Chinese Nationalism

The way that the West has looked upon China has been volatile through the centuries. Not too many years ago, the Chinese were looked down on because of their failure to progress. There were many times when the West exalted China, when China seemed to be the center of the world and the best society. China itself always thought that it was the center of the world. China had a sense of pride and exalted themselves above their peers. They had a very strong stench of nationalism amongst themselves. Christianity eventually entered the Middle Kingdom and the Chinese encountered a new path that they could select. However, from 1500 to 1800 as Westerners attempted to convert the Chinese, the missionaries realized that Chinese culture and nationalism …show more content…
Europeans with a special interest in China were popularizers. They did not care about how Christianity and the teachings of Confucius could come together. Nor did these popularizers spend much time on missionary strategy or intellectual approaches that the Jesuits worked to discover. Rather, they focused on finding Chinese support for the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment did not improve the West’s understanding of China, but actually hurt as Chinese views were exploited and created a superficial image of China. Many people admitted to fictionalizing Chinese history. There were books written about Chinese culture by people who had never been to China, although they claimed to be. They used these writings to push the Enlightenment by claiming that respected Chinese such as Confucius said things that they would have never stated. It should not surprise anyone that as opportunities to push a narrative came about, lies were spread and words were perverted. The West used the reputation of China to push their own