by Anne Teoh for The Saker Blog
Like many issues in life, my belief in the supremacy of name and identity undergo shifting reviews from time to time mainly as I, like many of you, are not in a no man’s land but we do get swayed by the strength or beauty of discourse from ongoing narratives; be they from hard or soft propaganda sources- if we knew. Once I disavowed all sense of name, self and identity, related to the superficial personal and racial stereotypes, opting for a deep breath of freedom from Dr. Spook’s psychological grip.
How sweet the intrinsic respect for all lives from Shakespeare’s Juliet –
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Yet, for those of us with the non-forgiving conscience of guilt if hurting others and meditating on growing our compassion for all living things, we will stay centered in our intellectual integrity in the realm of truth, beliefs and commitment: so we seek wisely and never cease exploring the wonderful spirit and possibilities in life. Some of us make connections with like-mindedness while many valorous news writers soldier for peace and justice, turning pens into swords to peel into layers for transparency and for true humanity.
In this spirit of forging awareness, I had emerged from a life redundant of name, destiny and plan to find myself confronting the quotidian hazards of retirement, the graces and ravaging results of ageing and the question of self-sufficiency. At this juncture, it’s time one asks, “What in my name has prepared me to face this self at this time?”
Indeed, names in the west are mainly personalized and we identify names with our familiarity of the personalities of the people we get to know over time. Some of us might believe certain people have unique characteristics related to their being born on the different days of the week e.g. Monday’s child is full of grace and so on, or we try to find astrological influences from the western or Chinese signs of the horoscope to match their character. The shortfall of dependence on astrological signs is that our personalities get cast in stone and any advice on planning is on a day to day, short term basis centered on the me-self.
On the other side of the globe, Chinese astrologists since ancient time, have worked out the influences of cosmological energies, including heaven, earth, the elements and people with their shamanistic psyche when performing the important ritual of naming a child. This tradition originated from an inherent belief that one’s name is tied up with one’s destiny. In this sense, Chinese names are closely connected to the continuous tradition of a culture connected to a collective consciousness of history, nature and the cosmos.
My interest in the significance of the Chinese naming of their children grew from the realization of the inherent potency in many Chinese names. In the 80s, a lively bunch of super bright Chinese government scholars doing their post PHD research in London had commented on how Chinese names register the history and politics of the era the children are born in. Their discussion about names encouraged me to further explore the tradition of naming in Chinese culture and its associated influences in many aspects of our lives and even the future.
Classical Chinese names that we know about from the notable dynasties are highly cultivated, poetic and quintessentially refined up to the time of the Qing Dynasty and before the invasions, civil war and revolution – taking a very few examples as found in Chang an – long, flourishing peace; Xinyi – joyous soul, Xinying – outstanding hero; the list is long and rich. Like Chang-an, Xian meaning western peace, is another ancient capital of China. From the word ‘an’ meaning peace named in two ancient capitals of China, one can deduce that peace is highly regarded by emperor, state and the wish of the people not to engage in wars. It’s a Tianxia; below as above.
Generally, a child’s name also indicates their gender: male names take on the yang or creative heaven in the form of the dragon, courage, integrity, strength and such statesman-like attributes whereas female names take on the essence and qualities of yielding earth, virtue, beauty and culture. Chinese families consult The Analects, family members, astrologists, diviners and geomancers for the names destined for their newborn since ancient times. This is tied up with the Chinese belief in the connection between man, the cosmology and earth; hence, one’s name can become one’s destiny; moreover, one’s destiny is not separated from the society and its environment. Traditionally, parents choose auspicious or beautiful names related to strength of character, moral uprightness, luck and fortune, refinement and aspiring qualities of learning, moral character or beauty so their children have the potential to manifest such qualities or power, ( as prevalent or absent at that time ) though many modern parents also adopt their favourite celebrity’s names especially names with repetitions such as Lang Lang or Yen Yen which are iconic and also signify affection. All in all, naming a child is a social activity.
