Author: onekengdie(qian.591)

Text Review – Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

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The literary material I chose is “Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom.” This is a book about the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Compared with the typical history books focusing on documents and analyzing events, this book creatively focuses on an important person in that age, Hong, Rengan. Therefore, this book is more like Hong’s biography in more than five years of history. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom war was one of the critical events in China in the 19th century. This unprecedented civil war almost completely destroyed China’s richest areas. Some historians believe that the number of people killed in this war may even exceed that in the Second World War. Unlike traditional China’s civil war, the religion believed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was called God Worshipping, which was derived from Christianity. Therefore, this civil war can be understood as a religious war.

But interestingly, western countries at that time, including Britain and France, did not support their “fellow religious brothers” in this war but supported the Qing government representing traditional China. Naturally, this is related to the serious distortion of some Christian customs by God Worshipping; for example, the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom think their king is the brother of Jesus. But in the later stage, Hong, one of the book’s protagonists, once expressed his willingness to correct some mistakes to the missionaries. So I think the main reason why Britain and France attacked the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was to protect their interests in China. They don’t care about the life and death of the Chinese people.

One of the most attractive plots in this book is the dialogue between Hong and missionaries. At that time, Hong was mainly responsible for the internal affair of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He was also one of the most intelligent people in the ruling class. The dialogue between Hong and the missionaries reflects the connection and opposition between the real Western Christian culture and the derived culture. Both the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the missionaries have made it their duty to save China’s heretics. But one of them advocates violence to seize Chinese power, while the other opposes violence. Although the talks ended unhappily, both sides learned a lot from them. For example, Hong later promulgated a law similar to the Homestead Act to distributing land to the people. Another attraction of this book is that its author quotes a lot of materials from the western world, which makes this book very novel for me, a Chinese reader.

In conclusion, this book delineates the communication and conflict between oriental and Western cultures. When the East gradually became synonymous with backwardness, although Eastern civilizations tried to obtain western support by learning some Western cultures, they were still the sick man of East Asia in the eyes of real Western civilizations. This systematic discrimination has lasted for nearly a century and is still reflected in some cases today.

 

Yo, is this Classism? — Classicism, inequality hidden behind economic development. By Carly Kwiatkowski and Xinyu Qian

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       Since the first moment when the concept of private property came into being in human society, class and Classicism were born rapidly. Due to their innate physical, intellectual advantages or natural gifts, a small part of the total population can quickly accumulate their wealth or prestige, making them quickly separate from the main population and produce a new class, the upper class. Other people with physical defects or bad luck fall behind the middle class and become the lower class. With the development of science and technology and productivity improvement, the boundary between people is becoming more and more apparent and fixed. The income gap between classes is growing. Most of the time, the wealthiest people only need to spend a short time, such as a minute, to earn a salary that the bottom people can earn for several generations.

Leaving aside the wealthiest class, which is unable to analyze wealth through standard production-consumption theory. In the middle class, the backbone of society, the vast majority of citizens of all countries, there is also injustice in development: class barriers. In the same region and province, the economic development of some countries or provinces is better than that of other provinces. Taking Europe as an example, the economic development of Western Europe is much stronger than that of Eastern Europe. Even in Eastern Europe, the economic development of countries close to the west, such as Poland and the Baltic countries, is higher than Eastern countries, such as Belarus and Russia. In addition to natural factors such as geographical conditions, artificially created unequal policies are also an important reason to hinder the economic development of these countries. In the process of formulating these policies, Classicism is everywhere.

Figure 1: Economic growth of East Europe after Disintegration of Eastern Bloc

Among the former Eastern Bloc countries, several western countries, including East Germany, have the best economic development. In addition to their own industrial level, most of these countries were forcibly incorporated into the Communist camp after World War II. The Communist Party has not completely transformed the local society, and the people are mainly composed of the petty bourgeoisie, and they had closer ties with western society. Most of the countries in the East are the former Soviet Union. These countries have been controlled by the Communist Party for a longer time and have made more complete social transformations. The people are mainly composed of workers and another proletariat, who had no connection with the west. Therefore, before and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, when the capitalist camp formulated economic assistance to Eastern Europe, the economic aid to Poland and other countries was much more than that to the former Soviet Union. This hostility from the past class struggle chilled the Russian people.

