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Yeah considering that China for about 2000 years was the leading civilisation I'm not sure why people use that term.

by radicalbyte 4y ago

qwytw 4y ago
> Yeah considering that China for about 2000 More like 500 years (1000 years at best if you stretch it very hard)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mensetmanusman 4y ago
  China harkening back 2000 years is like the US harkening back to Rome. Fact is modern communist China is actively erasing its history and is quite new on the world stage.
  - DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
    It's more like the British harkening back to Chaucer's England. The problem with the Rome analogy is that China has had much greater continuity than Europe. China is what Europe would have been, if the Roman Empire had been reconstituted each time it collapsed. Imagine if there were still one political entity ruling the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe, calling itself "Rome," speaking a Romance language, and in which every educated person was still capable of reading the Latin classics (with some difficulty).
- DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
  China's recorded history goes back more than 3000 years. Granted, it was only unified 2200 years ago. I don't know if any possible interpretation of Chinese history that puts China's formation a mere 500 or 1000 years ago. The Qin dynasty (3rd Century BC) is really the absolute latest point at which you could say China came into existence.
flandish 4y ago
Because it’s a propaganda term meant to imply China is uncivilized without directly saying it. Like calling America a democracy. We know it’s not but propaganda keeps that image “out there.”
throwawaylinux 4y ago
How do you define leading?
_ZeD_ 4y ago
- dang 4y ago
  Flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments like this will get you banned here. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

Yeah considering that China for about 2000 years was the leading civilisation I'm not sure why people use that term.

qwytw 4y ago

> Yeah considering that China for about 2000 More like 500 years (1000 years at best if you stretch it very hard)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mensetmanusman 4y ago
China harkening back 2000 years is like the US harkening back to Rome. Fact is modern communist China is actively erasing its history and is quite new on the world stage.
- DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
  It's more like the British harkening back to Chaucer's England. The problem with the Rome analogy is that China has had much greater continuity than Europe. China is what Europe would have been, if the Roman Empire had been reconstituted each time it collapsed. Imagine if there were still one political entity ruling the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe, calling itself "Rome," speaking a Romance language, and in which every educated person was still capable of reading the Latin classics (with some difficulty).
DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
China's recorded history goes back more than 3000 years. Granted, it was only unified 2200 years ago. I don't know if any possible interpretation of Chinese history that puts China's formation a mere 500 or 1000 years ago. The Qin dynasty (3rd Century BC) is really the absolute latest point at which you could say China came into existence.

flandish 4y ago

Because it’s a propaganda term meant to imply China is uncivilized without directly saying it. Like calling America a democracy. We know it’s not but propaganda keeps that image “out there.”

throwawaylinux 4y ago

How do you define leading?

_ZeD_ 4y ago

dang 4y ago
Flamebait and/or unsubstantive comments like this will get you banned here. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.