John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) in his book "On Liberty" thus analyzed Chinese culture:
"We have a warning example in China – a nation of much talent and, in some respects, even wisdom, owing to the rare good fortune of having been provided at an early period with a particularly good set of customs, the work, in some measure, of men to whom even the most enlightened European must accord, under certain limitations, the title of sages and philosophers. They are remarkable, too, in the excellence of their apparatus for impressing, as far as possible, the best wisdom they possess upon every mind in the community, and securing that those who have appropriated most of it shall occupy the posts of honor and power.
"Surely the people who did this have discovered the secret of human progressiveness and must have kept themselves steadily at the head of the movement of the world. On the contrary, they have become stationary – have remained so for thousands of years; and if they are ever to be further improved, it must be by foreigners. They have succeeded beyond all hope in what English philanthropists are so industriously working at – in making a people all alike, all governing their thoughts and conduct by the same maxims and rules; and these are the fruits.
"The modern regime of public opinion is, in an unorganized form, what the Chinese educational and political systems are in an organized, and unless individuality shall be able to successfully to assert itself against this yoke, Europe, notwithstanding its noble antecedents and its professed Christianity, will tend to become another China."
This is one of the many good books I have read in recent months: "The Man Who Made Wall Street," a biography of Anthony Drexel; "All The President's Man;" "Democracy in America;" "Silent Spring;" et "The House Of Morgan."
Also watched some good movies: "Kundun" a film of the 14th Dalai Lama's life, "Pride and Prejudice" of good old Jane Austin, "Fire Within" about Jewish and Palestinian children.