At a more phenomenal level, naming in China is a reflection of the changing cultural norms and the throes of history in the ancient and continuous Chinese civilization. As such, it mirrors the impact and force of the country’s social movements on its people and how they react to the momentum. A name can also signify a child’s social position in the rank and file of society and reflect on the history of that time. On the scale of things, one can expect names with Wei (suggesting greatness), Lung (dragon) to be elitist; Zhi, (knowledge) and Rui (intelligent) to be scholarly; Man (full) and Shou ( harvest) to be agricultural and so on, including endearing names given on a whim like Yen Yen (swallow swallow) after a parent’s favourite thespian. It follows that names given, up to the period of the ancien regime of the Qing Dynasty, would follow the traditional naming system described above.
But from 1911, after the Boxer Rebellion and the struggle to be free from imperialism and feudalism, names given would probably include words like unifying, pacifying and stabilizing as solutions to trouble shooting from rebellions, fighting, famine and chaos, and they would also probably include western ideals of ziyi meaning freedom and minzhu meaning democracy.
Names during the interim period reflect the unrest of the time and it’s well known that Sun Yat Sen, who is recognized as instrumental in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, used many different names in his life. In brief, from aged ten, he was known as Sun Wen meaning literary Sun (erudite); his baptismal name was Rixin meaning, daily renewal. He was known as Sun Zhong Shan meaning Central mountain during his stay in Japan and later in life, he chose a courtesy name Zaizhi based on the philosophical saying, ‘Literature as a vehicle to convey the Tao.” However, his surname Sun was derived from the name, Hui Sun, a high official of the state of Wei which was from the Zhou Dynasty (1122- 221 BC. ) and Sun Zi, the military strategist and writer of ‘The Art of War.’ SunYat Sen is recognised as the father of modern China by some but it was Mao Zedong, meaning brilliant east, who brought about the People’s Republic of China.
Most prominently, during the Maoist era, names bearing the elements red, East, valour, victory, patriotism, strength and unity were most popular, showing the support of the masses for a revolution to create a strong and modern China.
China Daily.com provides some empirical data in their article, “China’s History Spelt Out in Baby Names,’ which also includes statistics and new trends. It says that nearly a million or 24% of Chinese babies were named Jianguo (build the country) during the establishment of the People’s Republic between 1949-1959. During the Cultural Revolution, to show their loyalty, parents named their children Weihung – protect red, Weidong – protect Mao Zedong and Xuenong – learn from the peasants and of course, there were a great number of Hungs meaning red e.g. Hungshu – red book, Hungmeng – red dream, and Hung weiping – redguards during the Cultural Revolution.
Since 1978 and the opening up of China, names have become more varied and diverse. According to China Daily.com in 2008, 4783 babies were named Aoyun – Olympics.
Basically, Chinese beliefs in the connection between names and destiny involve taking the child’s horoscope and all other personal details related to the time, date, place, month and year of the particular baby. The geomancer consults the book of Fung Shui or the I Ching book of divination. The I Ching follows the cosmological system based on the Yin-Yang polarity together with the five elements – air, earth, water wood and metal and they all have broken lines ( yielding) or unbroken ( resisting) lines. The diviner will take stock of all the elements present at birth and he will attach the missing element, say, water, to the other half of the child’s given name, which might be as an example – chun, meaning spring. The diviner will add water if water is the missing element in his calculations, to make the name ‘Chun Shui’ or ‘Spring Water.’ The idea is always about complementing, fulfilling and completing but the subtler meaning of chun shui also nuances the essence of freshness or eternal youth. The force and potency in Chinese names lie in the nuances.
I can draw on some very pertinent examples of the potency of naming in Chinese culture. A Chinese teacher’s parents had her name given as, ‘Yuan Zhou,’ meaning, ‘Round Circle,’ by the Chinese diviner. When asked the reason for repeating the round with the circle, she said that her mother had had four female children but she was desperate to have a son. She consulted a diviner who looked into the Sheng Chen Ba Zi – the Eight Characters of Birth Time; and using his own shamanistic power of divination, by consulting the nature of her mother’s problem, he had the answer written on a yellow offering paper, the words “Yuan Zhou.” He explained that after having four girls continuously, the last one in line should be named round circle to complete the cycle of female births. True enough, after conceiving teacher Yuan Zhou, her mother had a baby boy.
