Ancient China - modern china
Social Organisation
Similarities:
Social classes and order is extremely prevalent throughout both ancient China and modern China: the emperor is the ruling class of ancient China and the communist party is the ruling class of modern China; soldiers and nobles are the upper class of ancient China and doctors and lawyers are the upper class of modern China; followed by the middle class artisans and peasants in ancient China and businessmen and workers in modern China. Family is also valued throughout both civilisations: children are taken good care of and elderly are respected. Education also starts from around the age of six and ends at seventeen, with special courses derived for gifted and talented students.
Differences:
Ancient China is ruled under a social hierarchy, everyone is born in their position, occasionally moving up the social hierarchy ladder, whereas modern China is ruled by communism, where the majority of people are given equal opportunities. Education in ancient China only covers reading, writing and painting, whereas education in modern China teaches a variety of subjects including mathematics, science, geography and language... Women is also given job opportunities now in modern China whereas in ancient China women could only be housewives.
Better Off or Worse Off?
Personally, I believe that modern China is significantly more advanced than ancient China in terms of social organisation. Education has become a lot more diverse and sophisticated, schools now teach a variety of subjects and teachers are better informed in the field of education. Modern Chinese society is also a lot more equal and fairer than ancient China, women are now more respected and presented with nearly the same rights and privileges as men, and social classes are also more balanced.
Similarities:
Social classes and order is extremely prevalent throughout both ancient China and modern China: the emperor is the ruling class of ancient China and the communist party is the ruling class of modern China; soldiers and nobles are the upper class of ancient China and doctors and lawyers are the upper class of modern China; followed by the middle class artisans and peasants in ancient China and businessmen and workers in modern China. Family is also valued throughout both civilisations: children are taken good care of and elderly are respected. Education also starts from around the age of six and ends at seventeen, with special courses derived for gifted and talented students.
Differences:
Ancient China is ruled under a social hierarchy, everyone is born in their position, occasionally moving up the social hierarchy ladder, whereas modern China is ruled by communism, where the majority of people are given equal opportunities. Education in ancient China only covers reading, writing and painting, whereas education in modern China teaches a variety of subjects including mathematics, science, geography and language... Women is also given job opportunities now in modern China whereas in ancient China women could only be housewives.
Better Off or Worse Off?
Personally, I believe that modern China is significantly more advanced than ancient China in terms of social organisation. Education has become a lot more diverse and sophisticated, schools now teach a variety of subjects and teachers are better informed in the field of education. Modern Chinese society is also a lot more equal and fairer than ancient China, women are now more respected and presented with nearly the same rights and privileges as men, and social classes are also more balanced.
Communication and Writing
Similarities:
Throughout ancient China and modern China, Chinese characters still consists of lines and strokes, used to record history and convey messages across long distances. The majority of Chinese characters in modern China still share many same characteristics with characters from Imperial China. Verbal language is heavily used to communicate and socialise between each other throughout both civilisations. Ancient Chinese dialect and modern Chinese dialect has also not changed much, many words from olden China still sounds the same to the words from modern China.
Differences:
Writing has become significantly more important and popular in modern China than in ancient China: nearly 90% of people are educated in literature in modern China, whereas only a meagre 10% of people are educated in the field of literature and writing throughout ancient China. Social media (E-mail, Facebook, Skype etc.) has become the new way of communicating, whereas in ancient China people could only communicate through verbal language or through writing letters. Brushes used to write in ancient China are also no longer used, pen and pencil are used to write in modern China.
Better Off or Worse Off?
I believe that Chinese communication and writing has become finer through the development of time, evolving to become more advanced and sophisticated. More people are educated to read and write, so the society is more connected. The development of technology has also offered a variety of ways to communicate with one another, socialising is currently peaking as it has never been more convenient. Unlike ancient China, where almost a different writing script was used among each social class, simplified Chinese is the only writing script used in modern China.