Chapter 2: First Contact with America and the West

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En provenance du cours de Rice University

America Through Foreign Eyes

103 notes

Rice University

America Through Foreign Eyes

103 notes

The United States has always been a source of fascination — both attraction and repulsion — for the people of France, Mexico, China, and African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Sudan. "America Through Foreign Eyes" is a rich, interdisciplinary, international course that features Rice University faculty from a variety of disciplines and area studies. Focused on perceptions of America abroad, the course is a cross between World Cultures and American Studies. The course features four modules, each covering the perceptions and interactions of particular regions with America, Americans and Americanization.

À partir de la leçon

America Through Chinese Eyes

The United States has always been a source of fascination for the people of China. Chinese observers and travelers are rarely indifferent to American culture and people. This module, “America Through Chinese Eyes,” examines historical and contemporary perceptions of America, Americans, and Americanization through the lens of Chinese writers, artists, politicians, intellectuals, and public opinion. Taught by Dr. Anne Chao, a professor of History, this module will cover the four themes of the course: Democracy and Modernity; Globalization and Capitalism; Racism and Immigration; and Intellectual and Cultural Life.

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Chinese Cultural System6:41

Chapter 2: First Contact with America and the West6:46

Chapter 3: China's Entry Into the World: Opium, the Unequal Treaties and the Exclusion Act7:39

Chapter 4: From Reform to Revolution6:56

Chapter 5: The New Culture Movement7:12

Chapter 6: Madame Chiang Kaishek: A Study in Chinese and American Interactions in the Republican Era7:18

Chapter 7: America as Enemy and as Friend: The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution and the Ping-Pong Diplomacy7:19

Chapter 8: China's Re-Entry into the World7:08

Chapter 9: Taiwan and Hong Kong8:05

Chapter 10: Voices from China and Taiwan7:38

Rencontrer les enseignants

Dr. Anne S. Chao
Lecturer
Rice University
Dr. Julie Fette
Associate Professor
Rice University
Dr. Jeffrey Fleisher
Associate Professor
Rice University
Dr. Moramay López-Alonso
Associate Professor
Rice University

As I mentioned in the introductory chapter, the Chinese sense of cultural and

moral superiority led to a profound lack of curiosity about the outside world.

So much so that in 1793, when Lord Macartney arrived in China bearing

a letter and exquisite gifts from King George III, he was dismissed brusquely.

Edward Tilton turned down the British request for accessing more ports for

trade and for establishing a diplomatic mission in Beijing.

He replied to King George, we have never valued ingenious articles, nor

do we have the slightest need of your country's manufactures.

Therefore, O king, as regards your request to send someone to remain at the capital,

while it is not in harmony with the regulations of the Celestial Empire,

we also feel very much that it is of no advantage to your country.

As we shall see in Chapter 3, this sense of arrogance and willful ignorance

of the outside world would cost China dearly in the 19th century.

But for the moment, we will look at when the Americans first arrived in China.

The first encounters between the Americans and the Chinese were through commerce and

religious activities.

As early as 1784, the American ship, the Empress of China,

reached Canton and purchased tea, silk, and porcelain from China.

In return, the Chinese bought ginseng and Spanish sliver dollars from the Americans.

Even though the volume was small, compared to the Chinese trade with the British,

nevertheless, in the year of 1840,

the Americans bought close to 20 million pounds of tea from China.

China was no stranger to global trade.

As early as 500 BCE, it had

been part of the so-called Maritime Silk Road on a route that included India,

the eastern Mediterranean, the Pacific, Europe, and east and west Africa.

Nevertheless, during the Ching Dynasty, all foreigners were confined to living in

the factories outside the city wall of Canton and forbidden to learn Chinese.

Furthermore, in order to avoid dealing with the barbarians,

the Chinese government designated Chinese merchant houses, or

Cohongs, to be solely responsible for all transactions with foreigners.

The first American missionaries to arrive in Canton were Elijah Coleman Bridgeman

and David Abeel in 1830 from the American board of commissioners for

foreign missions.

Like christian missionaries from other countries before them,

the Americans published literature about the west in an effort to attract converts.

Bridgeman translated a short collection of English biblical verses,

called Scripture Lessons for The Young, for the Chinese.

He also authored a brief account of the United States of America, and

co edited the East West Examiner, and Monthly Recorder, a Chinese language

periodical that introduced western science and western history to the Chinese.

By the mid 19th century there were over 100 publications by the missionaries in

China, and these provided the main source of information for

Chinese intellectuals about the West.

Xu Jiyu, financial commissioner of Fujian, published a short account of

the Maritime Circuit, Yinghuan Zhiliue, in 1848, based on these sources.

Zhiliue regarded the United States as a historically unique state,

one without a monarchy,

and one where the public institution was said to belong to the people.

He hailed George Washington as the most important person

in the history of the east and

west, for his unselfish refusal to pass down the presidency to his descendents.

Chin Mandarin Wei Yuan, in his 1843 treaties of [INAUDIBLE] kingdoms,

Haiguo Tuzhi appraised the American political system and

the principal of majority rule to be fair and well constructed.

In particular, he approved of the popular electoral system and

imposition of term limits.

Missionary proselytizing can have totally unintended consequences as well, and one

of the most violent and devastating civil war, that nearly toppled the dynasty.

The Taiping Rebellion, was inspired by the words of an American missionary.

Hong Xiuquan, a mid 19th Century young scholar, who failed repeatedly,

at the civil service exams, read the pamphlets prepared by

the American Baptist missionary Issachar Roberts.

In a feverish state of despondence,

Hong dreamt that he was actually the younger brother incarnate of Jesus.

In 1850, from his base in southwest China,

Hong created the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, and aimed to topple the Qing state.

In his idealized world, everyone was to enjoy equality and

a share in the common treasury, all except for the leader, that is.

Ho was a charismatic preacher and attracted millions of followers.

The poor and the disenfranchised responded

enthusiastically to this Millenarian movement.

So successfully did the rebels defeat the Manchus that they would topple the state,

but for their own infighting and for the bravery of a group of ethnically Chinese

generals such as Lee Hiu Jung, who defended the Ching dynasty.

An American mercenary, Frederick Townsend Ward,

was hired to lead the ever victorious army by the Qing and

promoted to the rank of a junior mandarin for his service.

When the Taiping Rebellion was finally put down in 1864,

it had lasted 13 years and cost 20 million lives.

Another source of information for the Chinese came from

observations of Chinese diplomats stationed in America in late 19th century.

They were particularly impressed with the status of American women and

deplored the Chinese patriarchal system.

In 1876, Chinese diplomat Li Gui

visited a women's pavilion in the American Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

He wrote, These women do not have the manner of girls who are kept at home, but

the spirit of men.

I greatly respect and like them.

There are roughly as many women as men in the world.

If only men and

not women are educated, then out of ten people only five will be useful.

China is just the opposite, regarding women as inferior and

drowning infant girls cannot be stopped by means of persuasion or prohibitions.

I say they are caused by nothing other than the decay of women's education.

China in the mid 19th century not only faced internal rebellions,

one of which was spurred by American missionary activity.

It was also battling external aggression in the form of western military encroachment.

As we shall see in the next chapter, the Qing's losses in the opium and

other wars were a large contributor to its eventual demise.

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