A small population
of people in northern China called the Manchus people erected the Qing Dynasty.
These people formed a mere 2% of the Chinese population, and yet succeeded in
taking over China, an impressive feat. Their view on the common Chinese folk of
the country was not as impressive and what they did about it was the thing that
was by far the worst idea of the Qing emperors.
The
Qing emperors, who were of course of Manchus decent, didn’t think highly of the
common folk who made up most of the population of China, so he ordered for
quite a few disgraceful and insulting laws to be put in effect. One of these
laws was that all Chinese men were to shave off the crown of their head, and
braid the rest of their hair into a long strand. This was very insulting to the
Chinese, and it angered them, as it should have. This law was only to say that
the Manchus people were in control, and was hurtful to the Chinese community, that
wasn’t the only thing though. Any Chinese, man or woman, was not allowed to
marry anyone of Manchus decent. This law meant that people with feelings for
each other, people who were meant to be for each other, couldn’t be with each
other. Just like when America segregated the African American community, the
Manchus people segregated against the Chinese. Even if the Manchus people made
up only 2% of the Chinese community, and they were separating themselves from
the Chinese to preserve their culture. They didn’t have to do it in that way,
they could have skipped all the horrible and offensive laws and just made it
culturally inappropriate to marry between the Manchus and Chinese. They didn’t
have to cut their hair into a braid, and there didn’t need to be laws saying
that schools could only teach Manchus traditions and literature. The people of
china were all equal, and that’s how they should have been treated.
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