“The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1871-1952” (Publication, 1919-1939)
Year
1919-1939
Text
The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1871-1952. Electronic edition. Volume 2: 1919-1939. Past Masters : InteLex Corporation, 1999-.
http://www.nlx.com/collections/132.
[Auszüge aus Briefen, die China betreffen. Die Briefe wurden so übernommen, wie sie vom Dewey Center und Past Masters zur Verfügung gestellt wurden ; ohne Korrektur der Fehler]. (DewJ3)
http://www.nlx.com/collections/132.
[Auszüge aus Briefen, die China betreffen. Die Briefe wurden so übernommen, wie sie vom Dewey Center und Past Masters zur Verfügung gestellt wurden ; ohne Korrektur der Fehler]. (DewJ3)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Dewey, John
(Burlington 1859-1952 New York, N.Y.) : Philosoph, Pädagoge, Psychologe
Subjects
Philosophy : United States of America
/
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (68)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1919.04.15 |
April 15, 1919 Professor John Dewey c/o The Government University Peking My dear Professor Dewey On the basis of the following telegram President Butler cabled to the Chancellor that you had been granted leave of absence in order to accept the suggestion that you lecture at the Government University Peking. President Butler Columbia University Professor Dewey consents lecture one year at Chinese Government University pending your concurrence. Kindly cable. Thaiyuenpei [Cai Yuanpei] Chancellor Government University President Butler is delighted that you will have the opportunity and is sure you can accomplish much of lasting good by work at this institution. Trusting that all is going well with you, I beg to remain Faithfully yours Frank D. Fackenthal |
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| 2 | 1919.04.22 |
Letter from John Dewey to Sabino Dewey Tuesday April 22. [1919] Dear Sabino, You have probably heard more than we have that Lucy is coming sailing May 20, and Mr Barry too. The latter was great surprise. As soon as we heard we decided to leave for China right away so as to get back sooner; we sail from Kobe the 27th, next sunday. It takes one day to go thru the Inland Sea, between the Japanese Islands and about three more I think to cross to Shanghai. My former Chinese students seem to be making as elaborate plans for our reception as we have nejoyed here. The only trouble is that I shall have to lecture all the time to help even up. I dont know the program exactly, but I know it calls for lectures in Shanghai, Nanking and Peking and I presume other places. You look up your geography and you will see how far apart the places are. When the Chinamen were here I got the impression Nanking was a kind of suburb of Shanghai, they talked so about running over there, but I see from the time table it takes five hours or more. I hope we can go up the Yangste River to Hankow, by boat, but that doesnt seem to be on my paid schedule, and it may be better to postpone it till next fall if should stay over. I have had a letter from the President of a missionary colllge in Nanking, [Rev. Arthur John] Bowen by name, inviting us to stay at their house while we are there. I dont know whether he is of the Bowen family well known in the Islands. Mama has written Lucy full particulrs if only she gets the letter before she leaves. Anyway she understands to about going to the Nitobes. We have written them so that they [in ink w. caret] will be on the lookout for her, if we are not back. We have also written her about the possibility of stopping over one steamer in Honolulu. Of course we dont know how that will fit in with circumstances including Mr Barry's plans, bu and so we dont urge it except if if she wants to and it is convenient all around… Tell Lucy to be sure to mail a letter postcard to us, care Dr Suh Hu [Hu Shi] Government University, Peking, to come [ink del.] by the Korea steamer, in case she stops over and a letter to mail in Yokahama when she leaves the steamer if she doesnt. In fact if she comes right thru she better cable us after she has got her mail at the Nitobes unless we write something different… Dad Professor Hu [Shi] is going to run down from Peking to Shanghai about a thousand miles to meet us when we arrive… |
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| 3 | 1919.05.01,02 |
Letter from John & Alice Chipman Dewey to Dewey children May first Shanghai [1919] Dear children, We have slept one night in China, but we havent any first impressions of China, because China hsnt revealed itself to our eyes as yet. Mamma compares it to Detroit Mich, and except that there is less coal smoke, the descritpion hits it off, also like the suburban districts of London in the villa districts, where there is lots of land about every house. Certainly some foreigners have succeeded in making money out of China. This is said to be literally an international city, but I havent learned yet just what the technique is; every country seems to have its own postoffice tho, and its own front door yeard, and when we were given a little auto ride yesterday, we found that the car couldnt go into Chinatown because it had no license, for that district. We are haunted by a suspicion that t[h]e young men who have us in charge have more enthusiasm than wordly wisdom or official pull—in other words they belong to the younger generation who are trying to reform the established order, and are as popular as such people generally are. Howver we have little to go on so far. Altho the Univ of Peking cabled Butler three weeks ago, they havent had a reply yet, so we dont as yet know any more about our future than we doid in Japan I lecture here twice, saturday and sunday; monday we go to Hangchow which is said to be scencially one of the most beautiful places in Chin, and was I believe the capital during some one of the numerous dynasties that hve ruled over China… May 2 Now we have seen something of China, so far as Shanghai is China at all, and to day we are to see more, going to Chinatown. Our reception committee here consists of Suh Hu [Hu Shi], who took a thirty six hour trip from Peking to meet us, a man from Nanking Teahcers College, and a local Shanghai teacher, named Chinang who took his Ph D at T C a year or so ago. The "returned student" is a definite category here, and if and when China gets on its feet, the American university will have a fair share of the glory to its credit, and T C its due share in the pie. They came with a frinds auto and took us to a Chinese newspaper office where we inspected the building and type-setting as per usual, ctea and cake as per ditto, photo the same, then were taken to the biggest printing house in the east, prints most of the textbooks and verything else, including money for the Republic, then to the house of Mr Nieh, the man who lent the care aforesaid, a big house with a big garden, full of people, his mother and sisters being brought and introduced, the mother evidently a character who cant speak English, but who is the daughter of the greatest statesmen, so we are told, of the last dynasty, and who has ten children or more, on being at Columbia now, and forty grandchildren. She has recently offered a prize for the best essay on the method of abolishing concubinage, in reply to which eight hundred were sent in. More tea and a funny Chinese dish, called meat pie, then we go to sea the cotton spinning and ewaving factory owned by theis family—who are Christians. There is not even the pretence at labor laws here there is in Japan, some children six years old, not many thot, and wages of the operatives mainly women in the spinning dept 3o cents a day at the highest, 32 cwnts Mex, while in the ewaving dept they have piece wrok and get up to 4o cents. This is Papas and I cant take it out so I will tell you something of what we had to eat in one small afternoon. First lunch of all courses here at the hotel. Then we went to the Newspaper where we had tea and cake about four. From there to the h[o]use of the daughter of the leading statesman of the Manchus, she being the lady of the small feet and of the ten children who has offered a prize for the best essay on the ways to stop concubinage, which they call the whole system of plural marriage. They say it is quite unchanged among the rich There we were given a tea or rare sort, unknown in our experience. Two kinds of meat pies which are made in the form of little cakes and quite peculiar in taste, delicious, also cake. Then after the factory we went to the restaurant where we were to have dinner. First we got into the wrong hotel and there while we were waiting they gave us tea. We were struck by the fact that they asked for nothing when we elft and thanked us for coming to the wrong place Then we went to the right hotel across the street from the first. They called it the corner of Broadway and 42nd st and it is that. There is a big roof garden besides the hotels and they are both run by the Department stores wich have their places underneath. The Chinese are as crazy about dept stores as Jap. It may be a sad commentary on the human character that one can eat more than he can remember, but that is what we did last night. First of all when we went into the room which was all Chinese furniture, very small round table in the middle and the rows of stools along one side for the singing birls who do not dance here. These stools we did not use as all thse young Chinese are ashamed of that institution and want to get rid of it. On a side table were almonds shelled, nice little ones different from ours and very sweet. and beside them dried watermelon seeds which I could not crack so I did not taste. All the Chinese nibbled them with relish. Two ladies came, both of them had been in N.Y. to study. All these people speak and understand English in earnest. On the table were little pieces of sliced ham, the famous preserved eggs which taste like hard boiled eggs and look like dark colored jelly, and little dises of sweets shrimps etc. To these we helped ourselves with the chp sticks tho they insisted on Giving Pa and me little plates on which they spooned out some of each. Then followed such a feast as we had never experienced the boys taking off one dish after another and replacing them with others in the center of the table to which we helped ourselves. There was no special attempt at display of fine dishes such as you might have expected with such cooking and such expense and such as would have happened in Japan. We had chicken and duck and pigeon and veal and pigeon eggs in soup and fish and little oysters that grow in the ground, very delicious and delicate, and nice little vegetables and bamboo sprouts mixed in with the others, and we had shrims cooked and sharks fin and birds nest and this has no taste at all by itself but is cooked in Chicken broth to give it some and is a sort of very delicate soup but costs a fortune and that is its real reason for being, It is gelatine which almost all dissolves in the cooking We had many more things than these and the boy in a rather dirty white coat and an old cap om his head passing round the hot perfumed wet towels every few courses and for desert we had little cakes made of bean paste filled up with almond paste and other sweets, all very elaborated made and works of are to look at but with too little taste to appeal much to us, then we had fruits bananas and apples and pears cut up in pieces each with a tooth pick in it so it can be eaten easily. Then we had a soup made of fishes stomach, or air sac. Then we had a pudding of the most delicious sort imaginable made of a mould of rice filled in with eight different symbolic thinge that I dont know any thing about, but they dont cut much part in the taste. In serving this dish we were first given a little bowl half full of a sauce thickened and looking like a milk sauce. It was really made of powdered almonds. Into ths you put the pudding and it is so good that I regretted all that had gone before and I am going to learn how to make it. They say all the ladies in China learn how to cook and it is their business to look after the cooking and to know how to do it themselve and to do parts of it. They still have many children. We saw two little ones yesterday beisdes several bigger ones scampering out of sight. One little daughter of Mrs Chang of two and a half with a costume of crimson brocade made just like the suit of the small boy of four. We thought she was a boy as her hair was cut tight to her head. Also a baby of five months with the most wonderful costume of cap and shoes, slippers and socks, and some little trousers made with wide split in the middle, of a dark red plaid cotton. The baby was fat and cunning as could be and was already jumping on her feet. Well the little things that make up the interest here are endless. A Daughter Friday May 3rd. [2nd] This is pap again, and as I dont know about the daughter, I will return briefly to the factory. Mamma remarked that the manager was the only person in a fact[o]ry who had ever told the truth in answering questions, and Hu [Shi] replied that lying showed that a moral consciousness had begun to dawn, while here thatre was not even a consciousness of anything wrong yet. He and his firneds have given up politics I judge as a bad job, and are devoting themselves to what they call a litterary revolution, which isnt as purely literary as it sounds, since it means using the spoken current language for writing, and without this modern questions cannot really be discussed… We are going to see more of the dangerous daring side of life here I predict We are very obviously in the hands of young China. What it will do with us makes us laugh to anticipate— Evedently they are having the time of theri lives and evidently they do not see what it is exactly best to do. But nothing woies us. We are not getting rich, but we are to have our expenses and we ought to have a very good time. Here in Shanghai we are in the hands of some educatiional association of this whole region or districs or whatever they call it. There is a normal school in Hangchow but chiefly sightseeing they say. We saw big men with queus, they said they are from the north and every one scrambling and fighting for a job like N.Y. Quite unlike any thing in Japan. And a sp[?]al streets also smae. Our men are coming. [John Dewey] |
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| 4 | 1919.05.03 |
Letter from John Dewey to Nicholas Murray Butler Shanghai, May 3 '19 President Nicholas Murray Butler, My dear Mr Butler, I wrote Dean Woodbridge from Japan speaking among other things of the possibility of my being invited to remain in China for educational work next year, and my desire to do so, if it could be arranged. Later Dr Suh Hu [Hu Shi] cabled you, after writing me to secure my consent. On my arrival here I was met by him from Peking as well as by educators from here and Nanking. They all feel that the present in quite a critical time in the educational and intellectual development of China, and that a representative of Western and especially American thought can be more useful now than at any other time for a long period. As for myself, I prize highly the unusual opportunity to get some acquaintance with Oriental thought and conditions. I hope therefore that it will be possible to grant the official request which I understand the Minister of Education is about to make of you and the Columbia authorities. I shall be more useful in the future to Columbia because of this experience, and incidentally I hope my presence here will have the effect of increasing the number of students from Japan and China who go to Columbia. Of course you must hear frequently of the present great influence of Columbia in China particularly. There are is a Columbia Alumni Association here of about forty. Many persons have assured me that the present influence of Columbia men in China is greater than that of the graduates of any other American or European University. In my visit here now I am giving lectures to the public schools teachers of Hangchow, Nanking, [ink comma] and Peking besides this city. In Japan beside giving philosophical lectures in the Imperial Universities of Tokyo and Kyoto, I spoke to teachers in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. Sincerely yours, | John Dewey. Permanent address Care Yokahama Specie Bank Tokyo; Till June 15th, Care Government University, Peking. |
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| 5 | 1919.05.09 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children May 9 [1919] Dear children, Im writing from Hangchow, a city some four or five hours south from Shanghai, and the thermometer at half past four p.m stands in the house at 94, and I dont know that it has been much below this day or night for three days. Mamma is now speaking to the girls of various schools in the big hall here, and she hasnt slept much the aforesaid three nights Im afraid she will be too used up. We came here sunday and this p m is about the first free time Ive had; I use this paper because I havent any other and because you may learn seomthing from what's on the other side, and we are staying with the Barnetts, he being the Y M C A secy who wrote the appeal. Japan was rather baffling and tanatslizing. China is overpowering, and the size of the difficulties and obstacles to be overcome, in modernizing China and even in maintaining its continued existence as an independent nation are I think depressing to most, the educated Chinese who realize the situation included. One could write more easily in Japan, because in spite of the reserve over everything, the unlifted screen, things are more or less tied up in packages and ticketed, while here one only ctaches separet glimpses of a vast panoramic kaleidoscope. I doubt if the Chinese are personally as much as sealed mystery as reported sometimes, but the country is so vast, and the parts of it so different, and the accumulations from the past so enormous, and one would have to live here so long to begin to get hold of even the most important which are hneeded to understand things, that theit is easy to see how and where the idea of China as an impenetrable mystery came from. Here is one incident which personally concerns us, and also seems typical. The other day the Peking univ students started a parade in protest of the Paris Peace Conference action in turning the German interests in China over to the Japanese. Being interfered with by the police they got more unruly and beat up the Chinese minister to Japan who negotiated the treaties that sold China out, he having been bribed; they burned the house where he was staying,5 and he went to the hospital, in fact was reported dead. Well, in one sense this || was a kind of Halloween students spree with a somewhat serious political purpose attached. In another sense, it may be—tho probably not—the beginning of an important active political movement, out of which anything may grow. All the educated japanese [ink del.] Chinese [in ink] regard the beating not as lynching but as just expression of social disapprobation; they are sorry the man wasnt killed. Some twenty students were arrested; practically every organization in China is sending telegrams to the government requesting that they be not punished If they should be, [pencil comma] there may be a kind of revolution directed against the present government in form and the Japanese in reality. This way of going at things seems typical of the way China acts, and it is equally typical that no one will guess which way things are going to turn whether this ais a temporary excitement or the beginning of the new political movement China needs. And the most typical thing is that tho the Chinese have known the facts for some years, they have done nothing—except hate the japanese and hope that America and japan would get into war and the U S lick Japan. In fact during this time they have allowed things to go from bad to worse so far as internal division and disorganization are concerned, and so far as wholesale graft by the political authorities—not quite all—is concerned. The only reason for not believeing the stories along this line you hear of is because they come so far short of the fatcs. In fact if anyone put down the things that are alluded to in passing and taken as a matter of course no one in [pencil underline] America would believe them; he would think we had been gulled by some one—Governors [G in ink] who in the last few years who have got title to all the mines in their provinces as big and rich in coal as perhaps Penn—others who own onetenth of the land in a province bigger than NY and so on. Well, they stood by and allowed all this to go on, including the selling out to Japan, and did nothing—but the students row may set them off. If you can figure this out, you will understand the country better than I do. I am pretty sure however that China is the country of pure original human nature, just as Japan is the high-||ly cultivated, trained, over-trained, country. Well, where it affects [in ink] us is this. Accordinding to etiqueete here, the Chancellor of the University is "responsible" for the students action. If the government punishes them he will doubtless reisgn on the ground that he is the one really to blame. He is a liberal, and if he goes I think our invitation to the University will doubtleas be lost and forgotten. They were planning a conference of the chief educational officials in Peking for the last two weeks in June, and this will probably be called off to, if the liberals lose out. In that case we shall beack in Tokyo or Japan as according to recent letters, whereas according to this other plan, developed I think since we wrote last, we should be here two weeks longer than we expected. Our guide and friend who wrote had charge of us in Sh and who piloted ^us^ down here and was to have interpreted here, left suddenyl for Sh on receipt of the Peking news to see what had happenned, and how it was going to affect the plans made for us. We have been to two dinner parties here, and two lunch parties since we came Monday—nor Friday, almost all Chinese guests. There are fewer American returned students here, mostly the authorities here having been educated in Japan—which they hate, and whose educational system they have slavishly copied, in because of the hate, because they havent seen anything else and because they have an idea that it was Japan' system that has enabled Japan to put it over on them. But the scheme is as unfitted for big sprawling go as you please China as it is fitted for compact and obeyful Japan. The impressive thing about their hatred for Japan is that it isnt loud and boisterous; it is just as much a matter of fact as the weather, and it is combined with great moral contempt. There was a rumor in Sh sunday that Wilson was assisinated, Every Chinaman who spoke of it said the Japanese had started the story. When asked why, the answer was always because that is the way they do everything—the point being that here assasination is resorted to only when a man has become an object of universal detestation and only then. Hangchow is a city of six or seven hundred thousand and the centre of both the best tea—which is much like the best green tea of Japan near Kyoto and of the best silks. We have been to a big silk filature,9 quite modrenized and run by Chinese and also a silk school where mamma was delighted by seeing absolutely everything in the line of worms, coconns the care of them—this is just the tail end of the season, and we had been told before we shouldnt see them feeding. But they had em, including the wild kind that makes the Pongee silk, brought from another district for experimentation. They live not on oak trees but on what seemed to be a kind of chestnut. They are experimenting crosing with japanese, french and Italian breeds. It is said the quality of their own coccons has deteriorated. In the factory we say the treads drawn the cocoons—girls in charge and very skilful. Thank the Lord a rain has set in since we I began and perhaps the weather will change before we give up thr ghost. Hangchow is on a Lake known as West Lake, one of the most spots in China, scenically and historically, quite beautiful though not over three or four feet deep anywhere, hills and mts about. We have been taken out and around on it some three times, once to visit a missionary American college on the hills overlooking the big Hangchow river, the situation is wonderful when you get to itn like Pacific Heights in Honolulu as mamma pointed out after I had feebly compared it to the outlook from Berkeley hills. We go back to Shanghai sunday, then in a day or two to Nanking where we stay two weeks, unless everything is upset. I have given but one lecture to about eight or nine hundred, and had a conference with about fifty—called a conference, in fact a series of brief lectures on various topics—and another conference tomorrow. In many ways they are pathetic, so genuinely openminded and anxious to learn many of them, and yet so up gaainst conditions, that it seems hopeless to make suggestions and preach theories. It is significant that they thing they respond to most is the idea of making the child rather the lesson the centre. In Japan in spite of the uniform love of children, I doubt if they could grasp the idea. [John Dewey] |
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| 6 | 1919.05.15 |
Letter from John Dewey to K. J. Koo Nanking, May 15, 1919. My dear Mr. Koo: I enjoyed my visit to the office yesterday very much, and am grateful to you for your great kindness. I was much impressed by the very beautiful character of the work your Press is doing. I do not know any country where such fine stone color reproductions are made. I saw my American friends last evening and advised them to go at once to the office and see the pictures. I shall continue to speak of your work, and shall feel I am doing Americans a great favor in calling their attention to the fact that artistic reproductions are available. I have long been a great admirer of Chinese painting, and I cannot tell you what a great pleasure it is to know that the masterpieces are available in reproductions. I do not know whether you have an American market or an American agent, but if I can be of any use to you when I return to New York, I hope you will let me know. Again, please let me and Mrs. Dewey thank you for your very thoughtful suggestion and your great kindness in carrying it out. We appreciate your generosity very highly and shall esteem the pictures for their intrinsic beauty and as a souvenir of our visit to Shanghai. Sincerely yours, John Dewey |
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| 7 | 1919.08.01 |
Letter from John Dewey to Wendell T. Bush Care Y M C A Peking China Aug 1 '19 Dear Mr Bush, Your letter of early June came two or three days ago. Mails are uncertain here, especially as the technique of the Bank in Tokyo is of a primitively casual type. I am glad to have a permanent address here, for while we cannot stay where we are longer than a few weeks more (we are with a Princeton man, a Y M C A secy, whose family has gone to the seashore) mails will be recd. You are owed many apologies rega[r]ding all the troubles you had about our staying over. Yet it wouldnt be easy to tell from whom the apologies should come, unless it was the young Chinese men who saw us in Tokyo and said they would see Dean Woodbridge. They would have explained that it was not expected that Columbia would bear any expense unless a regular exchange was arranged. Other wise the difficulties were due to the upset in the university, and we had no idea till your last cablegram to Suh Hu [Hu Shi] came that there was any trouble except in the delay of the cables, as we didnt know that any return inquiry [in ink w. caret] had been recd. But there is no reason in the world why the cablegram should have come out of your pocket, and if you will only allow a reimbursement Im asking Evelyn to pay you for it. I wrote an article on the Students Movement for the N R which you may [in ink w. caret] have seen if they published it. It couldnt give the color of the thing however nor what it meant to the boys and girls, or even to the people of China . An after echo took place the other day. The militarists in present control of things here form what they call the Anfu Club, which has a majority in Parliament. They hate the Chancellor of the University whom they regard as morally responsible for the students taking an interest in politics—altho he himself is no politician—in fact is own interest is in esthetics and literature—Paris educated. So last week they bribed a few students, some ex-students and a few more who were just applying for admission to demonstrate agt the Chancellor. They got together about fifteen, when the other students heard of it and to the number of about a hundred attacked them, locked them up, and made them sign a written confession. Then a few days ago, some of the attacking students were arrested charged with assualt and battery. Now the interesting thing about the matter from our standpoint is that public opinion is entirely against this "interference" by the police. The matter is wholly one between students, not one for the courts. It wasnt at all sporty for the beaten (quite literally I think) party to appeal to the law. So some of the students who were dismissed by the trial judge as quite innovent decline to leave jail. They are staying there as a protest! [ink exclamation mark] This place [in ink w. caret] is really upside down on the globe as you can see, and it makes life very amusing not to say interesting. The other strange thing is the number of foreigners who get converted to the Chinese standpoint. Except in Shanghai and some of the other outports where many foreigners especially British pride themselves on having been in China twenty five years and never set foot in Chinese town—tho I cant quite see what good it does them as eighty to ninety percent of the population in the foreign settlements is Chinese. To go back to the student strike. I was invited last the first of the week to a conference of heads of higher schools in this province to consider the reopening of schools. The great majority of heads are very conservative and strongly opposed to the strike and to the students having any part in politics. So as the students have been saving the country all summer, and are probably somewaht cocky and unruly, there is much nervousness about what will happen when the schools reopen. The action of the peace conference as regards Shantung has done ^one^ thing that probably wasnt intended—it has stimulated in one summer [w. caret] the development of national consciousness in China as more than otherwise might have happened in ten years. Nationalistic consciousness in its early stages is apt to be rather blind, but tho the Japanese have tried to make out on one hand that the movement isnt national but instigated by American traders money, [ink comma] and on the other hand have tried to change it into a general anti-foreign movement, it has so far been quite restrained. Except that the illiterate and common people have got it in their heads that the Japanese are carrying on a food poisoning campaign, and when you recal how many Americans believed in the groundglass stores etc, it is easy to see that there may still be violent outbreaks, if the rumors keep up. It still isnt certain under just what auspices my lectures will be given, some of them under certain Chinese Societies for promoting modern learning, as they have guaranteed me a salary in case the University situation doesnt stay cleared up. We shall be here into March and then move southwards, to Nanking etc. It is very hard to get living accommodations; the Rockefeller Foundation which is putting in the big medical plant has had to build over thirty houses for its staff already. We are on the trail of the flat, almost the only one in Peking which is given up in Sept by a bank man ordered to the Phillipines, but have had to cable to the U S to the man from whom he subleases and are still waiting for a reply as cables are reported ten days behind. Lucy came a week ago, after a very pleasant month in Japan and we are living in earnest hopes that Evelyn will condescend to join us during the year. She brougt over with her the mss. of my University lectures there, which I had left for translation into Japanese. Im glad you liked the outline, and I hope you will like the lectures when they come out. I am going over the copy again and shall then send it on to Holt. I cant afford to waste so much good typewriting. I think it has one merit; it is reasonably free from philosophic partisanship, being an attempt to evaluate the modern spirit in general in contrast with that of classic philosophies. I am changing the order of some of the earlier lectures. Suh Hu is very influential here; the weekly magazine he edits has a circulation of five thousand which is large for this country, and would be in ours for an intellectual organ. The vernacular speech movement which he and some others started is taking widely. The students started twnety or thirty journals this summer, all printed in the spoken language, and there are now many other less ephemeral organs that use it. His history of Chinese philosophy is the first written on modern historic lines. He chafes under the conditions which divert so much of his time tofrom scholarship; he wants to study and write more. If Columbia wanted to offer him the Chinese professorship—if it still vacant—I think he would take it at least for a specified time. I dont see how China can spare him, but it is rather pathetic to see how many of the old students here long for life in the U S. It is a hard proposition they are up against. Many of the things that make it interesting to a mere visitor make it trying for them. I was glad to get a little gossip about university matters. Did [Roberts Bishop] Owen come back? I had heard Coss was not to, and waam glad to know he did. I hope you will have a good time in France. Do you spend the whole year there? We also hope you and Mrs Bush are having a good summer. Please accept the best regards of both of us to both of you. Two years is making a large hole in our New York life and at times we get quite homesick, but after all it is a wonderful experience, and we wish you were here to share it and talk it over with us. It was some comfort to know that some of our friends miss us. When I recal the pace at which New York moves I sometimes wonder whether anybody will remember us when we get back. We get the New York papaers in the Club reading room after they are a month old, and in that respect can follow matters better than we did formerly. Again with affectionate regards, Sincerely yours, John Dewey |
