China and the West

[Russell, Bertrand. Zhongguo wen ti.]. Ed. by Sun Fuyuan. [ID D28292].
Sun Fuyuan added a commentary in Chen bao fu juan ; 11. Nov. (1922) : The national characters of various peoples naturally have merits and defects at the same time. But Russell, using the opportunity of praising the Chinese, criticized the British severely. Nowadays most Chinese are mentally unstable, ecstatic when praised and enraged at criticism. Such a temperament is preserved from children and barbarians, because the [Chinese] national character has not had the opportunity to develop and grow, due to thousands of years of political turmoil. Russell's attitude of being 'heavy in criticizing oneself and light in criticizing others', therefore, is exactly the medicine we need. At another, and most important level, it is not that we have not seen a few Westerners praising China, such as [John O.P.] Bland and his like. But they only praise China's old personalities and old systems. Just as Russell says, their preise hides a malicious motive, which is to make us sacrifice modern life and preserve the bizarre and the ancient for them to amuse themselves and play with. That is why they like us to have an emperor, like us to wear the queue, like us to have bound feed, like us to be confined in the cage of the old moral system to suffer, while they stand outside the cage and shout bravo. While Russell praises a few of the merits of our inherent national character, most of which I think are gone, he pays special attention to our new movement. Whether the Chinese nation has hope for rejuvenation depends on whether the new movement succeeds.