• Chinese People
• Chinese History
• Foreign Invasion
• Chinese Philosophies and religions
• Chinese People's Need
• Minorities and Regions

 

Chinese people is peaceful, hardworking and easily contented. They respect elders, love children and are patient with their fellows. Chinese in general are reserve and humble. They believe in harmony and never look for confrontation.

History has told that Chinese is non-invasive. During the period of British and the west expanding their powers to Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand, China became the target of the G8 invasion.

Chinese are very proud of their civilized society since the early day. They are open and pragmatic towards differences in religions and culture. Foreigners are welcome and being treated more fairly. China have been very receptive to Jews in the early days in Kaifung city and later in Shanghai when they were rejected by other countries during the World War II. .

China has long history or even a painful past. The fact is that China today is still very poor and most of the Chinese are still living in poverty. It is time for Chinese to work together that China will progress with other nations and their people can live happily and peacefully from hereafter. Tea culture is very Chinese. Yet Chinese enjoy drinking coffee too. There is no point to compare which one is better. Both are good as long as you enjoy it. Both are bad if you hate it. We respect every culture and have no intention to force our liking upon others.

What Makes China Different

"The prestige of the state and its popular identification with the highest values of Chinese civilization were not accidents; they were the final result of a centuries-long program of indoctrination and education directed by the Confucian scholar-officials. Traditional Chinese society can be distinguished from other pre-modern civilizations to the extent that the state, rather than organized religious groups or ethnic segments of society, was able to appropriate the symbols of wisdom, morality, and the common good."

Two hundred years later in early 1500, Europeans, supported by their governments, started to make requests to Chinese government for allowing them to land in China for further commercial and diplomatic activities. They were restricted when the Qing government was still quite strong at that time. Not until 17th century, the Chinese government officially opened up the seaports in the southern China. Foreign merchants had seized the opportunities to purchase goods from China back to Europe.

The story is familiar. With self-sufficiency and close-door society, China did not need much from the west. At the same time, China did not progress fast enough as Europe went through the industrial revolution. Foreigners made good fortunes in the trading but ran into high trade deficit. It was British that first started opium smuggling into China to obtain extra-ordinary profit in exchanging for valuable goods from China. When the Qing government attempted to stop it, it had been too late since China was so weak in military that after its loss in the opium war with British in 1842, Qing government signed the Treaty of Nanjing. It was also British that the first western country used military to humiliate Chinese with an unfair treaty that Hong Kong was ceded and a large amount of indemnities was paid. Since then, all foreign powers got into China and were ready to slice up China in no time.

Qing government became powerless. Chinese realized the danger of losing their motherland and had attempted to overturn the Qing government and drive out the foreign powers. The Qing government held on to the power with the full support from the foreign powers. (See the "Boxers" )

Reading the Chinese history of the last century, it is a shameful and painful memory to all Chinese. Since the Treaty of Nanjing, Chinese government was bend to the power of G8 and signed all kinds of unequal treaties. Foreign powers, including British, Japan, Russia, German, America and France, gang together and forced into Yiheyan (Summer Palace) of Beijing. The palace was burned down and all the national treasuries were stolen and removed from the palace.

Chinese had to go through 80 years of turbulence with continuous civil war, foreign interference and Japanese invasion. Japanese slaughtered million of Chinese during the Second World War,. Nanjing Massacre ran deep into all Chinese memory. At the end of the World War II, America, without any consent from China, unitarily signed off Diaoyutai , a group of islands of China, to the war criminal, Japanese government.

Chinese finally stands up again on the date of October 1, 1949 that the Communist China announced to the world the birth of the People's Republic of China. For almost two hundred years, this is the first government fully supported by majority of the Chinese that is able to fence off all the foreign powers from China although China was then a bankruptcy country after a long war and turbulence.

History tends to repeat itself. Communist China after close door for so many years lags behind badly economically. China has eventually opened its door to foreign investors in late 70 and the cries for high trade deficit reappear again. The West and Japan led by US had tried to block Communist China to the corner since its early establishment. The history told us that it is not Chinese against the West. It is the West against China. We, Chinese, should learn from the history and be alert not to repeat the shameful history again. The Communist China should take effort to plan carefully and progress in its own pace. DON'T RUSH INTO ANY POSSIBLE TRAP! China has a lot to learn from the America the dirty world politics.

Chinese is greatly influenced by the philosophies and religions of Confucianism , Taoism and Buddhism . Without a better understanding, it may be difficult to distinguish between philosophies, religions or superstitions in some cases. The history in this area has attracted many attentions and may help to understand this nation better.

Chinese philosophies tend to lead people to live in harmony. Western thinking may lead to the same destination but through confrontation and violence. Taoism and Confucianism were created in the early year of Chinese history between 600 BC and 400 BC.

Based on the work of Dao De Jin, Taoism promotes the belief that a person will gain power and strength if behave in harmony with the nature of universe. A person will be prosecuted sooner or later by his own wrong doing if acts against the nature of the universe. With proper behaviors and self restrain, a person can achieve great inner strength and prolonged life. Taoism and Buddhism are the most popular religions in China. They may be different but they have no conflicts.

Confucianism in another hand is the philosophy guiding Chinese in governing and behaviors. It emphasizes the importance of a family and the society order. Children must respect and obligate to their parents. Younger obeys to the elder. Junior follows the senior. Servants serve the rulers. Even today, the Chinese society still reassembles the spirit of Confucianism.