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| 8 | 1919.08.21, 23 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Jane Dewey Peking, August 21st. [1919] Dearest Jane. ... Butter costs $1.20 a pound and it is bad, in a can. Every one Chinese carries home the cutest little round gobs of meat and things done up in a lotus leaf hanging by the stem which makes an eccelent handle. When there are no more leaves for wrapping things they will go back to little sheets of brown paper still made up nto little round gobs and the paper hand made. We have seen them making paper, each sheet handled and spread on a board to dry and it is of course precious, They use all the old news papers for wrapping and people live by going about the streets to pick up the tine bits either to burn on the temple alters or to sell them for rags to make more paper. No wood is available for paper. Begging is so common here as to make life very uncomfortable. But people get to know one in this city very quickly and the beggars hang on less than they did when we were strangers to them for now they know we shall give them nothing. The Cinese do not believe in it, it is against the law and the beggars are fat with nursing children hanging to them if they are women, but, in spite, the Chinese will finally give them the minutest cash. It takes twenty cash, at the least, to make a penny. Counting money here is an occupation for a banker. If you change big money in a shop you are sure to get small money back. In the foreign shops I mean for the Chinese are more honest. It takes 138 coppers in small money to make a big dollar. Some day I am going to make the reckless experient which is so easy to work here. Take a dollar and go from one place to another changing it till I have nothing left. What fun, lacking the movies...... We have one afternoon dissipation her and it is going to the Y.M.C.A. buildi[n]g next to us to eat icecream. We might go to the club for tea instead and to day I think I shall do that, to day or tomorrow. As yet I have not put foot inside the club. Mrs Smith brings me books from there. It is not hot at night any more but by day it still is. At night I sleep comfortably under a sheet and even feel a slight chill from the breeze towards morning, There is nothing one longs for more than that chill. The heat is really fierce you just ooze all the time and bath as many times a day as you have time for. It is wonderful how the the coolies stand it. Once I asked my ricsha man why he did not wear a hat and he said it was too hot. If we had any thing active to do we should not s[t]and it long in the sun. At the club they say the mercury has been 108 on the piazza, and it stay pretty even, juntil this last week when the evenisg have lewered some what. No sun strokes amo[n]g the Chinese… Love, Mother. |
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| 9 | 1919.08.25 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children Y M C A Peking Aug 25 [1919] Dearest children, … Lucy didnt want to go to a hotel, not that any of us did, and Im sure that the bother of a house would have been an irritating burden to mamma, as the housekeeping would have come on her and the conveniences arent exactly modern. It was amusing to see a notice of Miss LaMotte's book in an American magazine in which it told how cheap houses were in Peking—we pay 80, aside from furniture, for this five small romm apt. Another one with six large rooms rents for 200 a month. Equally amusing w[a]s her account of the fear of robbers here, and the walls with broken glass and the fierce Mongolian dogs. Peking is one of the best policed cities in the world; Id much rather take my chances here than in Harlem. She wrote in the hotel I think with a Japanese curier for authority. We have to leave here Sept fourth and the Deerings leave Sept fourth, so it seems quite providential. Mr [Paul S.] Reinsch as you have probably seen is leaving. Nobody knows the reason here, if there is any aside from his wanting to go back. He isnt very popular, or Mrs R with the foreign community here, but is very well liked by the Chinese which speaks well for his official performanes Judging from what we hear a man of the type of Morris in Tokyo, with more business experience and ,ore executive pep will be useful from now on anyway. There ought to be about a half dozen of the ablest men in the country here to handle thes situation. It is the growing opinion th[a]t if the U S backs down on either the Shantung issue or the Japanese consortium for reservation of Manchuria and Mongolia, it means the going back to the old policy of the partition of China, as China cant hold its own alone. People here cant understand why the U S doesnt use its financial power and the Europena need of American assitance to compel GT Britain and France to side with us rather than with Japan in handling the whole Eastern question. Maybe it isnt neceasry but there is a feeling here that deals for further concessions and spheres are concerned going on, besides behind the scenes, in case the U S policy fails, and that the [o]ther countries arent giving any active aid to the U S in making it succeed. If so, its a suicidal policy in the end; for the European countries. Japan will get the concessions and spheres in the end; their only way is to help China get on her own feet, which is the obviously policy of the U S, and which is the only thing Japan is afraid of. We havent a word from Sabino for almost a month, soon after he went to Kuai; we shall be relieved when we hear something. Its rather late to be giving Jane advice ur her year, but I hope she is doing what she wants to do and not what she [t]hinks she ought to do or what she thinks some one else thinks she ought to do. If she wants to give up college entirely and go to sculping or something, she ought to do it, if she can get a good sculp to teach her. We were glad to hear that Evelyns services were getting better peuniary recognition, but hope it doesnt mean that she is going to kept at it so long over there she wont get away to make us a visit, us includes China incidentally. We are wondering whether there will be a ruction again. Over thrity students including four girls, tried to call on the president about Shantung and especially to ask for the removal of the military governor who torured and killed some merchants and bambooed some students for anto-Japnanese agitation and who (the delegation) instead of seeing the president were arrested by the police. If there isnt another students strike etc. it will probably prove not that they have laid down on the job but they are waiting till they get things better organized, and next time expect to make a thorough job of it. On the surface the militarists have had their own way the last month even more than before the success of the students movement—but something must be going on behind the scenes, and I think it is the effort ot organize the guilds which are powerful but whch have never taken any hand in politics. They got in thru the boycott and will probably have to go further now they are in. P M Visiting hours are from noon to seven After I had written I began to be afraid that maybe Id been too hopeful but Luc[y]'s temp got to normal last night and was only 99 at ten oclock and also the doctor grins broadly and says the patient is a credit. The Club has a library and we're giving Lucy a course in O Henry. I have just done a foolish thing. The curio dealers tie up some miscellaneous pieces in two blue calico bundles that balance and then invade the house, if they are allowed. We had one entertain us at lunch We had a painting on silk that he asked ten dollars for. If I had a friend I wanted to cure of gambling Id set him to buying curiois in China; there's no difference—which is the true principle of all cures. You always want to see how much they'll come down. So I offered him two, as the picture isnt actaully offensive, and before he left the house I had bought it for three. Now I appeal to Evelyn to know what am I going to do with it? His smile was so ingratiating when he said "Lose money. How much?" that it cost me a dollar. "Very old. Ming. Number one". Love Dad |
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| 10 | 1919.08.26 |
Letter from John Macrae to Alice Chipman Dewey August 26, 1919. Mrs. John Dewey, c/o Y. M. C. A., Pekin, China. My dear Mrs. Dewey, I have just been informed by Prof. Tilly, of Columbia University, that you are interesting yourself in the introduction in China of the phonetic method of teaching English, and I am at once sending you, with our compliments, a copy of Rippmann's "The Sounds of Spoken English and Specimens of English", and Daniel Jones' "English Pronouncing Dictionary", both of which Prof. Tilly informs me you will find useful. It is my understanding that Miss Evelyn Dewey communicated with Prof. Tilly before he consulted with us. It is a matter of great interest, and, to my mind, of wide importance, that you are taking up this problem during your stay in China. I recently read an editorial in the "World's Work" magazine which, without attempting to analyse the situation technically, dwelt significantly upon the tremendous and world wide importance of introducing some efficient system of phonetics to the Chinese people. Under your leadership and far-seeing initiative, I feel that much may develop from your personal attention to this work. And if there is anything we may do to co-operate with you, it will be a pleasure to do so. Please extend my kindest personal regards to Prof. Dewey. You may be interested to know that Miss Evelyn Dewey's "New Schools for Old" is receiving prompt and enthusiastic recognition, and shows promise of becoming a very widely used book before the year is out. With my very best hopes for the success of your work, I am, Very sincerely, [John Macrae] JM-JKT |
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| 11 | 1919.09.15 |
Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes 135 Morrison St Peking China, Sept 15 [1919] Dear Barnes, I didnt get your lettr of the end of July till about three or four days ago. We have recently moved into this small aprtment, which we were fortunate enough to hit upon, mostly furnished, after some months of vain hunting and the unwelcome expectation of having to go to a hotel. We inherited the servants with the place, and as the old story goes it is wonderful how much comfort dam heathen can bring into a Christian—(so alleged—) home. When we think of what we are going back to, the exclusion law seems a huge mistake. Lucy celebrated her arrival by coming down in a few weeks with typhoid, but it was a mild case and she has been back from the—very good—hospital a week now. I told Evelyn to send you back the five hundred you were kind enough to let me have. We have been very well taken care of, both in Japan and China, and didnt need the funds as it turned out, but the accommodation on your part was just the same. My general reactions to the situation here I am putting in articles—some of them are coming out in the N R. and others will come in Asia as I had a acble from them to send them six articles on the general political and social psychology of the Chinese as affecting the preent situation. Taking the word with psychology with a good deal of allowance, Im trying to do this. Its an absurdly pretentious perfromance in one way, with my short stay here and no knowledge f the language. But it will be just as good as most of the stuff travellers put out fr the American reader, and a little better than some for it will give some attempt at interpretation from the Chinese standpiint. It is almost to easy to get up a sympathetic admiration for them, not coming in direct contact to speak of with the disagrreable phases of their life. I have sent more stuff on Japan to the Dial. I dont think it will be as dull as the other one. The atmosphere of Japan has a peculiar restrictive and constrictive influence which it would be hard to analyze or explain. But im Sure almost everyone there suffers from it, the Americans and other foreigners get so used to it tha they dont know what they suffer from; I didnt when I was there, verybody was so friendly and in most ways so open. But there is a hush in the air. I dont know anything just like it. I think it is the reason that so much of writing about Japan is laudatory or eulogistic—that is the only open vent, and seems to be exected some how, waited for by the Japanese, or else just wholesale condemnation in reaction from the irritation of supre subconscious suppressions. In spite of the backardness of China, there is much more openness and outspokenness here which is one of things that one makes one believe the future is with China—but why, of why, dont they get busy and bring in that future. Thats what makes so much despair and disgust about China among foreigners. The puzzle of their contrasting strong and weak sides is one of the most fascinating things Ive ever exerienced, and keeps one always on the alert to see what is coming next. Just now there is a lull with the most activity on the side of the militarists who re strengthening their fences and fortications, because they got scared by the student movement. But now they have things more in hand than ever. But the Chinese principle seems to be to give everybody rope enough to hang himself with—the greater the oppression the greater the ultimate resistance and overthrow. Its a fascinating game to watch, but hard to repress one's desire for a lieel more drect western energy to tackle things before they get to the topling over point. || My lectures begin regularly this week, Scattered about—one day a week at the Boxer Indemnity College, two lectures a week at the University, tho one of them is a public rather than a students course, and one at the Board of Education Ministry. We shall be here till about the first of March. I thot Walter Weyl's article on Wilson was a keen analysis, the best thing of Weyl's I have read. The N R has more pep since Lippman is back. Please remember me to Mrs Barnes. Sincerely yours, John Dewey. |
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| 12 | 1919.10.04 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey children 135 Morrison St, Oct 4 [1919] Dear Folks. Evelyns letter of Sept 1 came this morning just as we had about given up hope for this boat. Evelyn neednt worry about my getting buried in the past. I spend my mornings running a sewing woman, seeing about getting a horse and ridimg habit, knotting a bed quilt, and reading the magazines in the library. My afternoons are devoted to calls, curio rumaging, and bullying Mamma into hleping me plan dinner parties. Its a gay life. The horse I have on shares with another girl, I dont know just how it is going to work out, I havent riden yet as there is no habit. I hope to be able to start when we get back from Taiyuanfu. Its perfect riding weather now, couldnt be nicer. The quilt is gradually getting done so I wouldnt be able to spend the rainy mornings that way much longer. The "first" calss are gradually getting done, it certainly is a chore, the new people are supposed to call on the old. we arent attempting to do them all, just the people at our legation, the more important Rockefeller and a few of the mishs. Mrs Price, one of the legation, has just come back from America and the afternoon she called on us she said she had made fourteen that afternoon. Numerous things have happend since I last wrote. Tuesday afternoon we went to the dress rehearsal of the Confucian sacrifice. The temple is a beautiful one with courtyards full of wonderful old Lebanon cedars. It is in very good condition, an unusual thing in Chinese temples, as it was restored by Yuan Shi-kai when he was getting ready to be emperor. We got there early and saw them making the preparations. They had all sorts of musical instruments set out, huge stringed things that we decided must be like the biblical psalteries enormous drums, and frames of bells and triangles. They had a chorus of boys who chanted and went thru formal posturing known as dancing. There were dignified old parties in black satin trimmed with gold who ran around and kowtowed every now and then. They didnt have any animal there that day. It all finished off with the dignified old parties marching off with a speech to Confucius and what would be peices of the animal. It was interesting and very impressive but we didnt understand it much. Most of the high officials were there, tho not the great president. Little Hsu, the power behind the throne, was there, but the Chinese we were with remarked in a casual way, "There goes little Hsu" when he had got all by and all we saw was his back in the distance. Thursday we rose at four in the morning and waited for the president to go by the house He almost never goest on the street as all the streets have to be cleared for him. We had received a police order telling us that no one was to leave the house after three until he had gone by. The soldiers were stationed about fifteen feet apart along the street, there were two or three in every door way, one came up stairs and turned on the light in the hall out side our door. They evidently didnt propose to have any one rush out and bomb the old gent. They had the street strewn with yellow sand in the old imperial way. After much waiting eighteen automobiles went tearing by, going about forty miles an hour The pres was in the last one, a closed car with four men on each running board. What I dont understand is how he got home, as all the soldeirs and everything deperted after him. Thursday night the Smiths [Possibly William Roy Smith and Marion Parris Smith] came for a farewell dinner. Miss Carl came too She pained the old Empress Dowagers picture, lived in the palace for a year. She has the most interesting stories to tell and is a most entertaining person generally. The Smiths had to leave early to get their train. We are going to miss them very much. Yesterday the rain came down in sheets and the streets were large rivers This morning was clear and lovely but its all clouded up again now and is cold as Greenland. We are completely overcome at Evelyns style in living on West 56 street. As she didnt say anything about her plans we dont know when she will move in so I wont take any chances on this letter. We had a nice letter from Mrs Coleman and one grom Miss Cross yesterday. Also I got one from Charles today. Im slowly freezing to death so will sally forth for some exercise. Lots of love to you all. Lucy |
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| 13 | 1919.11.02 |
Letter from John Dewey to Evelyn Dewey [November 2, 1919] Dear Evelyn… Last night we went t[o] another dinnr at the hotel and during the dancing Ed Thomas of Chicago recognized me and astonished me by telling me who he was. He is down here from Chitato spend a month and take the Consular examinations. He thinks a change for the better is approaching in Russia and he wants to be redy for business hen that time comes. He is coming to lunch today and I asked him to stay in this apt while we are away, but that may not prove to be convenient he will decide when he comes. This afternoon we go to Mr Wans wedding at the naval club and tonight at eight we start for Mukden. We are to stay at the Japanese hotel so we shall probable send no letters from there. We expect to stay there not m[o]re than four days… [John Dewey] |
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| 14 | 1919.11.02-11.10 ? | John Dewey departs at 20 hour to Mukden = Shenyang and stays about a week. |
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| 15 | 1920.01.01, 02, 04 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children Tientsin Jan 1 1920 We have got as far as this, both in time and space. We didnt go to the tomb of Confucius after all, as the connections were bad. Slow trains we knew, and when the guides found out they were also only thrid class, they rather withdrew the idea, and mamma hadnt wanted to go anytime, thinking the absent pilgrims and not the tomb the sight to see; while as for me I would willingly have been a present pilgrim if the only one. But we are now deluding ourselves with the prospect of going next spring when we not only see the pilgrims but also climb the sacred mountain. Aise from the exitement of not going and not lecturing, we had a luncheon and exhibition of old Chinese physical exercises with and by General Ma Liang. He is a story by hiself even more so than the Mohammadan meal and the show he gave us, too long to be tucked in, so Ill let it go now, save that the exercises are the original of the Japanese Jiu jitsu, which like everything else Japanese seems to have come from China. However Im bound to ay they have improved on the original a good deal, tho what we saw was well done, including the sickening conclusion, when eight or ten bricks were laid on a mans head and smahed with another brick, and a big paving stone at least four inches think, nearer six, was smashed with a big sledge hammer on the chest of one of the athletes, in fact two in succession one on the east chest and one on the west. He was stripped to the waist with a temperature of about 15 F, and the stone was fairly covered with the thick frost you see on the under side of the stones when they are frozen into the ground. The sight of the rough cold thing on a mans vare skin was almost enough for me, to say nothing of having it broken into four pieces on me. We were also taken to a show, thetre four or five plays acted by school boys of between twelve and sixteen, wh poor boys who are taught regular lessons half a day and plyacting the ot[h]er half, supported by the public, and shows are free. It was more interesting than the professional acting we saw at first, we havent been to a professional in Peking. The first was a moral play with a spoken moral at the end, namely not to take a concubine. Good advice of course, but probably not so much needed by these poor boys as by the millionaire officials. The queerness of the method of teaching the moral to little boys didnt seem to strike anybody. The play began with in a brothel, with the old man coming in to look over the girls, to pick out the one he wanted to buy—four or five were paraded before him. Of course she has a lover who is an habitue of the brothel and who is smuggled into the buyers house as her brother, and for whose sake the lady concubine attempts to poison him [in ink] her husband, [in ink] and a general suicide etc at the end—that is, next to the end, just before the Moral. The others were scenes adapted from the old historic folklore, and one were more interesting, especially as one twelve year old boy has real talent. He could make a lot of money on the vaudeville stage in U S; its funny how similar methods are, barring the ftone they sing in. Jan 2, still '20. Yesterday we had a day off. Except that in the morning we had a visit from a delegation of students repreentatives of the Students Unions. They and not the officials invited us here. There were four boys and three girls, the latter all from the Anglo-Chinese School, methodist. They all spoke some english, the girls very good, an[d] they were very chatty, more conversational and less selfconscious Lucy says than any of the Peking girls she has seen. It was quite extraordinary—this joint delegation. Suh Hu says that the afternoon before he visite[d] the Union headquarters ad found in each room a committee composed of boys and girls working togther, quite free from any consciousness, a sight which he says is the most encouraging he has yet seen in China. Only here and in Shanghia are such things possible. Why we also heard so much about Turkish women and so little about Chinese orietnalism, unless it was the sightseer's eye for the picturesque veil. Yesterday morning's paper said that the Minister of Interior Chancellor Tsai had resigned, owing to the failure of mediation negotiations. Suh Hu [Hu Shi] came in late last night, had spent part of the day with others hunting for Tsai who had disappeared from Peking, presumably to Tientsin; that all the principals of the schools from elementary up had resigned and that educational chaos reigned supreme; also that one reason General Wu, the government mediator offered for the teachers going back to work was the impending attempt to restore the monarchy. Hu was quite excited last night, as yesterday was the day set according to rumors, but this morning paper hadnt a word about it. Just what is going to happen to my lectures now I dont know, but I hope some way will be foun[d] to resume them without waiting an endless time which will mean I will never finish and earn my salary in Peking. This afternoon mamma and I both speak at the same meeting, which is also the first time for that arrangment. It is the difference between the younger generation and the old. At a recent meeting, Xn, in Shanghai, the Chinese proposed and amalgamation of the Y M C A and Y W C A—it would be interesting to see the fluttering in the male dovecotes. But it is one of many signs that the younger generation of Chinese is ready to go further than the alleged liberal westerner, who has his obssessions as to what the Chinese will and will not stand for—to say nothing of their own inner feelings as to what they will stand for themselves. In the past from combined timidty and politeness the Chinese have hesitated to tell their Xn confreres just what they thought and wanted, but the nationalist feeling is grwoing so rapidly that that wont last much longer. Its only fair to say that some of the missionary element would gladly abdicate when they saw the Chinese disposed to take || responsibility, while the Y M C A is already organized with the Chinese in at least nominal control, and with all the facilities for actual control. Peking Home, Jan 4 When we get back here and find all the rented things gone and our own here and to be chased after, we realize that few millionaires have naything on us in the way of furnsihed houses, what with our palce at 2880, our country mansion at Huntington, our spring residence on Russian Hill and our winter resort here. Whether mama will be able to find another to furnish before we leave China I dont know… Dad |
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| 16 | 1920.01.04 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey children 135 Morrison Street, Sunday, Jan 4 [1920] Dear Folks. Its been perfect ages since I have written but I have inumerable alibis. In the first place when we first decided to furnish the flat ourselves I went with Mamma to furniture street to look for stuff. I got so cold running around their old stone houses that I was laid up in bed with tonsilitis for two days. I rose from my bed of pain to go to Mrs Hortons dance and it quite cured me. Also I had a very nice time. There are a lot of Italian officers here arranging for D'Annunzios Rome Tokyo flight. They are like Italian officers every where and most amusing. Also Admiral Gleaves and all his staff were there, much gold lace and uniforms. The next day was spent in frantice packing, moving, and buying furniture and a tea dance in the afternoon by way of a rest. I see Dad has writ[t]en numerous letters and told about Shantung. We had an interesting time there and in some ways quite entertaining. You should have seen us chummig with the savage Ma Liang. I sat next him at the Governors dinner and as he is a Mohamedan he couldnt eat anything. I couldnt converse with him very well and neither did the man on the other side so he amused himself by brushing his mustache with a cunning little brush he carries in his pocket. He has the best manners and seems the most amiable of any of those people we have met except Tuchun Yen of Shansi. He may put his old family doctor to death by torture but he doesnt act that way in public. We stopped for three days in Tientsin, got there New Years Eve with our trunk delayed and so were exiled to a remote place outside the dining room for diner. There are street cars in Tientsin and we were so thrilled by the sight that we promptly jumped on one and rode. There isnt a great deal there in the way of sights, just the concessions, like any small town, and the Chinese city. It was very interesting, the first place in China where the Chinese women get out-and-do things that Ive seen. They say Tientsin and Shanghai are the only two. They men and women students work together on committees and in a small audience of about thirty that Suh Hu [Hu Shi] spoke to they sat together. The girls that came to receive us were the nicest and most interesting that I have met in China. They can talk, which is a great relief, start conversations of their own accord and not have things pulled out by questions all the time. And they talk about everything that a girl at home talks about. Two of them, cunning little mites of things, are going to America next year to prepare for college and are planning to go about the same time we do, so we may come home with them under our arms. I hope so. Poor Mamma has been out all morning buying dishpans and things so we can have something to eat without sponging off the neighbors. 6.30 p.m. Mother and I have been in the house about half an hour now after a wild afternoon hunting for a parlor table and soem cooking things. The rickshaw man has just come up to say that the soldiees are looting out un the Chinese city and all the shops are shut. We seem to have got in just in time that is where we were. It all looked peaceful enough then. There have been rumors of an attempt to restore the boy emperor and we are wondering if this is the first act. I have just been out in the kitchen to tell the boy to go down and see what he could find out from the people in the street and the cook informed me Liu go down side. So as soon as Liu go top side again I shall continue this and tell you what he has found out. Ha says that last night the soldiers roobeed a Chinese bank and tonight are robbing more. They Belong to Feng Kuo Chang an ec-president now deceased. He died a few days ago and omitted to pay the soldiers before so doing. They haveny been paid in four months and now apparently they are collecting. This afternoon when Mamma and I first went out we passed a lot of soldiers taking a huge gun along the streets and this explains it. There may be no end of trouble now as the whole administration is in a mess from the teachers strike. Chancellor Tsai has resigned and disappeared again and it looks as tho the whole educational system had gone kersmash. Now the rest may go too. The soldiers are recruited f[r]om the brigands and the brigands from the ex-soldiers, so there isnt much choice. On the whole the soldiers behave pretty well when they are paid, but nobody in China has been paid now for several months. This mornings paper had an awful story about the soldiers in Tsinanfu, which we seem to have left just in time. There they enteres a theater where the studenys were celebrating New Years with some plays they gave themselves. The soldiers boke in and attacked the students, beating them down, two were injured so badly that they may die. The girls were attacked and robbed, some even of their clothes. The military police finally came to the rescue and drove out the police and recovered some of the stolen property. The city is under martial law, I never saw so many soldiers standind around with their bayonets fixed in my life nd hope I never do again. It gives you creepy feeling, not at all pleasant to come on a large bunch of bayonets every tim[e] you go round a corner. Well, I must finish this and get it off or it will hang on forever. We found a lot of mail waiting for us and it sure was welcome. Loads of love to all and I hope Elizabeth had a nice birthday. [Lucy Dewey] |
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| 17 | 1920.01.13 |
