Research Essay: Portrayal of China in Western Media

COM304 Portrayal of China in Western Media

Module leader: Dr. Zhen Troy Chen

Office hours: HS323, Fridays @2-4pm

Week 6 Agenda

• Week5: Historical review on Sinophilia • Week6: Historical review on

Sinophobia (From Qing)

• Seminar preparation

Week 6: Overview

• The Catholic Century of contact, largely through the Iberian naval powers of Spain and Portugal, had brought exchanges of knowledge between China and Europe, mainly through the work of the Catholic monasteries.

• This knowledge exchange gave rise to a fascination in Europe with the philosophy, art, literature, politics and science of China.

• Yet Europe was developing and also changing rapidly through the advance of the Enlightenment and, later, through revolution, both political and industrial.

Week 6: Overview

• Religion had also changed dramatically, especially in western Europe, with the new protestant powers of Holland and Great Britain beginning to challenge the dominant Catholic powers of Spain and Portugal, and to exert their dominance through greater control of the seas and, consequently, of trade.

• These geopolitical jolts in Europe were also keenly felt in shifting attitudes towards China, with a general consensus amongst historians that the mid-18th century witnessed a transformation that would have significant consequences for China and Asia in the centuries to follow.

Week 6: Overview

This week we will explore the beginning of this change, and question the ideas about China which began to emerge at this time.

Particular focus will be given to understanding how Orientalism emerged from fascination and how this admiration of China turned so quickly into a pretext for colonisation and imperial conquest.

A brief history of East-West Encounters

• 1. Religion & Trade • 545-539 B.C.E: Persia campaigned in Central Asia and Bactria (MD Afghanistan) 波斯居 鲁士远征大夏至俄罗斯新疆折回

• 330-328 B.C.E: Alexander the Great controlled the modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Alexander married a Bactrian woman, Roxanne, to aid his effort of controlling the region. 控制阿富汗、大夏

• Zhang Qian’s mission to the West: “Heavenly Horse” Afghanistan Syria 张骞出使西域 • 220-589: Wei-Jin Dynasty: Zoroastrian religion: “the creator of the world, the source of

light, and the embodiment of good”. 魏晋时期波斯拜火教入华 • 581-907: Sui-Tang Dynasty: Buddhism and Christianity: Nestorian Tablet 隋唐时期佛教 景教入华

• The Silk Road - Trade

Trade: The Ancient Silk Road

A brief history of East-West Encounters

• 2. Yuan and Ming – expansion • “The Chan’s Great China”

• To the West: Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia • To the East: Japan

• Catholic: Marco Polo • Mongolian ambassadors’ visit to Rome • Two centuries gap: L’empire Immobile (1995) • 1405-1433: YongLe (Ming Dynasty) Zheng He’s 7

voyages (The maritime silk road)

A brief history of East-West Encounters

• 2. Yuan and Ming – expansion • “The Chan’s Great China”

• To the West: Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia • To the East: Japan

• Catholic: Marco Polo • Mongolian ambassadors’ visit to Rome • Two centuries gap: L’empire Immobile (1995) • 1405-1433: YongLe (Ming Dynasty) Zheng He’s 7

voyages (The maritime silk road)

A brief history of East-West Encounters

• 3. Western Expansion & Trade • 15c, New Silk Road • 16c, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Britain, France – East Asia • 1557: Macau Portugal Residence • Jesuits: missionaries, write about China and sent back to the West • This knowledge exchange gave rise to a fascination in Europe with the

philosophy, art, literature, politics and science of China (Sinophilia).

How China manages its relationship with the rest of the world (Qing)

• 理藩院 (Li fan yuan – Ministry of foreign affairs) : Mongols, Zunghars, and Russians; Later, Muslims and lamaist Buddhists

• 户部 Ministry of Hu (household): missionaries who work for the Qing court

• 礼部 Ministry of Li (Rituals) : Korea, south east Asia such as Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Ryukyu Islands. Control without excessive military expenditures through tributary systems.

How China manages its relationship with the rest of the world

• Sinophilia: pan-Chinese culture – In Qing dynasty, the Manchurian emperor conquest the Middle Kingdom (Ming).

• https://www.bilibili.com/video/av40961783?from=search&seid=3243949953311269851 (advice on how to take China)

• Ruling Chinese with a Chinese approach: • “These countries shared many of the basic values of Chinese

culture, a Chinese-style calendrical system, some form of script adapted from Chinese models, similar types of food and dress, the practice of Confucianism and Buddhism, and the outlines of Chinese bureaucratic organization.” (Spence, 1990: 118).

Sinophilia to Sinophobia

• Japan: ceased its ‘tribute missions’ in late Ming • 1788: Vietnam (Le and Nguyen) • Ryukyu islands dispute: the tributary system continues cautiously • These three broad patterns of foreign management—with the

northwest, the missionaries, and the south—shared some fundamental Chinese premises of great importance.

