Photo: wikimedia

Last week saw the publication of a controversial new Chinese book entitled ‘China’s Not Happy (中国不高兴) by iFeng Publishing House. The book was the joint efforts of five Chinese nationalistic writers (Song Shaojun, Wang Xiaodong, Huang Jisu, Song Qiang and Liu Yang) and was written as a direct response to issues surrounding Tibet, the Olympic Torch upset in Paris and other incidents that angered many in China during the last year.

‘China’s Not Happy’ continues along the same lines as ‘China Can Say No’ (中国可以说不), the 1996 tome by Song Qiang, one of the five above mentioned authors. The book is mostly a 300 page rant about how, since 1840 and the Opium Wars, China has been bullied by Western powers and weaken by woolen headed liberal intellectuals at home. With constant reference to how ‘the Youth of modern China is angry’, I personally laughed out loud when I read Song Qiang describe how,

“If it weren’t for the police protecting you foreigners, young Chinese people would have taken to the streets had you all killed a long time ago!”

I don’t know which young people Song hangs around with, but eChinacities.com has never felt that the police are struggling to hold back hordes of crazed youth ready to pull foreigners limb from limb.

The following two short blogs form just some of the Chinese criticism of this controversial new book:

Photo: Baidu

Blog 1: Li Yinhe

I’ve read the web reports of ‘China’s Not Happy” but not yet read the book. I’ve just taken a look at the write-ups and seen that it is full of insults directed at Liberals and intellectuals, such as myself and Wang Xiaobo (a famous modern short story writer and social commentator). I have two things to say about this kind of Nationalism:

1. China has been bullied by the West since 1840 and we do need an element of Nationalism, we cannot just sit there and take it, China is our home. Afterall, our father’s fought the Japanese and tragically spilt their blood for China, we cannot just let that all go to waste and betray our nation. If a foreign country attacks China, then we must rally behind the flag of Nationalism.

However, Nationalism should have its limits. It should stop at defending China, and if that means attacking other counties then that is wrong. The book mentions that in order to make China stronger we need to claim more of the world’s resources and control more of the world. If this means invading other nations then that is a step too far.

2. Nationalism is one flag, yet so is Democracy, and we need both. If we only bang the drum of Nationalism whilst at the same time ignore Democracy, then we are no better than the Empress Dowager and the Boxers (the Boxer Rebellion in which peasant armies sponsored by the Qing court stormed major cities in China and murdered countless ‘foreign devils’ who were seen as the root of China’s current problems). With such a lack of a Democratic tradition in China that is all the more reason for Nationalists and intellectuals to work towards improving it, and not just stirring the flames of hate.