“The foreign wolf in the Chinese sheepfold” (Publication, 1926)
Year
1926
Text
Russell, Bertrand. The foreign wolf in the Chinese sheepfold. Reviewed by Bertrand Russell. In : The daily herald ; April 7 (1926). (Russ301)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Russell, Bertrand
(Trelleck, Monmouthsire 1872-1970 Plas Penrhyn bei Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales) : Philosoph, Logistiker, Mathematiker, Literaturnobelpreisträger ; Dozent Cambridge, Oxford, London, Harvard University, Chicago, Los Angeles, Beijing
Subjects
Philosophy : Europe : Great Britain
Chronology Entries (1)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1926.04.07 |
Russell, Bertrand. The foreign wolf in the Chinese sheepfold : what will happen to him when the sheep learn their lesson ? Review of Gilbert, Rodney. What's wrong with China. London : J. Murray, 1926. [Extract]. The present reviewer can perhaps hardly be expected to be quite impartial towards Mr. Rodney Gilbert's book, in view of the author's attitude to those who are friendly to China, as exemplified in the statement : 'China's future has been much more seriously prejudiced by the ideas imported and peddled by such persons as Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Tagore and Karakhan, than by all opium, morphia, heroin, cocaine and hashish imported or produced in China during the past three centuries'. Would anyone suppose from this passage that Tagore could scarcely get a hearing in China because his meetings were systematically interrupted by Karakhan's political allies ? The Communists stand for the Westernising of China, Tagore stand for the preservation of the traditional Orient ; either is an intelligible policy, but obviously they have nothing in common. Not The Last Word Even their resistance to the West is of two quite different kinds – in the one case cultural, in the other economic and military. Is the belief that Western Capitalism does not represent the last word in wisdom and virtue. The author, though an American, disapproves violently of what he regards as the milksop sentimentalism of his country's policy in China, and wants the white nations (except Russia) for join in a military conquest, to be followed by 'good government' – i.e., encouragement of exploitation. He endeavours to prove by history that the Chinese have never prospered except under a foreign despotism. If he were Chinese, he could prove the same thesis about England… Those Fatal Fogs … So Mr. Gilbert might have written if he had been Chinese – not more inaccurately than he has in fact written. He is an outcome of the 'Nordic' propaganda in the United States, which has dominated recent immigration policy in that country. He holds that everything good is Teutonic, and everything Asiatic (including Christianity) is bad. At the same time, he hates most in China the Chinese who have become Europeanised, and prefers those who are totally destitute of Western knowledge – presumably because they are easier to exploit. He makes no secret of his Nietzschean morality : - "In China we are regarded with much the same feelings as a group of polite and sociable wolves would be in a flock of sheep. The sheep have no natural inclination to bite one another, so they can hard together in perfect confidence, but the wolf on his good behavior is always restraining his natural inclination to snap at a fellow or eat a lamb ; so, however well the wolves behave, the sheep are never at their ease when exchanging compliments with them." Are we content to remain wolves ? Mr. Gilbert says yes : 'Because of our ancestry and our instincts we should be more inclined to admire the well-behaved wolf than the browsing sheep'. The thesis of his book is that the wolf should cease to be 'well-behaved'. At the present moment, the West, under British leadership, is taking his advice, and America, alarmed by the Bolshevik bogy, is more inclined than ever before to fall into line with European imperialism. The Chinese nationalists are being defeated by our henchman, Wu Pei-fu. But the sheep are learning to imitate the wolves, and when they have driven Mr. Gilbert and his friends into the sea, they will presumably have earned his respect. |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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