Faith in past can change future for better

As an old friend of China and an admirer of the Chinese people and their 5000-year-old history and culture, I have always pointed out aspects of life and attitudes in the People's Republic that do not match the glory of China and its civilization. It is in such a context that I would like to point out the high and low points during my and my wife's recent visit to China.

The high point came in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, when we saw the loving way in which the Chinese people have restored the Terracotta Warriors. Each clay soldier represents several hundred hours of effort, each second of which has been effective in forging the necessary link between the past, the present and the future. China has to be seen as a continuum, not as a series of discrete and unconnected eras. Each era has within it the chemistry of previous ones, and it is this fusion that has made Chinese culture rise once again from the turmoil of warlordism, cruel occupation of a third of the country by a foreign power and domination by many other countries, and the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Today, all across this vast country, hundreds of millions of people are rediscovering their glorious past and, in the process, gaining confidence in an equally great future. Several museums have been built and many historical sites have been restored.

We were happy to see the respectful faces of the thousands who visited the Terracotta Warriors the day we did. Rich and poor, Chinese and foreign, all were silenced by this "invasion" from more than 2,000 years ago. That was not a time to talk; that was a time for silent reflection.

From the terracotta excavation sites, we were taken by our Chinese friends to the Wild Goose Pagoda, where we saw the monks at prayer and felt spiritual peace. Buddhism - unlike some other religions - has no political message, and accepts any system of government. Though Siddhartha Gautama, or Sakyamuni, was from India, it cannot be forgotten that the religion was brought to China and given shelter by the same monk whose spirit inspired the Wild Goose Pagoda, Xuan Zang. At a time when Buddhism was being almost eliminated in India by a resurgent Hinduism, energized by the teachings of Sankaracharya, the religion was honored and developed in China. Thus, although the India is the birthplace of Buddhism, the "house" nurtured the faith is China. And hence, it was China that ensured the health of and spread Buddhism to other countries such as Japan and Thailand. It is therefore with happiness that one sees the loving way in which Buddhism is once more being nurtured in China, so that the spirit of Xuan Zang is at peace with New China.

From the pagoda, we went to the gardens where Zhang Xueliang arrested Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to form a united front with the Communist Party of China against the Japanese invaders. It was not only to the 1930s that memories traveled while walking in the garden, but hundreds of years beyond that period, to when Chinese emperors would stroll there or take a bath in the Hot Springs. We imagined the pain the emperor must have felt when his favorite concubine was executed so that he would spend more time on matters of the state.

Later, we saw the Tang Park and the magnificent Famen Temple. The reconstruction of this ancient site has been done in a way that preserves the spiritual peace of the original structure.

A people proud of their past will work harder to ensure a good future. This is exactly what has been happening in China. But there are some other features of modern China that are not so pleasant. For example, the huge egg-shaped National Center for the Performing Arts (or National Grand Theater), built in the heart of Beijing, near so many historical buildings, has nothing Chinese about its architecture. From inside, its glass walls resemble an airport or a railway station. This building shows one of the weaknesses of China: the craze for foreign designs.

True, a great civilization must be open to other cultures and not hesitate to adopt any feature that can add value. India, for instance, has adopted the English language and made it part of its culture. But such mixing of the best from the rest of the world with what already exists at home is different from an attitude that regards only foreign ideas and trends as superior, from handbags and shoes to clothes and building designs.

China needs to avoid going the Japan way, where the youth, especially girls, as a matter of rule color their hair blonde because they regard it as superior to black, and who want to be Europeans rather than Japanese. Perhaps it is this lack of self-confidence in what is a great culture that has resulted in so many years of stagnation in Japan, a country that seems more at ease with Europeans than with Asians.

Europe may be great and its people may be wonderful, but so are Asia and the Asians. This continent needs to develop self-confidence after centuries of foreign domination, and China, India, Japan and Thailand must show the way.

In Beijing, we saw an exhibition that sought to establish a link between Chinese and Roman civilizations. Why can't we hold an exhibition that shows how close Chinese and Indian civilizations are, or how close Chinese civilization is to South-East Asian or East Asian civilization?

It seems the Chinese people are giving 90 percent of their attention to the West and only 10 percent to the rest of the world when the latter has become as important to China as the West certainly is.

India and China are the only civilizations to have continued without a break. China and India have been friends for about 5,000 years, yet there is still so little contact between the two. This needs to change. They need more people-to-people exchanges.

The Chinese should know what's happening in the social, cultural and political fields of India, and vice versa. We need to organize more exchange visits between the peoples of the countries, and ensure more students study in each other's campuses. The call of the times is for the two Asian giants to work more closely, and change the lot of the world.

The author is professor of Geopolitics and UNESCO Peace Chair, Manipal University.

(China Daily 08/20/2009 page9)