By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: What will historians say about this period in Chinese history?
It's often hard to understand the significance of events in historical context when they're happening. What will historians be saying about this period in China history in 20/30/50 years time?
This is impossible to tell without the context of how things will be in the future.
Well, not impossible, but this needs first to try to figure out what the future will look like, then impersonating the mindset of historians relatively to that future.
A hard exercise you'll agree.
"The golden times before the bubble deflated. Those times when we used to have something like a middle class."
RiriRiri:
That's what I was trying to say. Assume that in the unlikely event somehow we got to get easy space travel and easy access to the many resources of the universe in the next few decades (extreme exaggeration, but just for the clarity of my point), then history wouldn't judge our present that severely, even if the people who shape it don't really deserve too much credit.
On the opposite, if shit hits the fan for real (the likely event), then yes the perception will be completely be different.
History is full of such examples.
History is also written from the POV of the victor. So I wonder who the victor will be. An the political/economic arm wrestle between the US and China, who will come out the other side as the winner and flex their international muscles.
I think it'll also be known as the period when many foreigners came and then many left as well. Maybe the beginning of the mass exodus when China kicked down on visa regulations and made it more difficult for people to stay long term. I'm glad to have been here during this period which I think will be talked about as a turning point (in which direction I don't know) in the future.
I also think that many years from now when we have some kind of lung problems that our doctors will ask us something like 'Did you spend time in China between 2000 and 2020' because we'll have something known by then as 'Beijing Lung'.
as a true historian.... yah right .... I am here in China because I see and appreciate PROGRESS ... what I see at home (Canada) and the US and numerous other places (EU) is digress.... overdone and wasted.... I see things getting better here (China) and getting tougher back home... ..not that China will soon reach the comfort level of Canadians or Americans or anybody..... but progress is good, my humble opinion.
These are still the glory days for China even with a 7% GDP. They have actually grown seven time faster than America over the last decade and remain as the fastest growing economy in world history. This prosperity period is much like the 4 years we enjoyed with Clinton before the dummy got in and damn near destroyed the world economy. But this growth may start losing some steam with all the manufacturing that is leaving China for Vietnam, Africa, and the Phillpines.
Future textbooks about this period of Chinese history will be a single page with this image.