Letter from John Dewey to John Jacob Coss 135 Morrison St Peking Jan 13 '20 Dear Coss, Our letters crossed each other, so I hope mine, with the statement of courses, reached you in season. The day it yours came one of my Chinese friends brought up the question of my staying another year I am anxious to get home, and yet age has crept upon me enough so that the ease of living here, to say nothing of more intrinsic values, is tempting, especially as letters are full of the high cost of living, the difficulty of getting "help" etc. In a small and modest flat, with a family of three we have three servants for less than one would cost at home in wages—and they feed themselves, except of course for sqweeze on us, and we pay the highest going rate. Doubtless one smart man could do the work of these three, but the large population of China has to be kept alive and going somehow, and everything in China, tempo of work and the sobiability of numbers as well as the rate of pay is adapted to that fact. Well I started out to say that the question of our remaning another year had been tentatively raised. It will take a month or six weeks to have anything definite come of the suggestion, but Im mentioning it now so if a cablegram comes from me you will have some word. It has been a worth while experience, not so much for things specifically learned as for the entirely new perspective and horizon in general. Nothing western looks quite the same an[y] more, and this is as near to a renewal of youth as can be hoped for in this world. From this distance our sectrain differences in philosoph[y] look as technical and unreal as our similar differences in religion. Whether I am accomplishing naything as well as getting a great deal is another matter. China remains a massive blank and impenetrable wall, when it comes to judgment. My guess is that what is accomplished is mostly by way of "giving face" to the younger liberal element. Its a sort of outside reinforcement in spite of its vagueness. Other times I think Chinese civilization is so thick and selfcentred that no foreign influence presented via a foreigner even scratches the surface. However some of the younger Chinese, among whom our Suh Hu [Hu Shi] is a marked leader are keeping things stirred up. At present the war is on on the old family system, with a demand for the emancipation of women—which doesn[t] mean the vote which amounts to nothing as yet for the men, but breaking down the truly Oriental seclusion and subjection. Most foreigners her[e] are more conservative here than the liberal Chinese. A large part of the missionary elecent, especially the older ones, have compensated for their temerity in introducing new religious ideas and rites by outdoing the Chinese in social conservatism. in other lines. Some of the younger men are marked excpetions. The Rockefeller medical foundation here has coeducation and its head Roger Greene (not a physician but administrative head) is urging coeducation on all the missionary colleges. I was much interested in your college news which is the first Ive had, especially of course in the new course which sounds most promising, also oin the salary matter. The younger married men must have been in an awful condition with the hcl[High cost of living]. If there is anything printed about the mental test etc matter I wish you would have it sent me. I hope go out to the Boxer indemnity college once a week, Tsing Hua and can use it there. The "college" has in reality but about a year's college work; many of the men are disconcerted because some American colleges give two and even three years college credit, except in engineering lines where but the one year is given. This is producing internal friction in the institution as the engineering, or rather scientific men, think they are discriminated aginst, not in America but at home. The problem of sending students to America and what to do with they return de[f]inite[?] and exact idea of the problem. I wish [Adam Leroy] Jones could get a meeting of the some of the representative at Chinese students there, especia[l]ly those with a Tsing Hua background, and get their ideas of the problem and of the defects in the present method. Illogically [p]erhaps without a clear idea of the elements of the problem I have come to a conclusion about one element in its solution—that Tsing Hua should become a four year college and send to America a smaller number, but more mature and advanced, for specialed graduate work. One of the great questions is the demand for technical studies at the expense of students getting much real idea of western civilization. Looked at from this end, it wouldnt be a bad idea to have all Chinese students (and Japanese too) required to take your new frsshman course, even the graduate and technical students. This is meant seriously. I dont belive the problem of Oriental students ca[n] be dealt with satisfactorily till some especial arrangements are made for them in spite of its upsetting uniformity of administration. Over here they would probably strike before they would go back into a freshman course, but the losing face element wouldnt be so strong there… Sincerely yours, John Dewey. |
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| 18 | 1920.01.15 |
Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes 135 Morrison St, Peking Jan 15 '20 Dear Barnes,… On account of the intepretation I have to write my articles lecture notes out much more fully than ever before, several a week, and whe[n] I have written home and the articles I contracted for with N R and Asia, I have am more than satiated with writing. Howver that doesnt apply the last few weeks, for Ive been on strike—dont let [A. (Alexander) Mitchell] Palmer know or Ill be deported. The Peking teacher went on strike late in Dec because they were behind in pay three months and were getting paid fifty percent in depreciated notes, worth fifty on the dollar at that. The minister of Education with a truly American fatuity of officials instead of least appearing to sympathize with them rather ridiculed him so they demanded his scalp too. Then he tried to set the students against the teachers and the former then demanded his scalp also. Up to this time many of the teachers had been quite consrvative and opposed to the student movement. Now they are rather solidified. The teachers got this week everything they were after except the dismissal of the minister. That would have broug[ht] the whole cabinet tumbling down. My strike was rather an enforces sympathetic, as I have no grievances at all, but it makes a good story just the same. All countries are alike tho the level differs. Here any liberal sentiment at all, say as much so as the platituudes of the N Y Times on the liberalism of the past that has become orthodox, [pencil comma] is regarded as out and out Bolshevism, I see from the cables that the latest form of propaganda is that Japan must again intervene in Siberia ifn order to prevent the Bolshvising of China. Land is divided here and the farmers are the real country and factory industry is in its infancy. There is as much danger of Bolshevizing China as there is of the farmers of Berks Co turning Bols. But verything goes when it comes to propaganda. The only question left is the depths of human gullibility. If the Japanese try to hold Siberia, it is the beginning of the end in my opinion and there is that [in pencil w. caret] much reason for hoping the propaganda will succeed. There is one danger. Gt Britain and France may promise J something and get tied up to back her. It is disgusting by the way what a pawnbroking business the big nations do over here—making China loans of a few millions dollars conditioned often on her buying something she doesnt want at a big discoun | high rate of interest, and with a view to getting a mortgage on something in the future. Then, while the western powers wouldnt dream of doing such things nearer home where there is publicity, the Chinese naturally conclude this is the general western standard I was interested in your suggestion about a seminar in esthetics. But I cant rise to my part in it. I have always eschewed esthetics, just why I dont know, but I think it is because I wanted to reserve one region from a somewhat devastating analysis, one part of experience where I didnt think more than I did anything else. And now I have a pretty fixed repulsion agt all esthetic discussion. I feel about it precisely as the average intelligent man feels about all philosophical discussion, including the branches that excite me very much… I recd a letter the other day asking me to join the Leuage for Oppressed Peoples. Im thinking of writing back and saying I will when they include the U S among the oppressed peoples—its shameful that about the only U S news we get here is raids, deportations, semi-officials lynchings, strikes etc. China is in many respects the Europe of the 17th century. The rest of the world wont give her two centuries in which to develop in her own way. Meanwhile the Asia of Russia, China and India is a tremendous fact. At bottom the situation is much like two locomotives plunging at each other—the distance between them is great but they are both getting momentum—or rather the smallest one has great momentum and the big one is beginnin[g] to get it. This sounds pessimistic. Meantime, China is a most interesting spot to live in and also, compared with reports of hcl and lack of service in America a delightfully easy one. I wrote somebody the other day it had the nearest effect to a renewal of youth conceivable. It places everythin[g] in a new perspective so nothing looks alike as it did before. The other day we had the opportunity to see some of the best old Chinese paintings still remaining in China, Sung dynasty and in perfect conditions. Sorry you werent along. To my surprise, in the best the technique was so wonderful that it seemed to get ahead of the feeeling. But I think that is because from lack of background and of [in pencil w. caret] sufficiently long acquintance with the pictures, [in pencil w. caret] it is easier to get the technique than the feeling. Howver there is no doubt the Chinese are virtuosos all right, the cultivated ones. Their devotion to handwriting, to characters shows that. Lots of them devote an hour or two a day to it, just making the characters for practise, and it is my impression they regard it as a higher art than painting or anything directly representative in art. For handling of strokes—that word seems better than lines—both in themselves and in spacing, [pencil comma] I dont believe the world has naything finer to show than two or three of these paintings we saw—men whose names I didnt recognize—which is fairly typical of our general provincialism with respect to Asia. We have engaged passage home for next August. Evelyn is now on her way to Vancouver and will join us in about a month. Please give our regards to Mrs Barnes, and with the same to you, Sincerely yours, John Dewey |
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| 19 | 1920.02.08 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Evelyn Dewey Peking Feb 8th [1920] Sunday. Dearest Evelyn… Pa and I have just been to an exhibition of Mr Liens pictures. They are said to be the best collection in China, tho not large they are all perfect… There is nothing to tell you except that we are jumping out of boots now that we have heard from you and shall continue to jump till you get here which will be soon. I wish I could be in the Sontag Hotel when you get there. But the thought of all that travel is enough to take away the taste for a trip just to come right back. Peking weather is delightful again tho colder than at any time before… The students are going to work again tomorrow to keep the govt from shutting up the schools and also to fix the blame on the gvt where it belongs. The govft here is behaving as badly as the Japanese thems[elves] Now this must go if it gets to you on time. Loads of love till we meet. Mama. |
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| 20 | 1920.02.11 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children 135 Morrison St Peking Feb 2 11 Dearest children, We are expecting Ev to arrive here a week from to morrow, so says a telegram we recd from Tokyo; she gets to Seoul in Korea in two days... I feel free to mention the fact that Suh Hu [Hu Shi] asked us about staying over another year, to work on the educational dept of the university. Ev included, because I dont think there is anything in it, tho we havent given any answer yet, waiting for Evs arrival. There is only one good reason for staying and that's on mother's account, that is to say housekeeping. When things are so easy here it looks hard on her to subject her to the strains of the hcl and servants in N Y. But I think personally Ive got about all I can get from a stay here now. Id rather come back and go home by India or Russia a few years from now. Also I want to see the family, and not lose all track of my country—tho Suh Hu [Hu Shi] says I would get deported if I went back now. Fred seemed to be worrying about my connection with the new school, so I wrote them to announce my course there in such a way that it wouldn't seem as if I had given up there Columbia… We are still waiting to hear what will happen when my work finishes here next month. Presumably I go to the Yangste valley in general and Nanking in particular to lecture, but whether for one month or three I don[t] know. If for one three we shant get south to Foochow and Canton till summer very hot weather, and little time in Japan on our return, earlier tho still hot enough, and have some weeks in Japan to complete our sightseeing there, Nikko etc. When we find out and Ev gets here we shall have to decide what the rest of the family will do when I go to Nanking—they wont want three mos there as it is not exciting. Another thing agt staying over another year is the uncertainty of this situation. Things have been badly broken up, no lectures last two weeks. No actual strike, but no regular classes either. They are meeting everyday to decide upon whether to strike, the more responsible ones trying to prevent it, the hot heads wanting to as a protest agt beating up of students and arests of students, and dissolution of union at demand of J govt; also the pro-oficial spies among them are urging a strike, as the govt would like to have them do it, to close schools, get students out of Peking and give them free hand to open direct negotiations with J about Shntung. The situation was very tense this last week, with the arrests and the police and lmilitary here and in Tinetsin taking the overt action agt the students. Its pretty clear that the first chapter in the movement is now ended, and what will happen next its too much to say. J has felt the boycott very much, and one hand is ready to make some concessions and on the other is forcing the Chinese military party to direct suppression by use of force of the boycott. They have taken Tientsin as the place of for an object lesson, Even if they break it, it wll be a long time before J wholly recovers, The movement toward native production especially in cotton has taken a big leap forward, tho there is great difficulty in importing machinery. Tomorrow is another of the endless holidays here—this time the anniversary of the abdication of the Manchu dynsaty in 1912—tho it might as well be Lincolns birthday here as there. Thursday has been my Tsing Hua day and all the holidays have thoughtfully come on that day. Ev arrives here on Thursday tho, and Im hoping there will be a holiday next week as the 20th is the New Year day, and many schools have a three day holiday. Lots of love to you all Dad. |
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| 21 | 1920.02.13 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Frederick A., Sabino, & Elizabeth Braley Dewey Peking Feb 13th. [1920] Dearest children, Fred, Bino and Elizabeth. It seems by the records I have been making a very bad account in writing home lately. Things go the sme here as elsewhere tho I have not the same excuse of hard work and being tired, but we get domestic and nothing of new importance happens and I allow myself to get busy with the passing incidents and with taling to people. Today is a great day, for Evelyn is landing or has landed on the continent of Asia if she has carried out the plans she wired to us from Tokyo. It seems to put the freshness and the sensation back into the strange appearances that have now become familiar. You know she will get here the day before New years and if she is not tired or sick we ought to have a great time for ten days seeing the markets and the exhibitions. The weathe[r] here is sunny and not too cold, tho it is the coldest of the year. We may still have snow and then it will be hard work standing on the stone floors, looking. But it is all a matter of clothing and the Chinese know how to adapt themselves. The food I have already talked about, but the cl[o]thes ought to be seen to be understood. Lately I have been relieving my own distress as well as mitigating the pains of others a little by putting some little children in K.G. for the rest of this year. Lucy has one particular favorite and the first day this child went she was like a stuffed ball in appearance, her arms stuck out like the wadded dolls and were not much more movable. if the children fall down here there is nothing to worry about. The shoes are the most convincing of our vanities for they are made of felt with thick soles and wadded linings, no heels. The college girl here would not pass on the Smith or Brynmawr campus. All her clothes are made of cotton cloth like the ones I sent home, only in general the good old colors have gone. They wear fur lined coats, both small and over coats made of a dirty brown color and sometimes a long wool overcoat like a very narrow mans ulster with a cheap fur collar. In the house they all wear the thin silk skirts of black put on over several pairs of trousers, and at least four coats one on top of the other, one or two of them being lined with fur. I think they tell the truth when they say they are never cold. no cellars, stone floor, no rug if a little stove with fire they often open their door to get air. I have just read a note from Joanna, came on the Russia I think, tho we ar[e] to get another mail today—if we do. I believe a cotton coat is about as costly for a girl here as a plain silk one would be. When they go out for company they wear the lovely brocade satins. We had a call from a bride yesterday afternoon, She was dressed all in splendid white borcade. This is the second white brocade suit we have seen on an afternoon caller. As for food, let me suggest this dish to you. Put into your chafing dish enough broth for your soup. Put on the table beside it vegetables either cooked or partly so, and thin sliced meat and fish of as many kinds as you wish, very thin, drop these slices into the boiling broth and take them out with your chopsticks and put them into your mouth. After you get enough of this, put all you have into the broth and then put the whol into your soup plates and finish with rice or without. We are h[a]ving it alone for tiffin [luncheon] today. Chinese have it for the last course at a dinner. They always have their sweet in the middle of the dinner. We have today broth well flavored, cabbage wgich is cut up and boiled first, thin sliced potatoes, lamb and I dont know what else for the cook always surprises us with things we know not… As for politics here things move on in the same direction so far as I can see Japan and the interests that go with her seem to calmly press the heel harder all the time on the necks of the majority who are struggling to get loose. The students are doing very l[i]ttle work tho they are not striking nominally. The whole excitement has been very upsetting to them and they still feel they have work more important than studies, and the idle ones take advantage to be more lazy than ever, Mrs [Lois Miles] Zucker taeches English Lit in the govt University. She says she had three boys in one clss this week and that is the largest number, Those t[h]ree told her they came because they were sick and could not go out to speak. Yesterday we were about the town but saw no one speaking, It is said they are speaking on the shops. Meantime the Minister of Foreign affairs has left and his Vice minister has gone with hime and there is chaos in the foreign office. It is a time when I sho[u]ld like to see Mr [Bertram Lenox] Simpson and hear his view. He is in general hopeful but advisers in general have not much influence tho he is said to be listened to by the foreign office. Perhaps that is the reason they are out, I dont know. He is writing articles for the Leader showing how China may keep her advantages if she will and the students are following the lines of the information he gives them. In general no one dares to move and so every thing is outwardly calm, tho that is an atmosphere that suots Japan. We are sending lanterns for New Years presents to our friends the children. They are the very most interesting cheap decorations I have ever seen, all the insects, fishes, birds, vegetables and some quadrupeds are wonderfully reproduc[ed] You put a light inside them, their legs and arms move in the air, they are colored, and they cost 25 cents each. The colors are varnished on so they are very durable. The deer is a sacred animal, brining good luck I saw a fawn life size standing on its feet. There are lovely ones of painted silk which are more expensive. We had a gift of lovely paintings, panels two by six inches The one I like best of our l[a]nterns is a red peach with a scarlet butterfly resting on thr leaf. I wish E.A. could have some of them, but if she did they would have to be made in the U.S. for they would not travel well. Some time may be we wll bring the lantern makers to us but their works will be much more expensive than they are here, like all art… Our lillies are in full bloom and I fear will not make a good show when Ev arrives tho they were bought to celebrat her arrival. The Chinese are wonderful in forcing things and the flowers tho spafrce and very dear are delicious They take two or more liily bulbs abd bind them together in a straight line by running a splint of rattan thru them so you have a lovely flower bed out of two bulbs. I have one such with nine spikes of heavy bloom on it and the three bulb combinations have sometimes 15 others have 12. They produce very fots. and not such big leaves as when we put them in a lot of water, Change water every fay and keep but little in bowl. They are sold for 2½ cts per bloom so there is never any doubt. When you buy the buds are just ready to bloom and the leaves three inches long, Later they get tall, at least I cant prevent that Tomorrow morning at seven oclock I am going to the silk and fur market. So far during the cold I have not had the nerve to do it. I think I shall buy a fur coat for next winter of grey squirrel. The cost about one sixth of the prices I see in the papers from N.Y. Furnishing the flat has so tzken up my intest tht we have not bought much to take home. mean time the prich of rugs has so soared since last summer that I am mad at not having made invesfments in them. Peking is full of conventions, Methodist, Missionary, and Medical… Lots of love, Mama. |
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| 22 | 1920.02.15 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Frederick A. Dewey Peking, Feb 15th. [1920] Sunday. Dear Fred… I had my breakfast before the others and went to the fur market and I nearly bought a fur coat to make over for E.A. The little Am. children wear them here either made of spotted cat which is very pretty or striped cat, or of grey squirrel. If you had only been near to ask if you wanted that expense, they cost about fifteen dollars all made up. I am going to buy another and better for me, and some others, and I think Elizabeth might want one too, but I dont dare to go too far in a ting so perishable as some of them are. let me know I hd lovely sable coats offered to me for 250 and 400 depending on the size. One long coat coming to the feet may be had for 1000 or 1500 and they cost 4000 or more in the U.S. I am not thinkig of those but I like the grey squirrel ones. What I think I shall buy is oe made of fox legs which look like sable and wear a long long time cost about 75. The variety of fur here is greater than with us as they are fond of sewi[n]g little bits together to make handsome designs like the fox legs which are small but dark and handsome. There is one kind made of pieces less than an inch square. Well, so much for fur. Silk is sold at that morning market too, and as for pigs all in parts I necer saw so many in my life, You can buy furniture there and cotton cllth and brasses and dishes and spectacles and vegetables znd ol junk made of iron and all the rest besides the Chinese people. Since I wrote you yesterday there is more evidence that China is just drifti[n]g into the maw of Japan. The teachers and the Students Unions were suppressed day before yesterday and the fact is published today. The tendency has been steady, in spite of all the remonstrances of the people. It is curous to us to see what these people seem to depend upon in making up their minds, or not making them up, as you see it. Since reading more of their history I can see they have always been in a stae much like this. The Japanese have held parts of their coast in the past and then been forced to get out after century or more. They have always pirated the coa[st] and for the Manchu rule, and its downfall the effect of that seems to be to make the Chinese take things as they come trusting that after 300 years or so they will again drive out the Japs. They seem to rest on this great lazy fact that the Chinese nation is too big and too unwilling to be absorbed in any other; and as for this interference, why we have to stand about so moch that is disagreeabl any way and it is very disagreeable to fight the Japs and to hate them as we do but Govt is always bad any way, -like ours, - and we may as well make the best of it. A man named Que [Kuo] Tai Chi is here from Canton. He has just come back from Paris with the peace delegates and he is said to be saying strong tnings to the legations and to the Govt regarding Canton. No one can be surprised if the south breaks entirely with the north in case this govt does make the concessions direct to Japan in Shantung. There is also a strong probability that the whole of the intriguing is just to overthrow this present govt. That downfall happens to be a thing that the republicans want of course, as well as the Anfu Club since they too can not control it. There is not telling from day to day. I have a charming little satin coat for E.A. which I think I can send over by Mrs Frame, and I shall try. She goes in about one week. The embroidery on it is quite rare, and shows the garment once belonged to a child of the highest rank, next to the imperial. Pa has just come in from his lecture. Hu [Shi]says, suppression of the Unions is like the threat to close the schools, largely a threat to induce the students to make trouble. What the govt really wants is an excuse to close the schools and their spies keep coming to the students to urge them to bring legal action agnst the metropolitan police. They really know that the students idea has influen[ce] and agrees with the public sentiment and they want to close the schools for the next four months so as to be able to quietly get things back into their own hands. But the students are on to their tricks and have settled upon a quite policy which does not mean giving up. They mean to continue classes and to outwit the govt by nonresistance. The procalmation of Marial law will not alter anything. Meantime Peking look as if it were under martial law already so many guards every [w]here. Japanese goods have been put out for sale again and some shops which had only native goods have been closed by the police on the ground that they were supporting the boycott. Did you every hear of a contry punishing patriotism to such a degree?... Travel is dear here, and especially when we go with the Chinese who think it necessary to have the highest priced things everywhere… Lucy is feeling better today and Papa worse, That is to say he has the worst cold he has had for on the whole he has thrown off beginnings of colds easily and his lecturi[n]g has not been troublesome. Today however he is lying down tho he has no symptoms of fever or other expreme disconfort. It is quite wonderful how he adapts to all the changes without being upset and I hope this cold means nothing to worry about. There is the usual amount of cantagious diseas in the city among children. Our good friend and still better friend of Chinese education Mr Sam Dean has qite broken down. He is in bed, not allowed to se peple and it is feared the trouble is tuberculosis. He has not been well all winter and has gone on breaking all the laws of hygiene and now every body is mourning him. He is to go home soon any way and now it is a struggle to get him buil up to travel. If he does not come bck the loss to China will be immeasurable… With lots of love to you and to all, Mama. |
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| 23 | 1920.02.17 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children 135 Morrison St Feb 17 [1920] | Peking Dearest family, … The J govt has stood in Korea in the way of persecution and propagand by missionaries etc—and as the lying missionaries of China she would never forgive them for hating Japan. That last is a good mor war moral, hate is so hateful you must be very careful to hate the right ones. The morning paper says Tom Lamont is on way over here—tho it didnt call him Tom, just like that. Some of the business people here say it wasnt true that the Morgans are going in with Japanese capital in Manchuria and Siberia, and think the Japanese gentlemen in Sf just an-||nounced it from nerve because it was piqued because the other crowd had just announced its cooperation with Chinese capital. Internal politics here are too much for me—I hae to admit it. The popular objection to Sha entering into direct negotiations with Japn about her return of Shantung is universal. Its so strong that it would seem unreasonable if it didnt give a measure of the existing distrust both of Japan and of their own officials. But the officials have gone straight ahead. No public decision has been announced but it is generally believed that the govt has decided to go ahead. In fact it is generally believed that private negotiation[s] have been going on thu the medium of some big Japanese financiers here, and that when it is announed that negotiations will be begun it will mean verything is settled. One well posted Chinese said that he thought that after it was fixed Japan would simply announce the terms, saying she would not insist upon direct negotiations in view of the opposition of the people. The terms in general will involve considerable concessions but will be quite general and the details will be fixed by private treaties including some generous "loans". Domestic politics is also miced up, the premier while a militaryist is a rival of little Hsu the head of the Anfu club, which controls the govt except him, and it is said they are playing for his scalp and to get complete control. The best evidence of something going ions is the campaign of the last few weeks against the students Adter suppressing the movement in Tientsin, they have stopped it here, really stoped it so far as external manifestations are concerned. They tried every possibe way to provoke the students to strike. At first the students fell in the trap, but and voted a strike, but they got wise and voted not to. Then the govt to provoke the more, dissolved both the teachers and students unions by main force, police. Still they keep quiet What the govt will do next to provoke them, I dont know. The govt wants to get an excuse to close up all the schools and send the students home. The supposition is that it wants them out of the way when direct negotiations with Japan are announced. Thats probably a part of it, but demands from Japan and money are probably a factor too. The students really won a moral victory over themselves in not striking. Their fellow students had bee[n] arrested and physically abused, over forty are in hospitals here, from beatings up by soldiers and about as many more leaders in prison, no one knows where, and their sense of honor was that they should all strike for their comrades sake. But other managed to persuade them that the Shantung issue was the important thing, and they reserve themselves for that, and their fellow students in prison were more interested in the cause than in themselves. Finally the vote not to strike was unanimous—you cant imagine what it means for them to change about, becuase this would be loss of face for those who had been in favor a strike. Then they also sent telegrams to all the other towns where they had sent emissaries to start strikes telling them not to, to wait. Reports from the Shanghai valley are that probably the southern vaprovinces will break loose and start a revolution oif the Peking govt begins direct negotiations Probably the Japanese discount this. If they can get control of the northern govt, it would give them Manchuria positive and Shantung and this province Chili, and they could get the north and south to fighting one another, without their having to use their own money and blood. Howver the revolution if it occurs wont be confined to the south. The suppression of organizations will lead to direct action by individuals. There is no doubt Bolshevism is growing very rapidly in China—not technical Svovietism, but a belief in revolution as the cure of both Japan and their won govt, and making use of the Russian revolutionary aid to bring it on—there is too much lamd owned by individualistic peasants for a real Russian Bolshevism and factory industry too undeveloped. But the militarists who have used command of the army to extort money have been pu[t]ting their money into banks, stores (that is the chief thing the boycott is up agt) and indutrial enterprises, and in that way an economic question is growing up, and class feeling which has never existed before as class feeling. Its no use trying to prophesy about China, but anywhere else in the world, if things go in the present direction, it would be safe to predict an era of terrorism, assassinations etc, and efforts at revolution. Mentime the Chinese have got pessimistic agin, as much so as when we landed last May. A large part of them predict complete Japanese control—they are so many of them fatalists at bottom. On the other hand they think in the long run fate is on their side and that after they have had fifty years ofr a century of Japan—a century or two more or less is nothing here—Japan will be completely destroyed. They have evolved so far next to no capacity for selfgovernment. As Ive probably said before if I were a historian of ancient times, amytime up to eighteenth century Id study China and see the thing before my eyes. And the financial mess is the worst, and the foreign govts and diplomats are primarily responsible for that. The govt exists from month to month simply by the favor of foreign loans. It is now borrowing twentyfive million—that is five million pounds, which by the time exchange is reckoned and the premium to baker paisd will net China ten million dollars. The reason for our govt going in is thaa toherwise Japan alone will laon the money. But verything is handled in this piecemeal pawnbroking style. They have paper assurane that some of the money will be paid used to pay off loans soldiers and disband the army, and that there will be foreign supervision of expeditures—but Lord. Well there doesnt seem to be anything but politcs to write about—the lanterns of fishes and fruits and bugs and grasshoppers that we get for twenty five cents, oiled paper, for new years are much more interesting—New Years is in three days, but how much we are going to see except the special markets and bazzaars I dont know. When Ev gets here there is to be another big banquet given us, a kind of farewell departure I think. Lots of love Dad Ill try to send this by Shanghai and Empress mail. Plese direct the next letters to me | Care Teachers College | Nanking. | Where the family will be I dont know, but try some of your letters direct to me there, and some to rest of family here. |
