ABSTRACT
Years ago, Giri Deshingkar, distinguished Sinologist and peace researcher, told me a story that may be, for all I know, apocryphal. When diplomatic negotiations took place after the Opium Wars between the defeated Chinese regime and the triumphant Western powers, they ended in a humiliating treaty for China. However, the Chinese diplomats looked at it differently. They had sawed off an imperceptible length from the legs of the chairs on which the Western negotiators sat, so that they spoke to the Chinese from a lower height. The Chinese were convinced that they had decisively humiliated the Western powers in the negotiations. The Western diplomats, of course, knew nothing about this, and naturally did not feel humiliated at all.
