are genteel and rigid, the French romantic and carefree, the Germans philosophical and prudent, the Spanish gallant and vigorous, the Italians hospitable and pragmatic, and the northern Europeans ardent and straightforward. There is a growing passion for European arts and classical music in large Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, as the number of cultural exchange visits constantly increases. While the Chinese hold in high esteem the civilised and educational style of socialisation in Europe, most western cuisine's find little support in this ancient oriental land. One Chinese correspondent describes "Eating as the most disturbing annoyance for most Chinese travelling in Europe. "He gives the example of the noodles he once had in an Asian restaurant in Paris, which, contrary to his idea of traditional Chinese noodles at home, were full of cheese and made him sick.[19] This unfavourable view is very widespread.

It is true that the shaping of China's complex view of Europe over the last four centuries and more has political, economic, social and cultural colouring, shows a divergence between the dichotomy of the governmental and individual bases, and is greatly affected by the parameters of age and education . However, the compelling fact is how exclusively dependent this shaping process is upon a given historical period. In modern times, China is walking from isolation to incorporation, from poverty to wealth,and from feudal and agrarian conservatism to industrial civilisation. Social change has never been so drastic in Chinese history, and the one hundred and sixty years since the Opium War is too short a span of history for China to respond and to react as it faces the overwhelming conflict between modern European civilisation, based on Christianity, and time-honoured Chinese civilisation, based on Confucianism. Civil war, foreign invasion, communist revolution and modernisation characterise the stumbling steps of modern China moving forward, which at once longs for western materialism and finds it hard to let go of its oriental past. In the article "A Comparative Study of the Chinese, Western and Indian Cultures and Their Future Development," Xiong Chuanshan, LuoBiaoyuan and He Yingde, quoting Liang Shuming, a well-known Chinese scholar (1893-?) of Buddhist philosophy, state that western culture, or European culture in general, features science and technology and materialistic pursuit, while Chinese culture, or Confucianism in specific, features moral elevation and spiritual satisfaction. [20] The hold of the past and the needs of the present with which China is grappling explain its complex and changing assessment of Europe in a time when it is seeking to redefine its place in the world. At this moment in time, its economic, political, social and cultural development provides China with the basis to view Europe as a continent rich in cultural heritage, mindful of past difficulties, plagued with current problems and confident of its progress in the new millennium to come.

Notes:

1. Immanuel C. Y. Hsu, The Rise of Modern China 4th ed. (New York:Oxford UP, 1990) pp. 168-407

2. Hugo (1802-85), in his Expédition de Chine: Hauteville-House, a letter of reply to Captain Butler written on November 25, 1861, says that there is a remarkable garden in the East, called the summer palace; among the masterpieces of architecture, Greece has the Parthenon, Egypt has pyramids, Rome has amphitheatres, and Paris has the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris; but the East has the summer palace; even all the highly-priced items of the Cathedral of NotreDame de Paris put together are not equal to the wealth of this magnificent oriental museum of art; one day, however, two robbers broke into this museum, devastating, looting and burning, and left laughing and hand in hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain. In his letter Hugo hoped that one day France would feel guilty and return what it had plundered to China. The Story of Yuanming Landscape Gardens (Beijing, China: Yuanming Landscape Gardens Administrative Bureau, 1998)p. 59.

3. For detailed stories of Xu Beihong staying in Europe, see the work of Liao Jingwen, Xu's second wife, A Biography of Xu Beihong: My Recollections (Beijing, China: Chinese Youth Press, 1982)

4. Ibid. p. 67.

5. In his speech "On Modern Prosperity and Coal," delivered at the seminar of the Paris Association of Chinese Work-Study Students on February 28,1920, Li Xiguang commenting on the reasons for the industrial progress of European countries in modern times, called for a study of using logic analysis to come to terms with western civilisation and described the possibility of modernisation China. ChenQun, Zhang Xiangguang, Zhou Guojun, Duan Wanti and Huang Xiaokui, A Biography of Li Xiguang (Beijing, China: People's Press, 1984) pp. 33-34

6. Ibid. pp. 111-14.

7. Gong Yanming, ed. A General Chinese History vol. 6, 6 vols.(Huangzhou, China: Zhejiang People's Press, 1996) pp. 441-42.

8. At the Yalta Conference held in 1945, Stalin asked for all the former Russian privileges in Manchuria to be restored as a precondition for the Russian troops to enter the war against Japan toward the end of World War II.Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford UP, 1990) p.608.

9. Xiao Qian, A Traveler without a Map: an Autobiography (Beijing,China: Chinese Association of Literature Press, 1991) pp. 106-123,87-216.

