China and the West

Letter from John Dewey to Nicholas Murray Butler
Shanghai, May 3 '19
President Nicholas Murray Butler, My dear Mr Butler,
I wrote Dean Woodbridge from Japan speaking among other things of the possibility of my being invited to remain in China for educational work next year, and my desire to do so, if it could be arranged. Later Dr Suh Hu [Hu Shi] cabled you, after writing me to secure my consent. On my arrival here I was met by him from Peking as well as by educators from here and Nanking. They all feel that the present in quite a critical time in the educational and intellectual development of China, and that a representative of Western and especially American thought can be more useful now than at any other time for a long period. As for myself, I prize highly the unusual opportunity to get some acquaintance with Oriental thought and conditions. I hope therefore that it will be possible to grant the official request which I understand the Minister of Education is about to make of you and the Columbia authorities. I shall be more useful in the future to Columbia because of this experience, and incidentally I hope my presence here will have the effect of increasing the number of students from Japan and China who go to Columbia. Of course you must hear frequently of the present great influence of Columbia in China particularly. There are is a Columbia Alumni Association here of about forty. Many persons have assured me that the present influence of Columbia men in China is greater than that of the graduates of any other American or European University.
In my visit here now I am giving lectures to the public schools teachers of Hangchow, Nanking, [ink comma] and Peking besides this city. In Japan beside giving philosophical lectures in the Imperial Universities of Tokyo and Kyoto, I spoke to teachers in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe.
Sincerely yours, | John Dewey.
Permanent address Care Yokahama Specie Bank Tokyo; Till June 15th, Care Government University, Peking.