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| 24 | 1920.02.20 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children Feb 20 [1920] Peking, the same being the first day of the lunar new year. Dearest family, We lived and dozed thru a night that on the whole has 4th of July beaten for noise; there were no explosions quite so rude as our big dynamite crackers, and thank God the tin horns were not. For uninterrupted cracking however the night was a sucess. This morning the boys have all been in and made their boys bows. Spite of age, they are all boys when you see how happy the New Years Day made them. I wish I knew enough Chinese to ask them why it made them so happy; I dont think it was entirely the cumshaws, sctho they seemed pleased and perhaps surprised at the amount they got; perhpas they had thought we were tightwads. It hardly seems possible as if a people as old and disillusionized as the Chinese could thibk New Years was going to make the world turn over a new leaf and behave decently for a change, but if [pencil del.] every [in pencil w. caret] day ought to be New Years if it can make people happy so easily. If you ever see Mr [possibly George] Hopkins (and I hope you do sometimes) tell him that tho China doesnt seem idyllic, I sympathize with his feeling about it. Mr Barry has taken to sending the Call lately. The red headlines and screaming type and break up into millions of unrelated paragraphs most of which cant have any interest except to the epople who in them are killed divorced and sued for breach of promise or knocked out, [pencil comma] brought back a picture Id about that had almost lapsesd [d in pencil] from consciousness. I had forgotten anyone could be so crazy, and yet I know very well before Ive been back two weeks it will seem to represent the normal curse of life (I started to write course of life, but I bow to the superior wisdom of the Typewriter)… Suh Hu [Hu Shi] in suggesting to me that we stay over next year, said it probably wouldnt be safe for me to go home, as I would be deported. This wasnt all a joke on his part. It represents the impression our present doings in America make on an intelligent foreigner as they they get reported. Of course we are rich enough and big enough, to say nothing of being crazy enough, to care nothing for any what any dam fool foreigner cares about us, but I wonder how much of a headache we'll [pencil apostrophe] have when we wake up the morning after. After sveral million unskilled laborers take the advice of those who are telling them if you dont like this country go back to where you came from, and the labor market is cornered by the unions, and the prize boobs of the universe, the middle class has reaped the full reward of its asininity and servility, we shall certainly have some country. This sounds dyspeptic, but Im only too fate, and all that ails me physically is a bad cold. But Mr Hunt told last night about going back to his old home town in the country in Ill and the respectables of the village were brought out to do him honor, the hardware merchant, the lawyer and doctor and preacher and banker, and he said there wasnt one of them who wasnt ready to fight and die for for Mr [Elbert Henry] Gary. I only started out to say that he has begun to tell the facts about Siberia as practically everybody here knows them, but which have been systematically distorted by the propaganda press and the state dept along with the rest of the diplomatists. About one thing he differs from the others Ive heard talk who have been there. He says America isnt hated, that 90 per cent of our soldiers became sympathetic with the revolutionaries, and that the Russian common people know it, as our soldier[s] generally let the revolutionaries escape as fast as the Kolchak people captured them—the train that went to Vladivostock tand back to dem and the surrender of the latter city to the revolutionaries went under an escort of armed American soliders. Mr Morris ofur minister in Tokyo understod the whole situation he says which bears out the impression I got in Tokyo, but felt bound to be loyal to the state dept which had instructed him to find reasons for recognizing Kolchak. I didnt dare ask Mr Hunt how much Russian he speaks, for as he tells about his experiences it seems to make a little difference whether he is telling literal facts, or whether he is an artists and facts meet him more than havelf way. I suspect something of the latter. Anyway I had him here at dinner last night to meet the man who probably knows the most about the student movement from within, as the Chinese student is at least as much entitled as the Siberian peasant to figure picturesquely in the American newspapers. There is a certain kind of lie which only predicts the future in such a way as to help it come true, and if Hunt lies, which Im not at all sure of, it's [pencil apostrophe] that kind. Anyway he has brains and is an artist. He must also be a newspaper man, for I think he is the man who got the Peace treaty for the Chicago Tribune when the Senate couldnt get it. Mama and Ev must be together by this time; they are supposed to come back here next tuesday but I hae my doots. I just started out to wish you another Happy New Years, under the influence of the spontaneous happiness of our servants, moved especially by Fred's letter of Jan 176 [6 in pencil] || which looks as if mails were to be more regular agin. If it were of any use Id tell him not to work so hard, but nobody ever takes that advice But wall street isnt unlike other places and in taking everything a man will give even if uses himself up doing it, and then saying afterwards what a fool he was to let himself be used… Laotze over here in China was another one Be [in pencil w. caret] a useful citizen and somebody will use you; be worthless and useless, and youll do something, [pencil comma] because you will be let alone and have a chance. This isnt advice, merely a net quotation from Mr Laotze who is the real philosopher of China as Confucius is of the ruling class… Here are two or three little glimpses of China—draw your own morals. There is perfect and complete censorship here. Students unions and teachers suppressed. The last number of the students union paper comes out with an article advsing the soldiers to turn on their officers and divide the property of the latter among themselves. The soldiers ran into alot of inoffensive soldiers with the butts of their guns and sent about forty to hospitals and as many more to jail. The soldiers who guard the students in jail go in and listen to them talk in jail ad then when they are relieved of guard duty carry the letters back and forth from [pencil del.] between [in pencil w. caret] the prioners and the friends—nor for money either. The premier who of China had a talk wthe other day with some men from Shantung province who told him about the actual treaty nd legal status of Shantung. He got very hot and said he had never known the facts before—his subordinates had misrepresented and suppressed them. However the last is not distinctively Chinese—probably every important poilitical decision of the last few years has been made in just this way. So maybe the other things arent distinctively Chinese either. Anyway love to all, and a very Happy lunar new year— I think Ill transfer my allegiance from sun to moon and see if it wont be as cheering as with the Chinese. Dad |
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| 25 | 1920.03.28 |
Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes 135 Morrison St, March 28 [1920] Peking My dear Barnes, … Im leaving here this week to go to Nanking which will be my headquarters for the three spring months, care Higher Normal School. Nanking isnt very thrilling per se. It has been the battle ground between the [nort]h and south and was almost destroyed at the Taiping rebellion, in [the] middle of the last century. However, I shant be there all the time, as it will be the headquarters offor various journeys to other towns, especially on the Yangste. The family will stay in Peking three or four mor weeks longer before coming down, [a]s this is of course the most interesting single place and Evelyn hasnt exhausted it yet. Im afraid I have neither the time nor the technical skill to get a line on Chinese paintings, that would enable me to turn the semitic trick. People who are here for years, some of them, become experts. But the fake market is as large here as anywhere, and a westerner is at a great disadvantage. A Chinese expert knows the the details of silk, of color as well as the details of style and the countless other things. Westerners generally begin by buying poorer things and gradually educate themselves thru experience in buying and discarding. They also get a reputation established so that pictures come to them. The best for sale never get into the open market. Old families that have to dispose of pictures put the matter in the hands of the go-betweens who seek out the twnety or thrity or so good buyers there are in China. We saw another good collection a few days ago, that of General Munthe, a Norwegian collector who has been the military trainer of Peking police. He has pictures and porcelain both. Many of the collectors never show their collections not even in private, they are so afraid of risks. Also the secretive spirit seems to be imbibed from the Chinese collectors who are generally averse to having it known they have collections, as they may then be looted at some opportune moment. The University has asked me to stay over another year, but I find it hard deciding. They have asked Evelyn to give some courses next year also, but she feels as if teaching werent her line and by staying over s[o] long she might cut herself out of some things at home. With regards to Mrs Barnes and yourself from us all, Sincerely yours, John Dewey |
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| 26 | 1920.04.01 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children PEKING APRIL ONE [1920] Dearest children, This is myb first last day here, for the present. I cabled to Columbia the other day asking whether they would give me leave of absence another year, but cables are slow. Lucy is going home anyway and Ev has declined the job they offered her, and will probably go too. China is too slow for the young but it is goes easy on old folks. I often wonder whether it wouldnt be a good thing to leave while the leaving is good. I cant repeat this years success, such as it is, because I have done all the general lecturing I can, said all that can be said of a general sort I mean, and as they have been published all over China—remember the four hundred million, I cant say the same thing over again next year very well. Some people say Ive stirred up considerable interest, but when you are entirely outside the fuss interest, if any, you stir up, its about as exciting to your vanity as pouring hot water on the Arctic ice would be. Its much as if you were told that something you had said had aroused interest in Mars when you had never been in Mars, never expected to be there and had no share of any kind in what is doing there. I dont suppose I convey the idea; its a curious experience, and until youve been thru a similar one you cant get it, for ordinarily one's vanity is a part of the reverberations—if any, and you cant help imagining yourself having something to do with what you are said to accomplish. But there is no more kick to this than there would be if you had a pole which happenned to touch something in Marthe moon—to try once more. Its Nanking Im going to. The rest of the family will abide here a few weeks more, we have the flat rented till July one but there is said to be a new medical family anxious to take over, including our furnsihings. Tehy want it till Oct one however. Its been weeks and weeks since Ive written, but everything seems to rather flat just now. Perhaps a new place will give me a fresh start… I am giving a farewell dinner tonight at a Chinese restaurant, chinese food, about twenty people including ourselves, mostly Chinese educators, Chancellor Tsai the chief guest. He gave us a family dinner at the University the other evening with three or four of the Univ profs we know best. Professor Levy Bruhl who has been exchnaging at Harvard was here last week and I went to two dinners given for him, one at the French legation. He seems to have enjoyed his stay in America. Im going home to Nanking the same way we came up, the trip the other way, buy Hankow, having been given up. Partly too much disturbance along the line, partly because Dr Tao [Hsing-chih] of Nanking cam up and is taking me down, Mr Hu not going along. However later on we are to go up the Yangste river as far as Hankow, stopping along at several towns. We wont get up to the gorges tho, takes too long and costs too much and also will be too hot. We havent any summer plans yet, but I shant stay in Peking a[n]other summer whatever happens. Id lonkie to go up to Harbin, and get an impression at least of the Siberian situation. The Soviets are reported to be offering back to China everything in the way of railway and mining etc concesssions the old imperial govt stole; the story is they offerred this in 18 but the Allies prevented China accepting, I suppose Russia wanted recognition in return. I enclose a copy of letter I wrote flat agents. I dont seem to see any way to fix any limit sum. If there is any chance of subletting if we dont come back at good figure we can pay accordingly. I certainly should hate to go above two, and it seems to me that 24 ought to be above the limit unless you can turn around and rent at good advance… The next report is that the Japanese Chinese govt doesnt like the terms proposed. The next one will be, if history repeats itself, that Japan having squared itself by going in is now using her influence in China to keep the thing from consummation—not that the rumor will necessarily be true The extract from Mr Onos letter is very interesting, and it wouldnt be well to subject itthe logic of consecutive sentences to too much scrutiny. The soldiers etc who are coming back will throw some light on the desire to cooperate in Siberia; China certainly, if American bankers furnish the money, and Japanese manage it, as they will certainly do, unless Americanr are more on the job than they ever have been before. Lots of love to everybody, and send a carbon to Nanking—no, by the time you get this everybody will be there, Care Higher Normal College. Dad |
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| 27 | 1920.04.04 |
Letter from John Dewey to Alice Chipman Dewey Sunday—on train [April 4, 1920] Dear Alice, We stopped at Tai-an [Shandong] and went up Taisahn [Tai Shan, Shandong] after all, but not Chu fu. When Mr Tao went to Tientdin Mr Lu was on the train doing to Tsinan, and he said he wanted to go to Taishan and would make arrangements. So he met us at Tsinan. Ill write particulars later, we stayed at Chinese hotel, but got some Tai-an addresses. Mr H S Leitzel, Methodist Mission Mr Mauson, Anglican Mission Mr Connely, Southern Baptist. Probablt the first is the best to write to. Write long enough in advance to ensure getting in, as they are often crowded. The train gets to Tai an a[b]out ten oclock in evening, and you will have the pleasure of a wheelbarrow ride. I couldnt learn of any missionary at Chufu, but the methodist mission has a chinese branch there, and the pastor Liang En Po takes in people sometimes, probably Mr Leitzel would arrange it if you asked him when you write. Be sure and get a letter of intriucion from the ministry of edn. Mr Lu said he would get it if asked, as then you can get in and see the Dukes and the sacred relics. You better stay at Tai an two nights. You will be glad of the rest after the mt trip, and will can get to Chu fu about noon instead of after midnight, with six miles in a Peking cart to the city of the temple and tomb. Then you have about a day and a half there The sta[t]ion master will take you in if written to, but you have to bring your bedding, clothes that is. You will save about 16 apiec[e] on second class. But buy a berth ticket, five dollars, one ticket will do for the three I think. You wont use the berth to sleep in, but the accmodations are much better than the regular second class car and you will be sure of seats, a nice neat compartment. You have to buy express tickets from Tientsin on, to Tai-an beside the berth ticket. You can get the latter in Peking. Dont buy your regulr ticket beyond Tai-an unless sure tht second class allows time for stop overs. To make sure of berths from Che fu or Tai an you p[r]obably will have to buy first class from there to Nanking Dont have sunday in Tain an on acct of mi[s]sionary place Lots of love to all John |
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| 28 | 1920.04.04 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey family Sunday, April 5, [4] 1920 Dear Family Dad has left and life is somewhat settled down again, tho we still manage to keep fairly busy. He went on Friday and Mrs Ting then came and took us all off for an automobile ride thru the Western Hills. We went to the Summer Palace first and then had a picninc lunch and rode awhile It was wonderful day and the country is lovely now. The fruit trees are all in bloom and the magnolias most out, and everything getting green. The palace seemed even finer then it did last summer when we went out. Thursday night Dad gave a farewell dinner to Chancellor Tsai and other of the Peking dignitaries and we had a very nice party. We all played Chinese gambling games and it was quite hilarious. Yesterday there was howling dust storm again tho not so bad as some Ive seen. It did very well, however and by three oclock the sun was fairly well dimmed and the sky quite a bright yellow. Last night we went out to dinner, to Mrs Chens and had a wonderful Chinese meal. They have about the best cook in Pekin that we know of. After dinner some people came in and we danced until fairly late. The dust had stopped by the time we came home and it was a wonderful moonlight night and today is a perfect day again. We are planning to do some milder kinds of batting now. Go for a couple of days to some temple in the Western Hills, take Evelyn to the Great Wall, and other nice outdoor trips like that. We are planning to go south about the twentieth and after that our plans depend on what Dad hears from Columbia. Evelyn and I are coming home anyway and I think we shall stick to the original plan of sailing from Yokohama on the twentieth of Aug. We are considering going south from Shanghai just by ourselves and taking the boat at Hongkong but we havent found out much about that yet. I think we should have just about time enough for it by leaving Shanghai on the first of July or soon after. It doesnt cost much more to go to Hongkong than it does to come back to Pekin and we may be able to work it that way. Mamma rather wants us to postpone our sailing and come back to Peking and up to Kalgan with her but that is pretty expensive and would probably mean that we shouldnt get home much before November and it seems more sensible to get home early in the fall if we are coming at all… Lucy |
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| 29 | 1920.04.05 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey family Nanking, Care Higher Normal College, April 5 '20 Dearest family, On my way here—I arrived yesterday afternoon—I had the nearest approach to an adventure that I have had in China. It began with riding in a wheelbarrow from the station in Tai-an to a Chinese hotel in the village. It was after ten and the clouds were chasing the full moon, and the mountains shone thru the mists. A Chinese wheel barrow is built around a big wheel at the centre and its squeak, and its made to carry a ton and never wear out. There are two theories about the squeak which is more like a symphony minus the music than an ordinary creaking vehicle. One is that the coolies wish to save the expense of oil. The other is that the noise is a sign of good luck. Probably both theories are true, certainly the second is, if the first is. The hotel is less than a mile and the mud was soon so deep and the road so rough we had to get out and walk. But the proprities had been saved. The town magistrate had been telegraphed to of our arrival, and he had deputed the president of the middle school to await us. We might have slept in the clean German built station but we hadnt brought our roll of bed clothes with us. We hadnt expected to stop when we left Peking but Dr Tao, the Dean of this school, who was bringing me down, met Mr Lu an inspector of the ministry of education on the train who was coming to Tsinan—where we were Christmas time—and arranged the stop to go ou up Tai-sgan the sacred mt of Shantung. The hotel—there is no use putting quotation marks around as they it wouldnt mean anything to you—is built like all Chinese house level with the ground, and our rooms had dirt floors. It had been raining for several days; each room had one small window with paper panes, and the room was decorated with gilt and silvern paper bullion, which the pilgrims take up the mt and burn for sacrifice. Chinese beds are made by taking two saw horses and stretching boards across them. Fortunately mine had kooliang stalks, tall milmillet, a kind of cross between rushes, corn stalks and bamboo, and they put a fur rug over, so by turning over every five minutes I got some sleep. It must be said things were fairly clean. Mr Lu remarked that it was too early in the season for bedbugs, which would seem to disprove the theory of adaptation to environment as March is the season for pilgrims—or perhaps the pilgrims started the adaptation this time. What was a hotel in back was a food shop in front, and so our food was brought from one of the stands such as Ive seen hundreds of—mainly a kind of scrambled eggs, and noodle soups—palatable enough except that the garlic with which it is flavored while innocent enough at first soon takes root and becomes a great tree wherein the birds of the air may roost. Anyway two of the ambitions of my life had been safely realized, to ride in a wheel-barrow and go to a Chinese hotel. About eight next morning the middle school president (who touches his spectacles when he bows to you much as we would our hats) came around with the men & chairs for the ascent. Two coolies to each chair, and one spare man for a change. Leather straps so that each carries over his shoulders fastened to the long handles—one man ahead and one behind on good ground, sideways going up the steps, when they shaift the strap by a kind of hitch without slowing their pace from one shoulder to another; at the level between flights of steps they suddenyl whirl about sides so as to change strap from one shoulder to another. The chairs have no bottom except some loose roping over which a rug is thrown, so the seat is very comfortable. Until you have tried it you wouldnt believe oyou could be carried up steps with so little feeling of motion. Shut your eyes and you can hardly tell when you are going up or down one. And the coolies are more surefooted than mules—whic[h] they need to be, if you recal any pictures of the steps. In four years there have been two accidents, neither fatal and both on rainy days—which is no day to go up. It seems there was an artcile in the geog magazine some years ago on Taishan which gives particulars better than I can, but for the benefit of the statisticians Fred and Sabino. Ill say that the mountain is over 5000 feet high, straight up from the almost sea level plain, and there are 6600 stone steps—also the mountain is very steep, as geographically this country isnt very old. Toward the end it is almost all steps, and the view from below looking up to a red gate at the top of the gorge is a sight for a life time. In the lower reaches there are cedars along the path and above wonderful pines, some of them like the queer pines in Japan; monasteries at the top where we got our lunch, a Taoist monastery this was not Buddhist, so we had meat. We are were six hours going up, and three down, of course we walked more or less going up. We started in a fog and not much prospect of a view, but as the day wore along wethe wind came up and by the top we were at the top it was clear but with a soft mist effect over everything. To the east it was mts to the sea—which we couldnt see. Something like the Arizona mts in form, tho without the brilliant colorings, then in the other directions the spread out plains. Hundreds of tablets cut in the rocks all the way up, and at the top—generally "poems"—such as Hear the running water, or the waterfall; or The color of the sky and the sound of water; or Hear the whistling of the pines; Or we are coming to the better places, with a great many references to the sky or heaven. Its easy enough of course to see why mountains became sacred but the steepness must accentuate the feeling that you are going the mountain is going up to meet heaven. Nobody knows when the road and steps were built, the steps all dressed stone, altho there is a Chinese history in twelve volumes of the mountain. Coming down we left the road and wnt off to some Buddisht scriptures engraved on flat rocks over 1500 years ago, each character about a foot by a foot and a half. Unfortunately the water comes down there sometimes, and a good deal of the original has been carried off. Near the top is very big insciption of the one of Han Emperors, engraved on a cliff, two thousand years ago. It is impossible to convey any sense of the feeling the Chinese have for characters. Even a greenhorn can see the new ones fall far below the old, they are stiffer and more mechanical The educated Chinese go up to see these characters as we would go to a fine picture gallery. The rush hour of the pilgrim season is over, but we must have seen a thousand or two, mostly peasant people, and many many old women. The pilgrims acquire merit by walking—the poor women with their bound feet stumping up and down these thousand of steps—they sleep at the top, or along the way. Mr Tao counted the beggars—there were 186, not so many as earlier. They are much less professional than the Peking beggars; they cut out the whine about Great master, and confine themselves to Spare one, or Open up and distribute. Many are farmers who have made a few yards of terraced dirt among the rocks, and many lived in caves and straw houts along the road side. Most had hens too. They scrooch in the middle of the road, or leave their baskets there while they go off, and the coolies calmly carry the chair right over them. They had only cash in their baskets, one tenth of a copper, so the pilgrims can acquire merit without great expense. To add a few more statistics. The magistrate having engaged the chair bearers at our expense, they had been hired at the official price—one hundred coppers, about 75 cents for a chair, three men. We gae them money for their food and tips so they got at least a dollar apeice. But think of carrying a man up and down a mountain, six miles at least each way, for a dollar—or officially for 25 cents. They were are as imperturbably cheerful when we got back as when we started, and made their one leg courtesies most gracefully when they got their cumshaws. On arriving at Nanking we cross the Yangste on a ferry. When we got off there were several score hackmen yelling and crowding with no attempt at order. Mr Tao engaged one, and then another one spied me, an old pirate who drove mama and me around when we here a year ago. We were his plunder and he seized the baggage and put us in his carriage, the other man cursing at top of the voice. We had to stop sooon to get my trunk which had come on a day before. The the man who had lost the job rushed up like a wildman and attacked our villain. He put his head down and rushed to butt him; our man dodged and he scraped his head on a brick wall, and soon as they clinched the gore thereform gave both of them a bluggy look. Finally therey were separated, after howling and cursing all the time, neither really the worse for wear, and we drove off leaving them to act it all over out before a policeman, who hasd a maternal and detached air as he listented to them. The other man on our carriage drove off not even having his seat or spoken to his companion all during the row or its sequel. Why worry? Its astonishing what a difference your own feelings due to the temperature make in the look of a place. Last May it was as hot as hell here, and the town didnt look for thirty cents. Now it is cool and you can really see the lovely first green of the willows, and note that the town is full of them, and see may lovely things about the place. Its too warm for fires here, and too chilly to be warm, but still Im writing by an open window. Im satying almost next door to the Higher Normal compound with a Y M C A secy, a Mr Sweetman. They have two little kids, four and two, and are young and not very YMCAy. Its not their house but that of a missionary home on a forlough. He has been here 25 years and has a lovely compound, lots of trees, some big old ones, and across the street is the highest hill within the town walls which has been made thru foreign influence into a city park, planted with trees, mostly small yet, but a more attractive part of town thn where we were last year—or maybe its just the effect of temperature differences again. Today is Arbor day; everybody is supposed to plant a tree Mr Tao is quite disguseted because he says last year the coolies dug all the holes and all the students did was to stick a tree apiece in the ground when the coolie filled it up again. Much love to everybody. While I was slumbering on my Chinese bed I dreamed there were three letters all addressed in Eliz writing. I woke up before I had a ch[a]nce to read them, but anyway Ill address this letter to her. The delayed Empress mail was just coming when I left Peking, so probably the three will be forwarded to me soon. Love to verybody Dad. |
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| 30 | 1920.04.05? |
Letter from Evelyn Dewey to Frederick A., Elizabeth Braley, Sabino, & Jane Dewey [April 5, 1920?] Dear Fred, Elizabeth, Bino and Jane, I suppose you want to know what the state of plans are. Just before dad left for Nanking on Friday he cabled to Cloumbia for another leave of absence and he and mama seem to want to stay if that comes all right... Quite a number of things have been going on lately on account of dads departure, Chancellor Tsai gave a dinner at the u, small with just his particular gang and very good food and dad gave a dinner for all the officials he knows and some of the profs at the u at a Chinese restaurant and Saturday we went to dinner with a very nice young Chinese couple and they had some people in to dance afterwards, about the most human party I have been to here, excepting when I go to see Lucys pet Chinese couple, but they never entretain. Friday after seeing dad off with most of the rest of China we went to the summer palace and the Western Hills, some place, the Western hills means the bottom sloap of a mountain range that goes around two sides ot Peking, there are no trees, but all sorts of other queer things. Yesterday mama and I went shopping all day long like two crazy women, tho as usual the result in bulk was not not much, tho she did get a lovely rug with horses all over it and waves and trees, which she found about a month ago and has been bargaining for ever since, and we picked out an enourmous fur coat, which we are going to get some one to go and look at with us tomorrow, this one is good, the selection of furs here is very small, but this kind seems quite pretty and durable, then you have to get it made up and comes it the question of style, when they will surely ruin anything you get. The furit trees are all in bloom and the willows out, and the sun it very hot when it gets a chance, on the whole the weather is better than our spring, but there is the same uncomfortable alternation of hot and cold. The sunlight and general appearance of things is like Italy. Peking in a funny dive, life seems very dull and quiet in spite of having a good deal to do, I suppose it is because about 80% of the people we see do not interest us or us them. The regular social life is the dullest round of calling and calling and then calling again, and there is an awful lot of gossip and intrgue and the people are not worth it, I havent even seen anything that was gay yet, but then I havent done my duty, but spent my time batting around seeing things since I wasnt going to stay anyway. The few Chinese we know seem like much more real folks and it is easier to have easy relations with them. At last I think we will get into a reception of the presendents, as Mr. Plimpton asked us to go to the Y.W.C.A. one on Wednesday, we were going to spend the day on a boat in the canal, alias sewer which flows thru these parts, but I would rather rubber at the pres, I think. Over the week end we are going to a temple in the Western hills, now owned by the Y.M.C.A, at least I trust we are, mama is not a bit anxious, but I guess we can bully her into going. Had the best Chinese dinner, ever Saturday night, the food is simply lush, and I dont mind reaching to the middle of the table and helping myself with chop sticks to a bite at a time, its funny how undisgusting eating out of a common dish seems when everyone does it. You have a little saucer for a plate and if you dont eat all of each course you are lost for the night as you can never get more than a bite of anything that follows without mixing it up with the left overs you dont like. Fortunate there are a couple of courses that always come in clean bowls. All dishes are left on the table and of course using chop sticks and eating soup from the middle of a large table everything dribbles and the whole thing is one mess. You really dont have to eat the soup woth chop sticks ans spoons are supplied… Eve. |
