A Comparison Of Shibusawa Eiichi And Zhang Jian’ Expo Activities

The study focuses on how the Expo expressed the country’s national consciousness. The modern-day Expo represents the full expression of public consciousness and culture. As we have seen through modern history in Expos in Europe and the United States, China and Japan in East Asia have more recently picked up the pace following the lead of their European and American counterparts. The real significance of the Expo is not the fair itself, but how it reflects the consciousness of its country’s people. For example, through its expos modern Japan expressed its desire not to simply become a shadow of the West. In Modern China, the approach to Expo has been quite different, given China’s unique history. The main purpose of this article is to compare two approaches to world expos, and through these expos to compare subjective differences in Chinese and Japanese culture and development.Shibusawa Eiichi was one of the leaders of Japan’s industrialization and a promoter of the principles of Japan’s economy. He was widely known as the“father of Japanese capitalism.”Shibusawa was born to a samurai family,he became a shogun retainer at the age of23and was made a member of the delegation to the Paris World Exposition in1867. During this year-and-a-half sojourn in Europe (between January1867and November1868),he observed firsthand the social system and institutions of various countries. He participated in the World Expo, and traveled throughout Europe. Promotion at the Expo of the popularization of commercial and industrial enterprises and joint-stock companies laid the foundation for Shibusawa’s development of enterprise systems in Japan. After returning home, Shibusawa was appointed by the Meiji government to be a representative in the Ministry of Finance. He directly participated in the new government currency system reform and the issuing of stocks. He was involved in almost all major policy deliberations and formulations.Shibusawa felt that everywhere there were strong contrasts between the Western powers and Japan. Shibusawa painfully recognized that, for prosperity’s sake, Japan must break the traditions borrowed from old China, which did not support business and excluded the idea of learning from the West, where businesses were a powerful force. Shibusawa also specifically called on Western bankers, to discuss economic issues; to listen to them explain the principles of banks, railways, shares and bonds; to visit the securities exchanges, to learn the stock company system; industrialization and the modern economy; and to fully understand the great roles they played in the West.Zhang Jian was a Chinese entrepreneur, politician, and educator. Zhang was born in Haimen County, Jiangsu Province in1853, and educated in the classical orthodox Confucian tradition. He became a premier scholar in1894, and an official in the central government. Zhang Jian is called the “father of modern Chinese industry.”When Japan held the National Industrial Exposition in Osaka in1903, he became an eight-time visitor to the Osaka Expo. Being as astonished as Shibusawa had been in Paris, Zhang was inspired to emulate Japan and the West. By the end of his visit, Zhang Jian realized that the key to Japan’s success was its education,from kindergarten to secondary school, formed a complete system. Beyond the realm of education,during his visits to the Japanese Expo, he realized that the Japanese government had made every effort to modernize. The corrupt Qing government’s complacency stood in stark contrast to this. Judging Japan’s case a success, Zhang summarized his experiences so China could achieve prosperity like Japan had. He proposed a date for reform of the Chinese political system and implementation of constitutional and political ideas. After returning home, he revitalized China’s industry, becoming one of the main representatives of the constitutionalists.Shibusawa’s journey to the Western world was at the behest of his government, part of a larger effort by Japan to modernize using Western ideas. His influence within the Japanese government was vast and politicians and businessmen alike welcomed his agenda in a country hungry for change and Western development. He was included in every policy change, involved in every decision made by the modernizing Japanese government; he had the ideas, and he had the influence to make them a reality.While Japan was experiencing national unification and westernization during the Meiji Restoration,China remained largely unaffected by Western cultural influences.While Japan became increasingly stable and a national solidarity arose,China’s politics shifted continuously and traditional values were elevated at the expense of the influence of business.Zhang Jian’s journey came after Japan had become a powerful nation through its Western-driven reform. Jian recognized this, but the Chinese government did not back his trip to Japan. There was no desire among the government officials of China to change the traditional values governing business and industry. Its politicians did not acknowledge the problems of China’s waning influence in the face of the imperialist Western powers, and so Zhang Jian was limited in his influence over Chinese policy. On his return to China, Jian was further limited by the change in Chinese government. His influence never extended very far, and by his death he had changed little more than his hometown of Nantong. Without a strong backing like that of Shibusawa, Jian’s efforts were in many ways futile.