To better comprehend the relationship between the current western media culture and its attitude toward China, a look at the key trends in history dealing with China and the West will provide a structural framework to better understand contemporary media perspectives. The history between the West and China is long and complex. Dating back to Marco Polo and his ventures into Asia during the 13th century, there is clearly an abundance of historical
information. For the sake of brevity and conciseness, this chapter will focus on the last 150 years of history between the West and China.
Even during these 150 years there has been a tumultuous amount of interaction with China and the West. The following information will very briefly attempt to examine a general overview of the Western viewpoint on China. This chapter in no way attempts to sum up the entirety of West-East history; it will simply provide a framework with which to base this thesis.
This brief historical relationship between the West and China will give evidence to the Theo Hermans idea that the “general cultural and ideological norms which may be held to apply throughout the larger part of a community.”38 The consistent, condescending, colonialist behavior portrayed by the West toward China makes apparent the modern media agenda of creating an unfavorable image of China.
China’s most globally significant exposure to the west happened in the mid-19th century, during the Opium Wars. This period saw extensive trade between China and the West,
particularly the sale of opium from Britain. Between the years 1839-1860, trade ports in China were forced open by western powers who desired to create further trade ties with an unwilling
38 Theo Hermans. “Translation and Normativity.” Current Issues in Language and Society, vol.5, No 1&2, 1998, p.60.
China. Due to China’s loss in the Opium Wars, a series of ‘unequal’ treaties were created, splitting more than thirty trading ports amongst Western nations.39 “In Chinese eyes there could not have been a more blatant case of international bullying, of the morally repugnant imposing their will on those trying to do the right thing.”40
While these are widely held views of the unfair treatment toward China during the
‘Opium Wars,’ arguments exist catered toward China treating the West as ‘barbarians’ and
‘vassals.’ John Quincy Adams famously stated, “The opium question is not the cause of the war, but the arrogant and insupportable pretensions of China that she will hold commercial
intercourse with the rest of mankind, not upon terms of equal reciprocity, but upon the insulting and degrading forms of the relation between lord and vassal,”41 thusly creating the segregation of Chinese into ‘Other.’ An ‘Other’ that places the West into the position of a ‘vassal,’ an obviously unacceptable fate for colonizing powers such as Britain and the United States.
However, we see a phenomenon at play here that Stuart Hall has borrowed from British artists and art historians Kobena Mercer and Isaac Julien, referred to as “…the circularity of power and the ambivalence – the double-sided nature – of representation and stereotyping.”42 He compares the representation of black and white men, during the early 1980’s in America,
working on two different levels, a conscious or overt level and a subconscious or suppressed level. Consciously the white men believe that ‘Blacks’ were childish in order to cover up the subconscious belief that ‘Blacks’ were actually ‘super-men’ and better than white men in many
39 Patricia B. Ebrey. The Cambridge Illustrated History of: China. Cambridge University Press, ed. 2, 2010.
40 Ibid., p. 236.
41 David A. Wells. “The Truth About the ‘Opium War.’” The North American Review, vol. 162, no. 475, 1896, p.759-760, www.jstor.org/stable/25118667
42 Stuart Hall. “The Spectacle of the ‘Other.’ Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices.
edited by Stuart Hall, Sage Publications, 1997, p. 263.
facets.43 This power and ambivalence is at play from both China and Britain. On the conscious level, China treated foreign powers like ‘barbarians’ and people devoid of appropriate behavior, but may be seen as a cover up for a subconscious fear that the West was bringing its own value and culture systems into China which many Chinese were concerned was a direct challenge to the humanistic pattern of Confucian thought that prevailed for centuries in China.44 Fear of internal change manifested itself in overt acts of hostility to protect subconscious ideas of
Chinese values and was thusly taken by Western powers on an unconscious level that China was
‘backwards’ and needed to be brought into ‘modernity’ – the embodiment of the West. The Opium War created some of the first visions of China in the 19th and 20th centuries and was an early step in the creation of a westernized idea of China and Chinese culture.
