Britons
perception about China and Chinese perception about UK
Abstract:
This paper is about what perceptions do Chinese and Britons have about each
other and why do people have these perceptions?
Britain and China, one was a colonial empire of the
past; the other was an old feudal ancient civilization. Now one is a Western country
with highly civilized and democratic; the other is a biggest Eastern country
with rapid economic development, ideological emancipation and the communist
dictatorship. Both of countries need each other’s opinion to realize them. So
what is the perception about each other? Where are perceptions come from? Why do
we misunderstand each other?
As a metaphor, the Western's perception of China is
a plot of numerous controversial legends. It experienced a process of reverie,
disillusionment, shock and the magical transformation. It is really hard to
understand real China, just like Edward Said used Benjamin Disraeli's Tancred quotation
"The East is a career." as an epigram for his book Orientalism. Here,
I divide elusive China’s perception as five periods of change according to
different centuries.
14-18
century, old fantasy empire’s disillusion
14-18 century, Britons’ perception about China
experienced from the phantom of mysterious Orient utopian empire to the image
of closed, decay, ignorance of the ancient empire.
First of all, the image of China was portrayed by
the West as a mysterious, fantastic, magnificent paradise from the records of
the early British literature (14-16 century), 17-18th century missioners,
travelers and businessmen. For example, the most typical record is “The travels
of Sir John Mandeville” (1357), which influence swept British as much as the popular
of "Marco Polo" in Europe. Those literatures shaped a Western needed “China”
as a utopian world, which fantasy with history and legends, exotic fascination
and desire. All these phantoms inspired different countries people close to the
China.
The image of “China” instantly changed by the
mission of George Macartney (September 26, 1792) visited China, which was
rejected. After the opium trade and the 1840 Sino-British Opium War，China was forced to be
opened and started a new chapter in the understanding of the world. The opium
imported into China and erupt of the war was Western capitalism released its
enormous productivity, coercive force and destructive to the feudal ancient
civilization. The war also thunders hit Chinese’ mind from inward looking to
the outside. After the Signing of the Treaty of Nanking (August 29, 1842),
Chinese felt humiliation, realized the powerful of changing that British
Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance bring to the world, and tried to find
a new way out.
At this point, the image of China to be representing
in the world like stagnation, degenerate, dilapidated ship, which was sharply
contrasted to the image of ancient civilizations before.
19-20
Century, the "Yellow Peril" panic → Suffering China
19-20 century, Britons’ impression of China was
from panic of The "Yellow Peril" to the sympathy of suffering China.
The background of the “Yellow Peril" panic in
the late 19th century was based on history issues and books’ affection.
1890s-1900s, with a large number of Chinese
laborers into the United Kingdom and the United States, the U.S. outbreak of
anti-Chinese movement, followed by the outbreak of Boxer Rebellion in China.
British historian Charles Henry Pearson published a book called National Life
and Character: a Forecast, which led to the fallacy of "Yellow Peril”,
swept the Western world. The most representative was the series of novels
featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu by the English novelist Sax Rohmer
(1912); this can be the 20-century English fear of the projected product of
China. The best remembered of the Dr. Fu Manchu’s image led an exaggerated
panic of The "Yellow Peril" in the West.
However, the threaten image was changing by the
Chinese Revolution in1911, the extinction of the Qing Empire (12, February,
1912) made the West exclaimed ‘China was waking up’. Followed in April 1927,
the government of KMT launched the massacre of the Communist Party of China. 1933,
a book called Man’s Fate by a French novelist André
Malraux showed the Chinese suffering in misery.
20th
century, Utopia "Shangri-La" → Red Star of China → Red dragon led
“blue ants”
The image of Utopia "Shangri-La" in West was
made by James Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon” and the 1930 publication of the
Pearl S. Buck's fiction "The Good Earth". These Utopia and kind
Chinese image were actually based on the culture of one-dimensional treatment
of the East, and build a utopian image of “China”. These China’s good images
were also accepted as a spiritual comfort role to the Western who suffered from
the First World War (1914-1918) and the 1929-1933 crisis of the capitalist
world economy.