Personally, I noticed often that girls with Pearl or Jade in their names have fresh and shiny complexions. A Chinese friend, given the name Liu Yuan meaning roaming far travelled to the far flung regions of the earth and eventually settled on the other side of the globe from China.
In this context of cultural understanding I discussed the significance attached to the name of China’s current president, Xi Jin Ping with a Chinese post-graduate. I interpret Jin Ping to mean ‘close to parity or peace’ (ping can also mean even, peace, equality and restoration to normality) but the student felt it means ‘close to Deng Xiao Ping’ as Xiao Ping carries the meaning little parity/peace so Jinping brings us closer to the heart-felt wish for equality and peace. Our two versions of translating Jin Ping might seem to have issued from just a matter of different choices but an understanding of Chinese and Chinese culture would signify that the Chinese student’s choice of interpretation reveals her preference to opt for the more practical, tangible and continuous, and primarily, for peace like the peace wished for in the ancient capitals of Chang-an and Xian.
Xi Jinping is not an emperor or a dictator; he was vetted and elected by the CCP (Chinese communist Party) governing body. XJP’s parents were revolutionaries, which imply that XJP grew up with revolutionary ideals set up since the time of Mao for a modern China that is socialist, strong and progressive. Today, it’s a fact that XJP has accomplished much, from the little things he had contributed to the rural community in Shaanxi to the bigger tasks he had taken on to crack down on corruption, continue building infrastructures internally and across the globe, inspire the Chinese dream and innovations, eradicate poverty and uplifting the poor. In short, he works to reinforce ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and also to extend his economic vision to the world with the Silk Road revival, AIIB, and BRI to encourage co-operation in the world for a global “ community with a shared destiny.”
After XJP’S reelection as President of the CCP for the next five years, he spelt out his plan in several crystal clear stages, the gist of which is mainly to uplift and eradicate poverty by 2020, create a larger middle income population by 2030 and make China a strong and powerful country by 2050. My personal experience from what I had seen and been through in China for seven months from 2013 – 2014, confirmed my impression of a modern China that is intrinsically built on ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’. XJP’s vision of a global economic expansion aimed at uplifting all below the poverty line, creating jobs and prosperity, co-operating in scientific/innovative research and development/maintenance of infrastructures. Like myself, many world leaders embrace XJP’s win win vision for all. What’s good for one’s good for all; otherwise, let’s negotiate and discuss. We are getting much closer to a balancing world that can give peace a chance.
In the light of Davos 2018 and the relentless commercial insistence of ‘opening up China,’ I’d like to make a wish that some Chinese state-owned enterprises such as the Transport system that keep HS train fares very low for its citizens should never be taken over and have its travel fares hiked by corporate companies. It would be a good idea if Chinese parents think about this and name their children Zhoutie – State trains. Who needs propaganda when baby names start leading the way? In view of the amazing advances in science and technology, another predictive trend for baby names will surely be– Jian hong – build (and) vast meaning in Chinese subtlety, developing a far reaching or thorough civilization; or even xiha meaning hip-hop and nuanced as a protest. But hey, for all entrepreneurs and artists in popular culture, there’s always room for negotiation and talk, using our brain and social skills rather than resorting to adrenalin, force and war.
References
Wu Chen: Young Chinese Look to Old Ways to Name their Children : 2009 09.29
Xin Jinping : Why I Propose the BRI 12 May 2007 Youtube
Live Youtube : Liu He explains China’s Economic Policy, WEF in Davos 2018
ChinaDaily.com : China’s History Spelt Out in Baby Names : CN Jan 29 2018
Belly Ballot : Chinese Names : History A-Z Meanings
Excellent.
