On Chinese Irredentism

Today's character is inspired by the first line of the following poem, written by the Tang Dynasty poet 杜甫 in 757 A.D.:



国破山河在，城春草木深。

感时花溅泪，恨别鸟惊心。

烽火连三月，家书抵万金。

白头搔更短，浑欲不胜簪。

A non-poetic, prosaic rough translation would be something like this:



The country has been broken, and only the mountains and rivers remain.

It's now spring in the capital, and though the grass and woods are verdant, few walk in the streets.

My heart is so full of sorrow at the fate of the country, that even seeing the flowers brings me to tears.

And I hate, hate this feeling of being separated from my family, that the cry of birds startles me.



The flames of civil war have raged for three months.

A letter from home is worth ten thousand gold pieces.

I have scratched and pulled at my white hair,

Until I am almost bald.

As you've probably figured out, this is a poem written after Changan, the capital of Tang China, was captured by rebels, imprisoning 杜甫 in the process. He was writing both about the breakup of the country ("国") and about his family (“家"). For the Chinese, the two concepts have always been linked as simply the same thing at different scales.



This poem has always remained popular in China since its composition, and it is invoked whenever China is broken apart by foreign conquest or domestic strife. It expresses eloquently the Chinese yearning for reunification.



It is, in other words, the anthem of Chinese Irredentism.



Today's China remains broken and unredeemed. With the recovery of Hong Kong and Macao in the 90's, there was a brief period of hope. But the prospect of reunification with Taiwan, whose division from China remains one of the greatest tragedies of the Cold War, equal with the partition of Germany and Korea, seems to have only receded further into uncertainty. And to add to that sorrow, ethnic strife in Tibet and Xinjiang have only added to the prospect that the country would be further broken rather than healed. It does not seem possible that I will live to see a free, prosperous, united China that would again gladden the hearts of all people of Chinese descent, and all humankind.



Only the mountains and rivers remain the same.



In the West, Chinese Irredentism is usually misunderstood. Some of this comes from a genuine ignorance of what China's goals and ambitions are, in light of its history and tradition. The Chinese people's desire to heal the wounds from a series of Western invasions and slaughters dating back to 1840 is often misconstrued as "expansionism." Others, however, do not wish to see a free, prosperous, strong China that can be an equal of the Western powers. For them, Chinese Irredentism provides an excuse for continuing the injustices of 1840 in the present and into the future.