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| 31 | 1920.04.10-16? |
Letter from Evelyn Dewey to John Dewey [April 10-16, 1920?] Dear Dad, Well I hope you are not as sorry as I am that the cable came. I see that the Nanking students have joined the strick, does that mean that you are having a vacation. Mrs. Lamont came to call on ma the morning after she got here and has been to lunch to meet Suh Hu [Hu Shi] and has been shopping to look at Mrs. Chens silks, but on the whole seems to be tearing around like a chicken without a head, shopping mostly and getting everyone to bring out there things and look up things for her and then not buying anything, so certainly dont lift your finger about the head dress. She has a most unsympathetic personality and is absorbing everything that lies about. Liu has been getting very impertinent and strange and mama has just fired him, also the ricksha boy who was spending most of his time in the kitchen, she has acquired a boy whose sole accomplishmnet is honesty who is coming immediately and Mrs. E. is looking about for a real person, I only hope the cook will stay and be good, but I suppose not. I am all for getting away from here and hope we will by the first, but no bites for the apartment have turned up yet and mama does not seem to enjoy sightseeing so she wants to stay on here. My cold continues to flourish which does not add to my pleasure here. Suh Hu [Hu Shi] told me the other day that he was probably going to teach in summer school in Nanking, if they have an educational department going there why dont I get a job there too, he says it lasts six weeks, will you please enquire a bit and find out what kind of school they have and if they would be much embarressed if I should ask for a job, I would lecture on new and exp[e]rimental practises in schools at home, and could make it last just about six weeks, then I would put off sailing for a couple of boats and we could all go to Mongolia for a nice trip the end of the summer. I would write direct to Mr. Tao but thot if the prop is utterly absurd I would save them the embarressment of answering. The cook says he must go too he would like to stay but would loose too much face, so there you are. Hu told mama the other day that it was their plan to have you stay a good part of the cold weather next year in Canton, which would be nice. I trust that I am going to get a translator at last from the customs college. We went to a very nice dinner at the Fus the other night very jolly and elaborate food. The men tried to prevent it but the ladies sat at one table and the men at another all except mama and Geogre Wen sat her down between Hu and Tsai. But after dinner the men walked into the room and broke up the ladies party, after which the Chinese speaking group repared in mixed form to the Fu bed room and sat about and roared and had a wonderful time, Miss Bodon-Smith allowed she had never seen anything like it before… [Evelyn Dewey] |
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| 32 | 1920.04.11 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey family Nanking April 11 [1920] Dearest family, Ive been here a week and am really seeing a spring in China more so than in Peking I imagine, as there is so muc country here, and I live in a large compound with palm and bamboo trees aomong other things, and near the open country, close to the city wall in fact. I never confided in you how fat I got got, 170 when I tried the scales last some months ago, have never strained them since, and having no ricksha boy here and much time alone and so near open country, I have resolved upon walking daily, climb the hill near the house once or twice daily, and walk on the wonderful wall, 40 feet wide and much higher than the Peking one. Also more variety in the scenery, ponds and marshes, and a nice island like a Chinese picture, green gardens, bamboos and willows, peach tress in bloom, blossoms twice as big as ours, graves being spruced up for the year with twigs stuck into them and little white and red streamers of paper flying, mountains on almost every side, a glipse of the Yangste from the top of the hill, and in general spring in full blast. They say it doesnt last generally more than ten days, gallopping straight into sfull blown summer. This year it seems to be hanging back as if loathe to part with itself. I dont blame it for being fonder of itself than of the summer we saw here last year. I have a nice big room with a corner alcove for the bed, and a good table, what is called home cooking more than before in China, and quite abundant tho not so stylish as some. The missionary who owns the place and is home on furlough must be a character. I wondered for a while if he were a bachelor, and then heard that he ran everything him self; the house is filled with big shining brasses, reminds you of Macy's except four or five bells, temple bells, Id like to take home, and the dining room is lined with a hundred or so blue and white plates, platters and vases, mostly very modern and on the principle of quantity before quality. However they said he had taken down and packed away all of his best pieces. On the bookshelves Mary J Holmes novels are next to The Second Coming of Chrsit, and the Wild Widow, by the author of Scarlet Kisses, is all mixed up with the hymn books; an Edith Wharton and H G Wells or two have somewhat got mixed in with the funniest collection of religious literature and paper covered trash you ever saw. There is a girls school, orphans, and a boys school, latter closed while he is gone, in the compound, both of which he maintains. He is a practical joker when he isnt missionarying, and one of his refined jovialities was to teach an ugly gate keeper, who had no idea of the meaning of any ChiEnglish words, to go up to callers and say Kiss Me. I suppose this is the way he keeps from going more insane. He wrote back with great glee of telling a tourist on the boat how Li Hung Chng2 [Hung-Chang] lived in the same town and once every year brought his fifty wives over to pay a ceremonial call; also he wrote how angry it made him when the ship landed to see white men tying it to the wharf—this latter wasnt intende[d] as a joke. I am giving eight regular lectures per week, four evenings on the philosophy of education, two afternoons on Logic, and two afternoons on Greek philosophy. There are only an hour long, interpretation and all however, so its quite light work. Last week moreover there were two holidays, one Arbor Day which is the old spring festival and a ringer for Easter, and one to commemorate the opening of the first or old parliament. Im sorry I cant tell enough Chinese history and politics to show you the immense humor of this celebration, but its much as if they were to have a national holiday to celebrate Oliver Cromwell's purging of the English parliament. Last monday evening, I think they it was, they had a "reception". I had innocently forgotten the nature of a reception, and only when I got over there did I remember that school receptio[n] consists exclusively of speechmaking, one speech of welcome from the faculty and three from the students. They werent interpreted however, but I dont think any one repeated the witticism of a farewell speaker in Peking who said I had come to China to do to—or for—her what President Wilson did for France. Once there was much applause, and I was told it was becuase the speaker said that when the Japanese heard how warmly I was recd here they were jealous and sent me over a badge, which I refused. The myth seems well established, but a badge seems innocent enough. This sunday afternoon I spoke to all the Nanking students, theoretically all about fiften hundred in fact in the open air, delivering my w.k. [well-known] speech on a new conception of life. I am just as popular with the officials here as elsewhere, and was told that when the subject was printed in the paper, the word "new" was omitted, in order tnot to give offense. The word is positively inflammatory, which simplifies getting a hearing from an audience. The national executive committee of the students union has sent an ultimatum to the government, demanding that the Govt cancel at once all secret treaties with Japan, and also reject Japan's request for direct negotiations over Shantung. They have given the govt four days to do these stunts in, and have voted a nation wide strike if not granted. The Peking and Nanking students were both opposed to this action, but the majority carried it. It looks rather foolish, and I may be in for another enforced vacation, but as before remarked you never can tell. They, the radical students, were anxious to include two more demands one for dissolving the Anfu Club and another for a bas the militarists. These demands seem to have been reerved for the present. Well one enthusiastic foreigner who has been here twnety five years says that in China the Renaissance, the reformation, the English, French and American revolution are all taking place simultaneously and in the same country. If this is so, a little thing like a general strike is easily explainable. The same gentleman however is unpopular with his tudents becuase he insists on the faculty electing the student representatives to the selfgovernment Council so he takes his revolutions in moderation. There is a Young China Association with a branch hand here, and which publishes two journals, one called Young China and one the Young World. I have been trying to get somebody to tell me about the New Culture as they call it, and some of these people are going to make me up a kind of synopsis of the about a hundred periodicals, divided under three heads. The literary or language revolution, the new social ethics (labor and woman question) and education. This Teachers College is going to introduce coeducation, unlike progressive and liberal countries the men students are in favor of it here, mostly instead of opposing. When the committee was arranging the seating for the meeting to day, the student members insisted that the women should not be seated separately but mixed up with the others. They werent so damned mixed up as matter of fact, but they werent all herded in one spot either. I forgot to say that at the Recpetion one student made his welcoming speech in English. He got mixed up and forgot and the students laughed at him. To all appearances he kept up his nerve, but Im told he lost so much face he left school and hasnt been ^seen^ since, no one knows where he is. Its not pleasant that this should be the only visible, or perhaps invisible, result of my lectures. Lots of love to everybody and hope something will be forwarded from you soon Fred has been nobly doing his duty, but Sabino seems to have relapsed, and Jane never did get a fair start. With love, Dad |
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| 33 | 1920.04.12 |
Letter from John Dewey to Alice Chipman, Evelyn, & Lucy Dewey Monday, April 12 [1920] Dear Alice, Evelyn and Lucy, … There is another good sized room in theis house which they have offered for use when you come. This will be two in a room but I dont think it would be any better by dividing up. They have some single beds, which they will put up so mamma can have her own bed. The grounds are large and nice, and as there is a big two story piazza around the house I think it will be as cool as anywhere. No bathtub with running water, but I dont think there is anywhere except at the Bowens [Arthur J. Bowen]. Food is abundant and nourishing. The program remains in statu quo, otherwise meaning vague. How ever this much is definite. They expect six weeks lectures from me here altogether; they have spoken of a week at Shnaghai which may come off barring strike this month. But the interesting trips arent planned till later. I dont suppose you will mourn missing Shanghai, especially as there will be plenty of chance later if you want. Anyway we maynt go this mont[h] I think they are somewhat embarrassed about the Yangste trip. Tw of the provinces, the Educations Associations bvoted to invite me, according to newspaper reports but they havent recd the official invitations, and I infer, think officials have interfered. There is a good tennis court here. It would probably be a good idea for you to purchase a racket in Peking, as you will be glad of it here, probably wherever you are this summer. They say there is fair Chinese made racket can be bought for about five dollars, also bring a few balls. Lots of love and thanks for letters Shall hope to be able to write you definitely about plans here soon. Evelyn will find in the Sept or Oct no, No 4 of Young China a number of articles by women student[s] giving their ideas. I presume Suh Hu [Hu Shi] wont have got anybody for her unless shes had better luck than I did. Better ask George or Chiang [Monlin]when he gets back; I had thought of asking Mr [John Stewart] Burgess if he couldnt find some one, and that might be a good idea. Love to all John |
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| 34 | 1920.04.14 |
Letter from John Dewey to Alice Chipman, Evelyn, & Lucy Dewey Nanking, April 14 [1920] Dear family, Thanks especially to mamma for full and good letters. You probably know more about the strike than I do; it begins in Shanghai for one week today, here to morrow the students have no enthusiasm for it. There is certainly politics connected with it, more politics than there seemed to be in the Peking movement. The general opinion here is that it is the Shanghai students who are most back of it—that and the fact that having a general conference of delegates from all over, they had to find something to do. As to the politcs, so far as I can make out the student leaders think that they can use the 8 Tuchun leuague to help overthrow the present Anfu club domination—and I dont kno doubt the Tuchuns think they will use the students for their ends. The gossip is that the President [Hsu Shih-chang] is now in favor of the student movement. This sudden turn is said to be that due to the fact that the rivalry with Tuan [Chi-jui] has now reached a pointe where he wants popular support for himself and Ching [Chin Yun-peng]. Quite as likely the whole rumor started in the mere fact that the president received the Ymcas after Tuan had attempted to prevent the convention from meeting—the officials woill now be sure that the stirke is a consequence of the Tientsin meeeting. Another rumor said to be influencing the students is that Lamont has promised them financial support if they show they have the courage to do something! He may be interested in this rumor. Of course I cant say how widely circulated or believed these stories are, any more than the one that the students adopted from me the slogan that militarism must go. Its a good sentiment, but I havent the pride of originality about it. Mr Roy Anderson4 called on ment the other day with a Korean rebel conspirator and a local Chinese, and said that Mr Lamont was the first man who had been over here who had been big enough to see and talk to everybody, gave the students in Shanghai half an hour appointment and then talked to them two and a half and once when he asked them what they wanted he should do, one of the students replied "Go home", and Mr L took it goddnaturedly and said he would if he found he couldnt do something of benefit to the people. Also that the officials tried to keep him cornered but he wouldnt be. Nothing was said however about our friend Sokolsky; it would be interesteding to know if in his itch for sensationalism he had been stirring up the strike. The Korean was bound for Vladivostok and told with pride about the millions of yen the Koreans were subsrcibing to start patriotic newspapers, and also the number of indutrial companies, over 250 which had been started in the last year for encouraging Korean industry. He had been in prison several years so he must be old at the game. Mr Anderson think that if the Allies dont interfere to protect Japan an alliance between Koreans, Chinese and Russians in Siberia and Manchuria which will in time by guerilla warfare drive out Japanese is inevitable. The present reports from Siberia put Mr Ono's remarks about desire for cooperation in Siberia in the unfortunate light which events have a way of placing Japanese propaganda. I am living in a missionary house under the hill you spoke of, and maybe Mrs Malone is the one you spoke of; she is in America. However I have heard of two others who sometimes do that business and am on their trail. Tuesday afternoon and evening I teaed and dined at Mr Williams, the acting presidents—he is more cultivated than Mr Bowen, but also I think more conservative. He knows lots about Chinese and China tho. In 1900 spent a year in Japan with C T Wang and the Chinese students, of whom there were then 15000—he says that Chinese brought home a lot of new ideas, and evidently thinks that in spite of everything their going to Japan has been a great factor in producing the present new tendencies. Says Chinese were exploited in every posiible way; men used to get them into their homes, entangle them with their wives and daughters and then blackmail them. At the tea there were several Chinese women, among them the kindergartner, Mrs Wang and a cunning two year old girl, Mrs Won and the two celebrated boys that came in answer to prayer as a miraculous proof of the truth of Chritianity etc. The boys were about the size of "us boys" in the picture of the four of us, and their clothes were so like ours in the picture, and their hair cut the same way, that it was funny. They have two new semi Chinese buildings about up, the big administrative one rather ugly, the small one for a chapel is going to be quite lovely. At Mr Plimpton' suggestion they are going to set up a few of the old examination stalls Thursday, the 15th in the campus. Yesterday is my offday for work. Mr Tao and Liu cam around about nine, with a young brother of C T Wang who is on his way back to Shanghai and took me off for the day. We went to the Rain Blossom Hill whence come the pebbles, lots of peddlars, children with the coarser ones, like ours, following you around with baskets and finally offering to sell the whole lide for ega mau [illeg.], up to the aristocratic ones who have their stands and their best speices under glass with fancy names attached, the moon in the sea, etc, and prices according—one with a Chinese character like happiness on it for sixten dollars I came home with some pretty ones; then we went to the examination halls again, to the public gardens, to a lake we didnt go to before, in whose tea house the first Ming emperor used to play chess with his prime minister, a Chinese restaurant on the canal opposite the exam halls where we ate in The Flowery Boat on the canal, and to a big buddhist monastery, where we saw the sutra scriptures, 7000 vols, as well as the usual ten thousand buddhas; also we we were leaving there was service in the temple, so we waited. At first the music sounded to my ears much like negro chanting; its more hypnotic than catholic mass, more soothing to the nerves; if I were near Id go in everyday. Our weather is evidently cooler than yours. No hot days, rather chilly on the whole; the ewather we had here last May much the hottest of whole summer they say, also hottest ever. Strike begins today, but they say they will go on with my lectures There are single beds here for everybody. But bring sheets and pillow cases for your beds also a comforter or quilt apeice. A few towels would probably come in handy, but there arent sheets enough to go around, and bringing your own is part of the recognized scheme of living with missionaries. Also they dont drink coffee which means it is pretty bad; it wouldnt be a bad idea to have a couple of cans accidentally left over and bring em. Sorry to hear about Evelyn; quite likely the damp her and absence of dust will be a good thing for her, tho there isnt much to do here, except that wandering the streets one gets much more insight into life here than in Peking, things more open, and women much more in evidence, keeping shop, working with men etc. Better bring two tennis rackets, one for me as I think Ill have to start playing. Lots of love to everybody John |
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| 35 | 1920.04.19 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey family Nanking April 19 '20 Dear family, or families, here and there I hope you will forgive me if I mix things all up in a scramble, some for one, some for tother. One negative fact has emerged about the future. Im not going anywhere not even to Shanghai till Ive finished here, which will be the middle of May. After that I am to be in the hands of the National Federation of Chinese Education, headquarters at Shanghai, and I guess something Monlin Chiang got up. I hope they have others reasons for being save managing my tour, but one feature of their activity I strongly suspect is to keep me from falling into the hands of the missionary institutions—at the same time, theyll expect probably to board us with missionaries wherever we go. When I can get at Tao [Hsing-chih] or Kuo [Ping-wen] Ill find out. They alnd practically all the leaders here are Christians, so you get another angle on that question here, tho not free from jealousy of their institutions I think. I dont think youll have any difficulty spending two weeks here pleasantly enough, or more; sight seeing will take more sometime and if any one has energy for picnics and walks, there are lots of places to go. I wander about the streets a good deal; shops are more wide open and domestic than in Peking, nothing exciting going on in them, but you see things fairly wide open. Weather much cooler than Peking so far; season is three weeks late. Evelyn outlined a good article on consortium for the N R and I hope she'll write it, under her own name. Glad mamma liked the sense of my Shantung article if she didnt the sound. I found, re the head dress that a Miss Lyons has a girls school here and wrote to ask when I could call on her, wrote several days ago, but havent had any answer. Have had a chance to get some contact with students here. Tea party yesterday afternoon with the local members of the Young China Association. I had supposed it to be very large, but found the entire representation there, ten in number, about equally divided between Teachers College as they prefer to call the Higher Normal and Nanking University. A man from the latter made quite a little set || speech, telling about the society and its purposes—five branches, one at Peking where it was formed last July, one Chengtu, one here one Tokyo, one Paris. 68 members in all and publishing 2 monthlies and one weekly. Thing of a small no of American college students doing that, say nothing of their object being to create a new civilization for China, and to cooperate with movements in other countries, for general reconstruction. They eschew politics and, are devoted to soicial reform, including educational, and to the spread of scientific method and results. The teachers tell me the group here is quite the elite among the students. Take in ^no^ new members save when they are thoroughly acquainted with them, and have four requirements; purity of character, an economical habit of life, a fighting disposition, and responsibility in carrying thru what they promise—not such a bad list. Judging from their conversation their chief present, in this group at least, is the family and woman question; anxious to know about feminism, strongly in favor of coeducation etc. The Baptist College in Shanhgai is going to introduce it in '21. One young man wanted to know how the psycology was going to be changed, that the men had a certain idea of women in their mind, and the women had the traditional idea of woman and also the mens' idea od women in their minds and when they met these old ideas came up no matter what their theoretical beliefs were. On thrusday afternoon [22 Apr. 1920] the student editors of their educational publication Youth and Society have asked me to meet with them. The meeting yesterday was in the Garden of the Gentry Club, I think thats the place mother and I had the bout with the hard boiled officials last spring. Mrs Thurston isnt here, The acting president Miss Vautrin brings her class in education over every evening to the normal school lecture, eight or ten of them, and the women teachers of the practise school come. Afternoon lectures there are a few scattering women, also, today from the womans normal. Im going to speak at Ginling [Nanjing] wednesday night; to science teachers of TC tomorrow, and spoke at University last Friday [16 Apr.] so am getting these stunts off the program, May 7 and 8 there is to be a Teachers Conference here, educators from outside. There is to be an Athletic Meet here, and this is run in after; I think thats the way they have got around the officials. The strike is supposed to come to an end tomorrow; anyway it doesnt affect me. The students had their first demonstration, parade, speech making this a m But I didnt know it was coming off and missed it. There is less no enthusiasm and unless the demonstration stirred things up, I dont think it will last. If cook goes too, I dont see why you dont put forward a little your coming down here. Shouldnt think it would pay to start up for two weeks all afresh. Hope you got to the Great Wall, and also hope you will do the Ming toombs, tho if you do you better stay at the hotel and not try it all in one day—go up afternoon before. The summer school here begins about July 15. I think thereir program is all made up, but will see what I can find out. Ev better speak to Suh Hu about it too. Got the other home letters but as a foreign ^mail^ got in the other day am now hoping for more. Lots of love to everybody John, also Dad. I hope if Mr Lamont decides to go back without doing anything he will speak right out in meeting, as undiplomatically as possible, and tell just why. Not only will it do the Chinese good, but also save American prestige, as the Japanese will give it out for a great American defeat and lots of Chinese will think it is another case where Americans have talked and done nothing. Mr Anderson said the thing to do was to get all territory within three miles on each side of every rail way thrown open to foreign trade; the Japanese go in anyway, and this would enable foreign capital to go in to compete with them, and the Chinese local merchants would rather tie up with American, and that way could also get protection for their investments against their own officials, this was the only way to make the Open door a fact he said. |
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| 36 | 1920.04.20-30 |
Letter from John Dewey to Alice Chipman Dewey [April 20-30,1920?] This is the detailed itinerary. I dont think I have the names of a lot of the places right. The towns before Shanghai all on the rail road between here and there. Chinkinang, May 17, Yangchow, 18th, Tsing chan 19-20, Changchow, 21 Wusih, 22-23, Soochow, 24-25, Shanghai, 26-31, Nantung, 1-6, Sinkian, 7-14, Hangchow and Wuhu, 7th-14th between them; Wuhu, An King, Kukiang—all up the river from here—rest of June. Dont know why Hangchow is dropped, lack of time is reason given; maybe, maybe afraid of missionary institutions in Wuchang. All this is subject to strike being called off before dates given. If it isnt, nobody knows what will happen. Dont forget towels, sheets, pillow cases. The cheapest place in Peking to buy typewriting paper is Munyons near gate on Hatamen, 3,50 for 500 hundred sheets. Please bring a box Ill hear your plans soon I suppose. Many inquiries about you. I have brought up the possibility of Evelyns giving some lectures her[e] this summer and it seemed to be well recd. I doubt oif she wants six weeks hot summer here however. Glad to hear Cook didnt leave, and hope Evyn has been all right again. My appraoches to Miss Lyons seem to have been in vain. Its a nunnery, no men on the place etc, and I suppose they are still holding consultations as to how to deal with my suggestion of making a call, Anyway I judge there is no reason from that end for following up the matter. After a dfew days nice weather ists cold and rainy again. Love to everybody John May 17, monday Chinkiang May 18, tuesday, lecture, Yongchow evening May 19 wednesday, Yongchow, lecture May 20 thurs lecture """""" May 21 Tsing kiang, travelling to Friday May 22 saturday Tsingkiang lecture May 23 sunday " " May 24 Travel to Chinkiang Monday Mat 25 Tues Changchow, early train lecture May 26 wednesday "" " May 27 thrusady to Shanghai May 28 friday lecture "" May 29 Sat Shanghai, Natl assn vocational edb May 30 sunday, """" """""" [M]ay 31 monday " till thrusday evening June 3rd. June 4 Friday Nantung, lecture till June 7 monday, then to Shanghai, leavingev 8 June 8 Tuesday, arrive Shanghai June 9 wednesday """" to Hangchow June 10 Tr Hangchow thursday June 11-12, 13 Hangchow thru sunday June 14 monday to Shanghai June 15 tuesday recreation """ June 16 Wednesday Tsuchow 17,18,19 """" June 20 sunday to Wusih, stay thru saturday the 26th June 27th Soochow, Monday tues 28-29 lectures at Soochow June 30 wednesday reurn to Nanking || [not typed by JD] Time table for Dr Dewey's Lectures. May 16th Sunday. May 17th from Nankin to Chingkiang by first train. Travelling for scenery May 18th Tuesday Lecture. To Yongchau in the evening. May 19th Wednesday Travelling for scenery or lecture. May 20 Thursdy lecture May 21st to Tsingkiang. Friday May 22 Sat arrive at Tsingkiang or lecture. May 23 Sunday May 24 Monday To Chingkiang. May 25th Tuesday To Chang chau by first train. Lecture. May 26th Wed. Lecture. May 27th to Shanghai. " 28th Friday May 29th Sat. Lecture in the National Association of Vocational Educa " Sunday same as above. May 31 June 1st Tuesday and 2nd Wednesday, blank June 3rd to Nantung in the evening. June 4th Arrive at Nantung June 5th travelling for scenery or lecture. June 6th Sunday lecture, Monday 7th lecture return to Shanghai. June 8th Arrive at Shanghai. June 9th to Hangchow. 10th 11th, 12th 13th June 14th return to Shnaghai. Tuesday 15th recreation. June 16th Wednesday To Siuchau till June 20th To Wusih till Sat the 26th four lectures beginning Wednesday June 27th to Suchow lecture 28th and June 29th, 30th lecture June 30th return to Nankin. |
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| 37 | 1920.04.22 |
Letter from John Dewey to John Jacob Coss Care Nanking Teachers College April 22 '20 Dear Coss, Well as you know I have decided to stay over here and teach another year. I hesitated very long time; among other things they asked Evelyn to stay and she couldnt make up her mind at once. However altho she declined, I decided for another year of it, partly because being here it seemed the easiest thing to do, especially as reports from America arent especially attractive so far as living is concerned, and partly to try to clinch whatever may have got started this year. My teaching next year will be of a more intensive character, and mainly at the University, tho enough time will be taken off in the winter to go to Canton—which is another reason for staying as we havent been south. A trip was planned for this summer but some Americans advised us agt us very strongly on grounds of health. Suh Hu [Hu Shi] and a few others are very anxious to modernize the university, and to do means not only getting teachers but material in shape. He is anxious to have me give a course in the interpretation of the history of western philosophy, which can become for a while a kind of standard basis for that subject. The largest publishing house in China has recently made arrangements by the way for extensive translations, rather specially oin philosophy. Suh Hu [Hu Shi] and Monlin Chiang, a Teachers College man, and Chancellor Tsai of the University are the board of editors. The students are on strike again as a protest agt the Government's dealings with Japan, but they have excepted my lectures. Im lecturing here on philosophy of edn, rather popular, history of Greek philosophy and logic, 8 hours a week altogether, but the interpretation has to come out of the time, so it is rather a lesson in selection, condensation and illustration. Thanks very much for the material you sent. Im glad to be able to ging information about the tests, and the syllabus the course will be of great practical value to me. Books are scarce and hard to get hold of and that syllabus will take the place of quite a library. I have an account at the University Press Book Store and when you see a book that you think I really ought to read, philosophy or social theory, I wish you would tell them to send it to me—the old Peking address—and charge to my account. I feel Im getting rather stale. I wish by the way you would have [Bertrand] Russells Introduction to Mathematical Theory sent now, send that here, as this will be headquarters till July. I shall miss my classes and associations very much. And it is some pleasure to know that some will miss me there. I have had to write out my lectures on Social Philosophy—not wuite finished yet—for translation into Chinese, and Im wondering whether to get them printed in English. Im afraid however they are too general as I aimed at an outline of the whole field. My book of lectures on philosophical reconstruction, given in Japan, will probably be brought out by Holt shortly, At least I got galley proofs in Jan. I tried to sum up my past in that, and get rid of it for a fresh start. Please remember me to everybody, Woodbridge and Montague especially and Edman and the younger men who willmay be interested. With best wishes, Sincerely yours, | John Dewey The family is still In Peking tho Im expecting them shortly. Ive been here most three weeks. After the middle of May Im going on circuit round and about the Yangste provinces. |
