http://www.adamsavenuedesign.com/fish-opium/
help me please... due tomorrow!!!?
How do the Opium Wars, Open Door Policy, and Boxer Rebellion apply to the following quote:
“Today we are the poorest and weakest nation in the world and occupy the lowest position in international affairs. Other men are the carving knife and serving dish; we are the fish and the meat.”
We first start by collecting as much information based on the concrete subjects we know: OPIUM WARS, OPEN DOOR POLICY, and BOXER REBELLION.
We then insert the quote into google or yahoo to find it's owner.
OPIUM WARS (1839-42; 1856-60):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
BOXER REBELLION (1898-1901):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_rebellion
Now that we have these two, we can find the broadest of the concrete items by using the others as reference. In other words, how does it apply to the boxer rebellion and opium wars? Typing in "open door policy chinese christian' in the yahoo search box, I received this Wikipedia link among others:
OPEN DOOR POLICY (around 1885):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Door_Policy
We now look for the quote owner:
Search Result: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS277US298&q=%e2%80%9cToday+we+are+the+poorest+and+weakest+nation+in+the+world+and+occupy+the+lowest+position+in+international+affairs%2e+Other+men+are+the+carving+knife+and+serving+dish%3b+we+are+the+fish+and+the+meat%2e%e2%80%9d
We ultimately find that its owner is Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), from:
http://books.google.com/books?id=KQwaKKiWTEsC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=%E2%80%9CToday+we+are+the+poorest+and+weakest+nation+in+the+world+and+occupy+the+lowest+position+in+international+affairs.+Other+men+are+the+carving+knife+and+serving+dish%3B+we+are+the+fish+and+the+meat.%E2%80%9D&source=web&ots=BofcbDwoVZ&sig=xwOkiFiaJ5BVul0Z32HYxZpxRHM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
Sun Yat-Sen was basically commenting on his country's "inwardness" by saying his own country was not up-to-par with Europe and America even though they were 400 million strong. He said that the constituents of his country only held to family and clan solidarity and were basically "not unified" in comparison to the rest of "the nations".
Consider the phrase "A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link."
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The Boxer Rebellion was a revolt to outside attempts at etablishing trade, or Imperialism, and Christian values. This is probably the slow birth of Communism within China. Anti-imperialist actions by a country basically means staying within one's own to produce for themselves. They probably also felt it was a religious invasion upon them that clashed with their traditional family and clan values.
The Open Door Policy was a failure when Sun Yat-Sen was alive.
Wikipedia's statement "The Opium Wars forcefully and suddenly opened China to the world." reflects China's defeat in those wars.
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GO TO PAGE 94 of this site. It is the quote as a whole for you. See the paragraph "What is the standing of our nation..."
I will make a guess and say that Sun Yat-Sen was attempting to convince his people to band together to further prevent his country from being overrun by outsiders and stick together to become nationalistic as a whole; similar to Americans and patriotism, but more on a business and economy-related context.
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YOUR ANSWERS:
OPIUM WARS:
From this standpoint, since the Opium Wars happened prior to the statement, their defeats and subsequent tolerance of Opium trade opened up the subject of "weakness".
BOXER REBELLION:
Since the pro-Qing dynasty "Boxer Rebellion" happened while anti-Qing President Sun Yat-Sen was alive (I don't know if elected), he witnessed the rebellious fighters, who were "lightly armed and with little leadership but believing in their supernatural power" according to Wikipedia, fall in defeat to Allied forces. Sun Yat-Sen probably looked back on the rebellion with disappointment, not towards his people, who held to extreme values, but the separated and un-linked characteristics they showed.
OPEN DOOR POLICY:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_door_policy
See "Failure of the Open Door Principle"
After reading, can you see how it just looks as if other countries were making decisions on China, and it was as if China was just watching it all take place? This is exactly what Sun Yat-Sen saw, in my opinion, that led him to use that metaphor.
Basically, after China's defeat (first Opium War) after defeat (Second Opium War) after humiliating slaughter (the Boxer Rebellion), the Open Door Policy remained a subject of conversation. Sun Yat-Sen was able to look at how China watched as other, more powerful countries basically "hung around discussing with each other how to deal with them" and if China stood up about it, they would push them back down "in their seat". This is where the Chinese people may have felt humiliated, as they did with the treaties prior to the rebellion (there was more than just the boxer rebellion).
I must point out that the United States sought to uphold China in all of this.
Wikipedia states: "U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent notes to the major powers (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and Russia), asking them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China."
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If you ask me, from all of what I have read and how the Chinese have slowly taken defeat in without being able to "avenge", that country is like a powder keg just waiting to explode, not being able to defend themselves and seeing "humiliation" after "humiliation". And I'm almost sure the other countries know that as well and are possibly treating them like a porcelain vase.
(Use that for possible extra credit.)
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