You might not believe me if I say China’s dragon culture has been well known to the world for over 100 years. But it’s very true. The westerners started to use dragon to symbolize China over 100 years ago, and here’s the proof. Below are a few westerner-drawn cartoons reflecting China’s changes in the world history.
Let’s first flash back to a century ago and review what the China dragon looked like in the westerners’ eyes then.
- TITLE: The real trouble will come with the "Wake"; CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1900; REFERENCE: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartoon_1900.jpg
The cartoon was published exactly 110 years ago when China, thanks to the inept government of late Qing Dynasty, was a weak country but full of treasures and resources. China, other than a dragon, was more like a lamb to the western countries which were aggressively expanding their international domain to feed the greed of capitalism. In the cartoon, animal personifications of Russia, England, Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Japan fight over body of China (dragon) as U.S. (eagle) looks on.
- TITLE: Dissection du monstre chinois (French for “Dissection of the Chinese monster”); CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1902
Similar to the first cartoon, the image shows how the western countries humiliated China and fought to get a piece of China. The most notorious event happened during the time frame was the looting and complete destroy of the Old Summer Palace (originally called Imperial Garden), known for its extensive collection of garden and building architectures and other works of art worth hundreds of millions pound back then, during the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion in 1900 (Note: the first looting and burning was done by British and French army in 1860). Now the majority of the collections are still scattered in western countries, over half kept in top museums, such as the British Museum and Rutherford Museum, and the other half in private collections.
Now, let’s return to 21st century and see how westerners are using cartoons to depict today's dragon.
In this cartoon by Morten Morland from The Times, China is portrayed as a fiery dragon, defying the rest of the world. Uncle Sam (i.e., the USA) is caught up in the dragon's coils. He is waving a fan with IOU written on it (by May 2009, the US owed China $772 billion). The British bulldog is easily kept at bay with a single finger (China disregarded the UK government's pleas not to execute a British man convicted of smuggling heroin). The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is being squeezed out, while the Dalai Lama is imprisoned in the dragon's claw. A fin on the dragon's back has cut the Copenhagen climate deal in half (standing for the third world countries, China was widely blamed by developed countries for the failure of the summit). Around the dragon's neck hang some pendants in the form of a dollar sign and a map of Africa.
“The meaning is obvious: China is the most powerful country in the world and does whatever it wants”.
Well, personally I believe it’s an overstatement. China has certainly grown into a strong country. Yet, it’s still a developing country with a GDP (PPP) per capita of only $5,963, much less than developed countries such as USA whose number is $47,440. Moreover, China, unlike some aggressive western countries, has been a modest and conservative country in history. Even at its peak times, such as Tang Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, China never invaded any other countries or “does whatever it wants”.
- TITLE: USA & China Talk Money
Uncle Sam (USA), holding a sign of “Fix the Yuan” (the Chinese currency) says: “I’m terribly sorry… But if things don’t change… I may be forced to bring trade sanctions to bear...”. And the China dragon, sitting at the wall of “$1.33 trillion reserves” reservoir and pulling the floodgate, replies: “Thanks ever so much for the warning! Just one quick question… did you bring your swimming trunks?”
In fact, the number quoted in the cartoon is outdated. As of 2009, China’s foreign exchange reserves have increased to $2.27 trillion, while USA only has $83 billion, about 3.66% of China’s. At the same time, US-China trade deficit is still climbing, hitting over $268 billion in 2008 (U.S. Census Bureau data).
Once approached by a New York constituent who complained of loss of manufacturing jobs and asked “Why can't we get tough on China?”, Hillary Clinton replied: “How do you get tough on your banker?" The conversation happened in early 2007, and, as of the end of 2006, Chinese investors held $350 billion in U.S. Treasury securities, about 15 percent of the total foreign holdings of Treasury securities. The most recent stats shows, as of November 2009, the numbers have gone up to $789.6 billion and 21.95% (according to U.S. Treasury, http://www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt).
Since the US economy is still struggling, thanks to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis starting from 2007, Uncle Sam would better think twice when talking money with today’s dragon.
The dragon story hasn’t ended yet, especially with Uncle Sam. Here is what are happening now:
- The world's biggest and third-biggest economies traded angry words about Internet policy after the search engine giant Google Inc earlier this month threatened to shut its Chinese google.cn portal and pull out of China because of censorship and hacking attacks.
- China threatened to impose sanctions on U.S. arms firms and cut cooperation with Washington unless it cancels a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, in an unprecedented move signaling Beijing's growing global power.
- In coming months President Barack Obama may meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader China calls a dangerous separatist. Beijing is likely (guaranteed, I would say) to condemn such a meeting.
- Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to visit the United States later this year.
- …
The game has just started.
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