century of humiliation

Derived from Chinese 百年國恥 / 百年国耻 (bǎinián guóchǐ). Coined in 1915 in opposition to the Twenty-One Demands by the Japanese Empire.

century of humiliation

1. (politics, historical) The period of wars against the Qing dynasty and the succeeding Republic of China by Western countries and the Japanese Empire, lasting from 1839 to 1945 or 1949.
   • 2012, G. L. Lamborn, “Neither Karl nor Antoine”, in Arms of Little Value: The Challenge of Insurgency and Global Instability in the Twenty-First Century‎^[1], →ISBN, →OCLC, page 112:

     Anyone not familiar with allusions to figures from ancient China’s history, or even the tumultuous events of the Century of Humiliation (from 1839 to 1949 and commemorated by a marble obelisk in T’ien-an-men Square) would find Mao's writings abstruse or even bizarre.

• Chinese Century (China as a global superpower)