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| 38 | 1920.04.24 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey family Teachers College April 24 [1920] Nanking Dearest children, You will see from the other side of this what sometimes happens when the Chinese get away from their own etiquette and dont succeed in getting over to ours. There are 60 or more returned American students here, about half of them in the T C; the guests were the American community here, at last as many as cane. Pres Kuo after a social occasion of cakes and tea delivered my obituary which I am getting reasonable hardedned to, but he interspersed the more painful parts with a few jokes. The Chinese have an enumerative mind; they like to cover the ground, from one, two, three, four up. Thusly, I am welcomed first because I am an American, secondly, because I am a philosopher, thridsly because I am a teacher, and so on till catagories and words are exhausted. There was also music, and some of the Chinese young men did stunts about like college boys at home, including a lesson in learning a new language by the modern motheod, which consisted in a dialogue of all the American slang they could remember, and the giving of various college yells. The French are sending back some Chinese coolies now. The French lot moslty came from the river provinces, and the big boats come up the river to here, 1100 landing today, and everybody is investigating their door and window locks. Also cussing the French. They just unload them and turn them loose; they may be penniless and a hundred miles or more from home. They give them drafts on France for their back wages, payable not here but in Shanghai, and then only when the Shanghai bank has recd notification from Paris. Some of them have hung around two months, living ion charity or something else waiting for the bank to get authorization from France for the Bank to pay checks these men already have. They have to have identification papers too with thunm prints, and between losing them having them stolen, and gambling them away, everything is a mess. When the first lot landed here, there was no one to receive them, or give them advice. The Y M C A now have an organization that takes their checks sends them to Shanghai and collect. Everyone contrasts French management with the British; they sent part of the wages to the mans home here, registered every letter, followed them up, got several postofficers dismissed for dishonesty; send somebody to look after them when they come home, and open a good number of pay offices in the home country of the people. Also the British made it easy for their coolies to save money and the French offered them every facility for spending it as fast as they got it. The students strike is on, indefinitely this time, altho they only struck for five days at first. The students here altho they were oppose[d] sent delegates out to other schools in Yangste towns and induced them to strike and now they cant quit because of these others. Also there is a good deal of disgust with Shanghai students, and I think there is some face-making at expense of Shanghai union; they want the leadership to centre here. Now they are trying to get the ineveitable middle man, the peacemaker to intervene. The provincial assembly has telegrapghed to the central govt in favor of the student demands—return of Japanese note andsking for negotiations over Shantung and cancelling of all secret pacts—and they are trying to get some Shanghai organizations to do the same. This will save the face of the students and they can go back to work, saying they struck only because others whose business it was did not take the responsibility and now that the latter have taken it, they will return to their proper business. But the paper says the Peking students have struck and that may complicate things. When mamma wrote about Sokolsky heading the Lamont student delegation I wondered of course whether he hasd anything to do with the strike. Yesterday I heard from a young Chinese here that a Russian Jew had had a lot of influence with a man who had influence with the students, and had been influential in starting the strike. He seemed to be of the opinion that the fiasco would reduce his future influence. Yesterday I went to the a tea in the Cockcrow temple—the Buddisht temples often have tea houses in connection—given by the student editors of an educational bi-weekly, Youth and Society, they made four very good speeches in English explaining their purposes and work. The neatest one said that their object was to help produce a Social Youth and a Youthful Society—which is an elegant example of Chinese balance. While we were talking three policemen came in. As they made profound bows, I was much flattered thinking they had come especially to offer their section of honor to the distinguished foreign guest. But there is martial law here, and the priests had reported that a meeting was going on. Having made their bows they promptly went out, and when we left they were still drinking tea in the other room, so they evidently got a hoilday out of it. Some of the students talked some. It seems that some professor in Peking University has advocated public rearing of children, on the ground that parents were too ignorant to rear their children, and that the family system was a failure anyway, and family ought to be abolished. Id like to get a collection of the extreme proposals that are going the rounds. An interesting thing is that they are practically put forth by Chinese who have had no foreign education at all, but who have become disgusted with conditions. Apparently at different times there has been a good deal of radicalism in China in spite of their conservatism. Another problem is that this school has the reputation of turning out radicals educationally and when they get jobs to teach they at once come into conflict with the old line educators, and many of them have to quit—or some quit simply they are senstive as to their face. This society like the other one seemed to put a good deal of emphasis upon a fighting spirit however. When we were in Peking we had read to us a letter from the Governor of Chekiang province pitching into a school principal there, saying he taught the pupils free love, nationalization of women etc as well as other alleged Bolshevist eccentricities. It turns out that the governor got his information from some of the old teachers in anonymous letters, they disliking their principal because of some of his progressive educational tendencies The principal is a Chinese scholar of the old type, and his progressiveness is all a matter of the last two or three years. These things throw some light on the struggle to change things. These young editors asked me to suggest topics for their magazine, which has a circulation of 1200, and I suggested a critical discussion of the disadvantages of Face. One of them put the whole political dilemma of China in a sentence when he said considering that an immediate revolution would merely transfer power from one set of officials and militarists to another set, and an educati a revolution that depended upon the proper education of the people so as really to have a democratic government would be too slow and come too late, what where the students to do? My program is finally made out. We are supposed to leave here May 16th and make six one or two day stands before reaching Shanghai on the 26th where we stay the rest of May. Then two weeks in three cities including Hangchow in the Shanghai region, then back up the Yangste for the last two weeks of June—not getting as far up the river as Hankow however. After the first of July we shall be on our own, I mean a vacation so if we want to go further up the river we can. You better keep sending mail here till further notice. An empress steamer comes in Shanghai today, so shall hope for late news soon. Lots of love to everybody. Im going to adress to Sabino as a reminder we have missed of late his good letters. Dad. |
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| 39 | 1920.05.21-23 | John Dewey : Stay and lecture in Qingjiang. |
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| 40 | 1920.05.30 |
Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes Shanghai May 30th [1920] Dear Barnes, … I left Peking early in April. For six weeks I was at Nanking, teaching, or rather lecturing, wuite different, in the Govt Teachers College ther[e]. For the last week two weeks Ive been on tour, three interior places and then a week here, and then four or five other places before the first of July. All in this province and in the neighboring one. These are about the most prosperous and progressive provinces in China, but China, barring Shanghai, is still most decidedly China. It is interesting to get these glimpses of interior towns; two places were not treaty towns, and hence had no foreigners in them except doctors and missionaries and mission teachers. Everything in China is a contradiction. China needs foreign influence badly, foreign industrial methods etc, and yet the individual Chinese seem batter off, honester and more selfrespecting where foreigners dont go in large nos. In some ways one gets a better impression of missionary work in the smaller towns than in the big centres. The hospital and medical work awkanes [awakens] enthusiasm, and they take with them, the missionaries and teachers, a certain social spirit and public interest which is much needed. I stayed at a Chinese Youngs Mens Club at one of these places a useful institution, but it is safe to say that it wouldnt have been started without the example of the Y M C As. Many Chinese say that China is now going thru a period of rather indiscriminate admiration of all things foreign after having had so long a contempt for everything foreign, and is in danger of losing its own best things. I dont know of course. The Chinese seem to be very Chinese, and likely to stay so, tho in my judgment they really assimilate foreign ideas more internally than the Japanese. I have a theory that the situation in China now is much like that in Japan fifty years ago, and that there was a time when Japan might have turned in either direction. The Japanese continue to invade Siberia—and to promise complete withdrawal of all troops "when". They doubtless will when they get all the economic concessions they want—otherwise when the Russians get strong enough to put them out. Mr [Frank A.] Vanderlips party has been drowned in Japanese courtesy and palaver. Only one had strength enough to get up to the surface again and come over to China to see for himself. Mr Lamont at least has force, and isnt decieved. Dont think the consortium is all bad or exploitation. It might even be the salvation of China politically speaking, not only as the means of protecting China from further competitive exploitation which means partition ofr complete Japanese domination. Without foreign supervision of her finances China will surely go bankrupt and an international supervision is better than a compettive scramble—which is the reason Japan, or one reason, why Japan so opposed the consortium. I shall get back to Peking early in July I suppose. Mrs. Dewey and the two girls stayed in Peking a month or so after I did but we are now going about together. Sincerely yours, John Dewey— |
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| 41 | 1920.06.09 (publ.) | John Dewey : Lecture 'The real meaning of democratic education. = De mo ke la xi di zhen yi. Li Xiaobai recorder. In : Xue deng ; June 9 (1920). | |
| 42 | 1920.06.13 ? |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Dewey family [June 13, 1920?] There are so many things like these that I want to tell you after reading your lively letters that I scarce know where to begin. But anyway I wish you would come to China, I like it more the more I want to see you all and I always wish this were the last day of my stay on the day your letters come. Well here we are. new surprises waited for us this time, Hangchow did not want us to come and was none too glad to see us. Last night they impeached their Gov on six charges and he resigned. Three of the sis were financial, he is a famous gambler and runs lotteries all over town, not to speak of opium, The conservatives have there at present and we are thot Bolshevicks and the students complained because Papas lctures were not intellectual enough, (Think how China has cahnged Pa) and so he gave them as a farewell a lecture on Elementary schools in which he told them it was not theories abkut sociallsm and free thought and free lve that China needed, it was teaching the people how to improve agriculture and cotton and silk and more especially their own lives. With it all we did not see as much as we wanted to, we were kept busy and out of mischief, but the girls will tell you what they saw and it was so hot we could not sleep much and Ec was getting very tired so we came up with Pa when we might have staid lnger. Lucy goes back to Nankin with Pa tomorrow morning to stay there with Winnifred Miller, but Ev and I are daring the excitement a lttle lnger. Only we are denying our selves one bird cage for Pa goes way beyond Nankin and then comes clear back south again a ten hours ride to Soochow, Now Soochow is only two hours from here, so we shall stay at this hotel which is cheap being only seven dollars a day and good whereas the Burling is eight and bad, and the others are ten and more fashionable and to them all the people go who dont know any better, The housekeeper here is a real German haus frau and I wanted to embrace her when I saw her swelling bosom and her tight little wisp of hair on the tip of her head and the food is good and real mattresses on the beds. I dont think I ever told you about Chinese beds. They are of woven rattan like our cane seats, or else boards (one of ours in Pekin is just like the seats of chairs,) and over the cane they throw a comfortable and one sheet, and there you are. [Alice Chipman Dewey] |
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| 43 | 1920.06.14 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey family Hangchow, Monday, June 14 [1920] We left Shanghai for Nantungchow on Friday the forth. We spent the morning with Mrs Crane in Shanghai and had lunch with her. Thursday night we went to a dinner given for the Cranes by various associations of Shanghai and there had been no arrangement beforehand, so C. T. Wang who had charge of the Cranes, never thot to ask Mrs C and we were the only foreign ladies present. There were several Chinese, including Miss Chen-Mrs Wu. She had her hair up and was looking most grown up and sober. It seems that she was the woman who organized a company of 80 women during the revolution at Nanking, and led them. They carried amunition to the soldiers and practised every day with rifles. Were school girls, mostly, and when they had got well enough trained to go out and fight the war was over. "We were so disappointed." Had dinner Friday night with Mr [H.H.] Kung of Shansi, a very nice party. He said that after we left [T]aiyuan last fall he was talking to the gov. The gov said that he had heard we were Bolshiviks and was afraid of the spread of Bolshivik ideas in China. Mr Kung explained what Bolshivism was and how it grew up. Yen said, ["W]ell, under those conditions I dont wonder they became Bolshiviks and of course such a thing is impossible in China" Mr K thinks Yen is really liberal and progressive. The boat for Nantung left at midnight. We were met by a Mr Ho, French and Belgian returned student who spoke a little English and beautiful French and another man, who promptly disappeared. We sat up and watched the moonlight on the river till about one and then went to bed on some nice Chinese boards. Slept very well, considering. Got to to Nantung about nine. Somo more people came out in a sampan to greet us before we docked and presented us with elegant purple and gold printed programmes. We were met at the dock by Chang Jr, a company of soldiers, and a brass band. We were taken to the house by the [page torn] arretts and slept till lunch time. After lunch, Mr Lee came and took us sightseeing, we saw lots || of things, but didnt g[et] thru the programme, at that. Went to the Changs to dinner. They have a very elegant and hideously furnished foreign house and dress the children in terrible foreign clothes. Had a long and elaborate foreign meal. The next two mornings we went to Dads lectures in the city theater, a fine building. In the afternoon we did sightseeing, went to see the mills and factories. They have a cotton factory, iron founry, where they build small boats and make repair parts for the mills, an oil mill for the cotton seed, etc. In the cotton mill sixty percent of the employees are women and children over ten, they work twelve hours a day, and the factory is paying 250% Nothing done for the children of mothers who work they sit around the mills. One afternoon we went to Lanshan, where the chickens come from. Saw an institution for the dumb and blind, and an industrial home for beggars, on the way. Climbed the pagoda on the mountain and got a wonderful view of the country. Lots of canals everywhere. One night we went to the theater and saw Oyang [Ou-yang Yu-chien], who is supposed to be the best actor in China, after Mei Lang Fan. He is interested in the revival of the stage and did a modern play with a romantic interest. It was awfully interesting and pretty, with very little banging and noise and he is a very good actor. He has a school for actors which we went to see. Forty boys who are taught Chinese, history, math, Chinese and foreign singing and dancing, playwriting. I asked if they were taught historical costuming but couldnt find out, I think not. It was awfully interesting [to] see what he has done and to see the boys. They were all beauties in one way or another, some with faces like Buddhas. They did their stunts for us. They dance very well indeed. Mr Chnag presented Mamma with a peice of embroidery from the school and Mr Lee gave Evelyn and me each one. We bot some besides. Left Nantung Tuesday night [8 June 1920], quite an experience. Got half way to the dock and Mr Lee discovered there was no boat and we would have to take the English boat which would probably come along about two. We all sat up until after one playing games and then we went and lay down on the board beds. I got [a] little sleep, nearly an hour, before the boat came, about two thirty. We went out in sampans to the boat. Mr Ho had joined us by that time, he knew what would happen and had wisely spent the time in the town. It was quite ride out to the boat, most exciting. Rough, tho the worst wind had died down, with a little moon, and the sampan going along rowed by three men. Got settled on the boat about four, all the cabins taken so we had to sit up. Nobody slept much, I did for about fifteen minutes, deck too cold, and the cabin too stuffy. Landed in Shanghai about ten and went to the Kalee hotel. Ran errands frantically all day, and finally got to bed about nine. Nantung an interesting place, very much one man, nobody talks about anything but his excellency. He has done a lot for the place industrially but its all pretty Japanese. Lots of industrail schools but very little expansion of primary and girls ed. Mamma spoke at the girls normal one morning and whom, should she run into but her old friend from the Peking normal that Suh Hu [Hu Shi] had dismissed. Chang has built roads and runs jitney busses, he is getting more. [Lucy Dewey] |
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| 44 | 1920.06.15 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Dewey children GRAND HOTEL KALEE | SHANGHAI, CHINA, June 15th. [1920] Dearest Children. Here we are back from Hangchow. I dont know why I say back for I have had a bath and am dring my hair. Drying it in the rain, but still happy. And besides you wont know what it means, you never will till you come to China, when I say I have had a bath. It seems such fun to just go here and there and have no trouble and all expenses paid and then you do it and the fun is more than one kind. Chinese hotel at last, and very good food with a wash bowl between us thrown in. But were we allowed to eat that good food, By no means, In stead we were led to say we wanted to go her and there, hither and yon, and in all the places under the sun wherever we wandered there came a third class foreign cook of great reputation in the ancient capital and he came even into our own Chinese hotel from his restaurant, his third class restaurant with his castors and his dirty table cloth and he cooked for us, with starch for sauces and with fried fish for break fast cold and greasy, and with cold storage eggs of some sort out of ctyle in Chinese cooking, and in the normal school or the Law school there was this curried ghost of the paste and we did eat thereof and great was the fall. One hot blistering noon we traveled from our lovely lake side to the red brick R.R. station near by which he spotted his cotton table clothes and there we sat down far from the willow trees and did eat the bitterness of captivity. Only one good Chinese meal of savory taste and fattening flavor did we eat in the ancient capital in our own hotel and one other in a Buddhist temple, vegetarian, and good, very good, given by two lovely spinsters who spend their aristocratic lives running a girls Industrial school A most aesthetic friend from last year gave us fans, the Hangchow fans are the most famous in China and therefore in the world, with his beautiful writing thereupon and pas tell him quite frankly that he is the pole star of China and mine that I am the star of Womans world and the girls that they are the milky way or something near to it, and these we shall keep on the parlor table with translations in sight. [Alice Chipman Dewey] |
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| 45 | 1920.06.16 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Dewey children [June 16, 1920] Dear Children. This is the evening of the 16th and Ev and I are alone in this hotel. Lucy got sick of this job and went to Nankin and Papa is in a town named Tsuchow way off somewhere that he ahs to come back from. SEv is still short of sleep and we are going to bed early and really waiting here in Shanghai partly for time to pass. We pay dearly for it, but still we must stay some where tho we are both about at the point that Lu had reached. In Nankin she and we all feel at home in a lovely garden and settle into it for a while. But we are none the less looking now towards Peking. I am getting this off for tomorrow the mail gets ready for the Equador. We went out with miss B Blascourt today, she is one I knew in New York and now deals in corios here. We made the acquaintance of the big dealer with whom Mr Simkhovitch deals. He the one from whom S bought his first pictures. His shop is a lovely one and besides his we saw one other. Ev bought a piece of blue and white and I bit at a pretty cracked thing which ought to be expensive but under the circumstances sold for three dollars and I think I can get it as far as Peking at least. It is a big jar like a ginger jar of old five color pictures and I shall be proud to see it on the Peking sideboard and fish a cracker out of it from time to time. I wanted to look at some pictures, but time was too short. Their place is filled with splendid blue and white of all the periods but all too dear for me. and China is selling out all the old stuff pretty fast. Some of the very most horrible photos we have had arrived today from a girls school where we visited and spoke when here before. The passion of this nation for poor photos is quite miraculous. I have been looking at the proof of EA. and think it is hard to make nay thing out of it for a stranger, being a proof only and my not knowing her. I hope I may sometime tho. and shall look for a copy of the photo soon, a small one I mean. The book of letters has not arrived here and will not but Pa has declined o tkae the trip up the Yngste and we shall be at home soon after July first. Maybe some of us before that time. If I take the lectures in Nankin I think Ill go and come back. Winnifred Miller has decided not to ait for Ev so she will go alone with the help of crowds of fellow passengers. Probably on "ug 21st too, for the chance of getting anything but blackmail out of the S. S. Co seems very slight. Our conductors this time were different both from the past and from each other, One was dear little Chen of Nankin, he weigs 35 pounds and we love the whole of him. he is sweet and gentle and intelligent and he cant get any thing done except he is very good to talk to and to learn from and he tells you when he doesn't understand what you say so you can say it over again. he is delcate in health and very popular with the chair bearers so we never get into a chair till he tells us which one he is not gong to take and then the bearer resigns himself. What do you think, I have just been called to the phone, wrong number of course, but then what an experience, to speak thru a phone again. our other conductor is a real sport, a lout in plain languagem and how he ever got in on the job we cant guess, but he had his picture taken with Pa alne in the rock garden of the park yesterday and we are going to wait and see what kind of chewing gum prints it. He gave os three heavy pieces of very bad porcelin and we think maybe it is to be a trade mark for that. Since we shall probably bring home the bad porcelain I may as well tell you it is an attmpt to revive the most ancient and valuable ware called celadon (or, Japanese, seijji) pale green you know and sometimes very beautiful, These three pieces make up in design for their lack of workmanship, one is a water buffalo, with smooth knees and skin of striped green, another is the Goddess of the three eyes, a foot tall and much heavier than Chen tho we were her bearers, and the third is a dog of short body and long legs smiling jaws and a spread tail and I forgot to find out who worships him, but you will see him later on. All their greens are curiously spread and tinged with a gloomy white on all the high spots where the glaze ran thin in the firing. The whole effect is some like Mr Li himself in that you cannot identify it with any thing in your past. Mr Li spent much time in the hotel when we wasnt running out to get the bad eggs and things and so far as I could see he was equally at home with the coolies down stairs and with the young mna Yang who was the third on our list and who writes a complete history of all we do and say in a book which he keeps with him, at least he does this excepting when nature gets the better of him and he cuts a lecture like a normal boy which he is. He had a good chance Sunday [13 June 1920] when he came to mine and sat on the back seat to visit it thru and so escaped going to Papa's. Yang is from Nankin and he said goodby at the station so we are alone till we meet someone else who is interested in us, or else gets paid for seeming so. Yang is quite bright and has had several prizes for essays ad things and he belongs with littl Chen among the bright group at Nankin. They are putting Coeducation in there this summer, with great scandal of course, and Mr Tao has asked me to give a few lectures on the hist of etc in U.S. and I think maybe I'll do it. I find it is quite fun to talk to young men, and they will be more numerous than the girls. Besides I like Nankin and noe of the foreign missionaries there will give them any think but hindrance, they are all Mt Holyoke graduates except two from Mich, but some goirls from their college are leaders in the coed movement and one is going to be dean of women this summer. In hangchow the Govt told them at the Normal if they put in Coed the Asssembly woul cut off teir appropriation so Mr Chnag the President is going to open all the classes to visitors. and by this you will see there are a few daring ones in China where it does tke nerve and no mistake to do anything for women, or to change much anywhere. Meantime war has broken out in the province of Honan and we may see more interesting things yet. I hear the American ministry (Mr Crane) has protested to the Govt at the arrest of an editor of a liberal paper, the same paper I told you about last summer Mr [Dwight Woodbridge] Edwards is interested in it and it is in some way under the portection of our legation. I hope that protest will make trouble for the Govt. As for Shanghai, you never saw so much silk in your life as you can paw over in the big shops here and it is the most lovely and never wears out. Tonight Col[u]mbia men are giving a dinner to Pa, Mr Tong Shao Yi will preside. Did I tell you how his son followed me from one speech to the other when I was here last week, and the second was at a club for women only. he is a charming boy, speak English as we do and is in a Chnese University here. Think of an American boy of 18 following a grand mother lle me to a womans club, I spose he wanted to report it to the students or something. he did it nicely anyway. Evelyn wants me to get some clothes here but as we have no success in getting a maker. Such lovely stuff and no good foreign dressmakers, isnt it a pity. I look like meal bag in all their tings… We met a young agriculturist in Nantung who is sure Cornell is the best place. He is engaged in running the station for the famous Chang Bros who own and run the town. It is as it were a Standrd Oil town every thing done well or else Mr Chang knows the reason why and acts promptly and efficiently. Mr Chang is old and his son is young and hs taught in New York City College, dept of Commerce. He is 23 and has a wife and three children like all good old fashioned Chinese of that adnvanced age. We saw them when we dined there, a little girl of three with Chinese trousrs a Japanese made American dress with an embroidered ruffle at the edge and a beautiful large jewel hung at her neck made a strange makeup for a preety and bright littlr gilr who read us some hundred or more characters. She learns four new ones each day, that appears to be the allotment in high class families like that. The house is large with several apartments and many servants, fine old corios and and other coice things and the ugliest foreign furniture In fact the foreign furniture of China is something so hopeless in taste that descriptions would mystify even if I had time to give them. Nothing fits anything else anyway and you gradually learn to pick out the beautiful and costly things from an aggregation that seems at first glance to be a gathering together of a scond hand shop. They have a very durable varnish from Ningpo which is most useful and covers all the wood work in China and it gives a red color to it all something like our imitation mahogany. As a background it is ruinous in effect, and yet we saw it even in the fine curio shop where we were today, and to me it swore at us all through. In these big shops they keep the most valuable jades and jewels in the family living rooms so we always get glimpses of the laides and children and ammahs. The ladies always go on combing their hair before the mirrors with their maids helping them. Combing and dressing that hair is a long process too and the powder and jewels take time, to say nothing of the finger nails. Paint is used commonly for the face and jewels in the hair and all the rest of the dress surprisingly plain. In summer the thin black gauze skirts hung loosely over the white trousers give a funny appearance to us. The manners at the hotel in Hangchow were enlightening too. Young married couple next to us. She disappears and then reappears in full white pajamas all reay for bed with hair and jewels and fingernails perfect. Then she with hubby in the same coustme except the hair and jewels sits beside her at the edge of the porch upstairs, looking at the lake and cooling themselves with fans till after we go to bed. Our window was on this piazza and no curtain. Getting any privacy in China is a study. I got a lttle seclusion for my bath in the wash bowl by putting the screen in front of the window, but the room boy would not be interrupted by that if I forgot to lock the door. Water is obtained from said boy by 1st ringing the bell, then pointing to the dirty water in the bowl. He picks up the bowl and goes out after a while coming back with the bowl full of clean water He brings you hot water (or tea if you wish) in a tea pot and leaves it on the table and he brings you a glass of cold water in the same fashion of bringing in the bowl, and he is always on the jump to unlock your door or to go down stairs a long way off and put you in your ricsha, or to bring up food or to dispense any other more original sort of service you may devise for him and he never seems to sleep but always to smile. If you give him a fortune like a silver dollar he smiles till his ear drums crackle. This house is foreign in stye and very comfortable in the N.Y, sense of that Sometimes I have a picture of the adirondacs suddenly flash into my mind and smell the clean woods and the pine house and the sweet air and wonder how it has ever happened that mother earth has contrived to keep herself so clean and so green on one side when all the bloom is rubbed off her on the other. After all it is these devilish Japanese that worry one. We now hear that the condition attached to the last loan was a concession from the Pekin Govt of the importation of rice to Japan. If this is so and the Chinese PEOPLE find it out there may be sad trouble ahead for the govt and as for that, we hope for the trouble. I think Ev and I will go up to Soochow tomorrow and from there to Wusih by ourselves and then just go home without waiting to come back to Soochow with Pa, picking up Lucy in Nankin as we go, perhaps stopping there for a little rest. The heat has come tho nights are still cool here, but anyway we must get started if we are to go to Kalgan and get back to start off Ev for the boat at Kobe on the 21st of August. Until we write to the contrary you may consider this our program and we shall commence writing more often now that we can get a chance to sit down and get up of our own volition… Sunday [20 June 1920] is the day of the Dragon Boat Festival and we shall be in Soochow to see it on the canals there said to be one of the best places in China and a grand old carouse it is with the flower boats and the singsong girls. As yet I have not seen a flower boat, but they are very ancient homes of vice and pleasure Meantime think of the things you want from China and tell them to us. No shirts have come to us but they may be in Pekin) If we can bring you the things we will so it will do no harm to speak of them Evelyn can of course prompt you when she gets back tho she has not seen Canton. Now I must stop for I have to finish an article on Coed for the Stud magazine of Nankin. Love and love from mama |
