Guo Liangping, a professor at the Institute of East Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, wrote a big article, which was divided into two sister articles, to demonstrate why Chinese culture could not give birth to modernization. Even if we learn a little bit of modernization from the West now, if we don't continue to follow the West closely, then China will return to backwardness.
Don't think that it is great for China to learn a little science and technology now, Guo believes that what China has learned is just scratching the surface, the inherent systematic innovation ability of Western culture, the entire innovation ecology, China has neither learned nor can learn, which is determined by the closed rigidity of Chinese culture.
Guo's argument starts with the Sino-US technology war and decoupling and breaking the chain. He believes that the most powerful means for the United States to contain China is to exclude China from the field of scientific research. Because modern science and technology are the ultimate driving force of modernization, but modern science and technology, that is, the ultimate driving force of modernization, originated from Western civilization and is closely related to Western culture.
The implication is that only Western civilization and Western culture are the soil suitable for the growth of modernization. Without Western culture and civilization, not only would modern civilization not be able to originate, and modern science and technology would not be able to develop, but even modern science and technology developed with the help of Western science and technology would inevitably wither and wither after leaving the soil of the West.
His meaning has been very clear, that is, after China is cut off from the scientific and technological environment of the United States, China will not be able to develop modern science and technology, and Chinese culture does not have this soil, so China will undoubtedly lose the Sino-US science and technology war. China cannot live without the West. At least it is not possible to become stronger than the West.
How did Guo argue it? It's also very simple. It's all the reasons you can think of.
First of all, the spirit of adventure and exploration in the bones of Western culture led Western civilization to finally break the shackles of religion, get out of the darkness of the Middle Ages, and explore a development path driven by science and technology to modernize human society.
This spirit of exploration and innovation has been driving Western civilization to continuously create new scientific and technological achievements, allowing Western countries to be in a leading position in the world for a long time.
Since then, very few countries have been able to join the ranks of the so-called developed countries, and it can be said that only Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Israel have not been able to truly step through the middle-income trap and become a developed country.
The reason is simple, because other countries have not embraced Western culture in its entirety. And these countries are the best in kneeling in the West, so they are recognized by the West and put on the table of the developed countries of the West.
Guo then went on to list why China can't. Because China is not culturally good. China's Confucianism and ritual culture, as well as the "Three Principles and Five Constants," have all "imprisoned" the minds of the Chinese.
When Western missionaries brought the most advanced technology from the West to the Chinese emperor, they were contemptuously called "miraculous tricks" by the Chinese emperor, and China has never lacked these things.
Although the May Fourth Movement allowed China to learn Western spirit and technology, the Chinese later referred to the acceptance of Western ideas as "admiring foreign countries."
Therefore, Chinese culture can only be conservative, does not encourage innovation, prefers the "official standard", and has no innovative culture.
Guo said that although China is now developing rapidly, it is catching up with the West. But this is just an illusion. This is because China has been following the path that Westerners have taken, and China has invisibly gained important experience accumulated by the West and knows where to go.
Once China is excluded from this system and China can no longer follow the old path taken by the West, then China will continue to return to backwardness, "back to the pre-liberation period overnight".
Guo's flaws
Guo's argument seems well-founded and unassailable. Everything he said seemed to be correct, and everyone knew that these problems existed.
However, Guo's biggest problem is that his own observation position is not that of a neutral third party, but that of a completely Western point of view.
This led to a huge deviation in his entire observation.
First of all, there is no doubt that Western civilization gave birth to modernization, modern science and technology.
However, to say that the accident of the West taking the lead in modernization is an intrinsic attribute of Western culture and Western civilization is itself a Western-centric view. There is a huge problem with this.
When looking at this issue, the West is actually facing a problem of darkness under the lights. It doesn't see why it was able to enter modern civilization first.
The West was the first to enter modern civilization, not because of the intrinsic factors of Western civilization. And simply because the Middle Ages in the West were too backward, too dark, too ignorant.
At that time, the West was an absolutely religious society. People's minds are completely controlled by religious thoughts.
Later, due to the severe religious persecution, people began to wake up and began to reflect on why a non-existent God could control the thoughts and lives of all people.
So they began to doubt and began to overthrow religion and the rule of God.
This overthrow was terrible, and it plunged Westerners into an unprecedented vacuum of faith. Without God, how can man live?
Why do people live, and what can they live on? What to do?
In the past, these problems were left to God, and ordinary people just had to live according to God's arrangement.
Now that God is gone, Westerners are scared, they just want to go home and find their mothers.
His mother told him that child, without God, you have to learn to think for yourself and live for yourself.
What is it? This is the origin of modern rationality.
The origin of the whole modern rationality is to get rid of God's control and let people think and live by their own reason.
This is the modern Enlightenment of the whole West.
The phrase "I think, therefore I am" means that I exist because of myself, not because of God.
Then whatever I do, I have to go through my own thinking, through my own experiments, and all my life is up to me.
This is the source of all scientific spirit. You have nothing else to rely on, everything is on your own, on your own to explore and verify.
Since then, the West has entered modern civilization and began to use rational thinking to reflect on its own existence. This use of rationality is reflected in all scientific development and scientific creation.
Why haven't the Chinese discovered reason? Because China is not a religious society in the first place. Chinese people have basically no religious beliefs. The Chinese have long lived a secular life. The Chinese have long known that life can only be lived on their own, not on God.
How can we live on our own? The Chinese believe that the three principles and five permanent principles, the Tao is natural, and the relationships around them are handled well, everyone gets along harmoniously, and life is good.
