My Take | Lessons in history show how the truth hurts
Countries that built empires have a lot of pain to answer for, but as Chinese we can’t be too proud when it comes down to the past 200 years
It’s in the nature of great countries and empires to do horrible things.
So if we deny our own cultural and racial heritage on the basis that our forefathers, or even grandfathers and fathers, had done unspeakable deeds, we would end up having no nationality to speak of.
I recently watched “the 10 most evil empires in history” on YouTube. There are the obligatory Imperial Japan, the Ottomans, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and the Mongols.
The French and the Belgians also made the list.
Surprisingly, the No 1 spot was reserved for the British Empire, which according to the clip spanned 1783 to 1997, the last date presumably being the handover of Hong Kong as its last significant colony back to China.
It’s not my purpose here to debate which empires are the worst in history. But what interests me is that, by and large, none of those peoples deny their nationalities. Many Mongolians and Turks are rather proud of their glorious past. Some Japanese and Germans may be ashamed of their imperial legacies, but few would deny they are Japanese or German.