Hong Kong residents hoist the flags of China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region side by side on July 1, 1997, in celebration of the region's return to China [Xinhua photo]

"Realizing the nation's great renewal is the greatest dream in the modern history of the country," said Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on November 29, 2012.

Xi made the comment while visiting the exhibition The Road Toward Renewal at the National Museum of China with other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

The exhibition illustrates how the country has gained independence and become prosperous and strong in the past century.

"Everybody has one's own ideal and pursuit as well as one's own dream. History tells us that everybody has a future and destiny closely connected to that of the country and nation," Xi said.

Five months later, the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's national advisory body, held its first session on March 3-12. Members selected from all walks of life gathered in Beijing, with proposals bearing their interpretations of the Chinese dream.

Renewal of the Chinese nation has been the greatest Chinese dream in modern time since the First Opium War (1839-42). In the latter half of the 19th century, China, then under the rule of backward and corrupt feudal Qing regime (1644-1911), was invaded by Western imperialist powers. Its people lived in misery and the nation was ridiculed as "the sick man of East Asia."

Successive generations of Chinese people with lofty ideals rose up against invading Western powers and feudal rulers in pursuit of their dreams. Although the 1911 Revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen ended more than two millennia of feudalism, nonetheless, the country plunged into another dark period when it was fragmented by bellicose warlords, weakened by rampant corruption and invaded by foreign powers.