Recently I watched this video about the Boxer Rebellion in China:
Readers of the series A Fistful of Yuan: Vulcan in China, 1981-3 who watch the video will recognise that Vulcan’s representatives were in the trail of the Boxer Rebellion in places like Tianjin, Tanggu and Beijing itself. Although the foreign concessions were long gone under the Communists, in the early 1980’s there was not so much change in the landscape that places shown in the video were still recognisable, and some of these can be seen in A Fistful of Yuan 4: On Tour in China.
The deep Chinese feeling of shame over the whole foreign establishment on their soil and the conditions surrounding the end of the Boxer Rebellion also came out at times during the negotiations, as they did in A Fistful of Yuan 8: For a Few Yuan More…, something that Vulcan’s people stepped into in ignorance and tried to fix when confronted with it.
That memory drives much of Chinese foreign policy now and needs to be understood if we plan on dealing effectively with China.
As far as the missionary effort in China is concerned, one of the greatest attacks on that system came from an Anglican minister named Roland Allen. who wrote Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? where he objected to the way it was done in China from a Biblical perspective. The hard lessons learned there and elsewhere–and the rise of modern Pentecost with churches that couldn’t afford the missionary system developed in the nineteenth century–bore fruit after the foreigners lost control of the situation. The result was explosive growth in places like China and Iran where an indigenous effort did what a foreign led movement could not.
vulcanhammer.info 
Prof. Warrington –
I have been following your blogs for a fair number of years and I think your series A Fistful of Yuan was a fascinating overview of what it was like to conduct business in China almost half a century ago. China was a much different place at that time.
One thing that Americans have not and still are not very good at is listening to the folks on the other side of the table. We love to talk, but our listening skill are rather deficient. This failure on our part has gotten us into no small amount of trouble through the years. To understand the other point of view is helpful regardless of whether we are negotiating a business agreement or attempting to avert a potential conflict.
On another subject, I met David Rogers at a geotechnical engineering conference held at the University of Kansas a number of years ago. Prof. Rogers presented a historical overview of the construction of the Panama Canal (from a geotechnical and engineering geology perspective). His passing was a real loss for the university at Rolla, as well as the larger geotechnical/engineering geology community. May he RIP.
Best regards,
Ed Lindgren
Overland Park KS
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Americans being unable/unwilling (or both) to put themselves in the perspective of people who are very different than they are is a major problem and, as you observe, has gotten us (and will continue to get us) into a great deal of trouble moving forward.
One thing that was obvious to just about any “China hand” back in the day is that China would not just turn democratic. That expectation was unrealistic and still is. Freedom and the democratic mindset is something that takes time and effort to develop; we see this not only with the Chinese but with the Russians and in the Middle East as well. It’s easier to overthrow a system than to sustain a democratic process afterwards.
Another CW back in the day was that the Chinese, if they ever got a hold of Hong Kong, would “screw it up.” They did and they have; the surprise is that it took as long as it did. But then again, as a Hawaiian customer of Chinese descent told me, the Chinese have a much different–and longer and slower–perspective of time than we have.
David Rogers was great, there is no doubt.
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