For my final blog post I read about how the Emperor felt about Europeans entering China. I found the topics they mentioned very logical and I agreed very heavily with the Emperor’s points. He mentioned how the Chinese respect the Europeans beliefs but the Europeans would not respect the Chinese. As someone that’s learned European history it was very nice to learn about how other people viewed Europeans. I also feel like the Emperor acted very similarly to how anthropologists of later years do and feel like he should be regarded with that respect.

I always find it funny how Europeans will constantly repeat how much the different peoples they colonize love that the Europeans are there, so reading how this Emperor really feels feels like a breath of fresh air. This text also follows the idea stated in “Li Qingzhao’s Life” that people didn’t really write autobiographies. Even though this text is first person documentation about events, its less about the Emperor’s life and more about his thoughts on Europeans. The emperor also constantly tried to logic out the Christian beliefs to the missionaries since the Chinese had records of the times they were discussing, but nothing really came of it. To finish off I’d like to say one thought that has continuously cropped up for me this year. Europeans really are an invasive species.

I still have to finish up my fourth show and tell and my reflection but after that I’m home free! Have a good semester!