http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ah_Q
The story bears the thought of the author that the ignorance of masses in Chinese, which was the root of its backward status, could not be saved by a simple change of government. Lu Xun commented that what China really needed was what he called "medicine of the spirit", which might mean modernized education and the resulting changes of social habits.
The novel also strongly critisized the alleged historic-cultural burden of China, which was formed by the long history of absolute authority of the feudalist order. The feudalist social structure, order and culture are solidified through its two thousand year dominance. As a result of this, enormous social pressure brought on by group punishment and the rigidly-interpreted Civil Service Test both encouraged conformist ways and social hegemony in the Chinese culture. According to Lu Xun, people molded by such cultural environment were obsessed with saving face, proud of its past without any new accomplishments, and accepting without questioning the injustices imposed by authority.
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