The largest and most dramatic transformation of civilization takes place in China
By Alan Macfarlane
My wife and
I have visited China since 1996, and almost every year since 2002. We have
visited the great cities and the remotest regions, except the northwest. We
have travelled with younger colleagues and students who can explain what is
happening. They can answer questions which I base on previous studies of
Europe, India and Japan. I have been free to film, photograph and talk to
people at all levels of Chinese society and to give lectures at many
universities as a visiting professor on whatever I like.
(Photo: VCG)
During the
last 40 years, China has achieved the largest and most dramatic transformation
of any civilization in world history. It has done this with far less disruption
and misery than what has occurred in Western nations during their industrial
revolutions.
There has
been an industrial revolution on a larger scale and rapidity than any other,
accompanied by an agricultural revolution across China. This has led to a vast
improvement in housing, clothing, food and basic amenities and lifted 700
million people out of dire poverty. China has moved from a command to a free market
economy, with private property and an advanced financial system.
China has
moved from a world of bicycles, dirt roads and few railways to the most
impressive system of motorways, trains and planes in the world. It has moved
from antiquated postal communications to the most advanced internet society on
the planet, with electricity and telephones reaching the most remote regions.
It has moved from a period of high pollution and use of old energy sources to
the world leader in renewable energy and the cleaning up of pollution.
China has
developed from a highly centralized political system and weakly developed
judicial institutions to a great deal of local democracy, regional autonomy and
great improvements in its legal infrastructure, creating trust and safety for
its people.
China has
moved from an isolated and somewhat uncreative intellectual world to one which
is increasingly leading the world in many theoretical fields, with excellent
universities and research institutions. It has moved from a hierarchical and
restricted educational system to one of the best and most universal school
systems in the world. Likewise in health, China now leads the world in many
innovations and basic health care.
China has
moved from a rather drab and uniform cultural world to one which is at the
forefront of creativity in all the arts– painting, music, poetry and
architecture. It has moved from restrictions on religious freedom to the
widespread co-existence of world religions.
The immense
social and cultural strains China has faced while doing this could well have
undermined the changes. The family has shrunk in numbers and range, yet
survived as a core institution. The relations of the young and old and of men
and women have been re-shaped, yet remain largely harmonious. The clash of a
Chinese Confucian and Daoist traditions with Western individualism has been
absorbed. The vast move from rural to urban living has been managed in an
extraordinary way.
It is a
stupendous achievement and China now presents the world its Belt and Road
Initiative, including investment in many parts of the world which are lifting
millions more out of poverty, with a vision which combines some of the best of
the East and West. China still proclaims harmony, hope, peace and an
intelligent, careful and rational alternative to the over-individualistic,
aggressive and intolerant tendencies of much of the West.
To play our
personal part in increasing the harmony of civilizations in this highly
interconnected world, I have worked with my younger colleagues on Vanishing
Worlds Foundation and also the Cambridge Rivers Project, based in Cambridge,
England. King's College was where the young Xu Zhimo learned to be a poet and
built up his dream to unite the best of the West and the East over a hundred
years ago. Now is our chance to renew that dream.
So we are
bringing China to the UK, through opera, poetry, literature, calligraphy,
ceramics, gardens, Chan Buddhism, tea and all forms of Chinese culture. We are
translating Chinese books into English and inviting Chinese scholars to
Cambridge. We are also setting up projects to enrich Chinese culture itself
through working with museums and archives to create international databases of
the objects and manuscripts which were sold or looted from China over the centuries.
As someone
who has learned so much from China and loves its people and great traditions, I
wish it all success and happiness in the forty years ahead.
(The author
is an Emeritus professor of Anthropological Science and a Life Fellow of King's
College, Cambridge University)
Source: People's Daily app
The largest and most dramatic transformation of civilization takes place in China
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