From Jorge Cham’s masterful and frighteningly on target strip, Piled Higher & Deeper.
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From Jorge Cham’s masterful and frighteningly on target strip, Piled Higher & Deeper. The restoration of the westerner-designed and westerner-demolished palace at Yuanmingyuan (sometimes known as the “Old Summer Palace”) is a topic that comes up every so often in the Chinese media and online community. This time around due to reports that a replica is being built in Hengdian, Zhejiang. “So much controversy and concern from the media and netizens over the project has been generated because of the unique historical messages behind the destroyed palace – if it were still there today, it would be the largest royal garden combining traditional Chinese buildings and Western-style structures. And, the way it was destroyed bears witness to the national humiliation and barbarity of the Western powers at the time.” The short form is that the palace was destroyed in 1860 by the Anglo-French Expedition in the last of a series of conflicts that constituted the Second Opium War, also known as “The Arrow War.” To start though we have to go back to the Opium War Part I. Several treaties signed with foreign powers at the end of that war in 1842 called for renegotiations of treaty privileges within twelve years. Right on cue, twelve years later, the imperialist powers led by “This age is one in which the entire world is developing communications. In the past, Chinese people viewed our country as all under heaven, and Westerners likewise thought Europe was the world. Today things are gradually moving forward; Chinese people already know there is a so-called Western civilization, and Westerners, even though our country is weak and has learning and customs that they look upon with disfavor, cannot but submit that we constitute part of the world. If there were a worldwide exhibition, our country’s products would have to be displayed there; if there were a university, which made every effort to encompass all the world’s teachings, then our language and history would constitute a department; if there were a large library full of books, then titles from our country would be among them; if there were a museum that collected specialty items in order to bring humanity’s true face to light, then beautiful and ordinary items from our country would have to be gathered there. This is the proof that the world has become more integrated.” Cai Yuanpei, 1914 Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培, born this week in 1868, was a classically-trained scholar of great achievement, having been appointed |
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