All this talk of "conceit" and "arrogance" reminded me of something I ran across a few months ago. Bernard Lewis is a British-American historian of the Middle East who is known, among other things, for the view that "as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like 'cultural arrogance,' which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades." (from Wikipedia). Look who's talking, you might say. I don't know enough about the 11th century to have an opinion, but the concept is interesting. (I set the relevant phrases in boldface)
For the record, I think solarz is basically right in the way he characterizes Fu Ying's use of the word "conceited" in post#50 (a page or two back). But in at least one of her answers she seems to accuse "the West" of the sort of "cultural arrogance" which Lewis pins on "Islamic societies". I.e, for her, her interlocutors are saying "we have arrived at the best possible system, the best possible institutions, and therefore we cannot learn anything from you", and further, "you will be judged according to how well you imitate us". I am referring to this answer:
Before going further, one has to ask, can China be accused of this sort of "conceit" or "arrogance"? Well, the Party and State structures were modeled after the Soviet Union, the "export-oriented" development model seems to be inspired by the Japanese experience. Some of the reforms of the state system remind you of Singapore, the trade-based international relations may be modeled after NAFTA, or the European Common Market, and the Chinese leadership has been studying the German "welfare" or social safety-net system, after having dismantled the Soviet style one some years back.
No. As Fu Ying clearly points out China is very much interested in learning from others. In matters of technology, the merchant mentality comes in, and learning from others is called "copying" and "stealing", but that's another issue, unrelated to this thread. No doubt Chinese are proud of their history and present achievements, but clearly, China is not guilty of "cultural arrogance" as defined by Lewis, above.
As a side point, I have to laugh at the complaint offered by Mr Tea:
For the record, I think solarz is basically right in the way he characterizes Fu Ying's use of the word "conceited" in post#50 (a page or two back). But in at least one of her answers she seems to accuse "the West" of the sort of "cultural arrogance" which Lewis pins on "Islamic societies". I.e, for her, her interlocutors are saying "we have arrived at the best possible system, the best possible institutions, and therefore we cannot learn anything from you", and further, "you will be judged according to how well you imitate us". I am referring to this answer:
Before going further, one has to ask, can China be accused of this sort of "conceit" or "arrogance"? Well, the Party and State structures were modeled after the Soviet Union, the "export-oriented" development model seems to be inspired by the Japanese experience. Some of the reforms of the state system remind you of Singapore, the trade-based international relations may be modeled after NAFTA, or the European Common Market, and the Chinese leadership has been studying the German "welfare" or social safety-net system, after having dismantled the Soviet style one some years back.
No. As Fu Ying clearly points out China is very much interested in learning from others. In matters of technology, the merchant mentality comes in, and learning from others is called "copying" and "stealing", but that's another issue, unrelated to this thread. No doubt Chinese are proud of their history and present achievements, but clearly, China is not guilty of "cultural arrogance" as defined by Lewis, above.
As a side point, I have to laugh at the complaint offered by Mr Tea:
In the last 60 years China has gone through changes that no European country, save Russia, has come close to, in the entire "modern" period (i.e., several centuries). I am not referring here to the "x-million people lifted out of poverty" thing. Rather, I am talking about the changes in political orientation, in "institutions", and so forth. This, I think, is SOLID PROOF of the self-critical attitude which characterizes Chinese society. In my view, the current Chinese state and leadership are faithful to this self-critical attitude. Indeed, the continuous changes during the last 60 years, in every which direction, have been led by this particular state.