Buddhism was introduced into China from India. The reason for its widely acceptance in China is the concept of rebirth and the reinforcement of the Taoism and Confucianism. Buddhism is a man-centered religion, not god-centered. It confirms the fact that life is suffering. Craving is the cause of all suffering. No one but yourself can save you from suffering. To attain happiness you have to overcome craving or endless wanting, hatreds and complaining.

Basically Chinese is asked to behave properly in the society and in the family with great self restrain. Chinese is taught to eliminate the human desire for material life and to meditate for spiritual pureness. People are led to think that everyone comes to this world with empty-handed and will eventually be gone with empty-handed.

Islam like many other foreign religions believes in one god in the universe. With their deep belief in their god it leads to many religion conflicts and fighting in Europe and Middle East. Arabia Muslims brought Islam to China peacefully. Same as Islam, Christianity and Judaism were brought to China long time ago because Chinese philosophy promotes "Da Tong" in universe. 

Just like any other religions, there are crooks and Sects that use religions for personal gains and political purpose. It happens in the past and will continue to happen. The situation in Taiwan is much serious that Taiwan government has dissolved a few of these sects in the last few years. Recent years, America becomes very interested in Taoism and Buddhism, especially the effectiveness of Taoist qigong for treatment. There are many academic and commercial activities to promote these religions.

Chinese own philosophies accept freedom of religions. Chinese also believes that any religion should promote universal harmony, not hatreds. Religion should not be used for politics in any sense but for spiritual richness of mankind. Any religion body, which has very tie and effective control in organization, is not purely for promoting their religion but for solidify their power and influences in the society. These organizations are not religion in nature but political or commercial bodies. Falen Dala is one of them, which has been developed very rapidly in North America and China. We believe that this organization has political agenda and will do a lot of damages to other religion groups and the promotion of Taoism.

Chinese philosophies and religions after so many years become very complicated and difficult to summarize. But one thing is sure that Chinese is taught to live in harmony with people and the nature. There is nothing in the deep root that it will lead Chinese as a nation to a state of violence and invasiveness.

Minorities and Regions

Majority of the Chinese is Han. There are 55 minorities i n China but only 8% of the total population. China has 23 provinces and 5 autonomous regions of where minorities reside and self-govern. China was ruled by Han most of the time in the past except in Yuen Dynasty that Mongols ruled for less than 100 years and in Qing Dynasty, Manchuria ruled for almost 300 years. China's boundary today was solidified in early Qing Dynasty in early 17th Century.

Standard speaking Chinese is based on the Beijing Dialect. Other dialects include Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, and other minority languages.

Han has been the only official written language in China since Qin Dynasty in 220BC. Some of the minorities still keep their own written languages and culture. But they also learn Han language in school.

China is a multi-culture and multi-disciplined society for a few thousand years. All minorities in China today have the equal right as Han Chinese. Since minorities reside in the remote area and usually poor, Chinese government has preference policy to provide training for the minorities to progress, govern and manage.

The site displays many tourist attractions in some of the regions where minority lives. Special introduction and discuss will be given to some of minority groups, including Tibetans. Please refer to Fact Sheet of this topic.

Chinese philosophies and religions after so many years become very complicated and difficult to summarize. But one thing is sure that Chinese is taught to live in harmony with people and the nature. There is nothing in the deep root that it will lead Chinese as a nation to a state of violence and invasiveness.

Chinese People's Need

China belongs to Chinese, not a government or any privilege class. Any attempt against China is actually an action against Chinese, not the body in govern. Any independent movement of Taiwan or Tibet is in fact against the will of the majority of Chinese. It has been proven in the past, Chinese eventually can overcome and fence off any foreign invasion or interference.

It is time for Chinese to awake and think. Open eyes, listen and study. Chinese has no will to become a major power or policemen in the world stage. Stable and peaceful environment is what Chinese is looking for.

Taoism teaches us to live in harmony with the nature and people. Buddha believes that good act will bring good result and one with evil intention will be harmed by its own act at the end.

China toady is a poor country but Chinese is contented and should be happy with what they have today. There is no rush to deploy the western style political and social systems into China.

There is one basic difference between Chinese and Western cultures. All the political and social systems in the West are built on the basis that truth will come out only by confrontation and power struggling. This is quite different from Chinese philosophies that one should act with good intention, speak of no bad mouth and away from angry.

China should learn from the West their advanced technologies and social systems, the method and the process. Carefully study them and deploy them only when they fit. Any rush into unknown will bring great harm to the nation. Student movement in 1989 is a good example of this in Chinese modern history.

Today, Chinese concern the most in the following areas:

• Jobs - the new economic re-structuring undergoing will cause the unemployment to a new high.
• Housing - private housing is a new policy in China. China needs affordable housing in the coming years.
• Legal system - a more complete legal system
• Business regulations - to control the order in business dealing
• Education - more schools in the remote areas

Chinese is fully confident of charting own future. China is poor today but Chinese is not miserable. The future should be in own hands. Conserve energy, protect the environment and go alone with the nature. Do not compete in military and do not use any harmful chemical or nuclear weapons. Any reform must proceed carefully and cause no interruption to the social stability. China will be unified again and Chinese will be rewarded with a prolong prosperity for their good heart, hard working and national wisdom.