Asia
While many are already talking about the notion of a shift in power from West to East, a thought-provoking book by author Martin Jacques called ‘When China rules the world’ takes this even further by proclaiming that China will not only thrive in the 21st century, but will do so at the expense of the United States.
“I would expect, and I think we’re witnessing, the beginnings of the decline of America, America as the nation that exercises economic hegemony in the world. I think that part of the present crisis actually, the origins of it lie in the inability of the United States any longer to be able to sustain and underwrite the international economic system of which it is the architect and patron. That is a deep problem. The indebtedness means it cannot do it any more – the multiple indebtedness.”
With that, he thinks China, albeit “a reluctant player”, is going to get “willy-nilly drawn into this process.” And with its current economic prowess showing no signs of slowing, some serious and profound implications will be felt.
我相信中国将对自己的历史和文化更有信心，在全球化的进程中，不会盲从西方，并将起到“抗西化”的作用。
———马丁·雅克
很多人怀疑，我持如此乐观的态度，是否因为我本人对中国特别偏爱。事实上，我对中国的感情很复杂。1998年，为了写这本书，我和妻子哈莉定居香港，两年后，哈莉因病去世，当时我们的儿子只有16个月。在我看来，很大程度上是医院歧视深肤色族裔造成的悲剧。
我的生活完全垮了，此后的五年几乎不能将书继续写下去。我喜欢中国，但中国始终与我心中最悲痛的事联系在一起，你可以想象我写书的时候，与我的写作对象保持着清醒而负责的距离。
一本《当中国统治世界时：中央帝国的崛起和西方世界的终结》让马丁·雅克在中国学界名声大噪。对这位伦敦政治经济学院亚洲研究中心教授的观点，有人赞其理论新颖，有人批其哗众取宠，有人防其恶意捧杀……但在各种争议声中，马丁·雅克看好中国的观点被广泛传播。近日，本网记者在马丁·雅克的伦敦寓所对他进行了专访，听取了他在中国研究中的一些心得。
在马丁·雅克的客厅里，放着一个中药铺里常见的暗红色柜子，一个个小抽屉上用毛笔写着的”甘草”、”茯苓”等字样还隐约可见，柜子上则立着一个一尺多高的兵马俑仿制品。”这些都是我从中国淘回来的”，马丁·雅克不无得意地说。
Long before it was trendy to do so, Martin Jacques was a firm believer that China would become a global power, and his latest book “When China Rules the World,” is attracting a lot of attention worldwide for his bold views.
The British intellectual, author and Guardian columnist was in Taiwan earlier this week for several talks on his book, through which he makes a powerful assertion – that not only will China rise, but that this will mean an end to the Western-dominated world. Nonetheless Taiwan can benefit from this, he believes, but it must grasp the opportunity to get closer to China or risk being left behind in the region.
Published earlier this year, British author Martin Jacques’ book ‘When China Rules the World’ argues that the global environment is being reconfigured as a result of the re-emergence of China, a ‘civilization state’ with such a long and complex history that Western concepts of modernity cannot fully account for its significance. Jacques sat down with ‘Taipei Times’ staff reporter J. Michael Cole on Tuesday to discuss this development
Taipei Times (TT): When China Rules the World — that’s a very strong title. Will China, indeed, rule the world?
Martin Jacques: No. The title shouldn’t be taken literally. The theme of the book essentially is the rise of China to a point where it becomes the dominant global power and what that will be like, how it will exercise its hegemony and how that will differ from the Western era, particularly the American era. You need a catchy title that’s provocative and makes you think.
Former Journalist Martin Jacques Attempts To Shed Light On China’s Economic Prowess In His New Book
AUTHOR Martin Jacques pulls no punches when he writes about the Chinese people and their perceptions about race in his book When China Rules the World.
He calls a spade a spade and much of his need to understand the psyche of the Chinese is perhaps influenced by the death of his Malaysian wife in a Hongkong hospital. He had filed a racial discrimination suit against the hospital after her death.
On her death, Jacques writes: “After a major campaign in response to the death of Harinder Veriah, a Malaysian of Indian descent in 2000 who complained about serious racial discrimination in a Hongkong hospital, the government was finally forced to acknowledge that racism is a serious problem and in 2008, mainly as a result of this case, belatedly introduced anti-racist legislation for the first time.”