Zhang Zhidong Quotes

We must teach our people the greatness of China's historical culture. In our educational program we must stress Chinese history and geography so that all may know and appreciate China's civilization of five thousand years and the far-flung boundaries of our ancient race. This will engender a greater faith in our own future.

An affection for Hong Kong and a national identity are not mutually exclusive. We can let children learn more about Hong Kong's history, culture, politics, and social development, and at the same time, we must make them have their national identity.

National cultures and heritages must compete for man's attention with the mind-absorbing advances of universal science.

The American Motion Picture industry should do all that is within its power to upbuild and strengthen the spirit of Americanism within our people.

The classics should be set in students’ minds so that they become the genes of Chinese national culture.

Our youths are constantly trying to learn everything the West has to teach, but what is newest in the West has existed in China for thousands of years.

Chinese people need to be aware of their present and ask, 'What's our culture? What can we bring to the world?' I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

We should see to it that our people are steeped in a real knowledge and understanding of our national culture.

I'm always trying to be a good ambassador for my country.

Societies need heroes. So we travel to places where the revisionists cannot dismantle the great.

You can call me whatever you want to call me, but I am an American. No one can take that away from me. No, no one can.

A nation must be embraced, rehabilitated and expressed as a tangible sign of human creativity and as an integral element of mankind's heritage.

At the beginning of my career as a writer, I felt I knew nothing of Chinese culture. I was writing about emotional confusion with my mother related to our different beliefs. Hers was based in family history, which I didn't know anything about. I always felt hesitant in talking about Chinese culture and American culture.

You're always more critical of your own country. People will talk about stuff in Britain, and I'll go: 'Aw, it's not that bad,' but at home, it's different. It's inside you.

Let us not suffer from a national amnesia that causes us to forget who and what we are.

I don't feel like I have to be nationalistic French because I'm afraid of losing whatever. No, no, no, no. And also I don't think we are the best.

I have become aware on my travels that when a country loses the connection between its history and its traditional dress, something truly precious is lost.

So we have to be careful because if you don't protect your culture you won't have it for very long.

We feel free. We're independent. People can be openly proud of being Estonian. I have a lot of belief in Estonia.

People tend to believe that to be modern you have to disengage from your heritage, but it's not true.

There are a lot of wonderful things created in our culture that have been ignored that can speak to them.

When I was in South Africa, I went for dinner with some friends, and I knew more about their history than they did - it just hasn't been told.

It is a most disgraceful shame the way in which Irishmen are brought up. They are ashamed of their language, institutions, and of everything Irish.

In every country and region, there are practices and ways of living and culture that have been handed down from ancestors. Naturally, I feel that these should be respected.

I'm slowly feeling more Chinese and feel I should be more proud of being Chinese and appreciate where I've come from.