Of all the hoary myths that pervade US media writing on China, one that irks historians quite a bit is the hoary chestnut of an inert, uncompromising China being “opened” by the dynamic, technologically and politically advanced West in the 19th century.
Prefacing his review in this week’s The Nation, foreign policy author John Feffer compares the American government of 2007 with the days of the Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796-1825), when the weaknesses of the Qing state were becoming all too apparent.
The article itself is a pastiche of recent publications on China, with a dollop of Yellow Peril to balance for flavor, warning Americans that we should not get too comfy in our place as the world’s preeminent power. I can accept Feffer’s larger point–about American obtuseness and arrogance–though his choice of language (“In place of opium, there are the distracting pleasures of Chinese goods for sale at Wal-Mart”) is unfortunate.
Contemporary China hands will no doubt have much to say about Feffer’s analysis of today’s China and its potential as an eater of worlds, but I’d like to take a moment to set the record straight on Feffer’s description of Chinese history.
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