10. He Xin, Arguing for China (Jinan, China: Shandong Press of Friendship, 1996) p.40; pp. 271.

11. Yan Xuetong, "How Do Westerners View China" World Affairs 23(1996): 20-21

12. Chen Kun states that the assistance of the western countries to the developing countries in the last thirty-five years has been scanty in comparison with the increase, by the rich countries, in military expending. "A Glimpse on the Assistance of the Rich Countries" World Affairs 2(1996): 14.

13. Zhou Wen comments, "The British political crisis is caused by itseconomic crisis" in his article "The Crisis of Mm. Margaret Thatcher" World Affairs 23 (1989): 2

14. Zhang Shunhong, The Collapse of The British Empire (Beijing,China: Chinese Academy of Social Science Press, 1997) pp. 17-46.

15. Quan Shui, "Northern Europe in the Change of the European Order" World Affairs 17 (1990): 21-23; Zhou Rongyao, "On NATO's East Expansion" World Affairs 11(1997): 4-5.

16. Zhu Xiaohu states that Europe used to be the origins of western civilisation and leader of modern world of past a few hundreds of years. It has lost its strength of past in comparison with the US dominant international position. But the formation of the European Union offers an opportunity for the rising of Europe in the spirit of Europeanism, first embodied in the signing of the "Rome Agreement" more than forty years ago. "The Challenges the European Union Faces," European Integration Studies 2 (1998) 21-24.

17. Xian Hua discusses about the water pollution in Rhine. "EnvironmentalProtection in Germany" World Affairs 7(1997): 39; Zu Qinshun discusses the damage of ancient Roman palaces in his work The Ancient City of Rome (Shanghai, China: Shanghai People's Press, 1985) pp. 6-8.

18. Tang Ruoshui comments on the discrimination made on accent and dressing in the British society today, where more people are interested in taking pronunciation-correcting courses. "Discrimination on Accent and Dressing in Britain" World Affairs 3 (1997): 35-37.

19. Hu Zhonggui, "Trouble with the Daily Three Meals" Stories of My Travel in Europe (Taiyuan, China: Shanxi People's Press, 1990) pp.194-98.

20 Xiong Chuanshan, Luo Biaoyuan and He Yingde, "A Comparative Study of the Chinese, Western and Indian Cultures and Their Future Development" The Conflict and Integration of Culture: a Collection of Papers in Commemoration of the Centennial Birthdayof Zhang Shenfu, Liang Shuming and Tang Yongtong. Ed. Zhang Dainian.(Beijing, China: Peking UP, 1997)

pp. 252-65

References:

Chen, Kun. "A Glimpse on the Assistance of the Rich Countries." WorldAffairs 2 (1996): 14.

Chen, Qun, et al. A Biography of Li Xiguang. Beijing, China: People'sPress, 1984.

Gong, Yanming, ed. A General Chinese History. vol. 6, 6 vols. Huangzhou, China: Zhejiang People's Press, 1996.

He, Xin. Arguing for China. Jinan, China: Shandong Press of Friendship, 1996.

Hsu, Immanuel C. Y. The Rise of Modern China. 4th ed. New York: OxfordUP, 1990.

Hu, Zhonggui. Stories of My Travel in Europe. Taiyuan, China: ShanxiPeople's Press, 1990.

Liao, Jingwen. A Biography of Xu Beihong: My Recollections. Beijing,China: Chinese Youth Press, 1982.

Quan, Shui. "Northern Europe in the Change of the European Order" WorldAffairs 17 (1990): 21-23.

Story of Yuanming Landscape Gardens. Beijing, China: Yuanming Landscape Gardens Administrative Bureau, 1998.

Tang, Ruoshui. "Discrimination on Accent and Dressing in Britain." World Affairs 3 (1997): 35-37.

Xian, Hua. "Environmental Protection in Germany." World Affairs 7(1997): 39.

Xiao, Qian. A Traveler without a Map: an Autobiography. Beijing,China: Chinese Association of Literature Press, 1991.

Xiong, Chuanshan, et al. "A Comparative Study of the Chinese, Western and Indian Cultures and Their Future Development," The Conflict and Integration of Culture: a Collection of Papers in Commemoration of the Centennial Birthday of Zhang Shenfu, Liang Shuming andTang Yongtong. Ed. Zhang Dainian. Beijing, China: Peking UP, 1997.

Yan, Xuetong. "How Do Westerners View China." World Affairs 23 (1996):20-21.

Zhang, Shunhong. The Collapse of The British Empire. Beijing, China:Chinese Academy of Social Science Press, 1997.

Zhou, Rongyao. "On NATO's East Expansion." World Affairs 11(1997):4-5.

Zhou, Wen. "The Crisis of Mm. Margaret Thatcher." World Affairs 23(1989): 2

Zhu, Xiaohu. "The Challenges the European Union Faces." European Integration Studies 2 (1998) 21-24.

Zu, Qinshun. The Ancient City of Rome. Shanghai, China: ShanghaiPeople's Press, 1985.

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