China’s Love/Hate for Kublai Khan
Interesting sweep of history themed on Kublai Khan’s rule of China – China’s love/hate for barbarians from all directions, foreign devils, and its ability to absorb alien cultures and things to become ‘quintessentially’ Chinese. But, in truth, China is a hodge-podge, a big mixing vat or melting pot of the local and foreign. And within the historical and geographical China itself, traditions and cultures are vastly different.
China’s ongoing reforms and economic development is the greatest example of integrating foreign ideas and manufacture with local notions and innovation to create something wholly new. China’s transformation is a micro-cosom of the transformation of the world.