Contemporary Chinese political discourse frequently mentions “changes unseen in a century,” so often in fact that it becomes a catchphrase in many high-level speeches. There are a number of ways to understand this phrase from a Chinese cultural, historical and Marxist perspective that might not otherwise be obvious to an international lay audience.
Historical crossroads
For some the phrase represents a historical turning point, one in which the historical experience known as China’s “century of humiliation” (1840-1949), when the country was vulnerable to, dominated by and even existentially threatened by foreign powers, has now been inverted with its reemergence as a secure sovereign nation and a growing global power. China today