“Who needs propaganda when baby names start leading the way?”
This will perhaps be one of those little noticed yet significant observations that get collated into future works of others as one of the first pieces that showed how the subtle things are a thousand times more powerful than the coarse, and that to change a paradigm is worth a million words of argument – that shows, indeed, the power of heaven upon the workings of earth.
February 16 will bring the Year of the Earth Dog, a new Chinese year in this new Chinese century. It is a time of loyalty, compassion and fearless qualities, anchored to the living bedrock of the ground, which transmits sanity and calm, the prerequisites for wisdom to descend.
And so this will be a good year, one especially well suited to the Chinese “conquest by doing nothing” of the world. While everything at the surface level may look threatening and ready to explode, in fact the events on the ground will nurture increasing safety and refuge for the weak.
It will be a good year, and this article is an auspicious precursor to it.
Grieved, thank you for such an awesome comment. I’ve often felt very sad about the cruelties and wastage of wars too. May we have millenniums of peace.
When you begin the journey to understanding China, the Chinese and the great Civilization of this ancient and young nation, you will understand some of Anne Teoh’s efforts to educate others to the deep sophistication of the simplest thing like Names.
Nothing is without layered or compound or multiple possibilities. Patterns and links, symbols and metaphors abound in the language and depth of the Chinese experience.
Often, there is a beauty and harmony to meaning with Chinese characteristics. Unlike English (especially, the American experience of the language) Chinese lexicon is jeweled, faceted and poetic. Art is a constant in the vertebrae of the Chinese experience of life.
Much thanks to Anne for this exposition about President Xi’s name.
Larchmonter 445, thank you for reading and amazing support.
I lived/worked/socialised in China from 9/2002 to 9/ 2016.
Back in ’02 people had less but were so much more relaxed. Fast forward to ’16 they have so much but quite unrelaxed.
Back then almost any one could get a China visa almost anywhere and extend it for years, could stay anywhere, but since ’16 you can only get 30 days and from your home country, plus you must submit a detailed itinerary of your travels. You can only stay in specified hotels, usually expensive, and must register your overnight stay with the local Public Security Bureau, as do all Chinese travellers too.
My observation over that period is that corruption is just as rife in ’16 as was in ’02, the difference being that much of the payoffs go to the party whereas before they went to any one who could give one a leg up or easy access. I have not seen any lessening of corruption in all that time and it is just as open lately as it was back then, if you know what you are seeing, if not then you wouldn’t know. I personally know high government office holders who don’t hide their corrupt activities.
I lived for a time in a city that was widely known as one of the most corrupt in China. The whole of the government officials, right to the top, were arrested. They were replaced quite quickly by people known to be just as corrupt, nothing changed.
Back in the former president’s time people who worked in government enterprises of any kind got a house and 3 to 5 times their salary at retirement plus medical benefits, most retired at 45 to 55. Now they lose that retirement benefit at 60 and they only get 3,000RMB a month and very little else, so the burden on their children is much greater now.
Many of my elder Chinese friends are livid from the fact that they contributed all their working lives to retirement pensions to end up only getting 3,000RMB at 60, yet at 59 they were getting 6,000 to 14,000RMB a month with 100% medical benefits. If they live with their spouse they get 2,000RMB each.
China is run governmentally on a socialist kind of system but that’s all. It is definitely a full on capitalist country which one can easily see just walking down the street. The sad part is that China is becoming more and more closed to non Chinese. Yes, outsiders can invest vast sums into the Chinese market but you only get 30 days to be there, yet Chinese going out can get long visas and can travel anywhere, sleep any where as can the people of the country they are visiting. Chinese need only a translation of their drivers license to drive upon landing in almost any country but such is not reciprocated upon non-Chinese landing in China.
Chinese airport security is not as demeaning as in the USA but to catch local buses and trains you must show your ID and have your bags x-rayed and step through a body scanner.
