This is just a brief note to inform readers of this blog (if there are any!) that Nonnobis will be "going dark" for an indeterminate period of time after today while I relocate to the United States from China. Yes, after seven years teaching English in a Chinese university, I'm calling it quits and going home. However, I hope that the hiatus will be relatively short--that once I've gotten more-or-less re-established in the U.S. I'll be able to start blogging again. In the meanwhile, please be patient!
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Today is Independence Day in the United States. As I am (for a few days more) still living in China, I will not be able to celebrate the holiday in my own country. However, to mark the occasion, I thought it might be interesting to engage in a little bit of historical retrospective, to compare the two countries as they were at that time more than two centuries ago, and as they are today. In 1776, as is well known, Americans were living in a land at war. Despite its initial success at forcing the British army to evacuate Boston, the American army would face a number of crushing defeats throughout the rest of the year, until the surprise victory at Trenton at almost the year’s end. News of the Declaration of Independence came to the Continental Army just a few weeks before it would face a massive British attack on New York City. The Continental Congress, in making the decision to declare independence, was taking (or so, at least, it seemed) a big risk in doing so, as the prospects for actually achieving independence through armed conflict did not seem that bright. On the other hand, in 1776, China, under the rule of the Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799) of the Qing Dynasty was a land at peace—although a few years before Chinese forces had been engaged in a war with Burma and would be a few years later engaged in a war in Vietnam. Perhaps the most notable event in this year, at least for the emperor, was the completion of a lavish residence for his eventual retirement (which would not come for a number of years) within the Forbidden City, the imperial palace. From the viewpoint of their political systems, the two countries could not have been more different at that time. The new-born United States was developing into a democracy—however imperfect—in which ordinary people could have a say in their government. On the other hand, China was under an absolute monarchy, in which the emperor literally had the power of life or death over everyone. Moreover, it is interesting to compare the dominant leaders of the two countries in the following few years after 1776. George Washington, given the chance to become king after the War of Independence, refused it. In addition, after serving as the nation’s president for eight years, he retired and gave up all political power. In contrast, the Qianlong Emperor also ostensibly retired (in order not to reign longer than his venerated grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor), but in fact held on to power until his death. And today? Today both China and the United States are major powers, in both political and economic terms. However, their circumstances are still rather different. The United States is still engaged in war—both in Afghanistan and the so-called War on Terror—while China is officially at peace (despite tensions with some of its neighbors). The United States is a developed (but still certainly imperfect) democracy, whose leader serves at the will of the people, while China is under the absolute rule of the Party. And so, perhaps, in a way, as the French say--plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose (“the more things change, the more they stay the same”)! Image: The Qianlong Emperor, from commons.wikimedia.org |
AuthorStephen W. Hoyle presently teaches classes in Language Arts and Latin at a private middle school in the Washington, DC area. Previously, he taught English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at universities in the United States and China. He received a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Virginia and a master's degree in linguistics from George Mason University. In addition to China, he has lived in Belgium and Taiwan, and traveled extensively in Europe. His interests include language (having studied French, Latin, modern Mandarin Chinese, classical Chinese, Japanese, and koine Greek), education, philosophy and Christian theology, literature (mainly poetry), history, and classical music. He is married to an immigrant from China and has a teenage daughter. Archives
April 2024
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