Why the world has to study Chinese history, and how China views history
Jean-Pierre Lehmann says the country’s centrality in our 21st-century world makes it imperative that outsiders understand what is shaping its views and decisions, and Hong Kong could do more to facilitate such learning
It is dispiriting and indeed alarming to see how ignorant the West is about China. Illustration: Craig Stephens
Far from ushering in a “new world order”, so far the 21st century has been marked by turbulent uncertainties. There are very few things on which a consensus could arise – even on the most critical issues. For example, will there be war, or not, and, if so, between who? There is, however, one thing that seems incontestable: in stark contrast to the 19th and 20th centuries, when China was a peripheral passive actor in global affairs, in the 21st century its role is and will be absolutely primordial. That point requires no further elaboration. What that role, or those roles, will be is an entirely different matter.
In that context, it is dispiriting and indeed alarming to see how ignorant the West is about China and, from what I can see, intends to remain so. Here are a few random anecdotes to illustrate.
I fly half-a-dozen or more times a year between Europe and China. I invariably fly business class and invariably the majority of the passengers are white male middle-aged executives. Also invariably, the majority of these white middle-aged globetrotting executives, when not sleeping, are watching asinine videos or escapist films rather than reading books on Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, Chinese history, Chinese literature or indeed even the Chinese economy and business.
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The harmful effects of this video addiction and apparent allergy to knowledge are visible. In my executive education courses, I often start with a “literacy” test, posing pretty basic questions about China. The results are invariably poor. And, as I say, it’s pretty basic stuff.
A view of the Confucius Temple in Wenchang, Hainan province. Confucian thinking has had an impact on European enlightenment philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant. Photo: Simon Song
On a recent occasion, two British executives who go to China admitted they had never heard, or only dimly heard, of the Opium wars. At a preparatory session in January for about 100 executives who were going to China, many for the first time, on an “education” trip, I focused on the question: in order to know where China is going to, where has it come from? So we looked at Confucianism, including the impact it had on European enlightenment philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant; China’s traditional view of its place in the world; the voyages of Zheng He and their significance; and so on down to contemporary issues – for example, the position of Taiwan. As this was a four-hour session, it was impossible to go into depth on any of these issues, but in the course of the presentation, I gave references to a lot of books for further reading, including Chinese novels.
