Pretty much everyone in China just had to own it. And I mean had to. So as you no doubt recall from past episodes of Crash Course, China lost the Opium Wars in the 19th century, resulting in European domination, spheres of influence, etc., all of which was deeply embarrassing to the Qing Dynasty and led to calls for reform. One strand of reform that called for China to adopt European military technology and education systems was called self-strengthening, and it probably would have been a great idea considering how well that worked for Japan. But it never happened in China. Well, at least not until recently. Instead, China experienced the disastrous anti-Western Boxer Rebellion of 1900, which helped spur some young liberals, including one named Sun Yat-sen, to plot the overthrow of the dynasty.