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Listed below are comments made by iceager between Wednesday, 16th July 2008 and Wednesday, 16th July 2008.

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National sentiment 1:13pm on 16 Jul 2008 China is a prime example of how history is taught according to nationalist narratives comes to have such a strong hold on an entire nation. In addition to overly sensitive reactions to what is perceived as a Western conspiracy against them, it was a rude shock to see the venom in so many ordinary Chinese people during the anti-Japanese demonstrations in the past years.

As a Korean who has had the opportunity to talk with many Chinese (both mainland and overseas) and Japanese and whose family has lived in China, I feel that the current state of history education in the three East Asian nations will keep them from ever trusting or even really understanding each other. Students of each of these nations have an acute knowledge of humiliations suffered throughout their history, but their own conquests are glorified and the suffering inflicted on the victims downplayed if at all mentioned. Unfortunately, history has given all these nations much to be xenophobic and paranoid about.

While Koreans have never considered themselves the centre of civilization, they have their own history of humiliations to be reminded of, many of them involving vaguely Chinese aggressors. Many Koreans remember how China, even during their own period of humiliation in the late nineteenth century, briefly reduced Korea to a Chinese protectorate before being forced out by the Japanese.

Today, the number one issue for many Koreans with respect to China is China's claim that the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo (also romanized Koguryo), to Koreans an integral part of their history, was Chinese. A surprising number of Koreans see a conspiracy where China will claim Korea was always a rightful part of China (as they do with Tibet already) and take over the territory of North Korea should the state collapse. I've already talked to many Chinese who interpret the traditional East Asian tributary system as meaning that Korea was historically a Chinese subject.

Koreans are regularly treated to news of Chinese police officers assaulting Korean diplomats, the Chinese ambassador talking down to Koreans, regular diplomatic insults from the Chinese, and most recently a number of Chinese demonstrators at the Olympic torch relay in the middle of Seoul rioting and attacking Korean police officers. The slant is that China still considers itself the middle kingdom and looks down on Koreans as inferior subjects. I have to emphasize that I am not endorsing this view, merely relating how ordinary Koreans feel about the perceived Chinese conspiracy to humiliate and undermine the Korean nation. The Chinese of course are not aware of this viewpoint and don't even think to be careful about such misunderstandings.

I will not fault the Chinese for being proud, but they should show some consideration that their neighbours are just as proud and don't take to humiliation well. Sometimes I think the Chinese really do feel that their rightful place in the natural order is not just among the great nations, but above all the rest of them. Perhaps hearing the perspective of Koreans, who share similar faults regarding their own historical narrative of victimization, will spur at least some Chinese readers to examine their own perspectives critically.

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