Publisher's Synopsis
This book is part of a broad study on Confucianism and its implications for the modernisation of East Asia. The Opium War symbolises the beginning of foreign humiliations, and the Cultural Revolution represents the apex of self-oppression, self-intimidation and self-humiliations. China vainly strove under the guns of many countries until the end of World War II, and since then, has suffered from many civil wars. Immediately after New China was established in 1949, the CCP closed the door to the outside (democratic) world, thus creating self-humiliations. Since economic reform was launched in 1978, New China has been developed from the verge of nationwide self-murder to the track for prosperity and freedom. The long march from self-destructiveness to social and economic progresses raises many challenging questions about human survival and processes. Philosophical, historical, political and economic perspectives are discussed. An open and enriching New China could dramatically affect the world in the not-so-distant future. This book describes the history of New China as a dynamic process from the pole of central planning, anti-Americanism and anti-Confucianism towards market economy, Americanisation and modernising Confucian manifestations.
