Prejudice Against China Will Eventually Change

The UK magazine Nature has apologized to Ye Shiwen, in the end demonstrating conduct befitting a scientific publication.* However, within the multitude of public cases at this year’s London Olympics, there are many who still await vindication.

Since ancient times, the Chinese people have held three great ideals: those of the enlightened ruler, the just official and the way of chivalry. These three ideals all point to one thing: ruling the people with impartiality. It is often suggested that the reason why we have these ideals is that there were no guarantees from the system, and all instead depended upon moral law. In the end, systems are both made by and enforced by people. Just look — despite modern Olympic sports having a set of clear rules, there can still be considerable bias in their application.

Some say that this bias originates from Westerners’ deeply-rooted prejudice against those different from themselves. This must be examined in a historical light.

Economically and culturally, the world over the past century has been Westernized; we are their “untamed land.” In the 18th century, Western society held great respect for China. The Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors were lauded by thinkers of the Enlightenment; Louis XIV and Frederick the Great both held China as a model to aspire to. However, during the conflicts that followed, Chinese prestige fell to the lowest it had ever been, and its culture and traditions fell along with it. China did not even merit a place in the text “The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare.” In the last 200 years, all that China has done has been but of minor significance in the eyes of the West. Over time, this has become an established view.

Although China has already become the world’s second-largest economy and can be respected for its globalization efforts since the implementation of reforms, many people have not yet adjusted to the celerity of its rise and still view China through the lens of the past, consequently holding onto bias toward China’s progress.

History and reality show us that if we do not have the size and strength to contend with others and do not possess comparable power, we are left with little choice but to bow to them. We firmly believe that those antiquated and obsolete views of China will eventually change.

*Editor’s note: Nature, a prestigious academic journal, published a controversial article about Ye Shiwen that insinuated that her clean drug test did not necessarily mean the gold medal winner was not using performance enhancing drugs. For more, see http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/article3742679.ece.