Here is a great example of Chinese culture exported abroad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMBblewrZI0
My own Chinese name is of special meaning but that doesn’t mean I am special. Chinese names of people and places are much more important then the people or the place.
For the whole of my first year in China I was told every other day that I must go to the most beautiful city in China, about 5 hours east of where I was. I went there after my first year with a guide but I was somewhat confused as all I could see was a very polluted city. My guide was enthralled about being there and a little upset with me that I was not as excited as she. I then realised that it’s not the actual place, it’s the name that says it all. I did live there and if the wind was not coming from the south it was indeed a very beautiful city; Qingdao. Qing means golden, dao means island; golden island, but it’s actually a peninsular. Many islands in Chinese language are actually peninsulars because island is more romantic.
Ten years on I went back for a Spring Festival and then the wind direction did not matter, it is thickly polluted, sadly. That was Qingdao where the Chinese Olympics sailing competitions were held. The beer made there is world famous; Tsingtao pijou (beer).
One year Heineken was looking at buying a share of the Tsingtao beer factory. Before the Heineken business people came the local government ordered that all shops and eateries could only serve/sell Tsingtao beer. Upon seeing that “evidence” of the popularity of Tsingtao beer Heineken bought an 18% share. But, after a year of being there they reduced their investment by 10% from the discovery that Tsingtao beer was the 2nd most popular bottled beer.
Locals who could speak English would take great delight in telling me the acronym T-S-I-N-G-T-A-O; This-Sh*t-Is-No-Good-Try-Another-One. Chinese love beer, in fact I’d suggest that they would be the biggest beer drinkers, along with Germans, in the world.
In Qingdao eateries the beer they serve is actually Tsingtao but it is from kegs, not bottles, and sold by weight, very cheap in plastic shopping bags, and much better than the bottled beer. The most popular beer in Qingdao is Laoshan beer, from the neighbour city, the water for it comes from a wild mountain stream, clean and pure. Chinese always abbreviate their language so they say Tsingtao pijou as Tsing(Ching) pi(pee) jou(joe), Lao-pi, etc.
Formal/Standard Chinese is only spoken at official or formal meetings or functions.
Standard Chinese is NOT Mandarin, by the way. It was Mandarin before 1949 but only spoken by high officials of the Emperor, but it also depended on where those officials mostly came from, too.
Mao Ze Dong hated Mandarin Chinese because only high officials spoke it so to the majority of Chinese it was a secret language. Mao had simplified Chinese created so that every one could read/write/speak one national language and understand each other. The written national language is Hanzi, a zi(ze) is a Chinese letter, not a character. The spoken national language in Hanyu; yu means talk but also known widely as Putong – common, hua – talk.
All Chinese, in order to speak Putonghua must learn a phonics system, Hanyu PinYin. Hanyu PinYin is written, read and spoken as the same letters as in English. Hanyu/putonghua has 26 of the exact same speech sounds in English. So all Chinese learn to speak and write using English letters and 26 English letter sounds.
All the Wikipedias about the Mainland Chinese language are wrong about Mandarin.
Putonghua is compulsory in Hong Kong schools but they mostly speak and are taught Guangdong Wah. The Hong Kong people speak their own dialect of Guangdong Wah which is very humorous. They will say that they speak Cantonese to English speakers, but Canton was also the English name of Guangdong before 1949. In English we can say Guangdong is spoken as gwongdong.
In Taiwan and Singapore Putonghua is also learnt by all students, they learn to write Hanzi, as they do in Hong Kong too, but in Hong Kong they also learn Traditional Chinese writing.
I recommend every one to visit China for 30 days and see it without the propaganda. China CTS travel are very good and will write a fake itinerary to hand in with your visa application, that way you can travel and stay as you please; no one cares, not even the Police/Public Security Bureau.
