“I like both oil painting and Chinese ink and wash painting. But if one uses the oil painting criteria to appreciate Chinese ink and wash painting, then I am afraid things will go wrong.” These words are from Yang Jiechi (杨洁篪), China’s minister of foreign affairs. Yang used this analogy while answering a question about mutual understanding between China and the West by a US journalist.

In China, “oil painting” is used as a synonym for Western style painting, since this technique wasn’t known in China before it was introduced to the country by representatives from the West. An ongoing exposition at Beijing’s Capital Museum (首都博物馆) entitled “Matteo Ricci: An Ambassador of Sino-Western Science, Technology and Culture” is dedicated to the man who, among other things, first brought the oil painting technique to China during the sixteenth century.

Taken too strictly, Yang’s statement could be interpreted as the expression of a cultural essentialism, which wouldn’t fit with a long history of exchanges and mutual borrowings. Artists like Giuseppe Castiglione and Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿), to mention just two famous names, illustrate the fact that Western techniques can very well accommodate themselves to the Chinese tradition.

The same is true for modern and contemporary China in general. The country has massively absorbed both Western ideologies and technologies in a conscious move to modernize itself and catch up with the West. Inevitably this has led to big transformations. But this doesn’t mean China has become a Western country.

Yang Jiechi as the representative of a party that has been leading the development of  its country by juggling between two Western ideologies, communism and capitalism, reminds us that history matters. He reminds us that each country has its own way and history, whose knowledge are indispensable for a true understanding.

Video of Yang Jiechi’s talk with English simultaneous translation

Chinese source: 杨洁篪:坚持原则与立场强硬是两码事

Technology doesn’t stop at boundaries. It gets adapted to the needs of the different cultural and geographic environments. Nowadays no technological knowledge is stopped very long from spreading around the world. Whether it gets implemented or not, depends as much on the needs of the respective countries, as on their financial and institutional basis.

This is where cooperation between countries becomes relevant. The same is true for the the private sector, where many technological ventures are international in one way or another. In these exchanges, China, like most countries, is both a recipient and a provider of  knowledge and expertise.

Technological China is covering all types of international cooperation and exchange in the technological field.

Latest articles about this topic:

At its best, art can be a reflection about any aspect of  life. In a more and more technology-dependent society, the arts and entertainment can bring meaning,  fantasy, relief, etc. to what could otherwise be perceived as the cold logic of science and technology.  The particularity about the relationship between art and technology, is that technology can be the subject as well as the support of  a work of art.

At technological China, we follow how technology is treated and used in the arts and entertainment in China.

Latest articles about this topic:

In contemporary China, the private sector plays an increasing role in developing, applying and popularising technology.

The interactions between the private and the public sectors, the structure of China’s technology industry, its means of financing, the industry networks, etc. are all topics that technological China is covering.

Latest articles about this topic:

Being currently the world’s most populous country and at the same time rather poor in natural resources, China faces energy-related challenges. To tackle these challenges, technological realisations and innovation are needed.

Technological China is covering the country’s new developments in the field of energy.

Latest articles about this topic:

Every culture has its own specific needs and desires for day-to-day technology. This is what gadgets are for. They are at the junction between high-tech and daily routines.

At technological China, we cover China’s creation and use of technological gadgets.

Latest articles about this topic:

Many of the technological equipment and infrastructure of a country can be considered public goods. A state has several ways to invest into technology: it can build the infrastructure needed for the well-being and further development of its people; or it can support and channel the research and development in technologies it considers strategic.

China’s state apparatus being relatively powerful, its ability to shape the country’s path is all the more strong and important to understand. At technological China, we follow and analyse the latest developments in technology-related activities by the country’s governmental entities.

Latest articles about this topic:

While the focus of this website is on contemporary China, the country’s long history of technological innovations can not be ignored. When one tries to understand the present, one sometimes needs to look at the past.

Technological China aspires to be history-conscious in its analysis of technology in China. We try to identify both breaks and continuity in the way China is dealing with technology.

Latest articles about this topic:

One of the reasons why countries differ in their use and implementation of technology is because they have different policies. The legal and institutional environments of a country are the framework conditions under which technologies can be taken advantage of.

At technological China, we keep up with the latest changes in technology-related policies from China.

Latest articles about this topic:

When it comes to transportation, China’s geographic and demographic situation don’t make it easy. Very densely populated areas alternate with scarcely populated areas on a vast territory. This, combined with an increasingly mobile population, demands innovative solutions. Mass scale, cost efficiency, energy efficiency and respect of the environment are all key topics.

Technological China is following how China is dealing with the transportation challenges of the twenty-first century.

latest articles about this topic: