We are witnessing the insularization of Chinese civilization

The Degeneration of Civilization

In the 18th century, Europeans saw the people on Tasmania, at the southern end of the Australian continent, for the first time. Even though they had already encountered the Aboriginal Australians, they were still shocked by the primitiveness of the Tasmanians.

They did not know how to sew clothes and merely smeared grease on animal skins because they had forgotten how to make bone needles, hooks, and other tools.

They also did not have the hunting tools widely used by the Aboriginal Australians, such as boomerangs and fishing nets. As a result, despite having the best fishing resources, they did not eat fish.

However, the Tasmanians did move from the mainland of Australia, later becoming isolated due to the falling sea levels. So in terms of genetics, there wasn't a significant difference, and the technologies possessed by mainland Australians were once held by the Tasmanians. Archaeological evidence can substantiate this point.

But after prolonged isolation from the rest of the world, the Tasmanians gradually abandoned these technologies and lived increasingly primitive lives.

Of course, this is also a form of environmental adaptation, but such phenomena are extremely rare in relatively isolated parts of the mainland. You can understand it as a regression of human society that occurred in Tasmania.

The Americas

Before Europeans arrived, the Americas had completely lost contact with the Old World and had been in a state of long-term internal circulation. Although unique and prosperous civilizations arose, the lack of interaction and commerce with the Old World meant that American civilizations did not share in the technologies and products of the Old World. This led to difficulties in further development in many fields, or they had to insist on independent innovations, developing technologies that were only barely functional.

The early extinction of large livestock in the New World hindered the advancement of agriculture in the Americas. The lack of large draft animals meant that human labor could not be freed up to accomplish more.

The absence of iron technology also constrained the development of American civilization. Iron was not only used to make agricultural tools but also important components of vehicle wheel hubs. This might be why the Americas never gave rise to a true wheel since they did not have materials that met the necessary strength requirements.

Although the Maya made unique achievements in astronomy, due to a lack of exchange, most of the technology in the Americas remained at a very primitive level.

The same applies to writing. Unlike in the Old World, where multiple civilizations like Phoenicia, China, and India spread their writing systems to their surroundings—especially Phoenician alphabetic scripts, which greatly lowered the threshold for creating and learning writing systems—the Americas only saw the Maya develop a writing system that, although flashy, was actually quite impractical and not widely adopted.

Japan

Japan is also a good example.

Geographically disadvantaged, Japan only had two neighboring countries: Korea and China. Thus, Japan's civilization and technological input were third-hand knowledge from China or even fourth-hand from Korea.

Until at least the 5th century, Japan was an isolated island, with a civilization so primitive that even the people of Baekje would shake their heads. It wasn't until they adopted Chinese characters that they started to have history. Affected by their geographical location, their progress stagnated for a long time until the arrival of Westerners accelerated the input of civilization.

We can imagine that if Japan were moved to the location of Hawaii, given Japan's ecological capacity and population, it would be impossible to develop writing. Polynesians already represented the pinnacle under those conditions.

Polynesia

Before Europeans leveraged their diverse technological foundations accumulated through years of exchange to create ocean-going ships, Polynesians held the world's best maritime technology.

Before then, countries like China built ships that could only sail close to the land. It wasn't until the 15th century, when Europeans invented multi-masted ships and combined this with astronomical knowledge and instrument-making techniques, that humanity could undertake transoceanic voyages.

But by that time, Polynesians, with their distinct double-hulled canoe designs and precise astronomical observations, had already expanded from Taiwan to as far as Easter Island.

However, the geographical features of the South Pacific made it easier for Polynesians to fall into isolation.

Due to monsoon factors, reaching an island was easy, but returning was uncertain. This meant that each new settlement might involve a reduction of available resources.

The ancestors of the Polynesians brought pigs, dogs, and chickens from the mainland. However, starting from New Guinea, the variety of livestock began to decrease. Due to difficulties in inter-island communications, once a specific livestock was lost, it could not be replenished.

In New Zealand, the animals people brought along were down to just dogs; in Hawaii and Easter Island, only chickens remained.

The same applies to technology; the transmission of technology requires population. When the population is insufficient and technology input is unavailable, the technology people master gradually becomes lost.

Periods of Flourishing Are Periods of Openness

Looking back at Chinese history, aside from the endless cycle of unification/division and farming/cannibalism, there is also the cycle of closing/opening, though overall, closure happens more frequently than openness.