1937, An American journalist Edgar Snow's wrote a
book “Red Star Over China" after he and lots of Western journalists experienced
the War of Resistance Against Japan in CPC war zone. This book was real
comprehensive displayed the life story of Mao Zedong and other Chinese
Communist leaders and the revolutionary practice to the world. The Red Areas reports
of Western press corps made the West to start a real understanding of a great force,
which is about to change the fate of China. At the same time, from 1927 to
1945, Chiang Kai-shek had seven times on the cover of American ‘Time’; he was
shaped as a perfect political figures in the American Media.
The early 1950s, the “red star” image huge changed
by the Western media seems to happen overnight.
1955, a French journalist Robert Guillain
best-selling book of “The blue ants: 600 million Chinese under the red flag” described
all Chinese wearing the same clothes; to say the same words, do the same thing.
600 million "blue ants" suddenly as a hot topic in the West in the
'50s and '60s.
At the same time, the Western public opinion for
New China often reported a poverty and backwardness, brainwashing and extreme
lack of material. Lots of newspapers extensively reported the issues of China,
for instance, “Cultural Revolution” and “Tiananmen Square Massacre”. At that
time, CPC controlled media to all Chinese, to made them believe that other
imperialisms live in the hell, only Chinese Communist Party can save the world,
and the fact is many Chinese believed it. That is such a stupid action to
protect regime.
From above stages, we can see that journalists and
media became more influential for the image’s shaping. The images changed a lot
in this period because of different situations happened in China. The reason
why images changed to be wicked at last by Western media, is that China was
closed to the world, moreover, Western stood in the Western political systems,
values and cultural psychology to see China.
21st
century, opening China and China in UK
The image of 21st century China is continuing
surprised Westerns and Britons by many different issues happened in China and
UK. For example, 1987 China's reform and opening policy, 1997 Hong Kong
returned to China, 2008 Olympic games held in Beijing, 2011 World Expo held in
Shanghai. China's economic rockets compare to the outbreak of the 2007-2009
world financial crisis.
On the other hand, because parts of China in the UK
made Britons’ perception trend to be more clear about Chinese and their
culture. For instance, increasing numbers of Chinese overseas students,
immigrations, businessmen and travelers.
All of these surprised the West again and again. It
seems 21st century "China fever" are becoming popular, which reminds
me of the 18th century “China fever”.
Now China’s image in Britons mind is colourful, Chinatown,
China in Museum, Kung Fu, Jiao Zi, Panda, Spring festival, Great Wall, Taichi,
Luxury consumers. Relatively, Britons’ image in Chinese mind is also attractive
with tourist attraction, shopping paradise, Gentlemen place, cosmopolitan,
Harry Potter, Sherlock Holms, David Beckham, Chaos, instead
of just only inherent impression of imperialism.
I used graphic timeline to make people clear to see
perception changing with the history.
According
to the flag of each country, here I use blue colour to represents the UK and
red colour to represents China. The white words inside two colours represent
each other’s perception about each.
Above
blue area and below red area is what perceptions come from history to stand on
other’s shoes respectively.
From information gathering timeline above, introspection
of image changing in the history, we will find that different China has its
different images in other’s view. Whether it is Utopia fantasy “China” or demonized
China, "China" is not the real China. It is imaginary “Orient”;
described “Orient”, shaped “Orient”.
Firstly, because the local and heterogeneous civilizations
contrast, which lead a complementary psychological during cultural exchanges
between different ethnic groups. Such as the 18th-century stagnation image of “China”
was needed by increasingly powerful West as a "the other" negative
object. When the West needs self-identification
and expansion, China's image is becoming a negative “Orient”. When the West
hesitates about the development of Western culture, the mainstream image of the
“Orient” becomes a good image.
As the book Edward W. Said's
"orientalism"(1978), which described real ‘East’ transformation into
a created image of ‘Orient’, here "East" refers to the geographical
concept of ‘Orient’, and ‘Orient’ is a country with its own history and
thinking. It is a western style of thought and created body of theory, imagery
and vocabulary of traditional cultural values in the ‘East’, the ‘East’ is
not the reality in China; it is Western fiction “China” and imagination of
China. This book made the Western with this Orientalizing illusion of bias or
novelty of the vision to see the real China.
