The Middle Kingdom Once Again

8-8-08 at 8:08:08pm. This most lucky number of Chinese culture was the precise moment when China again has become the Middle Kingdom. I have yet to see the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but plan to later this afternoon with some friends. I just saw some of the most magnificent photos from the celebrations at Gizomodo. The Chinese really know how to put on a show.  I mean, my Americanized palate says it is sometimes a little corny, but really, they know how to celebrate.  And celebrate they should — all eyes are on them.

China, of course, has a major self-esteem complex — she has lived through centuries of suppression by foreign powers.  Known in the Chinese language as the “Middle Kingdom,” for millennia, China has claimed its status as the center of the world.  But the Age of Imperialism changed this.

The Opium Wars of the 1800s were more about foreign powers gaining territories rather than opium.  Their “unequal treaties” gave names like “Peking,” “Shanghai,” and “Canton” household status on foreign lips.  Christian missionaries saw this as God’s providence and took advantage of protection under extraterritoriality.  By 1890, there were over 1,296 missionaries in China representing more than forty denominations.  Missionaries, like their imperialist sending countries, would chop up the country and divide regions by denominations. Christianity would therein always be considered an arm of imperialism.

In the turn of the 20th century, the Chinese were fed up with the impotence of the Qing Dynasty and, under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, would establish a new republic in 1912.  Now China could modernize and advance itself militarily, economically, and culturally.  Joining on the side of the Allies in WWI, China show foreign powers it was “one of the boys.”  But they got a slap in the face when the Treaty of Versailles turned over the German-occupied area of Shandong to China’s age-old enemy, Japan.  Then there was the Japanese occupation during World War II and the infamous Rape of Nanjing.  Again and again, those foreign devils have done nothing but attack China.

But now, times have changed.  ”Made in China” is printed on most household goods.  Trillions of dollars in US debt is owed to China.  And of course, who better to lead the lighting of the olympic torch than Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut.  Nevermind centuries of foreign suppression.  Sure, the Beijing olympics slogan is “One World, One Dream.”  But the center of this one world, today at least, is the Middle Kingdom.