To some extent, it also led to the opposition between Russia and the West today. Sadly, Soviet people have always been regarded as “others” by western society, even after they gave up their faith and government and tried to embrace western civilization. Obviously, if Europe and the United States had not turned a blind eye to the suffering life of the Russian working class because of Classism at that time but provided help as they did for Poland, today’s Russia might no longer be able to form a unified ideology at home against the west. European people could have a good sleep.

 

More realistic problems, regional Classicism

Instead of tedious and lengthy historical topics, let’s talk about some current practical problems. As the world’s largest developing country and the second-largest economy, China has grown at a fantastic speed in the past two decades. Behind this huge development, there is also inequality caused by Classicism.

As we all know, an essential factor stimulating China’s economic development was the Chinese government’s policy of reform and opening up in 1978. This policy indicates that the Chinese government has abandoned the Soviet-style planned economy and adopted the market economy of capitalist countries. The center of China’s economic development has also shifted from North China to South China. In this process, many state-owned enterprises in the North, especially those in Northeast China, are closed and sold to private individuals. These new factory owners often move their factories and devices to the South because there is cheaper labor and more convenient transportation. However, although these factories have moved away, the original workers can only lose their jobs. The story that happened in the rust belt happened again in the other hemisphere. While China’s economy continues to reach new highs, these unemployed workers in the rust belt of the East can only live on alcohol in their homes.

Figure 2 and 3: Chinese provinces’ GDP per capita in Chinese RMB, Dark Red means rich and green means poor, Retrieved from https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/109432083?from_voters_page=true

The Chinese government has made many ambitious attempts to revitalize the northeast, driving private capital to invest in the northeast through government investment, but they have failed. One of the reasons for this is the defamation of Northeast China by Chinese public opinion, which can be defined as Classism to a certain extent. In the planned economy era, China’s industrial center was the northeast, which had the largest proportion of factories and workers in China. At that time, workers had a high social status and welfare. The urban residents in the South were mainly composed of petty bourgeoisie such as intellectuals and small businessmen and were oppressed by the Communist government for a long time. But in the Communist Party, the government realized that these people were more needed to develop the market economy, so it quickly changed its policy. Once intellectuals and small traders quickly became the preferred object of the government and quickly became wealthy. After mastering the power of social discourse, the new bourgeoisie discriminated against the residents of the northeast as they had been discriminated against by the working class and even deliberately fabricated lies to reduce investment in the northeast and even the whole North. This has also made the economic gap between South and North China widen in recent years. The North has almost entirely become a subsidiary to provide raw materials and energy to the South.

Figure 4 and 5: photo of one labor market in Northeast China and one recruitment center in Shenzhen, South China, retrieved from In China’s Northeast, a Daily Jostle for Jobs Produces Mostly Despair – The New York Times (nytimes.com) and 深圳超5萬求職者擠爆招聘會 平均月薪1.8萬 – 香港文匯網 (wenweipo.com).

The Chinese government’s large-scale environmental protection activities have dealt another heavy blow to the northern provinces. With coal as the main object, many coal-producing state-owned enterprises were closed, resulting in more unemployed workers (Perlez et al., 2015). This has also worsened the economy of the North. In today’s China, young people can find jobs with a monthly salary of tens of thousands of dollars in big cities in the South. In contrast, in cities in the North, countless old workers aged 50 or 60 compete for odd jobs of less than 50 dollars a day in the labor market to support their families (Hernández et al., 2016). Obviously, what hinders Northeast China is not natural resources, traffic conditions, or human ability, but the Classism behind the long-standing opposition between the North and the South. In these decades, to maintain the unity of their own groups, the people of the North and the South have been forced to create this opposition and slander each other as others, resulting in today’s imbalance. The prevalence of this othering contributes to the gap between wealthy and poor increasing. This gap prevents those from lower classes from easily rising to higher classes; there is no quick way to be able to make more money for the southern residents. They are almost stuck in their class and have no means of overcoming the gap.

