I believe that all Chinese can not forget a humiliating title - "the sick man of East Asia". This term first appeared in 1896, and for a long time after the late Qing Dynasty in China, the Western powers called china the "sick man of East Asia". The title is grossly insulting and a completely pejorative term.
Later, with the rapid development of China's national strength, this title has been completely removed by our country. Even so, now that the four words "sick man of East Asia" are mentioned, I believe that many Chinese people will be very angry, because it represents the history of humiliation in our country. However, Japan is also an Asian country, and the territory is actively small, compared with the tall Westerners, the Japanese are also relatively thin, so why does the West never call Japan the "sick man of East Asia"? The reason for this is to start from a piece of history.
The origin of the "sick man of East Asia"
The term "sick man of East Asia" was first coined by an Englishman who used such a term to describe China in an article in the Zilinxi Newspaper. At that time, Mr. Liang Qichao translated this sentence as "Fu China, the sick man of the East, its insensitivity is not benevolent for a long time." This is the earliest source of this derogatory name, and this sentence also reflects the reason why the West calls China the sick man of East Asia: "Insensitivity is not benevolent for a long time."
Insensitivity was the overall mental outlook of our people in the late Qing Dynasty, but britain's lofty evaluation is ridiculous, because the cause of this phenomenon is precisely the purposeful opium importation of Britain. Every Chinese knows the harm caused by opium to our country, and that period of history is something we can never forget.
In the late Qing Dynasty, after opium was "popular" in China, the will of many Chinese people was destroyed and their bodies were dragged down. People who have been smoking opium for a long time are mentally weak, their bodies are thin, and their eyes are unfocused, like a skinny walking corpse, and this state can be seen everywhere at that time. As a result, all Chinese in the eyes of the Western powers, have been labeled as "weak will, weak body", as soon as the word "sick man of the East" appeared, it was widely used in the West, and evolved into the later "sick man of East Asia".
The "sick man of East Asia" in the Western population, in addition to being a derogatory term for the Chinese, sometimes refers to the backwardness and incompetence of the Qing government. After years of isolation, the Qing government missed the period of vigorous development of Western industry, and its national strength was vulnerable to that of Western powers. The rulers of the late Qing dynasty government were also mostly backward and conservative, weak and incompetent, and firmly suppressed aggression by Western powers, so the "sick man of East Asia" was also a contemptuous name for "weak countries" by Westerners.
Japan's attitude towards the Western powers
Japan is located in Asia like China, and in ancient times, Japan was a "small country" compared with China, its national strength was far less than that of the Western powers, and the Japanese were also short and thin, so why did the West never call Japan "sick man"? One of the reasons is Japan's attitude toward the West.
Although Japan is an Asian country and a neighbor of our country, its attitude toward the Western powers is completely different from that of our country. China has a rich historical background, before the industrial age, has always been a world power, the Qing Dynasty is also because of the self-confidence of a big country, do not look at the Western "strange tricks" in the eyes, will boldly close the country for decades.
Japan's attitude toward the West is much more "moderate" than that of our country, and Japan has always been "strong," and when our country was strong in history, Japan often learned from our country's experience. In modern times, when the West is strong, Japan is naturally very "worshipped", bent on learning advanced Western technology, and has great "respect" for Western powers. This attitude is very popular with the West, in their eyes, Japan is a "time-conscious", so the attitude of the Western powers to Japan is also more "polite".
The West's view of Japan
In addition to Japan's attitude toward the West, there is another reason why the West does not consider Japan to be a "sick man", and that is Japan's "martial spirit". During the Meiji Restoration, an incident occurred between Japan and France, which made the West "impress" Japan and consider it "commendable in spirit".
A Japanese lord clashed with three Frenchmen over a trivial matter, and the lord of the clan was in a very high position in Japan, and if he was "offended", he would not be able to swallow his anger, and ordered his samurai to kill the three Frenchmen. As one of the Western powers, France naturally could not swallow this breath, and this small dispute was about to turn into a war between countries.
The Japanese are indeed "aware of the times" and know that Japan now has no strength to fight with France at all, so they choose to simply admit their mistakes and hope to resolve this matter peacefully. The two sides carried out a "reparations ceremony", in which 30 samurai were handed over to the French, but before the French could say what to do with them, the more than 30 samurai directly "performed" a cut on the spot and committed suicide.
Such an extreme scene greatly shocked the French, so in the eyes of Westerners, the image of Japan became "heroic to death, tenacious will", so even if Japan's national strength is not as good as the Western powers, they have not used the term "sick man" to call Japan.
epilogue:
In fact, whether it is the "admiration" of the Japanese martial spirit or the satire of the insensitivity of the late Qing Dynasty, it is only the prejudice of the Western powers, and what truly reflects whether a country's spiritual will is weak is not a small matter such as admitting guilt and committing suicide, but to see whether the country has an enterprising spirit. There have been "weak" periods in the history of our country, but even under such national conditions, there are still many people with lofty ideals who have gone against the current, saving the numb souls of the Chinese people and awakening the sleeping dragons of the East.