Robert Chard

For most of us who are Sinologists or China specialists of any sort, the rising tide of anti-China sentiment in the Western world is a matter of serious concern. This is not to deny areas of genuine disagreement and conflicts of interest between China and the West, but it seems that unreasoning hostility has taken on a life of its own, and itself become the problem. In the political sphere, we see a strong trend to assume the worst of China and take measures accordingly. Matters are somewhat different in the business world, of course, where Western companies see the benefits of working with and in China. But as we have seen recently, they are vulnerable to political shifts and unpredictable government policies, and less willing than previously to speak out openly.

Academic China specialists in the West historically have not always had an easy time of it, especially in the US. The advice they offer to governments is often ignored, or at worst, invites suspicion of disloyalty. “You've gone over to the other side.” In recent years, all humanities subjects in universities have come under financial pressure, seen as economically unproductive and politically biased. Chinese studies, especially the study of Chinese language, gets caught up in this. Chinese is seen as a minority subject that costs too much to provide, and is particularly vulnerable to cuts, a trend that has been worsening recently in the UK.

The world needs China, and China needs the world. Even most anti-globalists and China hawk politicians concede that decoupling Western economies from China is neither possible nor desirable. China brings enormous benefit to the world economy, to scientific and technological progress, and to preserving the environment. To the frequent comment that everything is made in China (including American bright red MAGA caps) we should counter that China is awash in American, European and Japanese products.

Anyone who spends time in China comes to know that the reality of the place is nothing like the hostile perceptions in the political sphere or some of the media. This is not to say there is nothing bad in China. There are negative aspects to any country. But to anyone familiar with China over several decades, it is obvious that the overall quality of life for most of the Chinese population has improved enormously. China’s infrastructure for energy and transport is rapidly becoming a model for the world. And China’s integration with the rest of the world is immediately obvious to any visitor, for example, in the foreign products to be seen anywhere.

Coming back to Chinese studies and China specialists in the West, it is obvious that we sinologists should be the ones to counter unreasoning hostility against China. This is not easy if people do not listen to us, but there are ways. Those of us who study China’s past, who call ourselves sinologists, have a particular role to play. With our historical perspective, we see that the much-vaunted rise of China is not a “rise” at all, but rather a return to a long balance between East and West Eurasia. Wider East Asian civilization, with China at its core, is normally an equal counterpart to the civilization of the Mediterranean and Europe. The current situation is the restoration of an overall balance going back millennia. Even more than two thousand years ago, the cultures and economies of East and West Eurasia were interacting, and this interaction strengthened over time, evident for example in the Silk Road trade. Arguably globalization started not with the seafaring explorations of the fifteenth century , but earlier under the Pax Mongolica in the 13th and 14th centuries. What we as premodern China specialists need to do is spread this knowledge of world history more widely.

Our problem is partly one of supply – there are not enough China specialists in the West. But we also face a problem of demand. Wider interest in China and learning Chinese language grew rapidly for many years, but over the last few years the trend has reversed. We hear that numbers studying Chinese in American universities and schools have fallen, probably in conjunction with the wider hostility and suspicion towards China in the political sphere and in much of the media. When demand for Chinese language teaching falls, it is more difficult to resist the economic and political pressures for budget cuts. Perhaps AI can improve the effectiveness of language learning at lower cost, but that still has a long way to go.

Against this I offer the phenomenon of “cool China”. China’s long history and large-scale civilization present an enormous wealth of knowledge and interesting stories. Some of this is seeping into the rest of the world in unconventional ways, beyond universities. I often cite the example of computer games. One Chinese-made game, “Black Myth: Wukong” 黑神话：悟空, based on the Xi you ji 西游记, has become phenomenally successful internationally, selling well and winning awards. It has received high praise for its technical quality, and for the appeal of its content. Gamers report that it is “different”, and they delve into the novel Xi you ji 西遊記 to find out more about the story background. They can discover the English translations of the Xi you ji by the sinologists Arthur Waley and Anthony Yu. For a long time there has also been a popular series of computer games based on the Three Kingdoms, “Dynasty Warriors”. This game is produced by a Japanese company but follows the Chinese story closely. I was surprised more than twenty years ago to encounter children in the UK who knew a great deal about the Three Kingdoms period in China – they knew the names Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Zhuge Liang, and the contending states of Wei, Wu, and Shu. The “Dynasty Warriors” games have now advanced in time beyond the Three Kingdoms into the late third century, the Western Jin period. On gamers’ blogs I have found multiple posts revealing that enthusiasts trawl the internet for information about the historical background and share it with each other, for example the story of the Empress Jia (Jia hou 賈后, Jia Nanfeng 賈南風) in the 290s. These people, presumably mostly young, are clearly not hostile toward China. They are interested; for them China is “cool”. Hopefully the spread of such wider interest will foster positive perceptions of China, and drive demand for Chinese in universities.

Study of China is an important way of countering the unreasoning hostility infecting so much of international politics. We can hope that people will come to see that a world in which China and the West engage and cooperate will be a more prosperous and happier world than one of suspicion, tension, hostility and conflict.