I’m proudly translating Discover China by my friend Eric Nie into Spanish (Mexico) and Portuguese (Brazil). Today’s story is a short copywriting essence of Chapter 2. If you’d like to go deeper and explore the full journey, I highly recommend Eric’s book ($9.99): https://ericonchina.com/collections/all
Dear Friends,
In 1839, British gunboats entered the Pearl River.
For China, it wasn’t just a military encounter.
It was a psychological earthquake.
For centuries, China had seen itself as the “Middle Kingdom” — the cultural center of the world. Neighbors paid tribute. Scholars studied classics. Foreigners were distant and irrelevant.
Then the cannons spoke.
The Opium Wars weren’t really about opium.
They were about worldviews colliding.
An agrarian, inward-looking empire met an industrial, expansionist West.
And the old certainty cracked.
What followed is known in China as the “Century of Humiliation” — foreign invasions, unequal treaties, ceded territory, carved-out concessions. Hong Kong lost. Ports forced open. Sovereignty fractured.
But what hurt most wasn’t land.
It was identity.
Imagine believing your civilization invented paper, printing, gunpowder, and the compass — and suddenly being told you are backward.
That wound runs deep.
Since then, every generation has tried to answer one question:
How do we rise without being humiliated again?
Reformers tried to modernize. Revolutionaries tried to rebuild. Later leaders reframed revival as liberation.
The mission became clear:
Never again.
Today, when China reacts strongly to issues of sovereignty or public criticism, many in the West see over-sensitivity.
In China, it feels like memory.
Modern ambition — infrastructure, technology, global presence — is not only about power.
It’s about restoration.
Dignity restored. Balance regained.
The West remembers the 19th century as expansion.
China remembers it as dismemberment.
Both are true.
But from opposite sides of the horizon.
And until we learn to see both stories at once, we will keep misreading why China moves the way it does.
Cheers,
Augusto
Founder of Expat Eyes on China
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