• At their root was the assumption that China was the "central" kingdom and that other countries were, by definition, peripheral, removed from the cultural centre of the universe.

Sinophilia to Sinophobia

• 天朝上国的迷梦尚未开眼看世界 • Despite the rise of the West, the arrogant Qing did not see

any benefit from encounters with the West.

• “Canton System”: fourth type of “foreign management” structure in costal cities.

Sinophilia to Sinophobia

• In the early Qing, Dutch and Portuguese had to be content with the status of "tributary nations” for trading privileges. Registered with the Ministry of Rituals and permitted to send trade missions only at stipulated intervals.

• 1635: British ships were permitted to trade with the Chinese in Zhoushan (Chusan), Xiamen (Amoy), and Guangzhou (Canton).

• 1680s Qing dropped the system: greatly benefited the western traders.

• 1720 Chinese merchants in Canton formed their own monopolistic guild called the Cohong (from gonghang, 公行).

• 1754 these “Hong” merchants were each ordered by the Qing to stand surety for the foreign crews‘ good behavior and for the payment of transit dues.

Turn of the ‘peaceful’ trade scene

Turn of the ‘peaceful’ trade scene

• Anson, from The East India Company, assumed the Chinese, following the international laws of the sea now prevalent in the West, would treat him hospitably as a benevolent neutral.

• But the Canton bureaucracy erected dozens of administrative hurdles, refused to meet with him or acknowledge his messages for weeks on end, charged him what he considered outrageous prices for the shoddy supplies they provided, and refused to let him make many of the repairs he wanted.

• Anson's published account of his alleged mistreatment was widely circulated and translated into several European languages, helping to build a ground swell of anti-Chinese feeling in Britain and elsewhere in the West.

Historical background

• Canton – single port trade • Import < Export (Trade imbalance and gap is increasing) • Britain wanted to export more, as following the

industrial revolution, over-productive textile industry (for example, Nottingham famous for its Lace Market, 1589)

• “We need to send someone to China and change this”

Britain’s Move

• George Macartney 1739-1806 Mission • To establish “diplomatic relationship with China”,

permanent embassy in Beijing; independent Criminal Ruling Power

• Set to wow China by showcasing technologies and manufactures

• Same benefits with other European countries • Reform CoHong system, expand the ports to Ningbo,

Zhoushan, Tianjin, etc

• Acquire information and techniques: textile, cotton, ceramics, tea plant, geographical intelligence (maps)

• 1792: 26 Sep, Plymouth • 1793, 3 July, Zhoushan

• 20 July, Dengzhou, Shandong

• Sufficient Supply, accepted only a little

• Several letter exchanges

Kowtow Myth

The Summer Palace (Western

Architecture)

Wine made in Peking

Qianlong’s response

• “天朝物产丰盈无所不有原不借外荑以通有无”——乾隆帝 • “We have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest

need of your country’s manufactures” —— Qianlong Emperor • https://blog.gale.com/the-george-macartney-mission-to-china-1792-1794/ • http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1750_macartney.htm • Chinese source: http://collection.sina.com.cn/jczs/2017-10-21/doc-

ifymzzpv8221753.shtml

Competing views and interpretations

Competing views and interpretations

• Diaries and letters: People involved documented in detail about what happened and their own interpretation

• Modernity framework: Traditional/Barbarian vs Modern; Imperialism expansion

• Post-modern framework: James L. Hevia (何伟亚)

Competing views and interpretations

• Sovereign equality vs Hierarchical inclusion • 主权平等 vs 差序包容 • Multitude of Lords 以满清皇室为最高统帅的多主制 • Imagination of Empire – exercise through rituals and

deference 宾礼：宾服

• “丰俭适中”, translated as “channelling along a central path” Qianlong’s concern over this event (anticipated invasion)

• Deconstructing historical reconstructions – 解构史学重构

Competing views and interpretations

• Russell, in The Problem of China (1922), commented that “no one understands China until this document (Qianlong’s letter) has ceased to seem absurd.”

• THE MACARTNEY EMBASSY TO CHINA 1792-1794: “Nothing could be more fallacious than to judge of China by any European standard” Lord Macartney, 15 Jan 1794.

• L'empire Immobile, a book of history published in French 1989 by the French politician and writer Alain Peyrefitte and translated into English in 1992. Macartney’s 1793 trip: talking to themselves while China looks like a mute.

Opium War

Opium War

Crime and punishments

• The legal system • The county magistrates acted essentially as detectives, judges,

and jury. They accumulated the evidence, then evaluated it, and finally passed sentence.