One last point; Chinese are very, extremely, ethnocentric, as you saw in the video above. I know many non-Chinese who have married Chinese women and men. They can get a Marriage Visa, for 1 year, then 2 years and doubling up to 10 years and then infinite. But if they have children, the child is Chinese, the non-Chinese partner has no resident rights. If they divorce the non-Chinese partner must immediately leave and get a 30 day tourist visa from their home country, they cannot get any special visa to visit their child. I knew of a divorced couple and the husband, an American, went to help his Chinese ex-wife who was ill, he could only get a 30 day visa. His ex died and the child went to her relatives, he had no rights as a parent. To work, even though married to a Chinese, they must get a separate Work Visa in their home country.
Restrictive Visa and Immigration policies are essential to stop Anglo troublemakers seeping in. Look at the eastern EU right now, Anglo own all their economies, thier cities like Talinn and Prague are sex party capitals for English and American perverts.
thanks for long interesting comment – Ann
Ann, it’s my pleasure; thank you for your kind comment.
Very extensive commentary, a priori interesting but at the same time full of false informations. I am at this moment myself in China on a 90 day tourist Visa, multiple entry, one year valid, never heard about a 30-day-only policy. Visa award is happening on a case by case procedure and you can apply anywhere, why just in your home country? When you can prove that you have Chinese skills (HSK 3 and upwards) you get a better Visa. Students get 180 day-visas.
I have travelled around to +/- 10 cities and always picked a cheap hotel, never and nowhere are the hotels that you can chose specified, don’t know where you get that information from. In December I was in Zhenjiang at the Jinjiang Inn, 200 RMB per night for a 2 person bedroom, that’s about 30 USD. There was no luxury, but the room was clean and the bed comfortable, it was a great bargain.
Concerning corruption, China is probably one of the only countries in the world that takes the fight against corruption serious, 100.000’s of officials have been punished during the last few years.
China is becoming more and more closed to non Chinese? Really? I see foreigners everywhere, from all over the world. I saw African students in Zhenjiang, Dutch waiters in Nanjing, a big Russian community in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing are full of foreigners, German industrial workers in Suzhou, French bakers in Guangzhou and so on. Actually, China is becoming more and more open to the world and the Chinese are very curious in a friendly way about foreigners.
By the way, Chinese do not drink that much alcohol, according to the WHO they come at place 89 worldwide in yearly per capita alcohol consumption. To consider them as the biggest drinkers of beer together with the Germans is ridiculous. Neither are the Germans by the way, the Czech Republic is far ahead.
As I have been learning Chinese now for a couple of months, I can tell that what you write about Chinese language is also full of false informations. As you are so focused on beer, at least try to get it’s pronunciation right: It is Pijiu, pronounced in English as “pee-jee-ow”. Does that look to you like “the exact same speech sounds like English”? Actually, Pinyin is much closer to the German and French alphabet sound.
Wikipedia is completely manipulated when it is about politics and economics but their articles about Chinese language(s) are actually quite good. Hanyu, the language of the Han, is widely spoken in northern and central China. Due to internal migration it is becoming increasingly important in all the parts of China, it is the insurmountable lingua franca of modern China. Having talked to many young Chinese, I can tell that the younger generations are less fluent and less interested in the regional and local dialects.
“So all Chinese learn to speak and write using English letters and 26 English letter sounds.” LOL
It is the latin alphabet, not the English one. Makes me think of the US senator that allegedly said “If English was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for me.” Chinese kids learn to speak by imitating their parents like kids usually do all over the world, without ever needing the language of the empire.
There is so much more wrong about your comment, I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t get rid of the feeling that you have actually never been to China, as you so proudly claim. I have been here now for 6 months and travelled around extensively and cannot even remotely connect to what you have written.
Oliviere, thank you for your response to Han’s rather strange allegations. I find many of his comments different from what I had personally seen and experienced in China myself and I’m grateful for your clarification of his errors. I can verify for you that most of the expats I knew at the time I was there easily got a 90 days’ visa; that Chinese colleagues travelled about freely and you’re right, there’s an increasing number of laowais working and travelling in China.
