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Fresh and new article ''Why China Stagnated" from China Law Blog, quoted David Landes, who is an economic historian teaching at Harvard University, that one of the reasons why there was no industrial revolution in China, was because the "ignorant" and "fatal" belief that Chinese state and people bear in mind at any time and at any place that their culture was so superior to others that there was not much to learn from others.
This quickly reminded me of things happened between me and my friends: I have, not only once, "offended" my friends from other countries by saying "oh you know your [certain culture] is from China". That's why one of my close friends once admitted, in a mocking tone, that ''everything is from China''.
I blushed at his response, and realized how rude and ''ignorant'' I was- a small example for Prof. Landes' point. But, besides the enlightening part, I can't help wondering, why? Why this kind of thinking is deeply rooted in my and my peer's mind?
Textbooks.
Education.
I can't tell you how many times I have been told, in classrooms, that my state's culture is so superior to others that others are mostly originated from ours.
History was one of my favorite subjects back then at school, but as I recall, there were only few parts about the modern histroy, where included the industrial revolutions, that had been covered by the textbooks, or it was because I didn't like that part of history and tended to be ''ignorant'' about it? whatever.
The modern history of China is so humiliating that me and my textbooks both might have tried to avoid it. I would think of the great culture we have had and the great prosperity we once had in Tang dynasty, rather than those happened in recent centuries.
Escaped from reality? Maybe. Ignorant about others' culture? Maybe not.
There is a quote by a 19th century Chinese political writer, supposedly known to everyone who have attended school, saying that the Chinese should learn the good technology (or technics) from oversea countries to surpass them. The Chinese, realized although they had an impressive coulture, they couldn't turn the table (after being defeated by the British in the Opium War) until they learnt from others.
At least, for the 19th and 20th century, ignorance might not be the rationale of no existence of industrial revolution. I think it was the inferiority complex resulted from the realistic conditions that had refrained us from learning from others. And plus, the bad luck we had. Very bad luck.
China was so poor that it had to keep in mind how prosperous and powerful it was. And forgot how bad the situation was at the moment. So isolated that it blamed everyone but itself, and boosted its culture so ardently that people could forget, among other things, the weak military force and the disheartening per capita.
This is a Great Post
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