China and the West

Li Qingya ist Leiter des Beijing-Hankou Railway Bureau.

Li Liewen studiert in Dijon und an der Université de Paris.

Erster chinesischer Stummfilm von Nü lü shi [The woman lawyer] = 女律师 = The merchant of Venice von William unter der Regie von Qiu Yixiang und Li Pingqian.

Chen Zhanyuan studiert Philosophie und Literatur an der Sorbonne und am Collège de France.

Zhang Ruoming studiert am Institut franco-chinois Lyon.

Lu Xun schreibt : "L'Anglais Bertrand Russell et le Français Romain Rolland s'opposaient à la guerre et tout le monde les a admirés, mais en fait c'est une chance que leurs paroles n'aient pas été suivies d'effet, car l'Allemagne aurait conquis l'Angleterre et la France. En fait, à moins de réaliser dans le même temps le pacifisme an Allemagne aussi, c'était chose nulle et non avenue. C'est pour la même raison qu'on n'a pu mettre en acte la théorie de non-résistance de Tolstoï. Comme il était opposé à ce qu'on rendît le mal pour le mal, il proposait de ne pas suivre les ordres du tsar : s'il entrôlait des conscrits, qu'on refusât de partir soldat et de faire la guerre, s'il ordonnait aux policiers de faire des arrestations, que les policiers refusent d'arrêter, s'il ordonnait au bourreau de faire des exécutions, que les bourreaux refusent d'exécuter, que tous en comme cessent d'obéir aux ordres du tsar et lui-même finirait par perdre le goût d'en donner, il perdrait toute ambition et le monde connaîtrait une grande paix. Mais il suffisait qu'une petite partie de ces gens lui obéissent pour que ce beau mécanisme ne fonctionne plus."

A l'invitation de Romain Rolland, Sheng Cheng rencontre Rolland à Genève pour traiter de l'émancipation féminie, avant de rompre définitivement par suite d'une divergence de leurs idées politiques.
Romain Rolland a refusé de donner une introduction à une conférence de Sheng Cheng. Sheng Cheng lui écrit : « Vous me reprochez amèrement que je fais des raisonnements enfantins à perte de vue. Non ! Voici l'arbre de la liberté qui va mourir. Chacun de nous s'occupe de lui. Pour vous ce sont des branches isolées qu'on doit supprimer pour sauver cet arbre. Et moi je vois le pourridié dans ses racines. » Il reproche ensuite à Romain Rolland de « ne pas connaître les vrais Orientaux ».
Par sa réponse Romain Rolland fait le point très clairement et l'on voit quelle était la solution proposée par Sheng Cheng pour remplacer le « pourridité » occidental : « J'ai refusé d'écrire une introduction à votre brochure parce que vous y exprimiez à l'égard du christianisme une incompréhension étroite et non sans haine. Et parce que mes observations ne vous ont pas amené à modifier vos idées. Je suis libre de toute foi religieuse ou laïque ; mais j'exige le respect des hautes valeurs spirituelles d'Occident ou d'Orient. Et je refuse mon concours à une intolérance ou à une incompréhension asiatique qui n'est pas moins funeste que l'intolérance ou l'incompréhension européenne. »
Cet échange n'empêche pas Sheng Cheng de demander à Romain Rolland une aide, pour assister au Congrès de la Ligue internationale des femmes pour la paix et la liberté à Genève.

Frans Hoogers und Jozef Hoogers halten sich in Holland auf.

Wang Liaoyi studiert an der Qinghua-Universität.

Wang Liaoyi studiert Linguistik in Paris und promoviert an der Université de Paris.

Aufführung von Guo min gong di = En folkefiende von Henrik Ibsen durch die Nankai zhong xue (Nankai Middle School) in Tianjin unter der Regie von Zhang Pengchun mit Cao Yu als Tochter von Dr. Stockmann.

Zheng, Zhenduo. Shi jiu shi ji Sikande'naweiya wen xue [ID D11275].
Tam Kwok-kan : Zheng ranks Ibsen as "the greates European dramatist in the past 150 years. All his contemporaries are no match to him. His place in literary history is comparable to that of Aeschylus, Shakespeare and Corneille". Zeng illustrates the influences Ibsen has exerted upon such dramatists as Strindberg, Hauptmann, and Shaw.