Perhaps after reading this more people can understand why I am constantly waging war on the use of the “name” – invented by the bitter expat Russians of the 1920’s and the Russian “philosopher” Dugin, of letting Russia and her near abroad,brother ‘Stans as “Eurasia”.
Once we understand how the mind rapidly processes words, how we dont read when adults as we learned when children but take the Stem, or the first syllable, and then extrapolate fast to what we have assumed — we can see that to label Russia “Eurasia” is to label her “Euro — [pean]” because is how the mind works.
You can dig out endless examples of non-words, with numbers interspersed, vowels missing, and to most people’s amazement they can read them: this is why – because the mind uses perceptions, preconceived understanding and inductive style reason which is needed to make decisions in a hurry, in order to scan over some symbols and quickly form an understanding.
Russia needs her unity more than anything else – it is her strength. The Historian / philosopher Edouard Popov made the observation recently that since an armed invasion of Russia by the Hegemon is unlikely “they would find it easier to try and put in place another Yeltsin, or better yet just break Russia into smaller pieces”
How would they go about doing this Balkanisation of Russia??
By attacking her at the perceptual level, by changing her view of herself, by using a technique highlighted by the now activist John Perkins of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” fame — by “perceptual management”.
The perception of Europe fed to everyone is one of a wonderful place to be – a golden place, filled with history, the Father of all modern civilisation, a sunny place of sophistication, culture, knowledge. It, of course, carefully leaves out the history of war, concentration camps, extensive cruelty and murder, a wickedly dominant and murderous religion and now a sell out to Sauron over the Sea. Russia of course, is structured in all our perceptions as drear, cruel, oppressive, dictatorial, cold, muddy, filled with peasants, hunger and everyone drunk on Vodka.
Too many Russians, especially of the “Cultural Elite” have bought into this without perhaps being aware of it. We hear of “European Russia”. Why? Do we hear of “European Germany”?. An American article asked “Does Russia belong to Europe?” never asking what drove the subliminal use of the word “belongs to” – which means, Is owned by. Do we hear “Does France belong to Europe”? No. But some Elitist Atlantacist Russians think it’s a wonderful to be “European as far as the Urals” without ever asking – and what is Russia beyond the Urals. They talk of the Border between the European Russia and Asian Russia — never seeing that this is splitting the country in two – a terrible mistake to make. I read one Russian talking of “Europeans of the Slavic Group”. He meant Russians. The Encyclopaedia Britannica – an American publication – informs us that “there are no Russian steppes. They are European Steppes, and the taiga is merely a word meaning “wood”.
This is so dangerous. Now we have the Eurasian Economic Union. It consists of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on 1 January 2015. now including Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Where here is “Europe”, the land of Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Austria and Netherlands? Yet they are what springs to every single western mind when they see the word “Eurasian ”
It carries too many symbolic meanings to be free of implied concept of European domination, and Europe is now owned by the American Hegemon as it is.
Russia and her near abroad have, it seems, perhaps never fully understood the danger they are in, by letting their minds be linked with and then dominated by ”europe”.
As the Chinese say “the beginning of wisdom starts with giving a name”.
This author is quite correct – get the name wrong, you get the perceptions wrong. Perceptions form 90% of our thinking , so get the perception wrong you get the thinking wrong .And that is appallingly dangerous.
Isabella, thank you for your helpful comment. Indeed, I love Russia; a massive country rich in diversity and culture . It has some of the best composers, musicians and dancers in the world. We have no comparisons with the greatness of the Bolshoi and the music of Rachmaninoff, Tschaikowsky and Prokowfieff all of which are distinctly Russian with their superior technique, expansiveness and dynamism. You are right about some of the general misconception among the hoi polloi who don’t read much and easily believe in the Eurocentric propaganda. I associate Russia also with Siberia, the Yakuti, the Soviet ‘stans’ – like Kazakstan etc whose people still speak Russian today. It’s a great honour to have Russia as a Eurasian mass geopolitically. Russia and Putin are really cool and a they are a well-tempered force for world peace.