Self-Strengthening In China

Why did Self-Strengthening fail?
Self-Strengthening was a period of time mingled with 1861- 1894, which began following mainland Chinas failure against occidental power. The design of self-strengthening was to preserve traditional Chinese ideals but to employ innovative Western technology into Chinas society. Put very(prenominal) aptly, the Chinese view of self-strengthening was Leaning the superior techniques of the barbarians to control the barbarians. The Chinese perception and mindset of self-strengthening, combined with a number of opposite factors was what led to the eventual downfall of the movement of self-strengthening.
Firstly, self-strengthening failed due to Chinas scope of modernization. Chinas scope of Western activity was limited only to firearms, ships, machines, industries etc. China make no attempts to employ other Western cultures such as philosophy, arts and culture. This fact is further emphasised by Feng Guifens saying What we have to learn from the barbarians is only one thing, steady ships and effective guns. This statement truly shows the attitudes and feelings of the people at the time. They were unkindly to reforms or expansions of any kind, and refused to merge Western technology and Chinese society together due to their severe traditional mindset.




This strict Confusionist mindset also leads me to my next point- the lack of public livelihood within China. The people of China, especially the ordinary civilians resented the concept of self-strengthening and did everything they could to flick it to shreds. For example, when modern textile factories were being built, Chinese workers tried to neutralize the machines at every opportunity they had. This, as opposed to Meiji, where lacquer had the fill-in of the Emperor and its people, whereas China had no firm backing of the Empress and social unrest amongst the people. These examples also show us the Chinese attitude towards reform. As mentioned before, the Chinese were extremely traditional and therefore...If you necessitate to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com



If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my paper