The History of China and its impacts in a nutshell

As of late, China has been coming up with all sorts of moral issues; firstly the baby milk powder case, where melamine was included in the milk powder, resulting in the deaths of many babies from kidney stones. A while later, we hear of the case of a boy selling his kidney to buy an iPad 2. It has been said that his health is deteriorating day by day. Most recently, we have a case of a woman in China trying to sell her virginity for an iPhone 4. Of course, we have the human rights cases that have been going on in China from the start; examples include the Falun Gong series.

As to why so many immoral issues spring up from China, I have a few speculations. Though they may be slightly far fetched, it is still a plausible reason to China's present predicament. I would like to share them with you today.

As we all know, China has a long history of almost 5000 years. At a point in China's history, we had the Tang Dynasty, which was considered to be a high point in China Civilization, a golden age of cosmopolitan culture, territory, and population. It surpassed all other dynasties, even the famous Han Dynasty. The moral values of the Chinese were at its greatest in that time. Many famous and great Chinese Emperors also came from that point. 

The fall of the Tang Dynasty came in AD 907. From here, we now fast forward to the first time China was conquered and ruled by a foreign power. In AD 1271, the Mongolians, led by leader Kublai Khan, conquered and ruled China in the Yuan Dynasty. Somewhere along the Yuan Dynasty, the people in China (still mainly the traditional Chinese) were forced to transit from Confucian high culture to Mongolian imperial establishment. In other words, they were forced to give up their moral values, to end their beliefs on Confucius values and take after the Mongols. All those that refused were killed, and many refused. They were all killed. This was the first step in China losing its moral values.

Since the end of Yuan Dynasty till before present day China, it has been attacked many times by foreign powers, often losing, and having to give pieces of land away. This was especially the case after the Opium Wars. As such, China has been seen as weak. China is seen as a country that is easy to bully. As such, they are literally bullied mercilessly. Bit by bit, the culture of China has eroded.

It would be alright if the citizens of China were just the same as any other countries' citizens. However, that is not the case because:

Imagine China as a person. A person that is mercilessly bullied. The after effects of bullying are not to be underestimated. They will have low self esteem. This person who is bullied so horribly will have problems later on in life. 

Take that and apply it to China now. I am not surprised, after suffering so much since the start of the Yuan Dynasty, that so many moral issues occur.

Another side point:

As we know, Japan is considered one of the best societies in the world now; their culture, philosophy and tradition are very well recognized in the world, and many countries aim to emulate this. For example, a scandal in any country is seen as something small, but to the Japanese, it could mean the whole world. Many of the people involved in scandals would step down and resign.

While researching, I discovered another interesting fact. Japan and its allies attacked China in AD 663, during the time of the Tang Dynasty. However, they fought and lost to Japan, resulting in a total failure. Following that, Japan underwent a widespread reform, to adopt the Tang Dynasty political structure, bureaucracy, culture, religion and philosophy. All these were adopted during the period of the Tang Dynasty, which was the high point of Chinese Civilization. All these cultures have not changed for over 13 centuries; the Japanese have never been forced to give up their methods of civilization.

In other words, the culture that Japan has today is a proportionate representation of the civilization in the Tang Dynasty. As such, Japan is seen as one of the best societies in the world.

Looking back, it seems that both China and Japan had the same high point - the civilization of the Tang Dynasty. Japan managed to maintain it. However, China was ravaged by war, and conquered at many points to the extent that it lost most of the original Tang philosophies and cultures. We can see the significant difference between China and Japan today.

The past will affect the present. However, no matter how much one tries to change the past, one cannot. It seems like the problems going on in China will continue to last for quite a long while.