Yuan, Zhenying. Yibusheng she hui zhe xue [ID D26249].
Yuan schreibt : "Ibsen is advocating the 'individual I' as if telling us that 'if you want to change society, you must begin with the individual'. The individual has to recapture the original character within himself, because he must not be influenced by society, he must stand on his own. He must throw away the false traditions, search for truth and enlightenment and restore his own abilities in order so serve with all his might the future of society. Indeed Ibsen is a leader of the society. Social sensibilities must develop in an enlightened manner."
Elisabeth Eide : Yuan summed up Ibsen's negative aspects in the following matter : religion was totally unsuited to the twentieth century because it made people negative. To Ibsen there was no substantial difference between the negative aspects of religion and those of plitics. Both suppressed independent thought. Ibsen's reason for attacking the traditional press was that he wanted to pave the way for a new press with 'real and true' freedom. Ibsen treated the theme of the traditional family in several of his plays. The traditional marriage was based on material considerations, hence men naturally exploited women. Present day education merely ruined the individual's vitality.

[Lavrin, Janko]. Yi shu jia de Yibusheng. Jiao Juyin yi. [ID D26219].
Lavrin schreibt : "Ibsen is also one of those who look upon the creation of art as a means to the creation of life. He hated mere aestheticism with its dogmatic l'art pour l'art, considering it as dangerous to ture art as dogmatic theology is to true religion. In the first half of his literary activity, Ibsen was considerably under the influence of the French drama of mere plot and situations. But as soon as he came to regard the intrigue, as well as the character, subspecie of some 'idea' or other, he was led gradually by corresponding changes in technique, to the so-called Ibsenian play. Intrigue for the sake of intrigue lost its former importance for him, and in transferring the centre of gravity to the 'philosophy' and psychology of the characters, he naturally emphsized the inner at the expense of the external drama. The consequence was that the external dramatic action and movement were reduced to a minimum, to be replaced by the inner dramatic tension. With this object Ibsen (in his later works) put the tragic quilt of his heroes into the past, i.e. outside the acted drama. By partial confessions, by mysterious hints and allusions to previous quilt he creates from the very beginning of the play that peculiar 'Ibsenian' atmosphere which draws our attention so strongly to the inner working of the characters. The external catastrophe itself is for Ibsen only a pretext and symbol of an inner transformation."

Edward H. Hume kehrt nach Amerika zurück.

Edward H. Hume arbeitet für die Yale-in-China Mission, die Associated Boards for Christian Colleges in China und das American Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations.

I.A. Richards gibt Literatur-Kurse in Beijing und reist zum Himalaya.

Russell, Bertrand. Preface. In : T'ang, Leang-li [Tang, Liangli]. China in revolt [ID D28456].
Recent events in China have shown the extraordinary extent to which our Foreign Office has been misled as to the present state of public opinion in that country. Relying upon information from Anglo-Chinese, who associate almost exclusively with Europeans, and are completely ignorant of the change that has come over China in recent years, our Government has refused, until too late, to make concessions in response to the just indignation of the Chinese in the matter of the Shanghai massacre, or to abate in any degree the unscrupulous hostility displayed by Hongkong towards Canton. The immediate result has been an immense injury to British trade in China ; the ultimate result is likely unless there is a complete change in our official attitude, to be a complete collapse of British interests in China.
Those who wish to understand the point of view of the modern Chinese – who are coming, more and more, to control the policy of their country – cannot do better than read Mr. T'ang's book. They will find an indictment of Western policy, and more particularly of the policy of Great Britain, which is as painful as it is irrefutable. Hitherto we have treated China with the injustice and brutality which invariably fall to the lot of the weak among nations ; but the indignation aroused is at length putting an end to weakness, and enabling China to insist upon being treated as an equal. The sooner this is realized, the less disastrous it will be for ourselves. Mr. T'ang is therefore doing a service to Great Britain as well as to his own country in endeavouring to bring the facts to the notice of those who are not totally blind to the significance of contemporary movements.

