Periods of Collective Chinese Memory and their Ramifications

History is woven from different narratives, perspectives, and interpretations, and there is a saying that "History is written by victors." Perhaps more poignantly, Hermann Göring, Churchill's enemy in World War II, is recorded as saying at the Nuremberg trials, "The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused." The Western perspective has never seen China as a victor, so our history is the only one we prescribe. Today, with the historically defeated, colonized, and once unequally divided China rising in global power and influence, most Westerners avoid contextualizing their perspective of history and its collective psychological effect.

Few people approach cross-cultural communications with this degree of empathy, but should we?

We all acknowledge that Chinese civilization has the longest continuous span in human history, five thousand years. Yet, Westerners cannot fully comprehend or even imagine anything comparable. Chinese people naturally feel a sense of entitlement and pride for holding this distinction—our collective challenge is to discern how it affects their psyche, when, and how to avoid opening Pandora's box unnecessarily.

Isn't the Art of War predicated on overcoming opponents psychologically?

Chinese people collectively feel an undercurrent glorifying any form of retribution for enduring a "Century of Humiliation" that began with the First Opium War in 1839 and lasted until 1945, with China (then the Republic of China) emerging as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council at the end of WW2. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded, ending a century-long period characterized by the decline, defeat, and political incompetency of the Qing dynasty, which led to demoralizing foreign intervention, annexation, and subjugation of China by Western powers, Russia, and Japan. Today, the CCP's political alignment with Russia is a prime example of Chinese pragmatism and its mentality of double standards.

Do you understand Chinese pragmatism in the proper cultural context?

The characterization of this period as a "humiliation" arose with an atmosphere of Chinese nationalism in opposition to the Twenty-One Demands made by the Japanese government in 1915 and grew further with protests against China's poor treatment in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party popularized the characterization in the 1920s, protesting the unequal treaties and loss of Chinese territory to foreign colonies. These psychological scars have grown and metastasized ever since, seeping ever deeper into popular Chinese culture.

What are the undercurrents of these periods of collective memory on Chinese psychology toward foreigners, and how can we utilize these insights to deepen Guanxi?