Celebrity examples of China’s continuous self-improvement:

1. Lin Zexu

In 1839, when Lin Zexu was banning smoking in Guangdong, he sent people to investigate and secretly investigate, forcing foreign opium merchants to hand over their opium. , and the confiscated opium was destroyed in Humen on June 3, 1839. The destruction of opium in Humen plunged Sino-British relations into a state of extreme tension and became the first Opium War and an excuse for Britain to invade China.

Although Lin Zexu devoted his whole life to resisting Western invasion, he maintained an open attitude towards Western culture, technology and trade, advocating learning from its best and using it. According to documentary records, he was at least somewhat fluent in English and Portuguese, and he focused on translating Western newspapers, periodicals and books. Wei Yuan, a thinker in the late Qing Dynasty, compiled the documents translated by Lin Zexu and his staff into "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", which inspired the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty and even Japan's Meiji Restoration.

2. Zheng Chenggong

Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662 AD) was originally named Sen, with the courtesy name Damu. The king of Tang gave him the surname Zhu and changed his name to Chenggong. He was a native of Nan'an in the late Ming Dynasty. The Dutch colonists invaded and occupied Taiwan in 1624 (the fourth year of the Qing Dynasty), brutally exploited and oppressed the Taiwanese people, and continued to harass the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong, arousing great indignation among the Chinese people. In 1655 (the twelfth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty), in order to protest against the plunder of the Dutch colonists at sea, Zheng Chenggong ordered a ban on merchant ships trading in Taiwan, which dealt a powerful blow to the Dutch colonists economically.

3. Qi Jiguang

Qi Jiguang’s father, Qing Jingtong, was fifty-six years old at this time. He was particularly happy to have a son in his old age, so he compared the scenery of nature with the newborn baby. The boy's future was connected and he was named Jiguang, hoping that the son would inherit the achievements of his ancestors when he grew up. Sure enough, Qi Jiguang lived up to his father's expectations. When he grew up, he became a famous general and defended the lives and property of the people in the southeastern coastal provinces. He fought resolutely against Japanese pirates and became an outstanding patriotic general and national hero.