Lessons of China and Japan on Moving Forward

While rules do protect freedom and safety but it's also necessary to become less strict.  One might consider how China and Japan actually became better when it opened up.  I remembered how once both countries were home to "cheap, inferior goods" and later China had all the "fake and bootleg" labeling.  However one can learn a few things from these countries.

Japan

When it closed its gates during the Tokugawa era, it really started to decline.  When the Meiji era came, Japan became a progressive country.  When Imperial Japan suffered from its ethnocentric pride, much of Japan became a waste.  I mean, you could name the atrocities the Imperial Japanese forces did to its territories like Korea (before it split), China (I asked my relatives there about Japanese cruelty) and the Philippines to name a few.  It left a huge blot on Japan until it was defeated by America.

Only when Japan opened up to the world did it start to create better products.  In fact, if Japan didn't open up I don't think the world will ever see Tokusatsu, J-Drama and Anime.  When the United States and Japan buried the hatchet, you can see how Japan has improved.  Today, you might really take a great pride in Japanese products everywhere.  I personally like a lot of what contemporary Japan has to offer.

China

In the past, most Chinese are pretty ethnocentric.  Take a look at places where Chinese communities are formed.  In America, many Chinese were not only victims of discrimination but were also guilty of the crime in itself.  Try reading Bruce Lee's story.  For the nation itself, ethnocentrism ruined China.  Closing China's gates from the rest of the world was a very bad thing to do which caused a huge influx of migration.  This caused China to continue in stupid traditions like the male chauvinism that was prevalent back then to actually decrease the number of females in China, thus it would spell EXTINCTION.

You might want to think about the era of Mao Zedong after he unified China, his economic policies brought the people to ruin.  Only when Deng Xiaopeng reopened China did it progress. Today China has become one of the biggest sources of labor and business.  You might want to consider how China has been defeating the old traditions.  Today in China, women's rights are more open and they are treated fairly with the men.  That means gender is not the basis for punishment but offenses.

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