 

What about developed countries?

       Then, in developed countries, will there also be systematic injustice caused by Classism? It is obvious. In addition to the widespread injustice against farmers, workers, and other low-income manual workers in developing countries, there is another injustice in some developed countries: the injustice against the elderly.

Figure 6: A map of a Japanese family with more than three elderly people. The redder represents the larger proportion of the total family. Retrieved from: https://www.stat.go.jp/data/mesh/topics/topi681.html.

Today, with the increasing aging rate, many elderly people live in nursing homes or live alone. Their families may not have time to take care of them, or they may have no family. No matter what kind of work they did when they were young, these old people can only rely on social welfare and wait for death alone after losing their ability to work and spend all their savings. Society has hidden discrimination against these “disabled classes.” Because the elderly are slow to learn new knowledge, some newly developed technical services often do not update the software and develop the elderly version support simultaneously, such as smartphones and electronic payment. More seriously, because the connection between the elderly and the social subject is decreasing, they are more likely to be regarded as others by society. When the overall crisis comes, the community is likely to sacrifice these elderly first. A notable example is the nursing home scandal that broke out continuously during the pandemic. Countless elderly patients who can be treated have been artificially abandoned and even forced to sign a guarantee that they don’t want to be treated. In other words, respect for the elderly exists only in political propaganda at the government level, although many great medical workers and welfare workers strive to help these elderly people. However, the mainstream public opinion is indifferent to the death of these elderly people who are not related to themselves, attributing it to the choice of fate. This indifference from Classism may exist more and more widely in the coming decades because we are getting old.

 

Classism Close to Home

Social class can have an effect on the quality and presence of healthcare in many Americans’ lives. Individuals with lower-paying jobs are more likely to have a lesser healthcare plan while individuals with higher-paying jobs will have better and more inclusive healthcare plans. Such differences in healthcare can lead to varying death rates among classes and races (Becker and Newsom). This issue is one set up by the government. The lower-class individuals have no way of overcoming this gap to be able to afford the best possible healthcare. They must make the best of the healthcare they are provided. However, this can discourage them from going to the doctor leading to an increase in illness and a lesser quality of life. There is no way these individuals can overcome this gap and get the appropriate healthcare they need.

The differences among healthcare plans contribute to a sense of othering. The healthcare companies “other” lower-class individuals. They set them apart from higher-class individuals. The people in the lower classes are given a mediocre healthcare plan. They are forced to work with the plan they are given while those in higher classes are covered for necessary visits and procedures.

The government should work towards creating healthcare that will cover necessary visits for all individuals. People should not have to worry about receiving basic medical care. This will lead to improved national health and it will work to reduce the sense of other imposed on people that belong to the lower classes.

 

Othering of Society

In each instance described above, Classism forces people of separate classes to pit themselves against each other. As de Beauvoir’s theory of otherness states, no one group will exist without comparing itself or setting itself up against another group. When we discussed Russia at the beginning of this article, we said the west “othered” Russia. The west separated itself from Russia in an attempt to show dominance or just because of the disputes over money; the money values given before and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union caused an upset that led to a separation that could not be fixed.

Furthermore, othering exists, and has for a long time, in China. The clashes between northern and southern China have contributed greatly to the sense of othering present in the country. The Northern economy struggles, and many who live there are lower class. The Southern economy flourishes and is home to many people that belong to the upper class. These gaps in wealth have led to a sense of other between the two groups; neither group views the other as part of its own despite living in the same nation. Being othered contributes to bigger gaps between the two groups. At the center of this issue is the difference between classes.

