Doesn't that technically make me Sinocentric?Thakowsaizmu wrote:The reason you are being Eurocentric specifically is because all of your examples of how China was so progressive in the sphere of religion were cast against how Europe had it so much worse. The Eurocentrism is in the fact that you are basing the very idea of what a religion is on the European understanding of Catholicism. China has had many oppressive points under Confucian philosophy where intellectualism stagnated. Europe under the rule of Catholicism was actually not as oppressive as a lot of history books want to say. The "Dark Ages" weren't as dark as many people think they were today, and Europe sure didn't hold the monopoly on dark times and anti-intellectualism.
tl;dr: It's great that you read some books on East Asia. That doesn't mean you aren't being Eurocentric.
Look, I do not want to fight with anyone but with that said, I must ask what makes you (and Salmoneus) think that you know so much more than me about Chinese Civilization? Not only have I read the aforementioned books (which apparently does not matter unless I come back from them with the same conclusions as you do...) but also I frankly live in an area where my local grocery store is dominated by Chinese-speaking People and their food (which I regularly cook, just for the record) and I go to college with probably more Chinese-Americans than Anglo-Americans - and I honestly get along better with most Chinese People, including two of whom I have discussed history and politics of China and elsewhere with, than most Anglo-Americans their. Finally, my neighbours - who I have all met - are Hmong-American, Mexican-American and Marshallese-American, respectively, and I am currently close friends with an ethnically P'urhépecha girl from my logic class. Do you have any comparable real-world experiences with people from various non-Western Cultures? They as a while never seem to get offended at my ideas about their various cultures and, as a matter of fact, they as a whole are regularly warmly impressed as they are so shocked that someone of my heritage (mainly West African and German, though my maternal grandmother spoke fluent Cherokee, for the record) actually understands certain aspects of their own cultural traditions and furthermore they as a whole regularly defend me when I attack blatant Eurocentricism and covert racism from certain self-described "White" People in my classes' discussions when the aforementioned "race" makes genuinely offensive offhanded comments about most any non-Western culture.