"A close sibling of nationalism was the concept of 'tutelage,' another Sun Yat-sen contribution, that described the process Chinese people would need to undergo before finally becoming ready for self-government. Indeed, from the earliest, proto-democratic thinkers in the later Qing dynasty to many of today’s political theorists, Chinese reformers frequently have fallen back on this idea that their people are not yet sufficiently advanced in their thinking and political experience to be granted the rights and responsibilities of full democratic life.
"Even though we have both spent many years studying modern Chinese history, neither of us quite knew how to make sense out of it. As we surveyed China’s modern past before undertaking this project, it looked something like a series of miscellaneous one-act plays all involving failed reforms, broken dreams, disjointed efforts at national self-reinvention or dead-end revolutions that did not add up to anything coherent. But, as we began reading, we were taken aback by how often the term 'wealth and power' 富強 kept re-occurring.
Note:
(a) WEI Yuan 魏源 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Yuan
(1794-1857)
(b) tutelage (n; Latin tutela protection, guardian (from tutari to protect, frequentative of tueri to look at, guard) + English -age) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tutelage
(c) "If there is one verity that both Chinese and foreigners reformers and revolutionaries have all been forced to accept, it is that China changes only grudgingly."
verity (n) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/verity
(d) LIANG Qichao’s "new citizen" 新民 and "destructivism" 破坏主义
(e) Schell states, "But I would hardly have eschewed a chance to talk with Mao about his view of modern Chinese history’s teleology and how he might have viewed it as being somehow different than that of the West.
I do not now what it means, because I know nothing about philosophy.
(f) "And, above all, China, which views itself as having been historically kicked around and bullied by other Great Powers, must strive not to succumb to the very understandable temptation – especially as it grows stronger — to put the shoe on the other foot and exercise dominance over lesser powers."
(i) the boot/shoe is on the other foot: "the situation is now the opposite of what it was, especially because someone who was weak now has power"
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus, undated. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... s-on-the-other-foot
(ii) Angela Russell, Popular Phrases: Origin and Meaning of the Shoe is on the Other Foot. Yahoo Voices, Feb 25, 2009 http://voices.yahoo.com/popular- ... hoe-is-2718085.html
("When shoes were made to fit specific feet, it would be uncomfortable to put the shoe on the wrong foot")