Pu Yi, The China Last Emperor，a witness of the rise and fall of Asian hegemony

The China Qing dynasty's Last Emperor Pu Yi, his life has experienced the transfer of Asian hegemony. His tragedy that the movie presented has represented the Chinese people’s unlucky his fate. His whole life has proved the Asian states' fate has a close relationship with Western states.

Qing dynasty (1636–1912) was a super hegemony in Asia before the Mid 19th century. Taiwan, Mongolia are its territory, Vietnam, Tibet, the Korean peninsula is its Vassal state. But he rejected reformation when the Western states had opened the state's door by force. So, it declined. Then, the democratic revolution turned down its regime. As the last emperor, Pu Yi had to resign. The new democratic government didn’t abuse him, he still lived comfortably in the royal palace. But the rising and invasion of Japan had changed his fate.

Compare with China, Japan had launched a massive reformation to learn and absorb from Western culture in the Mid 19th century, built up the Constitutional monarchy and became rapidly the hegemony in Asia. Japan had defeated Russian and China through the war. When Japan had invaded the Manchukuo which was China’s territory, in order to strengthen the legitimacy of invasion and colonial ruling, Japan invited the Pu Yi as the emperor of Manchukuo. In fact, Pu Yi became the “puppet” that was controlled by Japan. In 1945, the U.S. defeated Japan, and the Soviet Union’s red army entered Manchukuo and arrested Pu Yi. Finally, Pu Yi was extradited to communist China and became a political prisoner. Japan totally felled; the new rising of Asia hegemony was launched by Communist China. The last emperor ultimately became an ordinary citizen and his self-biograph became a best-selling book.

China and Japan’s history have shown us that to become an Asian hegemony we must learn and absorb the advanced cultures of Western states. In addition, if we absorb bad western cultures, such as fascism and communism, this Asian hegemony will eventually decline. If the Qing Dynasty adopted the British road of constitutional monarchy, Pu Yi maybe would be as respected as the Queen of the U.K.