Some leading China scholars have held rather optimistic and romantic attitudes about them, they were even seen as historical achievements during the Mao fever that once swept the West, and recently Bertolucci's film, The Last Emperor, hailed the reform of "emperor to citizen."
知名學者如美國的費正清、英國的李約瑟，早年都有頗為樂觀浪漫的看法；歐美毛迷甚至一度以之為人類歷史上的偉大創見。直到近年義大利導演貝特魯奇的電影「末代皇帝」，不是還在稱頌「把皇帝改造成平民」的奇蹟？