• 满清十大酷刑 Ten Cruel Punishment of the Qing • https://www.bilibili.com/video/av46954758?from=search&s

eid=15966888681827227101

Crime and punishments

• Several cases in which the crews of foreign ships accidentally killed Chinese show that the local Qing authorities were at first content to accept cash payments in restitution. In Kangxi's reign, Qing authorities demanded 5,000 taels (sliver unit: 两) after the crew of a British ship killed a Chinese near Canton harbor in 1689. When the British counteroffer of 2,000 taels was rejected, the ship abandoned its trading plans and sailed away. At the end of the reign, in 1722, the Chinese accepted 2,000 taels from the captain of the King George after his gunner's mate accidentally killed a Chinese boy while out hunting. In 1754, when an English sailor was killed by a Frenchman in Canton, Qing officials showed their determination to intervene in cases occurring within their jurisdiction even when no Chinese were involved. All trade with France was stopped until the French officers yielded up the killer. Ironically, the killer was shortly thereafter released because the emperor Qianlong, to celebrate the twentieth year of his reign and the Qing victories in the Zunghar wars, had ordered a general amnesty for all convicted criminals.

Voltaire on China

• "The great misunderstanding over Chinese rites sprang from our judging their practices in light of ours: for we carry the prejudices that spring from our contentious nature to the ends of the world."

• Unable to find a "philosopher-king" in Europe to exemplify his views of religion and government, Voltaire believed Emperor Qianlong would fill the gap, and he wrote poems in the distant emperor's honor.

Changing views following Anson

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Baron de Montesquieu worried that the Chinese did not seem to enjoy true liberty, that their laws were based on fear rather than on reason, and that their elaborate educational system might lead to the corruption of Chinese morals rather than to their improvement.

• Other writers declared that China did not seem to be progressing, had indeed no notion of progress; from this it was but a short step to see the Chinese as, in fact, retrogressing.

Changing views following Anson

• Nicolas Boulanger 1763 • “All the remains of her ancient institutions, which China now

possesses, will necessarily be lost; they will disappear in the future revolutions; as what she hath already lost of them vanished in former ones; and finally, as she acquires nothing new, she will always be on the losing side”.

Changing views following Anson

• Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, who wrote on China in The Wealth of Nations (1776).

• China refused to consider change. By staying aloof from the growth of the world economy, China was sealing its fate: "A country which neglects or despises foreign commerce, and which admits the vessels of foreign nations into one or two of its ports only, cannot transact the same quantity of business which it might do with different laws and institutions."

Changing views following Anson

• Hegel in the early 1820s, the various critical analyses explored by Boulanger, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Smith were synthesized in such a way that "Oriental Civilizations"— China preeminent among them—came to be seen as an early and now by-passed stage of history.

• The view of "Asiatic Society" synthesized by Hegel was to have a profound influence on the young Karl Marx and other later nineteenth-century thinkers.

Changing views following Anson

• History, to Hegel, was the development of what he called the ideas and practices of freedom throughout the world. Freedom was the expression of the self-realization of the "World Spirit," and that spirit was reaching its fullest manifestations in the Christian states of Europe and North America.

• Optimistic about his own time, Hegel developed a theory that downplayed China's past.

Changing views following Anson

• He described China as dominated by its emperors or despots, as typical of the "oriental nations" that saw only one man as free. In the West, the Greeks and Romans had come to see that some men were free; and, centuries later, Hegel's generation had come to see that all humans were free.

• Lacking an understanding of the march of Spirit in the world, even the Chinese emperor's "freedom" was "caprice," expressed as either "ferocity—brutal recklessness of passion—or a mildness and tameness of the desires, which is itself only an accident of Nature."

Changing views following Anson

• In a powerfully worded passage, Hegel explained that China had lacked the great boldness of the Europeans in exploring the seas and instead had stayed tied to the agricultural rhythms of her great plains.

• The soil presented only "an infinite multitude of dependencies," whereas the sea carried people "beyond these limited circles of thought and action. . . . This stretching out of the sea beyond the limitations of the land, is wanting to the splendid political edifices of Asiatic States, although they themselves border on the sea—as for example, China, For them the sea is only the limit, the ceasing of the land; they have no positive relation to it."

Changing views following Anson

• In a series of bleak conclusions, Hegel consigned the Chinese permanently to their space outside the development of the World Spirit. Although China had historians galore, they studied their country within their own limited preconceptions, not realizing that China itself lay "outside the World's History, as the mere presupposition of elements whose combination must be waited for to constitute their vital progress."

Changing views following Anson

• Although Chinese emperors may speak words of "majesty and paternal kindness and tenderness to the people," the Chinese people "cherish the meanest opinion of themselves, and believe that men are born only to drag the car of Imperial Power."

• Hegel mourned for the Chinese people themselves: "The burden which presses them to the ground, seems to them to be their inevitable destiny: and it appears nothing terrible to them to sell themselves as slaves, and to eat the bitter bread of slavery."

Changing views following Anson

• In one of his most ambiguous asides, Hegel added that "a relation to the rest of History could only exist in their case, through their being sought out, and their character investigated by others.”

• The question of by whom or how that seeking out was to be done was left open by Hegel, but the Western powers, with their ships, their diplomatic missions, and their opium, were rapidly beginning to provide an answer.

The reading guideline has been uploaded in ICE

See you at 3pm today in BBB!

Thank you!

Assignment for Week 6