After skirmishes with Japan and the loss of large amounts of territory to foreign powers, mostly due to the ‘unequal treaties,’ groups of Chinese citizens, mostly from rural parts of China began to revolt against colonizing powers in what became the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. The uprising was another attempt to rid China from foreigners, particularly missionaries who “…had ventured out of the treaty ports into the Chinese interior to tell Chinese that their beliefs and practices were wrong and backward.”45 The Boxers originated from Shandong and were making their ways across China to Tianjin and Beijing, harassing and sometimes killing foreigners and converts. Empress Dowager Cixi hesitated on whether to promote the Boxers, but eventually conceded acknowledging the necessity of removing foreigners from China; however, in August 1900, 20,000 foreign troops from Britain, America, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, the
43 Ibid., p. 263.
44 Earl Swisher. “Chinese Intellectuals and the Western Impact, 1838-1900.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 1, no. 1, 1958, pp. 26, www.jstor.org/stable/177856.
45 Patricia B. Ebrey. The Cambridge Illustrated History of: China. Cambridge University Press, ed. 2, 2010, p. 255.
Netherlands, Russia, and Belgium gathered in Beijing to lift the Boxers siege on the city. After lifting the siege, sequential looting began by every country involved in the battle.46
This presents two different aspects of China to the West. First, as a country in direct opposition. The limitations placed on China from 1839 until the end of the 19th century allowed for western countries to increase trade with an unwilling China but led to direct opposition to trade and created conflicts with western powers. This then caused the forceful transitions of the 19th century. Second, a country in need of modernization and assistance by western powers. In describing the Western influence on Chinese revolutions during the unequal treaties, Joseph R.
Levenson says that these interventions are, firstly, premeditated, and more importantly, directly beneficial to the nations involved.
Therefore, liberal Western nations, often providing the inspiration for Chinese protests against Chinese rulers, tend to support discredited Chinese regimes; to see a regime discredited, then to step in as its only hope – that is the way to buy it. The West drains power from the Chinese ruling circles, so that the West, for a quid pro quo, can give it back to them.
This is the ideal pattern for the Western use of leverage against Chinese governments.47 During this time, early depictions of China are also beginning to appear. Le Petite Journal, a French daily newspaper, published an illustration that portrayed China’s position
during the late 19th century. The illustration, En Chine: Le gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs (1898), shows a stereotypical Qing dynasty official throwing his hands in the air as the “pie” of
46 James L. Hevia. “Looting and its Discontents: Moral Discourse and the Plunder of Beijing, 1900-1901.” The Boxers, China, and the World, edited by Bickers and Tiedman, 2007, p. 94.
47 Joseph R. Levenson. “Western Powers and Chinese Revolutions: The Pattern of Intervention.” Pacific Affairs, vol.
26, no. 3, 1953, p.231, www.jstor.org/stable/2753287.
China is divided by five “western” powers.48 While each character portrayed in the illustration is a caricaturized representation of symbolic figures in each respective culture, the Chinese man, a person already looked down upon by the societies of the world, stands out the most, both because of where he stands in the picture and his physical features. The Chinese official brandishes pointed talons for fingernails, upturned eyes, blackened teeth, and exaggerated facial
characteristics. In an already western dominated world, this representation creates what Peter Hamilton calls a dominant representational paradigm.49 This paradigm describes photographic tendencies of events and people of certain time periods or certain ethnic groups. The photographs are judged by the choices made by photographers and the press, but, most importantly, by the values of the people receiving and producing these images.
48 See [figure 3].
49 Peter Hamilton. “France and Frenchness in Post-War Humanist Photography. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. edited by Stuart Hall, Sage Publications, 1997, p. 76.
[figure 3] Henri Meyer, “En Chine: Le gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs” (English: China – the cake of kings and…of emperors). Le Petite Journal, 16 January 1898,
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k716261c/f8/
The dominant representational paradigm arose from post-World War II French humanistic photography, where photographers would capture the everyday lives of French citizens. Reactions to these photographs created the idea of ‘Frenchness,’ or what it meant to be French during that period. While the post-war French humanist photographs fostered positive emotions with viewers, the ‘unequal treaty’ era Chinese illustrations provide viewers with a
vastly different representation, one that creates a clear separation of West and ‘Other.’
Illustrations have historically been used to cement the Western viewpoints on China during the late 19th and early 20th century. For example, [Figure 5] 50 depicts China as an octopus grasping western figures in each tentacle that are labeled with China's most negative aspects.
