Scholar: Arrogance harms China - People's Daily Online August 13, 2010
Chinese people should always keep low-profile and even humble, if they intend to bring China more recognition in the world arena, said a prominent sociologist.
Ye Hailin, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote on a domestic journal this week titled "Narcissism Poisons the People".
The author urged Chinese nationals to "be confident, but never arrogant" in dealings with the outside world. He said that quite a few Chinese have been "narcissistic" with the country's rapid rise in the past 30 years, and begin to thump chests before other peoples.
Ye emphasized that China should learn to listen to "criticism", while not display "muscles" to others' critical words.
"We must respect the rules, admitting the development of China has its limitations, both at home and abroad. It is not possible for China to overspend our social and natural resources in China's pursuit of prosperity. It is also difficult to make others believe China can pursue rise and peace at the same time," he wrote.
Ye said that three decades of reform and opening-up has led to a rapid wealth increase, and also made the Chinese people "arrogant".
"The Chinese people are no longer modest. They talk about Seoul and Tokyo with contempt, and even boast Beijing and Shanghai, the two biggest Chinese cities, could soon match New York and Paris," the article said.
And, Chinese people are no longer "tolerant" with criticism. While some Western countries criticize China's murky strategic intentions, these people would respond, claiming the accusers do not understand the Chinese philosophy of "hiding one's capacities and biding one's time".
While some recommend China should pay more attention to environmental protection, they reply it is hypocritical of them to infringe on China's legitimate rights of development after they themselves have produced huge pollution to the earth during their industrialization process.
"In a word, in recent years, the Chinese people have formed such a fixed way of thinking: the whole world is misunderstanding China," Ye said.
He went on to criticize the mindset of certain people. "These people believe they could maintain social stability while keeping on with the heavy-hand work of the policemen and demolition teams. They believe the environment and resources could provide unlimited material basis for economic miracle. They believe the water poisonous enough to kill fish is harmless for them. They believe China's development model is unique worldwide," Ye wrote.
And in its interactions with outside world, the author said that China has been stressing its "peaceful rise", regardless whether other countries believe the assumption or not.
Ye said that the reason why China has done better in achieving a fairly high growth rate in the past 30 years is the country has paid a very high environmental cost, which has also planted the seeds of social instability.
The author gave his prescription to deal with the growing narcissistic attitude. "As long as the Chinese people admit they are not distinctive, but one of human species living on this earth. If other people cannot do it, neither can China," Ye wrote.
Author: Ye Hailin
Translated by People's Daily Online