Secondly, the West uses the view of “the other” civilizations
to critic others’ and self-civilizations development. Whether how to understand
the China and Chinese by the West, whether what angle, perception and attitude to
see China, without exception, China is as a different "the other” from
their own perception. This precisely reflects the deep needs of Western
self-understanding China and themselves, shows a strong sense of self-criticism
and creative spirit. On the other hand, Western described image of “China” is
also made Chinese to learn more about the needs culture of the West themselves
and China’s excellent civilizations and inadequacies.
China is like a fledgling baby, needs the advice
and criticism of Western civilization to reflect on the lack of self-civilization.
At last but not least, Real China is not in the
books and media; not in the critical describes of Western journalists; even not
in Chinese eyes and the geographic location in Asia, which lost lots of
traditional culture and hiding too much real China issues. So where is the real
China and the lost China? Chinese are still looking for.
CASE STUDY-
l Documentary of UK photographer
Adrian Fisk (I speak China)
(Left) “I think it is time for us to STAND UP FOR
OURSELVES & be WHO WE REALLY ARE!”
Guangdong,
Jell Zhu, 22 years old, communications student.
(Right) “Do not judge China from the media, because the real
China is not on the papers.” Beijing,
Lim, 22
years old, political science student.
British photographer Adrian
Fisk traveled 12,500 kilometers in China and had a group of young people write
down their thoughts on paper.
Adrian Fisk’s documentary
use “the other” ordinary young people’s thoughts and voices to say about
themselves. These documentary recordings are more convincing than him to write
or describe news about China to the world.
It inspired me that as a
Chinese in the UK, what I have seen and experienced another parts of China in
the UK, such as Chinatown and Spring festival activities, the museum of ancient
China and modern Chinese art exhibitions. So I photo these parts of China in
the West to compare what I experienced 23 years in China.
* One of my experiments, virtual ‘Orient’.
I found every shop in
Chinatown has showed its own Chinese characteristic, the building is divided
into three types, and one is the feature of traditional red walls, green tiles
and stone lions, like the Forbidden City in Beijing style. Another is a combination
of Chinese and Western architectures, and the rest is completely westernized
buildings. These three features just like what China experienced in the
history. I reassembled the buildings based on the characteristics of eaves to
form a virtual wall of the Forbidden City. And every shop’s name of the virtual
image in the photo from right to left are, ‘Dumplings Emperor’, ‘Imperial China’,
‘Golden Pagoda’, ‘New China’, ‘New world’. The name is also reflecting China.
CASE STUDY- A IS GREEN R IS RED By LIO YEUNG
Obstacle in seeing by LIO YEUNG
LIO YEUNG works “Obstacle in seeing” demonstrate that we believe that
the human eyesight is a standardized system for communicating with one another.
But in fact the way one sees varies different people. Even though feelings and
perceptions that result from what we see everyday are different for everyone,
we assume everything we see is physically the same.
People
sometimes blinded his eyes by some obstacles, sometimes listen to the calumny
of others, sometimes confined to live in other people’s mind, and sometimes
based on a lot of theory books to understand the world that we are facing every
day.
Just like
Britons and Chinese’ perception about each other, the way one realize the world
is based on what they see the world and what they hear from the world. It cannot
be avoided by a lot of restrictions to realize the world. On the other hand, the
ways one represents us and communicates with others, sometimes exaggerate or
narrow the facts, distort or hide the facts. The way in the process of
acceptance, sometimes human beings just realize one-sided of the facts. So we
should use critical thinking to distinguish different voices of the world.
Bibliography
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Said, E.
(2003) Orientalism. London: Penguin.
Mitter, R.
(2008) Modern china: a very short
introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
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Arts &
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Beat Poets, Michael Grade. 28 February 2011, [sound recording: CD]
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Urwin, R. (2012) Hey big spender: the shopping capital of the world. [Internet].
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Exhibition catalogues:
Wearing,
G. (1998) Gillian Wearing. London:
South Bank Centre.
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