Yet those eras praised as flourishing ages by later generations were often periods of openness. During these times, the movement of common people was less restricted; they could even go out at night. In certain periods, international exchanges were also frequent. Many foreigners lived in China, and Chinese merchants and sailors were present in Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and even East Africa. This was particularly evident during the Tang Dynasty.

And whenever the Central Plains dynasty reached its peak, it inevitably strengthened social control and the entire nation became closed off. This persisted until the system could no longer be maintained and external forces pried it open.

The Ming Dynasty, after two hundred years of seclusion, was violently breached by the Manchus; the Manchus then repeated the mistake of the small Ming (as the Ming's territory was much smaller compared to the Qing's, hence called the small Ming). Finally, Western powers opened the doors.

Even in modern times, China has not avoided this cycle. After being closed off for 30 years post-founding, it was unsustainable through internal circulation alone. Forced to open up, it realized the rest of the world hadn't just survived without China but had also thrived.

Isolation in Progress

Since it is a cycle, closure inevitably follows openness. We are watching the formerly open nation revert to its original state.

Sealing Off and Censoring

If seclusion will only make Chinese civilization increasingly insular, then relying on mere internal circulation among 1.4 billion people, its culture could develop a unique style similar to the Maya.

Yet China is not only closed externally but also censors internally. Censorship significantly reconstructs Chinese civilization’s shape.

For nearly 100 years, China, as a major power, has lacked a large amount of accurate historical records, replaced instead with blatant falsehoods. There are no realistic literary works reflecting people's lives, experiences, and thoughts, only detached-from-reality, unrelatable, theme-limited worthless creations.

I must say, the lack of realistic works in China over the decades causes tremendous loss to human civilization, given that this once history-conscious civilization now blatantly distorts history.

A Major Power Without Presence

Have you noticed that despite China's population and economic scale, Chinese voices are disproportionately small on the global stage?

One example is the training dataset of OpenAI. Despite Chinese being frequently used on the global internet, this information belongs to intranets. To most people worldwide, the Chinese are indeed a group that hardly speaks because their everyday platforms rarely feature Chinese presence.

While blocking people from communicating with the outside, it continuously complains about being vilified.

Why not dare to open the digital borders and let the people speak for themselves? After all, our country has achieved so much, and people's lives have improved vastly, so satisfaction must be high, right? Why not dare?

Creatures Raised in China

The Great Firewall (GFW) is essentially an ocean separating China and the world. Creatures that grow in an isolated environment are inevitably adapted to insular life, becoming grotesque and misshapen. Once removed from this isolated environment, they die immediately.

Just like Gao Zhikai, who has gone viral on Twitter these past two days. In an environment where both parties can freely ask questions and you cannot mute or delete the other side, creatures from the isolated island will be crushed by those from the Old World.

The Thylacine ruled Australia, not because it was inherently strong, but because it lived in an isolated environment. When faced with organisms from the Old World that had competed for tens of millions of years, it became unviable.

Why do Chinese people support the GFW? They claim there's too much harmful information outside, and if not blocked, many people would believe it.

Without questioning why they describe most Chinese as a mob incapable of discerning right from wrong (even if it were true, whose responsibility would that be?), let’s assume harmful information indeed exists. Why don't Chinese people have the confidence to go beyond the firewall and use facts, reasoning, and logic to refute the criticisms against China?

If you hear someone spreading false information about you, why not confront them openly, present facts to let onlookers see who is lying, instead of shutting yourself in and saying nothing?

The answer is clear, because Chinese people themselves know that black cannot be turned into white. They know that democracy and freedom are indeed good. Hence, when facing foreigners, they do not dare to say, "I support dictatorship." To avoid such embarrassing situations, they'd rather protect themselves with the GFW.

Creatures nurtured in this lower environment can only dominate within it. They certainly know which slides they should never touch.

The Future of Isolation

Had the Westerners not opened Japan's doors, Japan would have continued in internal circulation, becoming more and more like China.

Without the Dutch discovering Easter Island, people there would have continued stuck in civil wars until they exhausted the island’s resources and collectively perished.

Without the Europeans discovering Tasmania... sorry, that's not a suitable example, as after contact with the outside world, the Tasmanians were wiped out 😂.

But you can use your imagination, combined with history, to envisage what an increasingly isolated China will become. But one thing I can confirm: the rest of the world will not suffer any loss because of it; the loss will be China's own.