 

 

 

Reference:

Valdai. “Former Eastern Bloc Economies 25 Years Later.” Valdai Club, 8 Aug. 2016, https://valdaiclub.com/multimedia/infographics/former-eastern-bloc-economies-25-years-later/.

Statistics Bureau of Japan. “地域メッシュ別にみた高齢化の現状.” Stat.go.jp, 2010, https://www.stat.go.jp/data/mesh/topics/topi681.html.

Hernández, Javier C., and Owen Guo. “In China’s Northeast, a Daily Jostle for Jobs Produces Mostly Despair.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 May 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/world/asia/northeast-china-economy-jobs.html.

Perlez, Jane, and Yufan Huang. “Mass Layoffs in China’s Coal Country Threaten Unrest.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Dec. 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/world/asia/china-coal-mining-economy.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer.

秦蜀风起 . “中国各省人均GDP变迁1959~2019.” 知乎专栏, https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/109432083?from_voters_page=true.

Becker, Gay, and Edwina Newsom. “Socioeconomic status and dissatisfaction with health care among chronically ill African Americans.” American journal of public health vol. 93,5 (2003): 742-8. doi:10.2105/ajph.93.5.742

 

Dairy of Systemic Injustices: When Resources were Abandoned

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In the past decades, human society has been committed to making their energy consumption more sustainable and environment-friendly. A landmark shift is from coal to natural gas, which is cleaner. From a macro point of view, I think this is a good thing, but when we turn our goal to cities prospered by coal, or people who work hard in mines and power plants for others to have a warm winter or a bright night. This transformation is unfair to them. Whether in the United States, Japan, or China, these people and their hometowns have not been treated well. Their living conditions deserve our attention.

Abandoned open pit, photographed by Yang Er Smith. retrieved from Zhihu, https://www.zhihu.com/question/321915910/answer/731964574

The first incident happened in my country, China. The place of the incident was not a big city such as Beijing or Shanghai. Instead, it happened in small towns in some remote provinces. These small towns are often bound with a natural resource, such as coal or iron ore. In the past decades of rapid development, these small cities have provided tremendous natural resources for coastal cities. The vast majority of the value created by these resources remains in these coastal cities, with the depletion of natural resources, or from fossil energy to the implementation of sustainable energy policy. The development of these cities gradually stagnated and even fell into recession. Young people moved out of the city, leaving only the elderly as the remaining residents. What makes me most angry is that the residents and enterprises in large coastal cities not only do not appreciate the efforts of these small inland cities and residents but even further exploit and ridicule these residents. The government has not increased municipal payments to these areas because of the contributions made by these small cities for national development. All these reflect the systematic injustice of this era.

Abandoned power plant, photographed by Yang Er Smith. retrieved from Zhihu, https://www.zhihu.com/question/321915910/answer/731964574

Another example occurred in Japan. Yubari, a small town in Hokkaido, was once famous for its local coal industry. At its peak, the population of Yubari was close to 120000, but with the slowdown of Japan’s economic development and the conversion to clean energy, Yubari also declined. Today, the population of Yubari is only 6500, and the average age of residents is over 65; only the elderly live here. All municipal services in Yubari have significantly been cut, including schools, trains, and hospitals. Like small cities in China, I think the biggest problem of these resource-exhausted cities in the life of the elderly. After the young people move away, the locals even can only serve the elderly. Obviously, its efficiency and accuracy can not be guaranteed. Therefore, if the government still does not increase municipal subsidies to these places, the number of the most regrettable methods of death, such as solitary death, will increase greatly.

I believe in the former coal mining areas of the United States, such as Montana and the Appalachian Mountains, these cities that rise and fall because of mining also exist. Most of the remaining residents are older people who are unable to move away. The lack of attention to these people is a systematic injustice.