| The 19th & 20th centuries were quite tumultuous for Chinese. I think it was also comparably tumultuous for Korea and Japan. In the past 150 years in China there were 6 major wars. 1. 1850-1864 Taiping Rebellion (My grandmother's great-grandparents lived this.) 2. 1894-1895 First Sino-Japanese war (My grandmother's grandparents lived this.) 3. 1911-1912 Xinhai Revolution (My grandmother's parents) 4. 1926-1928 Northern Expedition 5. 1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese war (My grandmother) 6. 1946-1950 Chinese Civil War Four social upheaval movements: 1. 1919 May fourth Movement 2. 1958 Great Leap Forward 3. 1966 Cultural Revolution 4. 1978 Chinese economic reform There were also 9 famines during this period with total deaths of 120 million people during this period. I think these events have contributed to a certain set of attitudes in Asians in the two generations after 1970, i.e Hungry and humble, as our ancestors were during those times, literally; the ones who survived, anyway. |