I want to applaud this effort. While I don’t really think of myself as a China expert, I do think of myself as a guy who knows a good deal about China, including Chinese history from around 1840s or so up the present. I think that for someone with no background in Chinese history you did a great job here, and I think that this is a nice demonstration of how someone without a relevant background can still manage to grasp and issue with a short burst of dedicated effort. I also like how well structures this post is, being very clear about what could be wrong, conclusions, etc.
When I think of cultural changes, I generally think of how slowly cultural practices change. Thus, instances of rapid[1] cultural change (like the decline of footbinding, MADD changed the culture around drunk driving in the USA, or the acceptance of homosexuality in the USA) fascinate me. I’m sure there are lessons to be learned from these.
I want to applaud this effort. While I don’t really think of myself as a China expert, I do think of myself as a guy who knows a good deal about China, including Chinese history from around 1840s or so up the present. I think that for someone with no background in Chinese history you did a great job here, and I think that this is a nice demonstration of how someone without a relevant background can still manage to grasp and issue with a short burst of dedicated effort. I also like how well structures this post is, being very clear about what could be wrong, conclusions, etc.
When I think of cultural changes, I generally think of how slowly cultural practices change. Thus, instances of rapid[1] cultural change (like the decline of footbinding, MADD changed the culture around drunk driving in the USA, or the acceptance of homosexuality in the USA) fascinate me. I’m sure there are lessons to be learned from these.
Rapid on a historical scale, so 10 or 20 years counts as rapid.