China and the West

Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes
Dec 5, [1920] 135 Morrison St Peking
Dear Barnes,
We had expected to spend the time this year settled down here, except for a possible trip to Canton, which however has been in too unsettled a condition to permit educational meetings to take place. But we had an invitation to go to the central yangste provinces, and spent about four weeks in the capitals of three of them. With the exception of the region about Hankow they are the freest from foreign influence of any places we have been in, also interesting as the centr[e]s of the old porcelain industry, grass cloth and old Chinese cottons with the blue prints, very simple and artistic…
I have written too much about myself in this letter, but the situation here is awful and its a relief to get away from it, and one has to pump up optimisms to keep going. The overthrow of the Anfu crowd makes it impossible to lay all the ills off on Japan any more, but they are much aggravated by the long period of Japanese control. And its impossible to see anyway out. And the gloomy thing is that the ills seems to go back so much to just lack of character. Of course one cant indict a nation, but its exasperating to see so many thoroughly attractive traits, and some much sweet reasonableness, so bound up with plain lack of character. The most consoling thought, and one needs all the consolation he can get, is that after all the social habits which breed these defects are economic at root due to the struggle for existence, and that a new industrial development will in time crowd them out. But meantime its almost certain they will take on many western wvices, and lose many of their old virtues, by carrying love of money, intrigue, mutual suspicion and calumny into the new situation. There is but one end logically to the present political situation, and thats complete international foreign control of finance which means of course practically all governmental administration. Nothing happens logically in China however. On is often inclined to think that would have been better if China had been allowed to go to pot in thits own dway, and no foreigner had ever set foot in it. But 'ifs' that assume the non-existence of steam and electricity dont go far. Perhaps next time I write Ill be quite hopeful—I hope so.
I met Russell first on our trip as he was also giving lectures at Changsha, in Hunan. He then came up to Peking where he is now giving two lectures a wekk, on strictly special subjects, one on analysis of mind and the other problems of phil, along the lines of his little book. He declined to give any lectures on social reconstruction in China until he had studied the subject more, quite sensibley. [y in ink] His criticisms of Bolshevism rather weakened the attachment of students, who are socialists and to whom all socialists look much alike, except that Bolsheviks are to them really carrying it out. He is accompanied with by a young woman, a Miss [Dora] Black, one of his former students. The situation has produced a number of social complications quite naturally, which do not bother him becuae he came to China to see the Chinese not foreigners, but it may be a little hard on her before the year is out as educated and interesting Chinese women are arfew especially in Peking. The Chinese dont bother about the complication which seems to many quite admirable and advanced. but on the other hand many of them have been attacking the existing system in China and clai demanding a monogamous system and they dont quite to know what to make of it. Its rather petty writing personal gossip rather than about his work, but the truth is I havent fgot to any of his lectures yet, and conversations havent yielded much except that he is very amiable and an very interesting conversationalist, but avoiding shop as all the English do. He said that philosophically he had come nearer the pragmatist position than when we met last fsix years ago, but circumstances didnt admit of following the matter up. They have a fund for foreign lecturers one every year and want suggestions. In my opinion they are surfeited with theories, that includes me, and want somebody who can present definite knowledge about specific subjects which have a practical bearing, either on specific educational reforms, administrative measures etc, while being, in order to get a hearing rather radical in his ideas. They seem to want a German next time, and had the carzy idea of inviting Eucken, but I hope theyve dropped that. If you think of anybody mention him. The students are very receptive but rather uncritical, and also too disposed to vague generalities, any Ism as long as its uptodate. Im rather glad Im doing specific class teaching this year, not general lec-||turing, in fact made that condition of staying last spring. Im giving two courses, at two institutions, on D & E [Democracy and education] trying to simplify to make it intelligible, a course on Ethics and one on history of western phil; they appear the most interested in that. There is no interpreter and Im not sure about the english of many of them, and its hard to get questions and discussion from them. The have good minds but there is a general complaint they dont like to work. I mean the student class generally. A japanese who was over here gave the students a good talking to, told them some wholesome truths, contrasting their general atttitude with the spratan atttitude of the Japanese students thirty and forty years ago when J was in a precarious position and advised them to work heard and keep out of political rows. Yet the intelligent ones might have answered that hile Japanese students were keeping out of politics, the country had Shintoism and imperialismtic militarism put over on them. Its a hard question, and on the whole my sympathies are with a certain amount of superficial study due to outside interests, but they need to be training a good number of leaders in special subjects, [a]nd whether enough hard work is done for that is doubtful. However on the whole I dont consider the present situation bad if it isnt kept up too long; its an almost necessary stage of development that there be a period considerable intellectual fickleness, that is instability and attendant superficiality. Mentime the returned students come in for all kinds of criticisms, the gist being that they are out of touch with China while they havent really absorbed western culture and science, and also arent willing to begin at the botton, but want important jobs from the start. All natural enough too. The chief difficulty I think is that they have gone toabroad too young and now now there is a tendency to prepare them better before sending them, and send them for some special work planned in advance. The attitude of our govt in keeping them out of money earning pursuits has had a very bad influence. Theres a scheme for sending students who shall also work in factories and r[a]ilways etc, but Im told our dept of labor in Washington is holding it up—a very stupid policy from the standpoint of American business interests to say nothing of larger concerns…
Sincerely yours, John Dewey