Dewey, John. The real Chinese crisis [ID D28466].
I should like to emphasize the word 'real' in my title. The apparent crisis is that which fills columns in the daily press; foreigners killed, houses looted, security so threatened that foreigners are being concentrated in a few ports and warned to leave the country, the turmoil of war and the barbarities of civil war. Yet in all the rumor, gossip and facts that come to us, there is a frequent note struck, which is a sign, to the discerning, of the real crisis through which China is passing. The entire animus of the latent—in some cases flagrant—propaganda to which we are treated is directed against the nationalistic movement and forces. The Northern forces are invariably let down as easily as pos¬sible. Why?
The most direct way to get at the reality of the situation is to inquire what the tone of the news would have been, were it proved that the retreating Shantung troops—whose commander is an ex-bandit—had done the killing and the looting. The answer is that the incidents would surely have been glossed over; they would have been treated as unfortunate concomitants of civil war; it would have been noted that defeated armies were wont, on their retreats, to get out of hand. Doubtless, demands for indemnities would have been made in due course on the Peking government. But we should have had no appeals from Shanghai and London for concerted intervention, for blockades of Chinese ports. In other words, there would have been no clamor for us to take sides with the Cantonese against the Northerners. Just as the news has been colored against the Nationalists, it would have been smoothed over in favor of the Northerners. I cannot imagine anyone who has followed the course of events in China denying this statement.
Again why? What is the significance of this double method in reporting news? If it were true that the Peking government genuinely represents the unity and integrity of China against a band of outlaw rebels, it could be understood. If it were true that there is a stable government in Peking which maintains general and possesses moral and legal authority, the discrimination could be understood. If the Northern troops were, in general, better disci-plined and comported themselves in a more orderly way, it could be understood. But it is notorious that each of these suppositions is contrary to fact.
The Peking government has, for many years, been a blind crea¬ture in the hands of whatever military overlords happened to be in power. In common with many others, I have seen the President and Cabinet in power thunder against some general, de¬nounce him as a traitor, offer rewards for his head, and, a few weeks later, take it all back, and issue precisely similar edicts against the generals at whose behest the first pronunciamentos were made. I well remember my surprise, when, a newcomer in Peking, I was told by our minister, Mr. Reinsch, in a matter-of-fact way, that the Peking government would not last a month, save for the recognition of foreign powers. It did not take a long residence to convince me that he had revealed no secret of state. In the country at large, the Peking government commanded no authority. Its own supporters kept back its revenues for their own purposes, raised and supported their own troops for their own uses. And this was long before there was an organized pop¬ular rebellion against Peking.
No, the explanation of the tone and temper of the news we are receiving lies in the simple fact that the Nationalist government represents a national movement, and that, under the circumstances, any national movement in China is bound to be anti-foreign—against, that is, the special privileges which foreign nationals enjoy because of old treaties. It is not surprising that the mass of foreigners in commercial and industrial centres like Hankow and Shanghai are against the so-called Cantonese revolution. Nor is their opposition wholly to be explained on strictly economic grounds. The American economic stake in China is not large; yet in the large centres, outside of missionary groups, Americans generally share the feelings of the English residents, feelings which centre and flourish in the foreign clubs, where most of the correspondents imbibe their ideas and gather the news they send. The whole mode of life has become history comparable with it; possibly none in our own day, even the World War. Such a statement, given our habitual provincialism and racial snobbishness, may seem foolishness to the wise. But I doubt if most of the great changes of history were not obscured to their contemporaries by superficial froth and clamor. We think of Asia as outside of our world, and it is hard for us to recognize that any changes going on there are of great importance. But when the changes have produced their consequences, and are seen in historic perspective, it is certain that the reconstitution of the life of the oldest and most numerous people of Asia will stand revealed as at least as significant as the transition of Europe out of medievalism into a modernized culture. Such questions as the bearing of the changes upon the special privileges of a few thousand foreigners, the control of India by Great Britain, and the other features which are now conspicuous, will fall into place as paragraphs in a volume. It is not easy to take a long view of contemporary events. But without such a view, we shall see in the events in China simply sound and fury, a confused medley of passions. This result is not only intellectually unfortunate; it is practically dangerous. For it marks a disposition upon which race and color prejudice and deliberate propaganda operate disastrously. Our historic sympathy with China is in danger of being undermined; further untoward events in China might draw us, on the basis of inflammation of emotions due to misunderstandings, into support of European policies which are contrary both to our traditions and to our interests.

Gründung und Leitung der Xiao Zhuang (Morning Village Normal School) in Nanjing von Tao Xingzhi.
Tao creatively and critically implemented John Dewey's ideas in the normal school and its surrounding rural setting. He ded a 'half somersault' of Dewey's theory and transformed Dewey's 'education means life' to his 'life means education', Dewey's 'school as society' to his 'society as school', and Dewey's 'learning by doing' to his 'unity of three : teaching, learning, and reflective acting'.