, 17 APRIL 1895 – I hope you remember a time when we ruled the world. I hope you remember a time when the white devils kowtowed to us. I hope you remember a time when our people were one, our peasants dependable, our merchants honest, our emperors loyal. I hope you remember a time when we were China.
Because we have just encountered the end of the road. Because only today have we signed away our honor to the white devils of the East in the Maguan Tiaoyue”n螊–ñ (Treaty of Shimonoseki) (1). Because today we lost Korea, the Liaodong Peninsula, the Pescadores Islands, Taiwan, 200,000,000 taels (liang), our 
freedom from the West, but most of all, face.
It is true: we have lost face. We have lost to the miniscule Japan in the Sino-Japanese War (2). We have lost our strength in quantity to Japan’s strength in quality. (3) We have lost control over the familiar seas. We have lost the respect of the white devils that now rule the Heaven and the good earth. We have lost all we have to an underdog, lost undeniably fair and square.
However my disappointment for hoarding, glutted Japan greatly outweighs my disappointment for our lumbering, burdened China.
It is most despicable that Japan has sold its soul to the white devils of the setting sun, that such a wicked, barbaric country should taint the fallen glory of the East. I once expected more from an underdog, another country of our kind, one of our yellow skin, to save us from our pitiful state of affairs, to resist from “cutting the Chinese melon,” to be given respect where respect is due, yet, as we can see, I was wrong.
Japan has bitten the hand that fed it once, long ago. Our country, if you recall, opened our arms to the cultureless, primitive people of Japan during the Ming dynasty: we offered them art, language, music, civilization, and the warring weapons which have created this monster of a nation, that even the West will have no way to control.
Yet do not be fooled by the "gracious" interference of Western powers. Do you think Russia, France, Britain, or Germany had spare time so they decided to get themselves some trouble and return the Liaodong Peninsula? Do you think any country in the world is the least bit concerned with our well-being? We have been tossed into a strange society of gluttony and competition; the interference of the West is merely to secure their interests and express their weariness at Japan’s inhumane expansion. It is the truth: we are alone, but we are all in this hell together as a country.
Like a disease this foul Westernization feeds upon the East, feeds upon its naivety, feeds upon the greed of man. Yes, we have reached the end of the road, and yes, we have no choice but to survive the hardships of the present, regardless the consequences, yet we cannot relent to this disease! We once had the world about our little finger by following the values of our culture. We cannot relent to the barbarians who have merely taken advantage of our despair and our present state of weakness in order that we may be convinced to be swayed by their materialistic ways, used to hoard masses of wealth and power! We cannot defy our obligations to our fathers, our obligations to the very traditions which have made us, for the obligations we have to our savage desires!
We may have drifted further from our golden days of glory that we might have wished, may have lost land and wealth to those greedy and cruel, yet we can stand the cruelty, we can fight against the world’s disease. We may succeed just as we had before. We may return to our days when the we held the upper hand, when we held global power, when the white devil kowtowed before us, when we would be unified under one emperor once more to reach such triumph our ancestors had never seen before!
I cannot tell what may happen in the future. It is most likely that the Qing dynasty shall finally meet its collapse, yet the sort of government we must depend upon to endure this modern hardship is hard to tell—be it a creation of a modified dynasty or passionate revolutionaries. And perhaps the spheres of influence shall expand until we have drifted our way into European colonies. Perhaps we shall be milked of all our worth then abandoned once more to rot. Or perhaps through some successful rebellion we shall have defeated such barbarians of evil. Yet whether we shall stand or fall, that is for our own actions to decide.
Let it take ten years, or even one hundred years, this won't be the last you see of this shy, fallen giant.
Notes
1. Encyclopedia Britannica Online., s.v. “Treaty of Shimonoseki.” Available from: Encyclopedia Britannica, Menlo School Lib. <library.menloschool.org> (accessed December 7, 2006)
2. Encyclopedia Britannica Online., s.v. “Sino-Japanese War.” Available from: Encyclopedia Britannica, Menlo School Lib. <library.menloschool.org> (accessed December 7, 2006)
3. John K. Fairbank and Edwin O. Reischauer, China: Tradition and Transformation (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company): 365-366
Images
1. “Fowl Play” (image). Available from: <http://staff.yck2.edu.hk/departments/history/Cartoon%2004.htm> (accessed 13 December 2006)
2. “Jap the Giant Killer” (image). Available from: Vintage Cartoons <www.cartoonstock.com/vintage/directory/w/war.asp> (accessed 13 December 2006)
