China and the West

Letter from John Dewey to Dewey family
Nanking April 11 [1920]
Dearest family,
Ive been here a week and am really seeing a spring in China more so than in Peking I imagine, as there is so muc country here, and I live in a large compound with palm and bamboo trees aomong other things, and near the open country, close to the city wall in fact. I never confided in you how fat I got got, 170 when I tried the scales last some months ago, have never strained them since, and having no ricksha boy here and much time alone and so near open country, I have resolved upon walking daily, climb the hill near the house once or twice daily, and walk on the wonderful wall, 40 feet wide and much higher than the Peking one. Also more variety in the scenery, ponds and marshes, and a nice island like a Chinese picture, green gardens, bamboos and willows, peach tress in bloom, blossoms twice as big as ours, graves being spruced up for the year with twigs stuck into them and little white and red streamers of paper flying, mountains on almost every side, a glipse of the Yangste from the top of the hill, and in general spring in full blast. They say it doesnt last generally more than ten days, gallopping straight into sfull blown summer. This year it seems to be hanging back as if loathe to part with itself. I dont blame it for being fonder of itself than of the summer we saw here last year. I have a nice big room with a corner alcove for the bed, and a good table, what is called home cooking more than before in China, and quite abundant tho not so stylish as some. The missionary who owns the place and is home on furlough must be a character. I wondered for a while if he were a bachelor, and then heard that he ran everything him self; the house is filled with big shining brasses, reminds you of Macy's except four or five bells, temple bells, Id like to take home, and the dining room is lined with a hundred or so blue and white plates, platters and vases, mostly very modern and on the principle of quantity before quality. However they said he had taken down and packed away all of his best pieces. On the bookshelves Mary J Holmes novels are next to The Second Coming of Chrsit, and the Wild Widow, by the author of Scarlet Kisses, is all mixed up with the hymn books; an Edith Wharton and H G Wells or two have somewhat got mixed in with the funniest collection of religious literature and paper covered trash you ever saw. There is a girls school, orphans, and a boys school, latter closed while he is gone, in the compound, both of which he maintains. He is a practical joker when he isnt missionarying, and one of his refined jovialities was to teach an ugly gate keeper, who had no idea of the meaning of any ChiEnglish words, to go up to callers and say Kiss Me. I suppose this is the way he keeps from going more insane. He wrote back with great glee of telling a tourist on the boat how Li Hung Chng2 [Hung-Chang] lived in the same town and once every year brought his fifty wives over to pay a ceremonial call; also he wrote how angry it made him when the ship landed to see white men tying it to the wharf—this latter wasnt intende[d] as a joke.
I am giving eight regular lectures per week, four evenings on the philosophy of education, two afternoons on Logic, and two afternoons on Greek philosophy. There are only an hour long, interpretation and all however, so its quite light work. Last week moreover there were two holidays, one Arbor Day which is the old spring festival and a ringer for Easter, and one to commemorate the opening of the first or old parliament. Im sorry I cant tell enough Chinese history and politics to show you the immense humor of this celebration, but its much as if they were to have a national holiday to celebrate Oliver Cromwell's purging of the English parliament. Last monday evening, I think they it was, they had a "reception". I had innocently forgotten the nature of a reception, and only when I got over there did I remember that school receptio[n] consists exclusively of speechmaking, one speech of welcome from the faculty and three from the students. They werent interpreted however, but I dont think any one repeated the witticism of a farewell speaker in Peking who said I had come to China to do to—or for—her what President Wilson did for France. Once there was much applause, and I was told it was becuase the speaker said that when the Japanese heard how warmly I was recd here they were jealous and sent me over a badge, which I refused. The myth seems well established, but a badge seems innocent enough. This sunday afternoon I spoke to all the Nanking students, theoretically all about fiften hundred in fact in the open air, delivering my w.k. [well-known] speech on a new conception of life. I am just as popular with the officials here as elsewhere, and was told that when the subject was printed in the paper, the word "new" was omitted, in order tnot to give offense. The word is positively inflammatory, which simplifies getting a hearing from an audience. The national executive committee of the students union has sent an ultimatum to the government, demanding that the Govt cancel at once all secret treaties with Japan, and also reject Japan's request for direct negotiations over Shantung. They have given the govt four days to do these stunts in, and have voted a nation wide strike if not granted. The Peking and Nanking students were both opposed to this action, but the majority carried it. It looks rather foolish, and I may be in for another enforced vacation, but as before remarked you never can tell. They, the radical students, were anxious to include two more demands one for dissolving the Anfu Club and another for a bas the militarists. These demands seem to have been reerved for the present. Well one enthusiastic foreigner who has been here twnety five years says that in China the Renaissance, the reformation, the English, French and American revolution are all taking place simultaneously and in the same country. If this is so, a little thing like a general strike is easily explainable. The same gentleman however is unpopular with his tudents becuase he insists on the faculty electing the student representatives to the selfgovernment Council so he takes his revolutions in moderation. There is a Young China Association with a branch hand here, and which publishes two journals, one called Young China and one the Young World. I have been trying to get somebody to tell me about the New Culture as they call it, and some of these people are going to make me up a kind of synopsis of the about a hundred periodicals, divided under three heads. The literary or language revolution, the new social ethics (labor and woman question) and education. This Teachers College is going to introduce coeducation, unlike progressive and liberal countries the men students are in favor of it here, mostly instead of opposing. When the committee was arranging the seating for the meeting to day, the student members insisted that the women should not be seated separately but mixed up with the others. They werent so damned mixed up as matter of fact, but they werent all herded in one spot either. I forgot to say that at the Recpetion one student made his welcoming speech in English. He got mixed up and forgot and the students laughed at him. To all appearances he kept up his nerve, but Im told he lost so much face he left school and hasnt been ^seen^ since, no one knows where he is. Its not pleasant that this should be the only visible, or perhaps invisible, result of my lectures. Lots of love to everybody and hope something will be forwarded from you soon Fred has been nobly doing his duty, but Sabino seems to have relapsed, and Jane never did get a fair start.
With love, Dad