[figure 5] “Anti-Chinese Cartoon from 1886. The Bulletin, 1886,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anti-Chinese_Cartoon_from_1886.png
[Figure 4] 51 shows China as a 'pest’ while Queen Victoria, a woman with a hat labeled
USA, and three other western women pull a pole labeled ‘Federation’ away from an enlarged Chinese man's face.
50 See [figure 5]
51 See [figure 4]
[figure 4] 1886 Anti-Chinese Cartoon from Australia. The Bulletin, 1886,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1886_Anti-Chinese_Cartoon_from_Australia.jpg#globalusage
[Figure 6]52 brings America front and center by depicting Uncle Sam standing tall on a map of China. His figure towers over five other older white male representations of France, England, Germany, Russia, and Italy. He clasps the “Trade Treaty with China,” also known as the Open Door Policy of 1899, and says, “Gentlemen, you may cut up this map as much as you like, but remember that I’m here to stay, and you can’t divide me up into spheres of influence.”
This presentation of America’s relationship with China during the early 20th century clearly depicts a power imbalance not only with China and the US, but with the US and the rest of the
52 See [figure 6]
world. This cartoon symbolizes the dominance with which the United States saw itself. It also segues into the late 19th century, early 20th century relations between the US and China.
[figure 6] “Putting His Foot Down.” Puck, 1899,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Putting_his_foot_down.jpg
As the Open Door Policy increased US exploitation of Chinese resources, thousands of Chinese immigrants poured into the American west in search of work. The book The Heathen Chinee: A Study of American Attitudes toward China, 1890 – 1905 provides an astute depiction
of the American response to the influx of Chinese immigration during the mid-19th century.
In the 1850s Americans on the West Coast did not view the Chinese as heathens, but by the time the stage carrying the first Chinese had arrived in Great Falls, their opinion had changed…when the demand for labor in California slacked in the 1870s, the qualities
which had made the Chinese desirable as laborers in the first place made them feared and hated by other workers…Anti-Chinese agitation showed a marked increase immediately preceding every presidential election in the 1870s and 1880s.
The anti-Chinese attitude of the West Coast soon spread to the rest of the nation…Most of what was said about the crowded, filthy conditions in Chinatown were probably true…But the important fact about these unfavorable descriptions is that the many attractive qualities of the Chinese were almost completely ignored…The undesirable aspects of Chinese life were emphasized because of the widespread antagonism toward the Chinese in the United States.53
Opinions of Chinese living in America would continue to deteriorate in the following decades with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924. The lack of gold in California during the Gold Rush left many of people without work that the Chinese immigrants filled, leading to increased animosity. The United States federal government then passed the Chinese Exclusion Act: the first law to ever target an entire ethnic group.54
Publications and even companies were some of the first to display their patriotic sentiment.
[Figure 7] 55 comes from promotional material for the George Dee Magic Washer, a competitor to the recognized Chinese laundromats all over the San Francisco area. The drawing shows a grinning Uncle Sam while he kicks a caricaturized Chinese laborer off a cliff. He clutches a
53 Robert McClellan. “Chinese Immigration and the Rationale for Exclusion.” The Heathen Chinee: A Study of American Attitudes toward China, 1890-1905. Ohio University Press, 1971, p. 5-6.
54 Erika Lee. At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
55 See [figure 7]
proclamation declaring the superiority of “Magic Washer” which clearly symbolizes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
[figure 7] “The Chinese Must Go.” George Dee Magic Washer, 1886
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Chinese_Must_Go_-_Magic_Washer_-_1886_anti-Chinese_US_cartoon.jpg
[Figure 8]56 illustrates one of the least exaggerated depictions of a Chinese laborer within this research; however, the message portrays an ironic tone toward the Chinese during the late 19th century.
56 See [figure 8]
[figure 8] “The Only One Barred Out.” Frank Leslie Illustrated Newspaper, vol. 54, April 1, 1882, p.96, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_only_one_barred_out_cph.3b48680.jpg
The United States of America, known as the melting pot of cultures, accepting of all races and people, even communists, nihilists, socialists, Fenians, and hoodlums, refused entry to Chinese laborers stating that they needed to “draw the line somewhere, you know.”57 Around the seated man from China are boxes and sacks with the words: “Industry,” “Order,” “Peace,” and
“Sobriety.” The illustration, an obvious satire on the American government of the time, provides insight into the priorities of America at the time. Clearly, the lens through which the American populace views the Chinese people has been stained for over a century.
