Japan and China's Different Destinies in the Late 19th Century

十九世纪见证了西方国家的强大、东方帝国的下降和一个岛国的崛起。作者通过这篇文章解释了为什么在面对西方帝国主义时，日本和中国都采取了自我加强措施，但中国却没能抵抗住西方势力，而日本成功地摆脱所有不平等条约，并成为侵略者与西方同行？作者认为最主要的原因得归咎于当时中国和日本在对待自己的文化和西方的所谓“先进文化”的不同态度上。

19th century has witnessed the falling of a strong eastern empire at the mercy of Western countries and the rising of an island country from obscurity when facing with Western countries invasion. As a result, the most frequently asked question among historians is why in face of Western imperialism, both Japan and China has taken self-strengthening measures but China fails to resist the western forces while Japan successfully get rid of all those unequal treaties and become one of the invaders in line with those western counterparts. The comparison of the learning process between Japan and China may give some insights to us.

In my opinion, the most significant reason attribute to their different destinies in the late 19th century lies in their attitudes towards their own culture and the Western so-called 'advanced' culture.
Years of closure in the greatest power in East Asia even the world and separation from full-range contact with the outside conferred Chinese, especially the ruler and intellectual class, a kind of long-held pride and superiority towards its neighbor country citizens and even the Westerners, which they knew little and felt strange. Thus, when faced with Western countries well-armed troops and powerful weapons, they found it hard and painful to accept being weak and inferior. Despite the same shock experienced by Japanese, they acted promptly, sending scholars and high-rank administrators abroad, launching nationwide top-down reforms, building advanced troops with strong citizens and so on.
However, their Chinese counterparts had done exactly the same thing, with their efforts in vain, which I would like to contribute to their pride and unwillingness to discard the lagged-behind tradition for better and deeper reform. Since in their heart, Chinese heritage is the best, which, by no means, should be leave intact. On the contrary, the Western knowledge was only some tricky skills, which only deserved to serve the Chinese core. As a result, when Li Hongzhang was opening one factory after another, operated by Chinese administrators with foreign experts, Japanese began a profound self-examination and total reform penetrating its political system and every aspect of social life.
Did they westernize? No. Answered firmly by Ebrey. "Adaptation of Western models to local circumstances meant that Japan did not simply undergo a process of westernization". Actually, Japanese are the people that really respect their cultural identity and tradition. This respect is not blindly claim that everything in their culture is the best as Chinese do. It is a faith in their ethnicity being able to catch up the time, to adapt to the trend, and stay on the crest of "the wave". This is the real discrepancy that diverges the trajectory of Chinese and Japanese modern history and a heavy lesson we Chinese need to learn from.