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| 46 | 1920.07.18 ? |
Letter from Evelyn Dewey to Alice Chipman Dewey Sunday, [July 18, 1920?] Dear mamma, Lucy is going to Peitaho to-night after all with the Cranes of course. I think dad would have liked to go along but they did not have room I guess. Rich Chinese are fleeing the city the Wagon Lits is crowded and any one in the quarter can get rich renting rooms. The North East gate is closed and every one has laid in a few extra supplies of food. But of course everything is a peaceful and quiet as can be. The trains to Kalgan are not running to-day, and soldiers and ammunition supposed to be coming from Mukden, we saw some soldiers coming in from Nan Yuan this morning, but there are not many around the streets, there is martial law and everyone is supposed to be home by mid-night. There are 150 sailors at our Legation "on a sight seeing tour". The paper says there will be fighting in Soochow and maybe Nankin, but you probably have your own batch of rumors and news there. Yesterday we went to a temple in the Western hills, but didnt see a thing, the barracks by the summer palace seemed more deserted than usual. We have given up going to Tan Che Sse, partly because the trains arent running there as the station is one of the places where they are concentrating troups, and partly because if anything is going to be here we wanted to stay and see it. It is hot and Dad seems to mind it, but I dont nearly so much as when it is damp, it is clouding up now and looks like rain again, there is some breeze in the house and we have been able to sleep, but there is no denying that it is very hot, We havs had only one short letter from you., but suppose we will hear shortly. The last letters to Kalgan have not brought any news yet. We had dinner with the Cranes Friday night and they were coming here to night. My ticket home was gotten thru Yokahama which is why there is no record of it in Shanghai. There was no more news from home except Freds letter which we sent you. We are going to send word to Suh Hu to have his wife brought here if trouble should really start, and George has already asked if he can bring Susan [Wan], so we may have a maternity hospital in our own little tenement. Somehow it is quite impossible to belive that anything will happen. Remember that Richard Smith has gone to Nanking for the summer, and Mr. Crane says a U.S. gun boat will go up the river to take people out if the trains stop or fighting begins. I only hope nithing happens to prevent your getting away when you want to. Much love Eve |
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| 47 | 1920.07.19,20 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Dewey family On the train to Shanghai. | [July 19, 1920] You see uch funny sights the crooked willows making a fringy background for the dark gren lotus fronds and the snow whie blosss[o]ms and all eflected back in the water and then a lovely ornamented moon bridge over the dragon like pon that wander round thru the rice fields after the rains and what really makes you laugh, the huge water buffalo walking on the earth at the bottom of these muddy rainpools with his back and his noe and his horns which look like the dead branches of trees sticking up and his old grey sides shine like silver when he comes out of the water unwillingly driven by the naked water colored boy on his back all the Yangste color except the lovely green which covers this part of China more than any other. and junks on the canals and it seems funny to see telephon poles set in these rice fields hen off in teh distance bald looking pagodas with all their curls dropped off from age mark the tops of little hills. The men and women are going ut the rows of rice plants with long bamboo handles on the hoes, handles longer than fishpoles and the ends shake as if the wind blew them in the hands of the hoers. The hoes are broader than any you eve saw and they work with them all day standing with thir leges in the deep water of the rice fields, half way up to their knees. There are no passengers except a few Chinese young men and they do what they always do in the heat slouch about in their underclothes with the clean linen or silk coats folded up on the seats and they sleep or eat. Mostly their underclothes are dirty in spite of th beautiful coats, It is second class so we have clean rattan instead of dirty hot plush of the first, and the mercury is somewhere between 90 and 100. All the land is used, every inch, the beans are beginning to yellow at the bottom of the stalks and the cotton is getting up high and taro is very decorative, so arre the slender strawstacks tall and straight ad every now and then the unfertile mounds of the graves put the dead in place of life, There are soe cows here mostly led by little girls between the rows of crops to browse. Pigs in China le in the corner of the vegetable gardens and eat the weeds on the oter edge, never showing wheteher they like human food or not. There are many trees even the hills being sometimes covered with small ones. I am trying to fill up with green since I am going to Peking.—if I can. Shanghia. July 20th [1920] Room 29 of the missionary home is up under the roof but the breeze blows thru from the long hall and I have had a good sleep. The house is full of missionaries starting home on furlough so there are swarms of children. It is interesting to get up against a bunch of people whose experiences are quite different from our own altho the same. I sat at the table with some Episcopalians, I know from the tone of voice such rolling and such charitable abuse of Wilsons admin was worth coming for. I am very anxious about getting off but I am sitting here instead of in the boat office because Mr Lee of the Y.M.CA. just called me up and insisted that Mr Sweetman had written him last night and he would do the errand for me. I feeel it is probably a mistake to allow of any intervention since no one wants me to get to Peking quite so badly as I do myself adn since Mr sweetman in particular has ideas that he ought to do all this for me 'as if I were his mother' but since I shall not have to wait very long for him I said thank you. If he upsets the whole pie because of what he thinks an old lady ought to do I shall simply have to start over again later. I can go the Consuls office and if I cant get off today there is another boat on another line on Thursday. One difficulty in Nanking was that Sweetman has not been about China as much as I have but he felt it was his duty to give very positive advice. The kindness of epople is very sincere here but it is sometimes emphatic and almost interfereing. I have been reading yesterdays paper and find the fighting is severe near Peking but the whole look of things is hopeful since the worst influences are on the lose and tho the winners are bad they will have to come a little nearer to the people. I wish you could see the head of this place, picture of the pious spinster tall, and angular with high neck dress and a prim way of talking, one real authority. It is a pleasure to be here in no way for it is real old fashioned housekeeping calen and bare and enough simple good food, so if I have to wait a few days I shall ask to be kept here. Plenty of baths and all at a price which I understand is much less than the regular hotels. The table and the managemnet is like the old fashioned American Boardinghouse. [Alice Chipman Dewey] |
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| 48 | 1920.07.19 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Frederick A. Dewey Nanking July 19th [1920] Dear Fred. This is your birthday and I am wishing you many happy ones. I wonder if you are celebrating it as seriously as I am. I had hopes of getting off to Peking by the Saturday boat from Shanghai, a slow way but the only now. Co write no room leaf, So I at once sent a letter asking them when I could go and asking for room on the boat which leaves tomorrow. As yet no letter at all. Also wire sent to Peking was not rec there as I know by receiving promptly from them a wire asking for my plans, No leatter has come from them since the stoppage of trains and I have no idea whether on nt my letters have got thru to them. I could tak it all very philosophically if it were not for Evelyn coming leave. I hope they have gone up to Kalgan without me, but it may be they are waiting in an uncertainty equal to mine, Kalgan is so near to Pek I think they will go as I wrote and also wired to them to do. It is two weeks ago yesterday since they left here and if they do not go to Kalgan now Ev will be unable to stay long enough to make it pay. Tko add to my irritation here we have a servant in this house who causes a lot of trouble thru his hopeless stupidity and it was to him I gave the letters to mail last saturday. I think I shall go down to Shanghai which I do not want to see at all in any case this afternoon. It is seven or eight hours depending on the train and I should remain there till I can get place on the boat. I culld stay at the missionary home which is cheap and one gets every possible help about attending to things, A there is no danger now in Shnaghia, but all the old settlers here asay I must not attempt to go to Peking by rail even if the chance comes. Four of these devils of Tuchuns are now fighting over and around and about that road and they think almost any thing might happen to me if I tried it. Then they say go to the consul, and they know the consul would simply repeat that advice. Nankin is perfectly quiet except for the summer school and the constant moving of ammunition. The summer schoo disturbance is due to the bumptiousness of the boys who are some of them mad becase the 60 girls have been assigned to front seats in the classes and also because they are claiming that right to dictate to their profs which has been preeety common here since the students organized, It seems a kind of frontier bossism. They burdned one man out of his class and some of them ordered the girls out of the seats saying they could not stand up, the idea seemed to be if any one stood it must naturally be the women. There are 63 women and nearly 700 men. N the latest, on account of the tie up Suh Hu and his friend Mr Tao, both of Peking Govt University, have not come down to take thier classes. Su Hu [Hu Shi] is the most popular man in China and about 700 students have elected their course especially on the literary revolution. This forenoon Mr Tao the dean of Summer School here expects a delegatiion of student to call on him officially to demand the delivery of these men. Poor Mr Tao is the most active man in China one might say and devoted as active and last night he was about to send a man to Peking to take care of these two families and to drive the men down here I told him not to do that for I could accomplish as much as any such delegate and I would go up today, I mean on tomorrows boat. He has been sending special telegrams and I rather think the men may be ob the way, but on the other hand they may not be, for suh Hu at least is apt to decide things for himself in his own way. Whether they will break up this now-nice summer school in consequence remains to be seen. I do hnot think they will for I think in the end the students will give up. Shu Hu's [Hu Shi] wife is to have a baby about the first of August. He has told me several times the baby was expected in June which did seem impossible and I fancy they have just waked up to the reality of the situation, that is he has. He was not present when the first child was born, but she was at that time with her family. I cant make many guesses tho I know he does not let family affairs interfere with his business so far a I can se in any other matters. It seems that mr Tao's house has been entered by robbers already and Mr Nanking Tao [Tao Hsing-chih] thinks his young wife and baby ought to be put under foreign protection. In all these matters I could be of as much use as any other foreigner and have already written pap to take care of these epople. I fancy the situation there is tense. Tho the legations gave official warning at first that no fighting must occur within ten miles of the walls of Peking, still one can not be sur[e] that all China will not go up in the air again, tho I dont think it will, [page torn] scared and these officials are afraid both of the people and of the foreigners and I dont think they will try to drive out the foreigners again. If they should yu mgiht be sure they were helped by the Japanese but I dont think there is any hiding place big enough to conceal even the J in such an attempt, Not that they would hesitate to use the Chinese in that way as well as in others if they felt safe in doing it that they would not be discovered. The union and the sympathy between the Amercans and the Chinese can not be doubted and it will count for much in this crisis. Our news is insuffucient but keeps up all the time and is perhaps accurate. There is somehing of a check both in the foreign influence and in the fear of the Tuchuns for each other, But there is not one Tuchun in China who has yet waked up to the fact that China is a part of the world, Some of the believe it is the whole thing just as the Mnachus used to and the present Dictator Tuan Jui Jei is one of these ignorant tyrants, who smoke opium and can not think in international terms, to use mr Sweetmans favorite expression. Meantime they just juggle with their country, on money borrowed from Japn and cherish a hope of coming out on top and being made an dictator or Emperor as Yuan Shi Kai was. Thier rule would be even shorter than Yuans if by any throw of the dice they bring that about. For all this all the schools and all the industries in China and most of the 400,000,000 wait and suffer until the spectacle is incredible. If any one of the large influences could be shifted, if the Jps could bt thrown out especially, it would all change, It is easy to see how the Japs are gaining ground minute by minute on this system. China is like a ball in the air and the first one who catches is the best man in the game as it is now. It is surely maddening to sit here as I am now, tho there has been some compensations in the expra things I have been able to do for the girls in the summer school Having them in the same yard with myself and seeing them often has set up some real connection. [Alice Chipman Dewey] |
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| 49 | 1920.07.29,30 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey family Peking, July 29, 1920 Dear Family Here I am back in Pekin and a wonderful time I had getting here. I left Peitaiho Sunday night with Mr [John Earl] Baker as I knew that if I ever could get thru it would be with him. I dont know whether I told you that he got thru the only train to Tientsin in days just by talking to the railroad men. Miss Boynton came with me and a giddy journey we had. The train at the junction was three hours late so we finally got on at one thirty a.m. Along about three a poor long suffering English friend of Mr Bakers, who also works for the railroad, found one berth for the two of us, so we each got two hours sleep in that. It was enough to get us thru, tho. When we got to Tientsin the Pekin train was nearly ready to start, all packed full. The cars had been resurected from the ark, the paint was peeling off and the dirt of ages had settled on them. Mr Baker went ahead on the military train and we tried to persuade him to take us on that with him but had no luck. There were four of us in a compartment designed for two, but fortunately the other two were nice Americans and helped to pass the time very nicely. It took us seven hours to get here. The usual time is three. It was terribly hot and most unintersting. There was nothing along the road to indicate that there had been any excitement there. Even at the stations where there was the most fighting there were no signs of it. The fields werent even trampled over nor nothing. At a couple of stations near Pekin there were troops enczmped and we passed a few troop trains. The nearest approach to excitement was when they kept us waiting twenty minutes outside the city wall, but they didnt come thru the train. Fortunately Miss Boynton and I had had lunches given us in Peitaiho and we fed oursleves and three other poor wnaderers. We finally got to Pekin about four and it certainly loked good. I dont think I have ever been so hot and dirty in my life before…. Did I tell you I have a wonderful scheme for going home next year? Mr and Mrs Zucker of the Rockefeller are planning to go and I am inviting myself along. The idea is to go to Kalgan and from there on horseback with a caravan to Urga in outer Mongolia. Ive been crazy to see Urga ever since I got over here, its the capital city of Mongolia and Mongolian Lamaism, theres a living Buddha there and all sorts of things. From Urga, also on horse, to Kiakhta on the Lake of Baikal and thence by the trans-Siberian across Europe and home… Politics continue complicated, interesting, and uncertain. The US English and French Legations have come to an open break with the Japanes over the question of the right of asylum to the Chinese political offenders. The first three have agreed no to take in any male refugees but the Japs refuse to agree. The natural inference is that they have some one there already and suspicion centers strongly on Little Hsu, the man every one in China is looking for. He disappeared mysteriously off the face of the earth about a week ago and the pass word around Peking now is, Where is Little Hsu? and the answer I wish I knew. The victorious patriots want his head and I dont wonder that he wants to keep himself under cover. I am rapidly melting down into the chair and soon will be so thoroly melded Ill never be able to get up, so I think Ill stop before that sad fact is accomplished. Lots of love to all. Lucy |
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| 50 | 1920.08.01 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey family 135 Morrison St Peking Aug 1 [1920] Dear children, I dont know whether this will reach you before Evelyn does or not; she is packing up altho her steamer doesnt leave Yokahama till the 20th. Mrs Crane telegraphed that she has found a four room bugalow at Peitaho and we are going there as soon as we can, which hurries Ev packing. But also she has difficulty in getting a boat to Japn, I dont know whether that is ordinary travel or whether it means that political refugees from the defeated party are flocking to Japan. The a"war" seems quite over. Yesterday pictures of little Hsu and others of the Anfu leaders appeared on the streets with rewards for their captures from twenty to fifty thousand each—at the same time the school teachers havent got any pay since May April, including university profs. Two weeks ago today it was that posters—without photos—were up offering rewards for the heads of the men who are now on top, and six weeks ago they seemed entrenched as masters of China—which bears out what was said of olden time, You never can tell. The Chinese awe know are pleased but not elated. They are glad to see one gang overthrown but arent sure the next one wont be about as bad, ftho they think each overthrow brings nearer the time when the people will be sufficiently educated to get control of things. However the present victory they regard as merely negativ except in one respect, the declone of Japnese influence The Japanese trained troops couldnt and wouldnt fight, the japanese shells were duds, and the whole elaborate political structure they had built up collapesed like a childs card house. It isnt very logical to argue from these things to the weakness of the Japanese, but the officials at least had nbeen intimidated and hypmostized by the belief in the Japanese superman, and now all of a sudden that prestige disappears. This doesnt mean that may not get hold of officialdom again but I dont believe there will be the feeling of their omnsiceince and omnipotence again. The rhing crumbled too easily. As one military man told me the people were hostile to the Js on acct of Shantung, and now the generals dont believe in them any more. I still believe that we got the right impression before we left Japan that they are badly overextended economically, politiclyy and even militarily to say nothing of diplomatically, and the shrinkage to normal size is bound to come… Love to everybody Dad |
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| 51 | 1920.07.07-09.14 | John Dewey stays at Beidaihe beach. |
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| 52 | 1920.08.19 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Albert C. Barnes Pietaho Beach, China, | August 19th, 1920. Dear Mr Barnes… We are in a wonderful place here, out of that burning furnace of Peking where all life is just a struggle to breathe during these hot weeks. Mrs Crane gave us this house, wiring to me a few nights after I succeeded in running the gauntlet of Chang Tso Lin's soldiery who were almost blocking the line from Tiensin to Peking. It is was like a cup of water in the desert to get the hope of escaping, for Peitaho is crowded and expensive during these two months, and we came as soon as Evelyn could get her trunks packed. We live on the beach right in the sand and we look night and day, and listen to the white surf rolling from this blue water. The stars and the new moon are the objects of our adoration and our backs are turned to a corn field which is between us and the moving world of foreigners. Among all the strange experiences of China , this American life of luxury and ease and laziness emphasizes all the others. I am sorry you are so sure you cant come to China. It is thrilling and reconstructive and revolutionary and reorganizing to know of a place where one can get nothing except the confirmation of the vague suppositions we call originality and realize that after all every thing is experience, experience we are feeling for in the newer world. Having that new world become remote, and this the real one, knowing the 'dead past' is not past at all, but simply the base on which we are resting our air castles, moving not so much in space as in time, having a ricsha man pull you two thousand years into that past in half an hour, realizing that one province here has as many people as the whole U.S. and that province no schools except a few elementary ones such as the missionaries have been able to start, and at the same time the province most representative of the most enduring of nations, understanding how wealth depends on poverty and so well knows that dependence, one can go on indefinitely. Perhaps you will be interested to know what we have just found out privately, that the soldiers in the recent struggle left about 800,000 people, farmers destitute in this year of famine, and the govt does not even find a way to give them food to keep off starvation, nor seed to plant for next years wheat and the foreigners here are getting money together to feed them immediately. Many of them are under the shelter of rocks in the mountains and most of them have the walls of theirs mud huts left to them, all their animals are gone to the war, they neither ask for food nor expect it, and the head of the agricultural experiment station who is also head of the Govt relief is at present trying without success to borrow money on their land to buy seed for them.,. All their trees, the most precious things in China are lyng on the ground, cut for the trenches of the Wu Pei fu soldiers, After the battle the looting left them not a pot nor a pan nor a bit of bedding, only the clothes on their backs, and this new govt can not even give them food; and the generals reply the animals have already been distributed and could not be returned without too great difficulty. All this is in a region round one city and sixty miles from Peking. Rates of interest at the banks that will take risks on the land, the land being as you know the surest security in China, are sometimes as low as 16% a month, but more often as high as 30% per month. The good farmer has about three mo of land under his control. In good years each mo yields 3½ bushels of wheat and the second crop I dont know about, but it is less than the first in value. For the propagation of poverty the genius of this country can hardly be outdone in India, Meantime, here, in this resort, the great houses of the officials are being built and the officials discuss eugenics and other modern doctrines, while the latest concubine exhibits the newest baby, as happened a few days ago during the call of a foreigner. The undue length of this letter is result of its being the first one of the morning, but I am sorry you wont come to China with your psychology, for this China is a question for that science. I didnt show your letter to the professor. With regards, A. C. Dewey |
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| 53 | 1920.09.12 |
Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes Peitaho Sept 12 [1920] Dear Barnes, … We are going back to Peking on the 14th, as the university is opening, and Lucy as well as myself is going to teach this year, or rather she is going to teach and Im going to continue lecturing. The political upheaval has brought into the ministry of edn about the best man that ever held that job, a man who is a great friend of all our friends, and whom I saw considerable of last year. Last I heard however the teachers hadnt been paid since April, and I dont know whether he has succeeded in getting money. The new govt announced that in finances the schools would come first, but that is easier to say than do. In the old, they were a bad last, hardly in the running at all. Last year I was paid by private societies, but this year by the Govt University, so I have a personal interest in govt finance. The societies are getting Bertrand Russell over, I think the same societies that financed me last year. My star such as it was will set. This isnt a modest remark, nor a protective reaction. The students' [ink apostrophe] interest has been nroadening out naturally and properly from the intense interest in education which marked them last year to general social questions, and upon the whole B Russells writings are more popular than anybody elses— I don't ubt [w. caret] if Hobson is even known by name. It is said that fifteen thousands of the English edition of Roads to Freedom have been sold in Japan, and he is the great hero of radical thought in China. The whole temper among the younger generation is revolutionary, they are so sick of their old institutions that they assume any change will be for the better—the more extreme and complete the change, the better. And they seem to me to have little idea of the difficultyies in the away [ink del.] of any constructive change. Bertrand Russell's somewhat detached and mathematical way of proposing ideal reforms accordingly makes an immense appeal. The students in Peking are getting ready to start a Bertrand Russell magazine. Quite independently of R. and his influence, this is a wonderful chance to study the psychology of revolutionary idealism—if I could only read Chinese. I never realized before the meaning of the background we unconsciously carry around with us as a standard of criticism. Not having any such background as to modern institutions, to the liberals here anything is likely to be as true and valuable as anything else, only provided only it is different. The more extreme, the more likely upon the whole. Since the Chinese family system for example badly needs reform, the family ought to be completely done away with, promiscuous relations between the sexes set up of course they can hardly speak to one another now and all children cared for by public authorities. This is a little extreme instance, but there is a good deal of this sort of thing. Then every official is ex officio an object of fear and dread in China, his main function being to squeeze the people. Hence altho a good central govt is a necessity at present for reasons of internal development of railways, schools etc, as well as for external defense, anarchism is very strong. I see the Japanese indulge in considerable propaganda about the dangers from Bolshevism in China unless Japan makes a bulwark or whatever it is now fashionable to call it. Technical Bolshevism there is no basis for here, either economic certainly not industrial and only to a slight extent agrarian, tho the latter is growing by from the rapacity of the military governors. But psychological Bolshevism is fairly intense in the educated minority, especially if they have not been educated abroad, also among those educated in France. Japanese writers try to attribute the growth of radical thought in China to Russian propaganda, I think sincerely, as the Japanese cannot really imagine any indigenous intellectual movement, especially in despised China. I supose there is Russian propaganda tho Ive run across no signs of any, but it is certainly a negligeable factor. Of course the general influence of the fact of the Russian revolution was great, just as was that of the worldwar in general, The in trying to find some good in the outcome of the war, one can at least count to the credit side as a big item the overthrow of Prussian and autocratic prestige. Its effect in the Orient is certainly enormous even if we at home have got more or leess Prussianized. I hope you approved of the psychology of my article on How Reaction Helps. I have thot over that matter a good deal, I shall write about [Laurence L.] Burmeyers article after getting back to Peking. My mind is still to full of the small book Im writing to do justice to it, tho Ive read it acoupla times. Sincerely yours, J Dewey Old address in Peking, 135 Morrison St |
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| 54 | 1920.10.26 |
