According to Etymology Online, the common meaning of "worship"—reverence paid to a supernatural or divine being was first recorded around the year 1300. Seven hundred years later, however, the word is given another usage admiration for a public figure especially a sports professional or an entertainment star, or respect for anything from an advanced technique to a praiseworthy policy.
For the Chinese people, the current problem is that they tend to worship almost everything from the western world, thinking that all things foreign-made are superior to domestically-produced things. Young people dress themselves in western clothing, eat pizza and fries, sing English songs, and hang out on western festivals such as Christmas. What they are staying away from include traditional Han clothing, rice, Peking Opera, and the Spring Festival. The middle-aged prefer to send their children to foreign high schools or universities than to domestic schools. Senior citizens trust western medicine more than traditional Chinese medical science when they are sick.
Some sociologists attribute the trend to feelings of national inferiority. After all, China had suffered from wars for hundreds of years before becoming an independent country again in 1949. During that war period, the Chinese were humiliated by western countries. This humiliation has been somewhat inherited from then on so that even today some Chinese citizens think themselves inferior in many aspects.
