Asian Studies

1) I agree. One can even add that it was a sick elephant, but still the European presence in China was just too small to really change China very much. China may have lost to Britain in the two Opium Wars, and she may have given concessions to foreigners because of that but China was still China and the only thing that bothered them was the pesky technology and military tactics of the west. Other than that, China had more important problems to attend to. British victory and Chinese capitulation in the Opium War only proved that China indeed had weaknesses. For so many years Europeans thought of China as the strongest, most sophisticated and most civilized country in the world. The Opium War (where the elephant lashed out and hurt itself) changed that and the Treaty of Nanking of 1842 can be seen as the triumph of western imperialism in China. But that was just basically it China gave a little space for the European barbarians (the flies) to work withthe ports of Canton, Fuchow, Ningpo, Amoy and Shanghai. The only considerable change the west brought to China was the Chinese realization that their society must catch up to the military tactics and technology of the west. As the Qing dynasty decayed (crippled by the Taiping and the Boxer rebellions) and warlords prevailed, it was not the Europeans that toppled the Chinese Empire, but the young generation of revolutionaries who felt that they were more capable of leading China towards a modern world dominated by the west. The west was merely a stimulus, and that is all.

2) One thing to remember here, Shanghai was one of the most western-influenced areas of China (and it still is) because it was part of the unequal treaty system signed after China was defeated in the Opium War. When an angry social critic looked at Shanghai in the 1930s and said, Everything is for sale here, and money acts like an acid that dissolves all the foundations of Chinese culture and society, he was looking at a Chinese city already becoming polluted by the exuberant consumerism in the west. So, yes the statement is accurate. Western presence in Shanghai meant the introduction of money culture and capitalism. The old and conservative Chinese order always placed first the value of human existence in terms of morality and spirituality, rather than as a commodity. Meaning, principles that adhered to the teachings of both Daoism and Confucianism weighs more than money. But it is quite opposite in the west, where money symbolized the height of basic human achievement. Shanghai naturally adapted through western culture, but his was not something new. Yes, the authors statement is more or less true when one talks about Chiqiao and the world of Liu Dapeng. One can remember that the Boxer Rebellion also caused damage in Shanghai, and the conservative Boxers have this for a motto Bring justice on behalf of Heaven Support the Qing Destroy the foreign The last statement can be seen as the reason why Shanghai was attacked. It was too westernized it was true in the early 1900s, and it was true in the 1930s.

3) In late imperial Chinese society (19th century), the extent to which people out in the countryside shared the same basic values as the national elites and government is mainly based on the extent of how Confucian and Daoist the Chinese were. It did not matter where you are in China and where you are in the social hierarchy, Confucianism and Daoism were always looked up as the provider of basic values. Unlike the western concept of morality, Chinese values are based upon where you are in the social ladder and people acknowledged this hierarchical social system. Meaning, the national and government elites may have values of their own and so too the people in the countryside, these sets of values were still universally Confucian in design and Daoist by essence. Even the advent of Communism in the 20th century failed to erase this concept of morality and values from the Chinesethe supremacy of the Party equated to that of the Emperor, everything is still based on the foundations set by Confucianism and Daoism.