Analyze and compare different correspondences between China and Japan against the penetration of the West in the 19th century
It is necessary to know only the important facts so as not to ignore other important facts without paying much attention to one fact. thank you very much.
Both China and Japan are faced with similar challenges from the West (both faced serious challenges from Western imperialism and eventually signed an unequal treaty with the West, and new foreign countries The existence will breathe a new wave of domestic turmoil), please respond in a very different way. The elite of both countries have responded to the challenges brought about by the penetration of the West by initiating reform. In Japan, the Meiji regime chose to completely reinvent by westernization, but in China the Qing government chose to protect the traditional Chinese values and institutions. China's reform efforts, including self-reinforced exercise and the revival of the same rule, are the basic traditional answers to traditional problems. There is no large-scale industrialization in China, and Mahinus does not show most of the intention of abandoning the traditional empire system that can not solve the modern problem. The pride of Chinese culture is very persistent and it is an obstacle to making many Chinese people blind, making them impossible to learn from barbarians and to recognize the need to make fundamental changes. Meanwhile, Japan's efforts to adopt foreign technology to meet military and industrial needs have been highly successful. However, the Meiji regime, the military technology and industrialization can not separate from the institutional structure accompanying the development of the Western countries, it is impossible to separate the system to modernize Japan without hesitating to transform the traditional system and abolish I believe I will support it. It is necessary to survive. Generally, Meiji Restoration is a great success for Japanese people, they joined the ranks of new Western imperial forces.
Both countries believe that Western powers have economic and political influence, but their reactions are totally different. The response of Japan is to start industrialization, so they can challenge the influence of the West. They want to start building Western laws and costumes imposed by modern industries to combat the influence of Western countries.
On the other hand, China has little resistance to the imperialist intent from Western countries. China is divided by major countries of Western countries, and these major powers are competing for economic interests. Japan can modernize, but this influenced China by the power of the West. It was not until Hong Kong returned home in the latter half of the 1990s when China was able to completely shake off the influence of Europe.
The reaction between China and Japan against the western invasion of the 19th century differed in some respects from others. A big similarity between them is that they want to rule over Korea and they even participate in war This war is called Opium war. China tried to stop the influence of Europeans and Americans, but eventually failed. Meanwhile, Japan was forced to open trade with the West by Brigadier General Matthew Perry of the United States. China was regarded as a poor and undeveloped country, and by the year 1905 the West considered Japan equal, especially after Japan beat Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The reason why China is not important is that they moved from major civilizations to economically hard civilizations. Unlike China, the Japanese economy accepted and accepted the penetration of Western countries and began to grow.
Why did Japan succeed in modernizing in the 19th century, did not China do so? Since 1850, China and Japan were threatened by Western countries. Correspondingly, Japan successfully implemented the construction and modernization plan of the country; however, in China, the attempt of modernization turned out to fail, and the power of the central state was weakened deadly It was done. Failure to build a modern state brought about China's so-called lost century, and Japan's success made it the first non-Western European countries to achieve industrialization. In the paper by One Bridge University and Tuan - Hwee Sng (National University of Singapore) we are exploring this problem by combining historical evidence and formal modeling.