#101 Introduction to Wealth and Power

Xi Jinping visits the "The Road Toward Renewal" exhibition along with other members of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, November 2012. Source: China.org.cn.

Check for understanding

The authors

Last class, we mentioned that we have a few themes we hope to tackle for the course. Today we are going to focus in mainly on China’s “fall and rise” by engaging with the two authors of the book, Orville Schell and John Delury.

To start, let’s take a closer look at profiles of the two authors:

• Orville Schell (external link to Schell’s personal website)
• John Delury (external link to Delury’s profile at Yonsei University)

As you look at these profiles, consider:

• What expertise do these two authors bring to the project of writing this book?
• How might you suspect they complemented each other’s work?

Discussion

• Which parts of the introductory chapter were most interesting or provocative for you? Which were most confusing?
• What are the roots of the terms “humiliation” and “wealth and power”?
• What is the relationship between the key terms “humiliation” on one hand and “wealth” and “power” on the other? Can “humiliation” be made to serve genuinely positive political ends? What might be the dangers involved in navigating such an approach?
• Consider the following passage and consider its potential implications:
  • “Unlike democratic political reform in the West, which developed out of a belief in certain universal values and human rights as derived from a ‘natural’, if not God-given, source, and so were to be espoused regardless of their efficacy, the dominant tradition of reform in China evolved from a far more utilitarian source. Its primary focus was to return China to a position of strength, and any way that might help achieve this goal was thus worth considering. What ‘liberté, egalité, fraternité’ meant to the French Revolution and to the making of modernity in the West, 'wealth, strength, and honor' have meant to the forging of modern China. As a result, Chinese reformers tended to inhabit what looks to Western eyes like a pragmatic kingdom of means, rather than an idealistic world of ends” (8).

Investigation

Each team will work with one of the following key terms identified in the passage from last night. Your goal is to understand what the term means in the context of contemporary China. As you browse through online search results, consider: 

Terms/teams:

1. Rejuvenation (fuxing 复兴)
2. National humiliation (guochi 国耻)
3. Wealth and power (fuqiang 富强) *This is a challenging one because you will want to avoid searches that relate to the book.

Questions:

• Who is speaking about the term?
• On what types of occasions are the terms being used?
• Which events in the past are being referenced through use of this term? Are the references specific or general?
• What reactions are intended to be elicited by referencing this term?
• What do you think are the larger goals of the speaker?
• What is your own reaction to the rhetoric that you have encountered? Did all members of your team have the same reaction? Why or why not?

Homework: Assignment #102.