I am always interested in the transitional period of modern China, i.e. the from the change of dynastic to ‘democratic’ regime, and to what we see as the current, ‘modern’ China. However, it appears to me lately that my interest has turned into some kind of foresight: While the scale of the characters is disparate, the story line progresses quite along a parallel line, up to the present moment, for ’someone’. (The parallelism is that of China and that certain ’someone’.) So, how does the story of that certain someone corresponds to that of China actually? To begin with, I want to write a bit about the history of the transitional China, in an overly simplified way…:
“After decades of domestic unrest and foreign intervention, the Sin-Hai Revolution finally topples the Qing Empire and establishes the Republic of China. The new regime is weak, however, and warlord soon rules over the land. A soon-to-be ‘faction’ springs up in 1921, taking the name CCP. In addition to the local unrest, China has to face two imperialist powers in the north, notably the ambitious Japan. The future is not really bright, and it is not an exaggeration to use the word ‘grim’; however the various local forces manage to stick together to confront the common adversary. Massive relocation of productive facilities and a military build-up takes place while the Japanese invades the North-eastern China. After years of fighting (and lack of progress), the Japanese surrenders. The problem is far from over; the two major factions soon fight each other for supremacy and in the end, one controls the mainland while the other retreats to somewhere else. The United States Seventh fleet is largely responsible for warding off an imminent attack from the mainland.”
Of course there’s a long way to come to recent times, but the above coverage is sufficient for our purpose. Want to read further about the story of that certain someone instead?
“After years of friction, the confrontation finally frees someone from the control of E. The position of someone is weak and he lacks a viable base, so he is quite lost for some time. While he is free from the control of E, he is still under its shade of influence, and its agents are still overwhelming him. That someone mitigates the problem by avoiding contacts with the agents while seeking ways of building a base. His progress is fairly rapid, and soon that someone has found an anchor in the form of an idea, as well as a reserve of resources. Despite lacking close support over his ideas, he nevertheless believes in it, and soon he gains a better understanding of the principles. Since he could not satisfactorily build up two unrelated ideas at the same time, he has to abandon one in favor of the other. He is fortunate, later, in being found a base that is reasonably close to his location, while offers means of getting his resources elsewhere. He is unfortunate, rather, that the ideas he favor are no longer ‘in vogue’ (perhaps it never had), and conflicts await him there. Nevertheless he manages to maintain a ’stalemate’.
The situation takes a turn not long thereafter, and he finds himself in a losing position, having no bargaining power. The constituents are still there, but the parent entity, from which his surname is derived, is apparently heading towards destruction, threatening to drown its constituents along. While the situation seems to be unrecoverable, he attempts to minimize his loss. He has to retreat instead of put up a fight.”
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And soon that someone will find around himself a large number of things salvaged from his place, to his self-proclaimed ‘base’. What will happen next? Will the story line be parallel? Will ‘c revolution’ happen on one place, while developments take place on the other? Hmm…
