Lessons from a Troubled Neighbor

China has looked to Japan for lessons in development for almost a century. Despite frictions between the two countries in modern history, China has long considered Japan as a model among developed nations.

Huang Zunxian, who served as a Counselor at the Chinese Embassy's in Tokyo for the Qing Court between 1877 and 1882, discussed his observations on Japan's geography, politics, society, culture and other aspects in his seminal work, Treaties of Japan, published in 1890. Huang is one of the pioneers who reintroduced Japan to the Chinese public after the Meiji Restoration, a revolution that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868.