China and the West

Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes
135 Peking Feb 16 [1921]
Dear Barnes,
When I wrote you about your letter concerning my lectures, I omitted my main point—appreciation of your appreciation. I was particularly touched that you found some esthetic pattern and rythym becuase that is my weak point and you are a good judge. Intermin came the other day for which more thanks; I havent had time to get far into it yet.
You wr[o]te once about Chinese pictures, and I wrote back the risk was too great, and as only an expert can tell the date—and the expert collectors are largely at loggerheads with one another, each claiming that the other has got more or less fooled by imitations which have been palmed off on him. lately Ive been buying a few cheap ones, or rather Mrs Dewey has, which do not pretend to be very old but which have some artistic merit besides being typically Chinese—two quite stunning Ming decorations, like florid wall paper or cretonne patterns, flowers and pheasant for [a] few dollars. We have had the advantage of a the knowledge of a collector who has lived here many years a Dane, and who has himself a fine collection which he generous about showing, most collectors were not And he very generously gave the benefit of his not only his advice but his ability to buy cheap. Mostly flowers and birds, she says landscapes except the old and very expensive ones have no foreign market in case one needs to sell. We also have had an opportunity at some more expesnive ones. A frien in the Ministry of Education who is something of a technical expert told us he had been given pictures this year by old officials who hasd to sell to dispose of them for them. He showed us some nice Ming2 landscapes, which could be had for from a hundred to two hundred, which he is confident are originals; we didnt get any but sent him to Russell who bought one. He says he has sold S[u]ngs this winter for from a thousand to two thousand—foreigners say that cant be done and are suspciious because he sold them so cheap—so only Chinese bought them. I didnt see any of them, but he says when he gets more he will let us see them. Really good pictures are very hard to get at here. The price is Mex dollars which are now only fifty cents gold—which cuts the price in American money in two. I am just beginning to feel a little more confidence in my judgment. Everything is so different that the except for the really fine things the standards one brings wont work. Just both the Chinese and Japanese prize foreign things that are ugly to us. Their own artistic standards wont work and so they are lost, and it is more [o]r less so with foreign appreciation of Chinese prodctions. Sometimes the [f]oreigner is right, as in the case of Japanese color prints. We have been [a]musing ourselves lately by buying belt buckles, brass and white jade. They havent been worn since the Revolution, and in general the Chinese dont care for them any more so they are on the market, tho the brass ones are hard to find comparatively. [Charles August] Ficke who made a small fortune on Japanese prints when they were selling for coppers started in buying jade buckles recently, and took a big collection home. Witter Bynner who has just been here and who is [a] friend of Bynn Fickes has is taking home a still bigger collection together with a copla hundred of the cheaper Chinese paintings. Ours will be just big enough to cost more than we can afford and not big or choice enough to be really valuable. Howver hunting and bargaining is lots of fun; its the chief outdoor amusement going around to stores and markets, and porcelains are now rare and out of re[a]ch, even good imitations are high. Otherwise life is calm, nothing sp[e]cial going on except famine drives. Chinese are depressed politically and economically students quiet and discouraged, and generally there is a great lull. Civil war between the t[w]o chief military leaders of the north is prophesied for this spring, but prophecies are the long suit here. Aside from the fortunes of the Consortium now also a lull. The only other political talk is whether the British are back of the war talk between America and Japan; practically verybody, Chinese Americans and Japanese in Peking belives they are, but it is hard to get proof. Reutrs agency which is a British political agency6 under the name of a news bureau is certainly active in keeping the rumors going. Just why they should stir up this talk when they are hard to going to ren[e]w their alliance is hard to see, also when America relations with Germany are still undetermined. One theory is that they want us to buy their alliance with Japan but by remitting her war debt but that seems incredible. Anything ^how^ British foreign policy as seen from the [A]siatic end is anything but attractive
Sincerely yours, Dewey