China and the West

Letter from John Dewey to Dewey family
July 25. [1921]
Dearest family,
We are at least on the train on the way to Tsingtau, and for the first tme I feel as if we were really leaving China, and I am feeling quite sentimental about it. We didnt get off yesterday becase friday th[e] students came and asked to give us a farewell tea party, that day, what little there was left of it, was already occupied, and there were a lunch party farewell and a dinner, and an afternoon tea party already arranged for saturday, so to stay sunday was the only thing possible. I think what the stirred up the boys was the fact that the girls normal school of had arranged an afternoon reception for friday and they they thot they would lose face. You can gather the sadvanced stage of "female education" in Shantung by the fact that this is the only girls school of high school grade in the entire province, thirty eight millions population, I mean govt school, there are more missionary schools. There were about thirty girls staying at the school during the vacation, and they have lots of l[i]fe and pep, also most of them quite pretty. It shows what habit does, but I see many more pretty women now than I did first, because I have got used now to thier soft features that blend together. Lucy is more the Chinese type though still too western. It was a very intresting afternoon; I didnt have to speak for one thing, and after mamma got thru, she asked the girls to expess their wishes and plans, and after a while three of them got up [a]nd made very inte[r]esting speeches on the backwardness[?] of girls [e]ducation, the difficulty they had in securing prepareaparaion for even the few higher schools they were, one of hem almost wept as she told how the men didnt want the women educated. Another said that she and several of her class-mates were going to tart a primary school after they graduated, as the govt schools didnt allow enough liberty and were too subject too interference from officials. The principal is a man but seemed more in sympathy with the wishes of the girls than most of them, at least his daughter was one who made quite a free speech. The province used to end sixty students to Japan every year, now thy are going to send forty to America and twenty to Japan. More of the speeches here dwelt upon the friendship of America than they have anywhere else, and it rather pathetic to see how they are depending upon us. They expect us somehow to work a miracle for them. Their enthusiasm for the Pacific conference is tempered by a certain amount of scepticism however on acct of the Versailles confrence. It is rather surprising how great the nowledge among educated people is of the war outcome and who how absolutely uniform the judgement is. A chinese who has recently gone to Geneva wrote back that there was no league of nations, but only an organization to enforce the Versailles treaty. A speaker at the dinner last night made much of the fact that England and France and France and Italy had already begun quarrelling among themselves as evidence that Europe was too selfish settle the Pacific question and that America and China must settle it, as America was the only question they trusted. He was a Japane[se] returned student and an old Chinese scholar too, the kind that begins by aplogizing that they have been able to give only very litle ad a very poor food and in general they regret the sufferings they have inflicted upon their guests, all te time they are doing more fr you than anybody else ever thought of doing. The provincial assembly took the lead in one farewell dinner, and the speaker after getting thru the introductory compliments in which he assured us tha all the progress Shantung had made in the last two years ^and half^ was due to our previous viit and that the interest in America in the Shantung question was ue holly to my writings got down to business and discusses the AJ alliance and the Pacific conference very intelligently. Well what I started out to stay was that among the students going to America this summer are three four girls, two are ging to Texas and two to Oberlin. It is a sign that some change is occurring that they were invited to most of the public functions, being the only "females" present aside from Du Wei Furin and Du Wei Ni su. After making five farewell speeches in two days in response to their speeches of welcome etc, you can imagine I how reduced I was. In spite of everything they made us some presents, two pieces if the best Shantung silk, two pieces of framd embroidery, etc.
We hd another deomstration that you cant beat the game. I boght my own tickets to Tsingtao in advance in conn[e]ction with steamer tickets to Kobe. Were they downhearted? Not they. We are accompanied on our trip by two guides, one the asst commissioner of education who speaks no English and the other a young man who understands ad seaks some english and who can also speak Japanese.
To change the subject. A young man who has succeeded in learning a little English said that he had not been in Chufu but he was sure that it was very mysterious. Also that he believed that Taishan was a natural not an artificial mountain. As it six thousand feet high more or less, I was reluctantly obliged to concede the correctness of his remark. A foreigner who speaks good Chinese got in conversation with a soldier ho seemed to be above the average and asked him how and why he got into that business. He said he used to be a merchant, and he found he had to do everybody, his friends included, so he looked around for a calling where that wouldnt happen and decided uon soldiering where you only had too do your enemies. Then he was asked if he sent his pay home now. An he said, He only had enough to entertain his friends so he allowed his relatives to support his family. Upon the whole I think this story contains more sides of Chinese life than any other one I have heard. The newspper men in Tsinan ae vry interprising. At every lecture they circuklated copies of the speechs made at he 1st time, and at last evenings banquet they gave us little pamphlets with the reports of my six andyr your mothers two speeches. Can you wonder I hate to leave a country where educational lectures are treated as news? Its another of the strange contradictions here, next to no schools and money for the m , and so much more interest in educational discussion than in any other country. We saw in thee paper that when Mr Russell was approached by the reporters when he reached Japan handed them out a slip in which he said that having died (in Japan) three months before, it was obviously impossible for him to say anything for publication. Also we saw by the poiper that Mr Ono had engaged the entire roof garden of Hot[e]l Peking last evening for a banquet to Japanese and Chinese bankers. He told us that he would robably be back in Japan before we got away, but according to the newspapers he has not yet had much success in his mission of renewing loans.
This part of Shantung is much more fertile and proserous than the parts which the road to Nanking goes thru. In fact it is the best farming country Ive seen north of the Yangste. There has been a tremendous amount of rain, and some of the famine districts where the drought had been the worst, are now flooded, many villages entirely under water. This country we are going thru is high and dry however tho everything is very green from the rain.
We stayed at a German hotel in Tsinan, and the proprietors with German thrift run a buthcer shop and a tannery and leather factory. We have blown ourselves to four big leather bags. They are not so handsome, but good leather and very strong, they with several portfolios cost about a hundred sxty mex, which as leather goods were in America is about half price And I dont know whether we could get such strong ones. We now have ten pieces of checked bagage, and only nine pieces of hand baggae in the car with us. We have a certain number of presents for people in Japan, and hope we can cut down by one piece. It will take one of my checks I guess to pay excess baggage in Japan and the U S…
Lots and lots of love Dad