![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Alternate History Gripes IV: East Asia
Now, there are a great number of gripes that can come with what we call East Asia. One particular irritation is the presumption that cultures are always the same. Japan was not and has not been always the militarized imperialistic state it was from the brief period from the Meiji Restoration to 1945. It has in fact been mostly a feudal landholding society under various Bafukus that have maintained a rather strong grip on politics in a sense even to the present.
In terms of East Asia itself, people tend to always presume that China will unify. China is an improbable entity, especially to claim a single continuous existence for 2,200 years as has been the case. China started out as an association of related feudal cultures, while the unified China can be visualized much as the modern-day EU might potentially become. The idea that a single Empire would unite all of what is today the PRC, let alone that ruled by the Manchus is somewhat-difficult, and was only accomplished by Zheng of Qin after some rather savage versions of barbarian behavior. And even then the various Chinese empires would fracture into multiple successor states, much as the Roman Empire did. The PRC, too, is one of the largest Chinese empires to have ever existed in terms of the power that Chinese states have wielded. There are any number of cases where Europe could have remained a unified culture where China becomes instead a mess of competing states much like Hindustan.
Then there's the issue that in terms of East Asian culture, China's breakup under the Dowager Empress is a case where if fictional it would seem somewhat-racist. What is unusual about modern-day East Asia is the weakness of China, not the strength of Japan. And then there is the situation where in East Asian participation in AH that Confucianism takes over China. Legalism might just as easily have done so. So might Mohism or another of the various philosophical schools of Chinese culture. If that happens, that has a great impact on any East Asian scenario where the Chinese influence their neighboring cultures. Where South Asia suffers from mostly being entirely neglected, East Asia suffers from inadequate attention to certain societies at the expense of others.
In terms of East Asia itself, people tend to always presume that China will unify. China is an improbable entity, especially to claim a single continuous existence for 2,200 years as has been the case. China started out as an association of related feudal cultures, while the unified China can be visualized much as the modern-day EU might potentially become. The idea that a single Empire would unite all of what is today the PRC, let alone that ruled by the Manchus is somewhat-difficult, and was only accomplished by Zheng of Qin after some rather savage versions of barbarian behavior. And even then the various Chinese empires would fracture into multiple successor states, much as the Roman Empire did. The PRC, too, is one of the largest Chinese empires to have ever existed in terms of the power that Chinese states have wielded. There are any number of cases where Europe could have remained a unified culture where China becomes instead a mess of competing states much like Hindustan.
Then there's the issue that in terms of East Asian culture, China's breakup under the Dowager Empress is a case where if fictional it would seem somewhat-racist. What is unusual about modern-day East Asia is the weakness of China, not the strength of Japan. And then there is the situation where in East Asian participation in AH that Confucianism takes over China. Legalism might just as easily have done so. So might Mohism or another of the various philosophical schools of Chinese culture. If that happens, that has a great impact on any East Asian scenario where the Chinese influence their neighboring cultures. Where South Asia suffers from mostly being entirely neglected, East Asia suffers from inadequate attention to certain societies at the expense of others.
geeky