Okay, time for a barely coherent post before i off to bed. While reading some stuff about Sun Yat-sen, I discovered that he was a Christian and had disdain for the native religions of China. Sounds familiar? I think old Hong Xiuquan and Sun Yat-sen have that respect in common.
Now, on to the WI: say that the Xinhai Rebellion is crushed by Qing forces, who slip further into tyranny and conservativism after the victory. This totalitarian rule continues for a few more years, each year passing making the population increasingly radicalized and distrustful of the decadent, traditional Chinese culture.
So come 1916 or so, and Sun Yat-sen leads a new revolution, one much more radical than in OTL. He promises total liberation for all Chinese people, freedom from the corruption and incompetence of the old culture and rulers.
He defeats the Qing with massive popular supports, consolidates China proper, and makes many radical reforms to break with the past (a kind of proto-Cultural Revolution):
the Chinese language is banned, and replaced with Esperanto (in the Latin alphabet).
All land is to be redistributed equally and fairly amongst the people of China.
To connect with the industrial world, all Chinese are encouraged (read: forced) to become patrons of Christianity, with the gradual plan to phase out the native religions as being too barbarous.
China will be organized into a federal state based on the United States, with a constitution, legislature, etc, and each province is a state.
Confucian exams are abolished and replaced with the study of science and mathematics.
So we have this radical, Taiping-esque China, federal, semi-socialist, partially Christian, and on its way to modernization.
Any chance of this happening? Why? Why not?
Now, on to the WI: say that the Xinhai Rebellion is crushed by Qing forces, who slip further into tyranny and conservativism after the victory. This totalitarian rule continues for a few more years, each year passing making the population increasingly radicalized and distrustful of the decadent, traditional Chinese culture.
So come 1916 or so, and Sun Yat-sen leads a new revolution, one much more radical than in OTL. He promises total liberation for all Chinese people, freedom from the corruption and incompetence of the old culture and rulers.
He defeats the Qing with massive popular supports, consolidates China proper, and makes many radical reforms to break with the past (a kind of proto-Cultural Revolution):
the Chinese language is banned, and replaced with Esperanto (in the Latin alphabet).
All land is to be redistributed equally and fairly amongst the people of China.
To connect with the industrial world, all Chinese are encouraged (read: forced) to become patrons of Christianity, with the gradual plan to phase out the native religions as being too barbarous.
China will be organized into a federal state based on the United States, with a constitution, legislature, etc, and each province is a state.
Confucian exams are abolished and replaced with the study of science and mathematics.
So we have this radical, Taiping-esque China, federal, semi-socialist, partially Christian, and on its way to modernization.
Any chance of this happening? Why? Why not?