While much of the Chinese population in the HFR are unhappy with the name of this period in the confederacy's history, along with the Second Century of Humiliation, the titles are deemed apt by scholars. In the aftermath of the
Zhongzhi Event and the civil wars that followed, the population, now free of excessive censorship, took a long hard look at their culture, ultimately deciding that one of the causes of the apocalypse that nearly brought their civilization to ruin was due to learning the wrong lessons from foreign
nations, and failure to create a cultural
system that was tailor-made to their own history. The people of the HFR reasoned that it was due to the excessive worship of foreign ideologies that lead to the CCP resorting to dystopic methods to keep people in line. Furthermore, ideas from the alien Aos Si, their dogmatic preservation of their own culture, seeped into the public conscience.
Thus, by the 24th century, the embrace of pre-20th century values, before foreign military presence on mainland Chinese soil on
Earth, was made manifest visually in clothing, architecture, language, and even military vessels. As traditionalist as the cultural revolution was, however, technology and systems of government from foreign sources ultimately survived due to practical concerns.
Furthermore, the debate rages on, whether the Second Cultural Revolution was a true rejection of foreign influences, or simply a return of old ethnic Han domination, just in a less politically oppressive form. Criticism primarily stems from the religious and ethnic minorities of the HFR; while their treatment varies from region to region, even in a single star system, there is always an air of social pressure to act and dress according to ethnic Han ideologies. Institutions across the HFR have different solutions to alleviate the friction between the ethnic Han majority and the minority groups. Some cities heavily encourage display of one's own ethnic and religious roots, such as Yunwang, while military institutions largely restrict individualism in the name of order and conformity.