57 Ibid.
Following the decades after the Boxer Rebellion and Opium Wars, China experienced excessive amounts of in-fighting, conflicts with Japan, and civil wars that would eventually lead to the rise of the Communist party in 1949. Although Japan was the biggest foreign assailant on China during this time period, Japan’s claim to the areas in Shandong and northern China were supported by agreements with Britain, France, Italy, and even the warlord government
controlling Beijing.58 Additionally, as the Chinese civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists began to escalate between 1946 to 1949 there was an increasing concern from western nations about the rising power of the Communist party. The United States had allied itself with the Nationalist party and had been providing munitions and financial aid in an attempt to ensure the Nationalists rise to power and prevent the further spread of communism.
Unfortunately for the U.S., the Communist party overthrew the Nationalists in 1949, and forced them to evacuate into Taiwan. The communist victory led to “…an American obsession with the leading (and misleading) question of ‘Who lost China?’”59 This ‘loss’ would weigh heavy on western powers as the wars in Korea and Vietnam led to continued victories for communist powers, thus further fueling the media’s negative representation of those countries – the biggest two being Russia and China. As the Cold War continued China moved from a “Yellow Peril” to a “Red Menace,”60 garnering even more attention and reasons for worry by western powers.
Later, after news of the Cultural Revolution reached foreign shores, of course, people were shocked and appalled to hear what had been happening in China. This added even more reason to
58 Patricia B. Ebrey. The Cambridge Illustrated History of: China. Cambridge University Press, ed. 2, 2010, p. 271.
59 Rana Mitter. “Modernity, Internationalization, and War in the History of Modern China.” The Historical Journal, vol. 48, no. 2, 2005, p. 526, www.jstor.org/stable/4091703.
60 Pankaj Mishra. “Foreword.” Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land. Edited by Angilee Shah and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, University of California Press, 2012, p. xi.
label it dauntingly inscrutable, and because of large gaps in understanding, western countries continued to stereotype China in order to reduce, essentialize, naturalize, and fix the differences61 that set the two countries apart.
During China’s rise as a global power in the late 20th and 21st century the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 and the Olympics of 2008 received exorbitant amounts of western attention. The Tiananmen square incident shocked, not only China, but the entire world, as the People’s Liberation Army attacked unarmed citizens protesting for a more democratic
government. The request for democracy sent signals to western countries that people in China were ready for a change and when these cries for a transparent government were met with tanks and bullets, China may as well have shot through western hopes for like-minded, i.e. democratic, reforms and a China that fell in line with Western ‘world order.’ Backlash from western media sources was severe. “China is a sullen, divided society, held enthralled by a totalitarian clique.
The People’s Republic has a 40-year record of wasted opportunities and wasted lives,”62 wrote the New York Times in 1989. Sixteen years later, this sentiment still persists. “It was a
slaughter, and to call it a crackdown is as dismal euphemism as the cowardly media had ever invented…”63 claimed the Washington Post in 2005. For China’s creation of a national image on the global stage, this was one of their largest setbacks, as well as one of the most sobering wakeup calls for western nations; however, the biggest influence the Tiananmen riots had on the western perception of China was the curtain it drew over Chinese history and culture. The event
61 Stuart Hall. “The Spectacle of ‘Other.’ Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. edited by Stuart Hall, Sage Publications, 1997, p. 258.
62 Anthony Lewis. “Abroad at Home; Unhappy Birthday.” The New York Times, 28 September, 1989,
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/28/opinion/abroad-at-home-unhappy-birthday.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FTiananmen%20Square&action=click&contentCollection=world&re gion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=434&pgtype=collection
63 Keith Fahey. “Tiananmen Went Beyond a ‘Crackdown.’” The Washington Post, 30 April, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/29/AR2005042901190.html
attracted such global attention and dismay that whenever someone spoke of China, the first thing
attracted such global attention and dismay that whenever someone spoke of China, the first thing