Chapter 4: De- Westernization: The Return of History

Every part of the world is somehow influenced by the West. However, although the West had influence every part of the world, many are starting to question whether the West is actually the most civilized part of the world. They are starting to see the flaws and the greediness of the West. As a result, parts of Asia, such as the Chinese, Muslims and the Indians, are moving away from the West's ideology and becoming more self-confident of their own culture.

China
China had created many myths about the West- almost like they're the most superior human beings compared to the rest of the world. Within two thousand years the West have achieved freedom, democracy, science, humanity, truth and God. Whilst China was still trying to develop its own nation. However, as China is becoming more modernized, they are beginning to question those myths: "is the West truly the most civilized, while the non-Westerners are savages?"
China began to increase their cultural confidence every year since it began its modernization. The West, however, could not really see/accept the fact that the Chinese are truly happy with their country.

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical as well. I realized that I believed it was either you were completely free or you were not free at all. My idea of confinement was to the extreme. I realized the West is not completely free as well. There are rules and regulations which each citizen must follow otherwise they would be punished- similar to the Chinese.

Luckily the Chinese are free from the remorse of not being able to feed their family. Because the government has adopted free-marketing, the Chinese are free to earn enough money to support their own family. They are no longer tied down with remorse, jealousy that they cannot enjoy a comfortable life, and a repetitive life that was handed down to them. They have a choice to change occupations, which Westerners have taken for granted.

I think that the main problem is that the West does not truly understand the Chinese culture. To the West, there's only one form of happines: you can be only be happy if you're a clone of the Western nations, or else you'll never experience true happiness.

The Islamic World
Unlike the Chinese, the Islamic doesn't seem like they are developing. In fact, it seems like they're moving backwards. However, the Islamic has a diversity of cultures. Many of the Islamic blames the West for its poor economic performance. Nonetheless, many Muslim intellectuals have also accepted that they are also responsible for their own failures. However, they are still very anti-Western.

It is disturbing to read how resentful the Muslims feel towards the West. The fact that that many celebrated that the Americans lost three thousand civilians on 9/11 is like their way of saying: "you deserve it! This is what you get for not caring about us!" A grudge that extreme is very frightening but also depressing. To grow up and hate someone for the rest of your life prevents you from truly enjoying what life have to offer.

The West isn't the victim in this case though. Although the Islamic have done horrible things to the West, the West has also done the same. While the Islamic was under the Europeans colonial rule, they did not try to understand the Muslims. Instead, the West criticized the Islamic societies about their religion and their discrimination. When the Europeans ended their colonial rule, they literally threw the Islamic into the wild. "We are no longer responsible for you. We're not going to take care of you anymore." It's similar to the situation where parents neglect their own child because the child did not live up to the parent's expectation.

The West cannot understand the hatred it has generated in the Islamic world. They cannot/ will not be held responsible for their mistakes to the Islamic, which does make the world more violent and more dangerous.

India
Although the Chinese and the Islamic civilizations seem so strange and distance to the West, they are very optimistic about India. The British has successfully portrayed as "benevolent and civilized rules" to the Indians. Despite the belief that India would soon join the Western nations, the Indians are also de-westernizing.

Unlike China and Islam, India is very unbias. It acts as a meeting point for several civilizations and attempts to mend broken relationships- such as the Muslims and the Hindus. For instance, Bollywood consist of both Hindus and Muslim actors, whom have learnt to work together and overcome their differences.

Hopefully India would be able to mend the broken relationship between the West and Islam one day as well.