3.37 Fall and Rise of China: China & Japan & Korea

<p id="docs-internal-guid-1330ec94-7fff-3cfa-6d57-f549677dc820" dir="ltr" style= "line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"> <span style= "font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #202122; background-color: #00ffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Last time we spoke about the modernization efforts of Big Brother and Little Brother, aka China and Japan. Both nations went about the process of modernization in vastly different ways. Japan began its Meiji restoration, an incredible hyper modernization process done  to thwart colonization by western powers. Yet China was hampered by hardline conservatives like Empress Dowager Cixi who sought instead  to restore the Qing Dynasty’s symbolic grandeur over technological innovations such as railways. China’s greatest leaders like Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang did all they could to usher in some form of modernization.  Li Hongzhang emerged as the champion of modernization efforts for China, but he kept butting heads with stubborn conservatives wishing instead to reclaim the Qing’s former symbolic glory.. It would not only be the conservatives in China he would have to face, for the Empire of the Rising Sun was growing, and forcing China into the shade.</span></p> <p><br /> <br /></p> <p dir="ltr" style= "line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"> <span style= "font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #202122; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> #37 This episode is China & Japan & the Hermit Kingdom </span></p> <p> </p> <p dir="ltr" style= "line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 10pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"> <span style= "font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: #ff00ff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text