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The India-China conflict viewed through a Chinese kaleidoscope
wchao37 Updated: 2004-03-01 09:28
India did make appreciable contributions to Chinese culture especially in philosophy and theology.
How could she not have with such a large population living so proximal to her northern Asian neighbors separated only by the Himalayas?
It is meaningless to talk about 'Indian' Buddhism having 'conquered' China because that's just like saying China's four great inventions of paper, movable type printing, gunpowder and mariner's compass having conquered Eurasia, or Judaism having conquered the entire Christian world.
Exchange of ideas and inventions is not the same as conquest. If it were so and new ideas are always interpreted in the context of 'conquest,' then the first biped hominid (Homo erectus) who came up with the idea of standing up on his two feet and walking upright was then the 'conqueror' of all Homo sapiens sapiens. Does that make any sense?
Actually, Buddhism was a philosophical idea that originated in present-day Pakistan and modified by the Chinese especially during the Tang Dynasty when monks brought the scripts back and disseminated the idea with newly-invented block-printing. Copies of the printed scripts are reputedly still housed in Da Yan Pagota in Xian, China.
The religion of Buddhism manifests itself in many forms today. Mongolian and Tib*tan Buddhism is very different from Han versions of the same religion. Saying that many Chinese believe in Buddhism is much like saying the rest of the world believe in the use of paper, printing, compass and gunpowder. The only difference is that religion is the spiritual presentation of an idea while inventions are its physical manifestations. You can all see that the use of gunpowder by the West did not mean the conquest of the Europeans by the Chinese. On the contrary, the Europeans had used this Chinese invention to wreak havoc on China herself during the century before 1949 and reduced her to a semi-colony especially in the Leased Territories.
The difference between India and China is that although the latter country has made many contributions to secular aspects of human civilization, you don't see too many Indians acknowledging or knowing about them.
That's because they had been acculturated by the Britons in the most important aspect that differentiates one culture from another -- language -- and in the past there weren't any books written in English about Chinese science and technology until Joseph Needham of Cambridge University came up with his now-famous voluminous "Science and Civilization in China" based on his research in wartime China in the '30s..
It is not something to be proud of when educated Indians have to use English as the communication medium amongst themselves, while the Chinese have fortunately been able to retain their own. For example, the manual used by Yang Liwei in the first trip into space last October was written entirely in Chinese.
To be sure, for years I have noticed that nearly all Indian newspapers are full of bigoted comments about China. They sound like they are uncomfortable with the rise of China in every aspect -- from her economic ascendancy to her Olympic medals. It is hard for a Chinese person to grasp this peculiar sour-grape mentality of the Indians because most Chinese don't mind seeing their southern neighbors improve their lot and they do not make a conscious comparison day in and day out.
It is difficult for the Chinese to do business in India because local officials in that country do not act according to trade agreements sanctioned by their central government in New Delhi.
A case in point is that of Chinese ships being denied entry into Indian ports even though all the necessary papers are in working order, and there are even reports of Indians aping Westerners in levying unwarranted anti-dumping tariffs against Chinese goods, thereby creating unnecessary impediments to the normal commercial intercourse between the two nations.
The Indians don't walk the talk when it comes down to truly improving the relationship between the two nations. Simmering beneath the surface, anti-Chinese sentiments remain robust amongst Indians, who continue to blame the Chinese for the border war in 1962, a war that was instigated by none other than the Indian government under Nehru.
It would make more sense if both nations try to find common ground and enjoy mutual respect based upon their long history of neighborly interaction.
Unfortunately, jealousy is a very destructive emotion and based on my experience living in three continents, it is very difficult to handle a neighbor who is incessantly make inane comparisons on the basis of one-upmanship and not on a spirit of mutual benefit and sincere cooperation, a neighbor who boasts of fanciful accomplishments when the social basis of such development is still largely non-existent.
Indians strike me as big talkers, even today boasting that they would overtake the United States within twenty years as if China is not even on their radar screen in their masturbatory fantasy. Their demeanor and mentality are very similar to those of the Manchus during late Qing Dynasty and therefore self-defeating in nature.
Hyperbolic extravaganza and self-inferiority complexes are actually two faces of the same mirror. Let's hope that the Indians come back to reality on earth and raise the average income of their 'untouchables' to more than a dollar a day within the foreseeable future, and then perhaps we can talk some more about competition between China and India.
| The above content represents the view of the author only. |
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