So fundamentally speaking, it is because the Chinese have not encountered an ideological and philosophical existential crisis, and have not encountered the collapse of faith. Therefore, the Chinese did not expect to reflect on and explore their own survival issues. Therefore, it does not touch on the rational thinking of modernization.
The crisis of faith in the Chinese
To say that the Chinese have not had a collapse of faith is not entirely true. The collapse of the Chinese faith came from the Opium War.
The barbaric bullying of China by the Western powers, especially the strong ships and cannons, completely collapsed the faith of the Chinese. The Chinese found that the three platforms and five permanent members could no longer protect themselves, and the Taoism naturally did not work. The Chinese are so frightened that they just want to go home and find their mother.
His mother told him that you should learn from the West and learn from the art of Yi to control it. In the past, there were only three programs and five permanent in life, but now there is one more permanent and three permanent and six permanent programs, that is, there is one more external world, and Chinese must learn to deal with this external world.
As a result, China began a long process of learning from the West.
This is the origin of China's modernization. Suffice it to say, there is no one who can bring modernization to whom. All modernization is a revolution of oneself and requires a new understanding of oneself. What the West has brought to China is only the impact of modernization, not modernization itself.
Because the advanced technology brought to China by Western missionaries was only regarded as a miracle, because at that time, the thinking of the Chinese had not yet been modernized.
Therefore, the modernization of the Chinese must and can only be completed by the Chinese themselves.
Here is the first rebuttal point of view, if Chinese culture is not suitable for modernization, China would not be what it is today, and China would have been colonized and assimilated long ago. China's modernization is inevitably the modernization of Chinese culture, not the Westernization of Chinese culture. China's modernization, so to speak, has succeeded, and it is one of the few that has succeeded.
Therefore, Guo believes that modernization is brought about by the inherent spirit of innovation and exploration in Western culture, which is completely far-fetched and inverted cause and effect. It is entirely from the innovation achievements of the West to deduce the innovation ability of the West.
The second major mistake of Guo's argument is his blind eye to reality
Guo even believes that Japan is now the most powerful country in scientific and technological innovation, because Japan fully accepts the West and wants to become a European country, while retaining some of its own culture, the combination of the two makes Japan's modern innovation capability very strong.
However, in today's rapid development of science and technology, where do we still see any innovative technologies coming out of Japan? It is true that Japan still has strong scientific and technological innovation capabilities in some subdivided basic fields, but on the whole, Japan has entered a dead end of being isolated from the world and playing with itself.
In today's mainstream technology, whether it is artificial intelligence or chip technology, including aerospace, although Japan has not been left behind and has strong strength, Japan is no longer China's opponent. In the field of commercial science and technology, such as new energy, Internet technology, intelligent applications, etc., Japan is not China's opponent, and it is simply an insult to compare China with today's Japan.
Now the only people who can compete with China are the United States and Caoer!
Even the United States, there are few cards that can compete with China.
Guo even quoted Lee Kuan Yew's words back then to confirm that even if China is economically first by 2050, it will still lag far behind in science and technology.
Although Lee Kuan Yew is a great politician, he really can't see what China will look like in 2050.
Not to mention 2050, he can't even see 2020, he would never have imagined that China and the United States would fight so fiercely today, and China would dare to argue with the United States so soon. China's aerospace, China's military power, China's semiconductor autonomy path, China's new energy vehicles, China has so many technologies and capabilities that give the United States a headache. These are absolutely unimaginable to Lee Kuan Yew.
Sit in the well and watch the sky
And this Guo Liangping, sitting in the well and watching the sky, has no vision, he is still alive, but he can't see the earth-shaking changes that are happening in front of him.
He believes that Chinese only speak politically correct things because of Chinese culture.
However, in fact, all his own observations and thoughts, under the strong influence of Western culture, have not been able to jump out of the framework set for him by Western culture at all.
You must know that Chinese culture is far more dynamic than he imagined to be open. This ability of the Chinese to innovate has never been a problem.
Which nation in this world is the most proficient in rolling? Not yet Chinese. What is Volume? The volume is just thinking of a way, and changing the way is better than others.
If there is no innovation, what do you think? How can you be better than others?
It should be pointed out that the problems in Chinese culture mentioned by Guo do exist. However, these problems will in no way affect any of China's innovation and modernization capabilities. There is a certain relationship between the two, but it is by no means conclusive.
The ability of Chinese culture to innovate is far from being brought into play. Because the Chinese have been busy catching up and overtaking before, they are not in the mood to idle to use their imagination and creativity.
Look at the past two years, in various fields, how many cases of pursuing self-development have occurred, and how many Chinese have begun to care about the eyes of others and want to live their own lives. Why? Because Chinese people have money, confidence, and the ability to do what they really like.
What is it? This is the foundation of innovation. All innovation comes from personal love and investment regardless of return.
Who said that Chinese will not innovate and that Chinese culture is not suitable for innovation?
China's biggest problem now is not innovation at all, but stabilizing economic fundamentals. As long as the economy is done, China's innovation capacity in other areas will simply be too much rather than too little, and innovation will be too fast rather than too slow.
How can Singapore, a small country, see one of the 100,000 of our big country?
Guo someone, it's better to be honest, and don't post the next part.
Finally, to reveal the old bottom, this Guo is often interviewed by Chinese media, blowing rainbow farts to China.
Then when it came to the foreign media, it began to blow the rainbow fart of the West again.
If so, it wouldn't be surprising.