Saturday, February 05, 2005

1000s vs. 200

This was something that Europe learned the hard way: two world wars, the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union, and the anti-colonial struggle have taught our continent the limitations of its own power. That is why Europe today, with the partial exception of Britain and France, and exemplified by Germany, is so reluctant to use military force. The United States, of course, is the opposite...

The contrast between China and the United States could hardly be more striking. The former dates back thousands of years, the latter not much more than 200; the former is a product of an ancient civilisation, the latter an invented nation whose citizens bear allegiance to a political document, the constitution. It is little wonder that Americans constantly need to reinvent themselves: the Chinese, unsurprisingly, have no such problem, they know exactly who they are.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/sto...06484,00.html

6 Comments:

Blogger Matt said...

My dad just came home from Beijing Thursday. China will be "modernized" in the western sense before we die. This is not a theory, it is a certainty.

While there will always be groups who oppose such westernization (as in modern Russia and the middle east), I seriously doubt China has the cultural fortitude to fight the American lifestyle as has India. Even if they do have millenia of cultural history to keep then firm in their traditions, those traditions have been forgotten in the haze of Communism.

Eh, as long as they buy my dad's solar energy company, they can do whatever they want. I'll be living on my inheritance buying cheap stuff produced by our trading partners to the East.

Sat Feb 05, 11:15:00 AM GMT-7  
Blogger Aaron said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Sat Feb 05, 11:46:00 AM GMT-7  
Blogger Matt said...

Apparently Aaron has had a fit of regret from posting the past few days. Almost all of his comments posted the last 5 or 6 days have been removed. Weird.

Sat Feb 05, 06:42:00 PM GMT-7  
Blogger bryan said...

what did you say it was aaron? your pop art?

Sun Feb 06, 05:52:00 PM GMT-7  
Blogger Aaron said...

It was performance art. Watch for my next piece of performance art on Channel 2 News. I am going to stand behind the anchors on main street and paint myself a different color every day.

Sun Feb 06, 10:03:00 PM GMT-7  
Blogger bryan said...

i was talking with a chinese instructor one day about the difference between china and its culture and the culture that exists in places like china town in san francisco. she told me that china town in SF was actually "more chinese" in the sense that they hold onto old chinese traditions a lot stronger.
im sure as china becomes more and more westernized there will be movements to maintain the old traditions as there well should be but in her words, "Beijing is already filled with skyscrapers and looks very much like NYC."

Mon Feb 07, 10:09:00 AM GMT-7  

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