Sick man of Asia

The phrase "sick man of Asia" or "sick man of East Asia" originally referred to China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it was riven by internal divisions and forced by Western and Japanese powers into a series of Unequal Treaties, culminating in the Japanese invasion of China in the Second World War. The phrase was intended as a parallel to "sick man of Europe", referring to the weakening Ottoman Empire during the same period.^[1]

Zeng Pu (曾朴) (1872–1935) published his 1894 novel A flower in a sinful sea under the pseudonym 東亞病夫 (Sick Man of East Asia).^[2] The phrase features in the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury,^[3] the Jet Li films Fearless and Fist of Legend and in the LMF rap 1127, which is a tribute to Bruce Lee.

Since the late 20th century, the phrase has been applied to a range of Asian nations, including Japan,^[4] the Russian Far East^[5] and the Philippines.^[6]

References

1. ^ Scott, David (2008). China and the international system, 1840-1949: power, presence, and perceptions in a century of humiliation. State University of New York Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0791476277. 
2. ^ Lau, Joseph S. M.; Goldblatt, Howard, eds (2007). The Columbia anthology of modern Chinese literature (2nd ed.). Columbia University Press. p. xxii. ISBN 978-0231138413. 
3. ^ Rose, Steve (July 11, 2003). "Hong Kong phooey". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2003/jul/11/artsfeatures. 
4. ^ Auslin, Michael (April 2009). "The Sick Man of Asia". Foreign Policy. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4794. 
5. ^ Menon, Rajan (Fall, 2003). "The sick man of asia: Russia's endangered Far East". The National Interest. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_73/ai_109220705/. 
6. ^ Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs (March 9, 2009). "RP no longer Sick Man of Asia". Press release. http://dfa.gov.ph/?p=3619. 

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