Assignment:
Pacific Century 1: Two Coasts of China (Video made in 1992)
In this video, you will learn about lives in traditional China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mongols, all a part of the Chinese Empire.
Vocabulary:
Middle Kingdom insular vision Barbarians
Nomads steppe Mongols
Genghis Khan (1162-1227) Kamikaze (divine wind) Kublai Khan
Mongolian Ger (yurt) Silk Road Ming Dynasty
Great Wall of China Lord McCartney
Emperor Qianlong Warren Delano (Franklin D.Roosevelt's grandfather)
Opium Wars Lin Zexu (drug tsar)
Questions
1. What were the two visions of China according to the video?
2. What was Chinese life like before the West came?
3. What was the nomads' life like? How did the Chinese and the nomads meet each other?
4. Explain the Mongols role in promoting trade. Discuss the relationship among the Mongols, Tibetans and Arabs.
5. Explain the relationship between the Ming Dynasty's insular vision and its downfall by the Manchus (Qing Dynasty).
6. What vision did the Manchus embrace? How did the Chinese sea become the European lake?
7. How did Emperor Qianlong treat British envoy George Macartney?
8. What was the Canton system? Please explain how it works.
9. What did the West want from China? What did they trade with China in return for Chinese goods? What was the West's answer to reduce the trade deficit?
10. Is the West "free trade" of opium "fair, honorable and legitimate trade"? How did it justify the trade by "blaming the victims"?
11. Where did the Americans find their opium? Who was Warren Delano, and why was the Russell Sturgis & Co. famous in the New England area?
12. Why was the China trade important for American prosperity?
13. Karl E. Meyer wrote on a New York Times op-ed on the eve of Hong Kong's return in 1997: "Losers rarely name wars, an exception being the conflict between Britain and China from 1839 to 1842, known bluntly ever since as the Opium War. To most Chinese, a century of humiliation began with this war, in which Westerners sought to force a deadly drug on an Asian people, and then imposed an unequal treaty that pried open their country and annexed the island that became Hong Kong." What do the opium wars say of the Western human rights practice in other countries?
14. The British flag (state) was used to protect an infamous contraband traffic of opium drug that was banned in Qing China. What did this say to the Chinese of the British respect of rule of law?
15. Why are the Summer Palace never rebuilt since 1860 when it was burned down by the British and French forces?
16. Consider the "split personality" between Hong Kong, Taiwan and the continental China, represented by the Beijing government. Why were the two visions of China so different? In your perspective, how should China manage the "peril and promise" of the coast?