China is the mirror of our desires. It is an “other” world to which we pose questions based on our needs and experiences. Or based on what we define as values. With this attitude, we first looked at the revolution, which gave us hope (but what did it mean for them?); then at a “capitalist” restoration, which plunged us into the terror of being surpassed, of no longer being the most beautiful in the realm. Yet we still think we are.
Today we accuse China of not knowing democracy, law, human rights. But has it ever known them? Or could there perhaps be another idea of social justice, of God, of civil coexistence? Our answer is no: either our idea or none. The consequence is that there is no knowledge, only distorted knowledge. Narcissus should acknowledge a harsh truth: he should recognize that his mother is ignorance. However, modernity is “ours” and the Other—the others—must follow us. Necessarily. But in the long run, how important will our claimed primacy be? As Claude Lévi-Strauss says, no one knows who was the first person to tame fire. No one can claim primacy for this great invention or discovery. The world has always been one, a globe. The Other is us, they are us. But for how much longer?
