Rants
I'm the type of person that lean towards being overly critical since I'm on the opinion that criticism is more constructive than praise so I'm going to take this opportunity to criticize common attitudes I see among overseas Chinese diaspora as well as Chinese international students. I want to preface this by saying there is a lot of very excellent Chinese abroad and the intention of this criticism is constructive.
Many Overseas Chinese feel a lot of self-deprecation, and in my opinion its due to two primary reasons. 1) A lot of overseas Chinese emigrated during a period where China is poor and weak, and was looked down upon globally 2) Western media's racism and Sinophobia. I was the same way growing up in Canada honestly, there have been moments where I was ashamed to be Chinese since I thought it was a backwards country, and because the West was richer and stronger does that mean that our way of life and culture is "wrong"? As I grew up what I learned is while we started from a lower starting point due to imperialism and Qing corruption, the Chinese people are hardworking and in a century, we were able to become a global power, not through military force or theft like the west, but through hard work and sacrifice and that is something to be proud of.
However, while its great to be confident and proud, we must also be humble. Among a lot of younger Chinese today, there is an arrogance that I'm not a fan of. We seems to have forgotten that our achievements didn't come easily, we paid through it through blood, sweat and tears and the older generations sacrificed so we can have a better life and a country to be proud of. We should recognize that while China is a rising power and on-track to surpass the US, China is just that, a rising power. We are second to the US for now and if we want to continue to grow, we have to work hard. The fact is, the West had a few century's head start on us and built a system that affords them many advantages. The United States is still current leading and if we want to surpass them to change the unfair and anglo-centric system we have to work twice, or thrice as hard as them. This may be an extreme attitude, but I think every Chinese has the responsibility to work hard, regardless of where we live. 天下兴亡，匹夫有责. We cannot be arrogant or we'll decline just like the Americans, it has happened to us before, look at Chinese history. In fact we owe it to those who sacrificed everything. In fact, this is why I despise the "tang ping" movement and why it makes my blood boil. We are a hardworking people, our achievements didn't come to us for free, every Chinese person has a goal to contribute to the "Chinese Dream" by either contributing directly in China or being the best we can be abroad. The "tang ping" movement is a slap in the face to the previous generations and to every single Chinese past, present and future. I'm not saying younger Chinese people are lazy, that is not the case at all, Chinese people are extremely hardworking to the point of detriment and I understand that our hardworking nature have caused a lot of societal problems related to health and birth rates, but being tang ping isn't the answer.
Century of Humiliation
The last time I cried this much while watching any show is 走向共和 (Towards the Republic) which I also heavily recommend. It showed the ugliness of Qing corruption and it broke my heart. Watching Cixi build the Summer Palace while the Japanese Emperor focusing on the Navy and modernization is heart-wrenching. It is also a must watch I think, to teach us a lesson about our past and the corruption that led to the Century of Humiliation. We can blame imperialism and the West all we want, but we can't deny that we put ourselves into a position to be bullied.
I am very proud of how the CPC handled Alaska and Tianjin meetings with the US. The West bitches and moans about "wolf warrior" diplomacy, but we learned a very painful lesson that you have to stand up to imperialism. Let them bitch and moan, I rather "wolf warrior" diplomacy then be humiliated. Despite being from China's imperialist past, I feel that Li Hongzhang did the best he could given the cards he was dealt to protect Chinese interests. A part of me takes pride in the thought that Wang Yi and our other diplomats are avenging Li Hongzhang's memory.
Conclusion
Thanks everyone for reading my long and incoherent rant. I have three core takeaways
1) We should be proud of what we achieved but we should remember the sacrifices made
2) We should continue to work hard, and work harder than the Americans to surpass them and earn a better future
3) Watch the show if you haven't yet, its seriously good!
