Was "Chinese Arrogance" ever a thing? And how did it affect Chinese History?

by warlordson

I've seen this term being used in various threads involving China and people saying it was because of "Chinese Arrogance" that led to China's demise during the 19th century. And recently with the Rise of China, "Chinese Arrogance" is again wide spread among it's populous leading to increased tensions in regions near China.

keyilan

I want to urge caution to anyone answering this question. The notion of "Chinese arrogance" is something Western powers have accused China of for as long as the two have been in contact. It's a catch-all for any time people either didn't understand China's motivations, as well as an easy thing to return to when you want to shift the blame to the victim. It was China's arrogance, people will say, that caused the Opium Wars. No way it could possibly have been the fault of those wishing to illegally import and sell a product that they themselves knew was harmful to the people they were selling it to. Or it was Chinese arrogance, not one man's religious delusions, that caused X Y and Z to happen during the Taiping period. Chinese arrogance becomes an easy way to paint with very broad strokes over any nuance that the situation might actually involve.

That also means that to really do this question justice, you'd need to cover such a huge range of topics and really get into the nuance of each. We can much more easily talk of a time when Chiang Kaishek was acting arrogantly. That's certainly preferable than saying "Chinese arrogance caused the tragedies of 1937". Otherwise how can one characterise a billion people as arrogant without making the sort of broad race-based characterisations we should all hope to avoid as modern historians?

So, if someone wishes to answer about a time when this accusation was made but then explain the nuance of the issue and what motivated the accusation, fantastic. If one just wants to say "yeah they're arrogant", this probably isn't the right forum.