Cultural Differences Between China and Australia

Cultural Differences between Australia and China

History

Nomadic homanids roamed China for around 850,000 years. Around 5,000 years ago, a group settled down to become farmers. For the Chinese, the commencement of farming is marked as the beginning of the Chinese civilisation.

Between 221 and 210 BC, China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, invaded neighbouring kingdoms, unified the country, standardised the writing system, and built the first Great Wall. Over the next 2,000 years, China was invaded and ruled by neighbouring minorities, including Mongolians and Manchus, who in turn expanded Chinese territory.

In 1911, the last emperor of China fell. In the chaos of the subsequent years, provinces such as Tibet and Xijiang declared independence and sections of China became ruled by foreign powers. Social disharmony gave rise to a communist rebellion that joined with the Nationalists to expel foreign invaders. After defeating the foreigners, the Communists defeated the Nationalists. For the first time in almost 500 years, the majority Han people were again in control of China.

In 1966, the Communists commenced the Cultural Revolution that aimed to purge China of the old customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas of their former masters. Religion and traditional culture was banned as communism was elevated as the sole identity to unite all of the diverse people of China.

The progressive ideas left China in ruins. In 1979, the Communists commenced undoing the damage caused by their progressive ideals. Foreigners were welcomed back, and respect was given to China's heritage- both Han and minority.

Although Australia's history is quite different to China's, it has produced some modern day commonalities. For 50,000 years, nomadic humans roamed Australia. They probably never built cities because Australia lacked a high yeild agricultural crop to build a civilisation around.

Between the 15th and 17th centuries, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese,...