Letter from John Dewey to Dewey children Changsha Hunan Oct 26 [1920] Dearest children, We left last friday morning—its Tuesday evening now… Instead of going right thru from Hankow we were taken to a nice clean hotel with bathtub, and stayed there till next afternoon at five when we took a train. There was a funny time there. A delegate as usual came up from here, a Frecnh returned student. There was also a delegation of Hankow educators at the train. One of them in behalf asof the French-Chinese sociaty of Hankow invited us to a lucneon at noon. So I accepted. The very next moment he said that would hurry us too much, so they would have the banquet at five. Then the Changsha delegate spoke up and said we might be on the train at that time. Then the H. man said—all in frecnh—it was a sufficiently rare occasion, n'est ce pas, and we wcould stay over another day. I referred the matter back to our delegate. Next morning he came to the hotel and said the banquet was fixed for five. Your mother and I both thought he didnt like it to have the trip posponed a day so for the first time since Ive been in China I butted in and said my time for the trip was limited, and this meant one day less for lecturing, and While I appreciated etc etc. So he said it would hardly do for him to make any objections but if I wrote a note it would be all right of course. So the note was written suggesting the banquet be given on our return when it could be combined with a day for lecturing. Then they got passes for us for the afternoon train, and sent a young American returned student just back from Oberlin and Harvard with us. After we got on the train he said that the Changsha delegate was anxious all the time to saty and have the banquet. Also he was much peeved because an American returned student wasnt sent, and said the Japanese and French Balgian returned students had combined here agt the American, and they ought to have sent some one who could speak Eng as there were about thirty here. Also that the banquet was for Chancellor Tsai and a fren[c]h returned professor of biology at Peking Univ who is accompanying the Chancellor to Shanghai to see him off for a trip to Europe. Meantime the delegate from here had to stay anyway because the boat from Shanghai was late, said boat bearing the Honorable B[ertrand] Russell, who was also coming here to lecture. Well this is a long story and doubtless seems quite pointless. But take my word for it that it quite illuminating and you'll know a lot more about China than we did before it Happenned. At first we were peeved and thought we had made a mistake, but as they had teachers here from all over the province waiting for the meetings to begin, and I think they were already one day late, Im glad we butted in. The Hon B[ertrand] R[ussel] came in this noon on the train we came on yesterday with all the rest of the party along. He was supposed to speak every forennon till next monday night, six in all, and me afevery afternoon. But it seems he has or thinks he has to be in Peking, and has announced he must take the boat back tomorrow or next day Im not sure which. Whether he hasnt been in China long enough to know how little dates count or whether he has some other reason I dont know. They had a place all picked out for him, I think a missionary English and he declined to go, said he preferred a Chinese hotel. But I guess the hotels, Chinese here are pretty bad. The committee wouldnt let him go and I understand have emptied or filled a house especially for him. A Miss [Dora] Black of Cambridge a former student is accompanying him and is to lecture on sociology. Mamma has seen more people than I have since the news came out, and all the people, at least foreigners are saying What do you know about these socialists travelling around the world together? Fortunately we dont know anything?. He lectured this p m right after I did, on Bolshevism. I was rushed right out of the hall, to 'go and get rested'. I suppose from politeness but it almost looked as if they [di]dnt want me to hear him. I judge they are about the same as his articles. The only thing I heard him say was that one reason he was opposed to Bolshevism was that the rest of the world wouldnt accept it voluntarily, they were bound to impose it, and that would mean continued fighting and he considered the situation so precarious that civilization might go under in a prolonged war. The other thing was that they were doing a lot for the children. Its fortunate for China his reaction was unfavorable as they will stand things from him on acct of his radical rep they wouldnt from anybody else. They rather idealize the Bolshevists here, especially the radical among the students. This place seems to be a hot bed. As I have written the late civil war began here. The old Tuchun was the rottenest in China, or would have been if there went so many rotten ones, they all the rottenest when you hear the details. The schools have been closed for almost two years, and the students have all the effervescence on tap the rest worked part of off last year. Also Hunan has the rep of being the most independent and revolutionary province in China. I was told that in one school the students had compleed in 21 changes of techers in the last two month. Im not sure that it wasnt one place which had been changed 28 times to meet their desires. They have issued posters that nobody should be called mister or teacher or any other title any longer since all are equal. However they wont admit the teachers are their equals in practise. Also advised that all the unamrried men and women in Changsha be promtly paired off. A Chinese told me he would get me a translation of the whole thing. As matter of fact its probably a dozen students ut of a thousand, but the minority is vigorous enough, the majoritgy will always give in when the minority calls them names. The new governor has been tgov twice before, once after the rev and was driven out by the name Yuan Shi Kai crowd, and then after the latters downfall only to be driven out by the Anfus. He is said to be one of the most enlightened liberals in China, a younger amn than I thought. When they said he was Hanlin—an old Chinese doctor under the exam system, I supposed he was an old man but he isnt over 45. He must have been a precocious kid and got his degree lalong with his mothers milk. He is certainly what they call democratic. We went to call on him yesterday p m, an he was in conference when we got there. Then he finally came almost running into the room, breathless and apologetic, with no pomp or bodyguard of soldiers. He came to the lecture this p m without any soliders at all, no uniform, and helped introduce me. Most of the governors dont stir out unless they have soldiers several deep to stop all stray bullets. he gives us banquet friday night. We are staying at a Chinese doctors, teacher in the medical college here, Yale farudate, speaks better eblish than I do. His wofe has never studied aborad but speaks enough eng to get along, and they have a foreign house and style, only Chinese food, Im glad to say. Darn good [co]oking at that. This is the seat of the socalled Yale-in-China college Yale grads send funds, and the faculty is largely from there, both American and Chinese. They keep up more social style than any place, weve been outiside Peking and Shang. By which I mean evening fdress. Haventing got sick of lugging mine around, of course I came without and we are invited out to dinner every night, tho some of them are Chinese affairs. Also invited out to luncheon everyday about, also a few afternoon teas. We are in luck being at these place, as it is Chinese enough to find out things from their point of view and foreign enough to have a bathtub, and good beds. There seem to be rather more cooperation than is usual between Chinese and foreigners here. The gentry give half the money for the College, comes thru govt funds. The only case in China I think. We are only three hundred miles from Canton.anAfter taking from five pm till eleven next day to get there, something less than 250 from Hankow, 300 is far enough howver. There were no sleeping cars, but he had a coop to ourselves and could stretch out some. The soldiers took possession of everything else, tho they are supposed to be the reformed soldiers, defenders of the faith. The streets are narrow here, and they say the former northern soliders used to beat a ricksha man or chair coolies if they bumped into them at all, and it was practically impossible not to. Quite middle age style. Also when they anted things from a stor[e] they would take what they wanted. The old Tuchun shipped or allowd a lot of rice to be shipped to Japan and got a big squeexe on every picul, hundred pounds. Made a million, in six weeks alone, also a shortage of rice in China at same ime, and exportation officially forbidden. He still lives, in Shanghai and took his money with him I suppose. And his conks. The young man who came with us and who is interpreting for me in spite of a bad cold, and the first time he ver did for anybody, is a case, a character. Was a revolutionist when he was a school boy of fiteen, and made such a name that when the republic came in they sent him to America to syudy, Hunan province altho he knows no Eng. He is quite critical of Dr Hu [Shi] and the Peking crowd, thinks they are too radical and destructive, but he is really more radical than most of them, tho more prwctical, less theoretical about it. Time to go out to dinner Love to everybody Dad |
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| 55 | 1920.10.31 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Lucy Dewey Oct. 31 [1920] Dear Lucy, This is Sunday evening and we have just come in from a picnic on the mountain called YoloShan. We saw an anceatral worship, so one more experience has been added to Cinese ones. The place is lovely, trees large and old and not all of them crooked. Live oak and sweet gum and ginko camphor and chestnut, and good roads which are too goo to please the old residents who prefer the like the primitive, The temples are in charming spots, It is all little tho compared to the Ssishan and easy to reach, tho they insist I should keep in a chair. Papa had to stop at a school on the way down and make a speech so I am the only one back with Dr Yen himself, Mrs Yen and the two children staid for the ancestral worship as they are friends of that family. A monument, a beautiful new house with every thing comfortable for the worshippers, the flags and other marks of honor, the son greeting the friends who came, the open house and the tea and the sons wife the table set out with a fea[st] over which the flies were crawling, it all did not seem so bad a way to remember the dead as one might think. There wa[s] incense burning in place of the flowers on the grave Then we came down a lovely green and moist road like h[o]me with a little brook singing alongside and here am I taking the first whack at the machin to tell you about Changsha. There is much to tell, it has been what the books call an eventful week, small event filling up every minute, I spose Pap told you they handed us a program with a banqu[et] every night when we arrived, We have had the lovliest place to stay in all China missionary spots, Dr Yen is the most spirituel of Chinese and Mrs Is good as gold and simple and all that she ought to be, She comes from Shanghai. There are four lovely children It seems to me the Yale Mission intends to dominate all situations, and it is the Chinese members who keep their hands on top, We havent had a breathing spell once, not a moment when we could run away and buy things, Tho I have gathered up a few, Tomorrow morning I am going to th[e] Y.W.C.A. who live in part of a big house, f[am]ily named Tso who are selling off old things, and maybe I shall find something for you, We are bringing a leopard skin and some cross stitch. I wish I had kept a record from day to day to send you, You know by this time Mr Russell did not stay long but went on to peking last Tuesday, We leave t[o]morrow night and I think we have staid quite long enough. They are keeping up too strenuous a pace to last out for long. last night we went to a dull banquet given by eight societies. Tonight the Gentry are giving us one, I shall not go unless Pap gets back here for I think I am the only woman and Dr Yen does no[t] want me to go, In spite of his being so kind he has Chinese ideas about women. The talk here is strong and loud about the Russells, Still I asked them to go and call on you. My advice is to receive the[m] well and not speak of the event, In fact it i[s] better for us all to do as little talking ab[o]ut it as possible. The day I first lectured in the missionary school they took back an engagement with Miss Black to speak and they told her the reason they co[u]ld not receive her, I will tell you all about it when we get back. The case is not easy All I wrote you from Hankow turned out to be quite an inc[illeg.] reac reading of Chinese methods and I have decided to never agin make an exception to my habit of saying I dont know what they are doing nor how they do it. [T]hings have gone smoothly here and very hapily owing to this charming home where we are staying, The whole thing is better planned and goes off with more snap than in most places The interpreters have been not very good, tho Papa has been settled down to an excellent one now. The Governor has been very civil, he is quite a simple human being, he brought us down the river in his launch when he came back from ns worship of the old hero whose grave we visited. He is going to start at once a model school on the basis of Pas suggestion that there are only two in China, He has aksed a Miss Loyan to take charge of it, She has been studying school administration in T.C. for three years besids studying somewhere else three years before that and she came back last September. She seems very stupid, and she certainly does not understand our language very well but we will hope that is not so. If one school is started as a result of these trips there is something to show, There is n[o] doubt this Gov is very much interested in education, It is said here he is rather weak in wishing to offend no one. but do not quote to any one any thing except the agreeable things I say He gave us together with other visitors a dinnes on Wednesday night. Tomorrow night we leave on the boat at ten oclock. We go to lunch and to dinner and we each have to speak twice and I am going to look at the things at the Y.W.C.A. We are expect to stay in Wuchang and Hankow eack two days, So we ought to leave Hankow for the north on Saturday the 7th of Nov, Pa will go straight home but I shall stop off at Paotingfu I will let Miss Gumbrell know as you suggest in your letter which I was surely gald to get All you say soulds as if you were enjoying life Miss Stearns lives here she will get me the broadcloth and besides I am buying velvateen for you two dresses. [Alice Chipman Dewey] |
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| 56 | 1920.10.31 | John Dewey visits the Yoloshan. |
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| 57 | 1920.12.01 |
Letter from John Dewey to Walter S. Drysdale [military attaché of the American Legation to China in Beijing, 1917-1921]. Bolshevism in China. Peking, China, December 1, 1920. My dear Col. Drysdale: "In reply to your inquiry, I would say that I have seen no direct evidence of Bolshevism in China. I landed in Shanghai the first of May last year. In the year and a half since I have been in nine provinces, including the capitals, though much the greater part of the time has been spent in Peking. I have been in Shanghai four times, however, Hangchow twice, and spent two months in Nanking having been there twice. I feel the surer of my belief that Bolshevism is lacking in China because I have been in close contact with the teachers, writers and students who are sometimes called Bolshevists, and who in fact are quite radical in their social and economic ideas. The student body of the country is in the main much opposed to old institutions and existing political conditions in China. They are especially opposed to their old family system. They are disgusted with politics, and while republican in belief have decided that the Revolution of 1911 was a failure. Hence they think that an intellectual change must come before democracy can be firmly established politically. They have strong and influential leaders among the younger teachers. The great majority of the teachers are still, however, rather conservative in their ideas. The student body in China is proverbially undisciplined, taking an active hand in running the school, striking and demanding dismissal of teachers, etc. This is no new thing and is found in only slightly less degree in Japan, in spite of the great political docility there. All of these things make the students much inclined to new ideas, and to projects of social and economic change. They have little background of experience and are inclined to welcome any idea || provided it is new, or is different from what actually exists. They are practically all socialists, and some call themselves communists. Many think the Russian revolution a very fine thing. All this may seem more or less Bolshevistic. But has it not been inspired from Russia at all. I have never been able though I have tried to run down all rumors to hear of Bolshevist propagandists. In the south they are said to be in the north; in the north they are said to be in the south. I do not doubt there are some in China, but I am sure they are not many. And I am absolutely certain they have nothing to do with the general tone and temper of radical thought in the country. A student was arrested two months ago in Peking for circulating "Bolshevist" literature. I investigated and found it was truly anarchistic, advocating the abolition of government and the family, but no Bolshevist. However if the movement were practically dangerous it wouldn't be much matter whether it was inspired or directed from Russia or not. As matter of fact, it is the effervescence of school boys, being intellectual and emotional rather than practical. It is stimulated by the corruption and inefficiency of the government, and by the pro-Japanese character of the former cabinet. It is a symptom of the change of China from old conditions to new. Much of it is rather silly and superficial, but it is a sign that the students have begun to think about social and economic matters, and is a good sign for the future, because it shows that they have awakened to a realization that a mere paper change in constitution and government is not going to help China any. Radical thought has been accentusted in consequence of the war, but it has been an accompaniment of the new movement for twenty years. The first platform of the Chinese revolutionaries, adopted in 1901 or 1902 was socialistic, and so was the program of the Kou Ming Tang, the Sun Yat Sen revolutionary party, till it was dissolved by Yuan Shi Kai. But there is no leverage in the country to bring about a social revolution or anything approaching it. The farmers are still highly conservative, and they form ninety per cent of the population. There are a good many tenant farmers, but there is much more family proprietorship. A country of peasants that will stand the famine the north is passing through now with no rioting or outbreaks of disorder is loss in danger of Bolshevism than any country on the globe. Also industrialism is only just beginning. As yet it is confined to Shanghai and about a half dozen other cities. There isnt outside of these few cities any discontented "proloterist" to appeal to. In these cities unions are forming etc., but the men are mostly interested in their wages. They are not capable of being reached by ideas of great economic changes. In Changsha a few weeks ago I was invited to attend a meeting to organize a branch of a labor association. There wasnt on actual day laborer at the meeting, mainly merchants with some students. It was much more like some civic welfare or philanthropic organization at home than any labor party, though it had been called by a national organizer sent out from Shanghai. Thus the students have no material to work upon even it they wanted to start a practical movement. Also they are still too theoretical to engage successfully in practical movements. They were quite successful in attacking some of the corrupt Anfuites two years ago, but popular opinion was strongly with them. But at present even their influence in politics where they would have a practical effect if anywhere is very slight. Most foreigners who have any contact with them wish, I think, that they were more active, and more likely to start something than they seem to be. The sum of the whole matter is that the intellectual class is radical in its beliefs and much interested in all plans of social reform. But it is a small class, practically with little influence, and not concerned to organize itself to get more. The whole social and economic background of Bolshevism as a practical going concern || is lacking. Pick ten Chinese who are educated at random and who are outside the official class (which during the Anfu regime tried to block the student movement by calling them Bolshevists) or ten foreigners in contact with the Chinese and you will get the same reply. Many hope that a political revolution is coming to throw out the present class of officials and to get a new start. There may be an upheaval of this sort which those who dont like it will call Bolshevist. But I'm afraid it wont come very soon, and when it does come it will be confined to doing over again the things that were pretended to be done in 1911." Very sincerely yours, (signed) John Dewey. Colonel Walter S. Drysdale forwarded John Dewey's report to the State Department, he added the following: "Bolshevism in China | Service Report | December 2, 1920. Your attention is especially called to the following report written for us by Dr. John Dewey, Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University and Exchange Professor in China. Dr. Dewey has made a special study of this subject in China and has had unusual opportunity of getting into touch with this element in China that may be considered as radical. I know of no one any where, better qualified to report on this important matter than Dr. Dewey." |
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| 58 | 1920.12.05 |
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 |
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| 59 | 1920.12.29 |
Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes 135 Morrison St Dec 39 [29, 1920] | Peking Dear Barnes, … I dont wonder that you are suspicious of the Consortium, but you can judge of the situation here if I say that so far as I can see it is the best thing in sight for China, in fact the only thing in sight politically. Its very questionable however whether it will ever really function, but its failure will be more due to its good points than its bad ones. There are three great things agt its operation. Its a combination of finance and politics. Politically it is distinctly anti-japanese in the sense of being a measure to check the japanese aggressions which have been going on so uninterruptedly for the last six years. Apart from the Monroe doctrine, China is the only country so far as I can see where the U S has had a continuous foreign policy—the socalled Open Door, no further parttitions, no further spheres of influence. The Consortium politically speaking is a tool of this idea But at the same time it is financial ad must give an attractive opening to American money. Its doubtful whether these two things can be made to lie down together; certainly there is something of a campaign agt the C already as being too "idealistic." The second force agt is international jealousies. Of course the Japanese know it will curb their designs, but the France and Gt Britain know also it is in pursuance of the distinctly American policy, John Hay etc, and will add to American prestige and influence in China, and if successful will destroy in the end the whole sphere of influence of partitition. Also they are now too hard up to have money to invest and their obvious policy is to stall, and prevent the thing working till they can come back. So they will work together with Japan more or less to put monkey wrenches into the machine. The third reason agt is is in-||ternal. Aside from the natural general fear of foreign control, there is the opposition of corrupt officials to the fact that all expenditures under the loans will be subject to expert foreign auditing, and opposition of Chinese bankers, since by making hand to motuh loans as at present they get from twenty to forty per cent interest—in some extremely corrupt cases even more—but two per cent a month is considered quite legitmate. How the Consortium can survive all these difficulties its hard to see. There is one thing in its favor—the desperate condition of things here. I doubt [a]fter seeing things here the generalizations of fluent radicals about finance being internationalized. Maybe it would be here if there were a common agreement to do it at the expense of China, but as long as the interest of the U S is against a break up of China, finance cant be internationalized here—unless the U S is powerful enough and der emined enough to lay down the law. Probably the Steel trust will control the next administration and that is mainly pro-Japanese, as industrialism is do much further advanced there. The Morgan interests for some reason arent tied up with Japan, At least they havent been, and I suspect T L [financier Thomas Lamont] is somewhat influenced by a little oldfashioned American patriotism which in this case brings him out on the comparatively right side. Thank you for the c[o]pies of the correspondence you sent. Her letter was too brief for me to get a clear insight, but there were certainly plenty of signs of poetic spirit, and your reply was a rare combination of friendliness and straightforwardness. The journals came with your Cezanne article and we were glad to see it in print. I was awfully glad about you[r] suggestion of Hobson [probably John A. Hobson] for China; I dont know why his name had escaped me. The Chinese have a fatuous devotion to their old teachers—which accounts for a good deal of my own reception here—and unfortunately there is a man—I never met him—with a good deal of influence who once studied in Germany under Eucken, and they seem bound to invite that mass of flabby decay. ItHe is so dam old maybe he cant come; no one of the men I know take any stock in him, but the man who is booming him has influence with theose who put up the money. Then there is a strong pro german feeling in China, so they want a German. I belive they asked Einstein, but he declined. Intellectually of course he is as respectable as Eucken is the reverse, but he would have been clear over their heads. Russell gave a public lecture on Relativity the other day, and while like everything he does it was a masterpiece of cl[e]ar[n]ess yet no one in the audience || except two or three professors of math and physics knew what any of it was about. Hobson is the right combination of theory and practise for them; as I wr[o]te before they are a little crazy now on the[o]ry, What is truth? What is religion? What is democracy? these are typical questions, and then right in the middle will be a fairly specific question like [w]hat is instinct? and apparently they dont see why one question cant be disposed of as well as another in a paragraph. I was invited to speak on religion and declined and the secy of the student society which invited me came around to see me and naively said they wanted to get the question settled while Russell and I were in the country. Of course it isnt all as bad as this, but in a way its typical. Russell gave out an interview in which he remarked that in the Western world no one had any faith any longer in the "wise men" but China was still in the stage where it beleived that a wise man could come along and settle its difficulties and questions. He got ion to the weak points of the Chinese in much shorter time than I did. He is extremely s[e]nsitive, as his Russian articles show, since he was only there six weeks and had never been before and didnt know the language. However he is constitutionally in opposition; he could write a wonde[r]ful critique on either heaven or hell after a short stay in either. A young Chinese expressed what I called his mathematical detachment by saying he gave very simple reasons for very complicated conditions. I fancy thisat is the mathemetical psyhcology—the ability to ignore contexts and select just what is directly relevant to the point in hand. If you meant that I envy him this gift you are right, for to my own psychology in spite of my shematic logical tendencies everything comes complicated end first, and I have to proceed consciously thru a tot of negations to untangle anything—to him it comes fairly clearly at the beginning I think. But if you mean that what is nearest my hearts desire it his ability to reach the liberal masses, why it only shows [ in ink] you dont get the psychology of the specialist. Even Wm James who is as much greater an artist than R as R is than me, says somewhere that he thinks when he writes of some twenty men, [ink comma] whose approval he would like—I havent the exact number but that makes no difference. Russell soon begins a new course on Analysis of Matter to go with his Analysis of Mind course. He told some one that Einstein had largely upset his prior phil of matter—that is one wonderful thing about R, he gets in opposition to himself as easily as to the rest of the world—this doesnt mean he is grouchy personally, on he contrary, he unusally agrreable. But he has simple intellectual tests and nothing naturally comes up to themir requirements. The war and Russia have affected such a senstive mind naturally. He thinks civilization is doomed to go to sleep like the old Roma world, he gives it only two centuries more of existence at the outside. Maybe hes right, but I cant see or feel it, but I can see how differently the world must look to one who seen at first hand the European debacle. He says Russian civilization which was tenuous and exotic, but still the finest in quality in the world has been destroyed, he seems to think permanently whoever comes out on top. He has a kind of dillemma, either aristocracy and injustice and civilization, or equality, (justice) and no civilization. That carries his simplification a little further than he does. But apparently he knows what justice is, namely equality, and I cant even fancy anything being as simple as that… Sincerely, [John Dewey] Wytter Bynner the poet has been over here. He is taking back a lot of cheap Chinese paintings, the kind that can be bought for a few dollars apiece, Mex. I cant imagine he wants them all for himself, and it made me wonder whther there was a business market for such things. If there is maybe I would try a venture to help pay expenses For a thousand dollars Mex I could esaily get two hundred pcitures, none very old, and none by masters of course, but having a certain Chinese charm and a technique as far as it goes. Do you know whether such things sell now in U S? The real Sungs are hard to get and up in the thousands. |
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| 60 | 1921.02.16 |
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 |
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| 61 | 1921.03.13 |
Letter from John Dewey to Albert C. Barnes 135 Morrison St Peking | March 13 '21 Dear Mr Barnes, … An American business engineer who knows China of old and who has just come over, remarked that the Consortium was more anxious to protect old investments in China than to make new ones at present. I think he struck the nail on the head so far as the financial side is now concerned. Mr [Frederick Waeir] Stevens their present representative is an extraordinarily honest man, almost innocently so. You may imagine that he is so clever that he has duped me, but I know the Chinese secy very well, in fact I recommended him, and he has been with Mr S every day now for many weeks. He is not the kind of man who would be sent if there were an intrigue to be put over, but is the kind who would be sent when a waiting policy was the key-note. Meantime the Chinese govt is on the verge of bankruptcy. The business man to whom I just referred said the same was true when he was here four years, it didnt seem as if it could least another month, and one gets very suspicious of the "verge" after awhile. But no they have pledged the last thing available and pawned things ahead. For some time they have have been borrowing money to pay interest due, and at enormous rates thirty per cent being common. It is possible that before you get this letter cables may have reported a bust-up. What will happen no one can tell. There may be a kind of international receivership; there may be a monarchical restoration; there is no doubt there is wide-spread reaction agt the "Republic"; there may be a civil war between the two military leaders of the faction now in control—Chang Tsolin of Manchuria and and Tsao Kun of this province, fairly likely anyway and Chang is a monarchist—there may be secession of all central and south China, and if a monarchy in the north a virtual tho not an avowed Japanese protectorate, or any combination of some or all of these things. Yet the expected is what almost never happens in China. Id like to saty over another year to see what happens, but nothing ever comes to a head and another year and another, there would still be the waiting to see something definitive happen. The movement for provincial autonomy is the most sure thing. Five southern provinces are now practically independent of any govt outside their own borders, and the movement is spreading north. This is the most healthful sign on the horizin even tho it means a transitional breakup of China, for with locally centred govt it may [b]e possible to secure responsibility and now there is none. The ablest of the young Chinese g[ave] us a half hour conversation the other evening on Chinese history as bearing on present situation. He finds the key in the constant conflict of Chinese civilization limited to a few Central [P]rovinces with outside barbarian tribes. In this struggle, the north has been practically barbarized by the Mongols, Tartars etc, altho socially Chinafied, and to him north China is the weight that holds China back. He makes an analogy with the history of Medieval Europe, except the northern barabarians here are not as promising material. as the northern barbarians of Europe. The extreme south Canton etc w[a]s of course also barbarians but of a different type, less stolid, more adventurous and hence progressive. The Yangste regions are the backbone of China proper. In a few weeks we are going south, to the province of Fukien, Foochow and Amoy. It is likely the schools here may close for lack of funds, and in that case I hope to go to Canton also and to spend more time in the south. Teachers have been paid only up to Nov and at that only under pressure from repeated threats to strike, and the latest rumor is that to save face the govt will move first and close the schools, instead of waiting for the teachers to close them by a strike. One of the beauties of Chinese govt is that each dept has its "own" funds, so that the dept of communications is rolling in wealth, comparatively, while the rest of the govt is bankrupt. Its like each general having his own army. The present govt is a coalition of part of the generals with the financial interest of the dept of communication politicians—or financiers… Sincerely yours, Dewey— [pencil postscript] Have got sailing from Yokahama Aug 19 |
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| 62 | 1921.07.21? |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Dewey children [July 21, 1921?] On Sayurday [23 July 1921] we are going up Paoshan. Laoshan is the second of the great mts of Shantung Perhpas yu know that Shantung means eastern mountains. The have a saying here Taishan is the greatest in height but Laoshan is the most magnificent of the Mountains of the province. I spose it sounds like a proverb in the native tongue. Well we are going with a picnic association of Chinese students. and shall probably spend the night on top Sat. On Snday we come back here and sail for Kobe on Tuesday the 2nd. I will tell you later what is a picnic association and about the trip. We have met some misssionaries and they tell us the worst thing about the Jap management here now is the red tape, We had a specimen of the usefullnes of red tape this mroning. As soon as the Chinese gentlemen were well seated and had begun talking in our room there was a knock at the door, In walked a dapper ajp. The rooms here are so fixed that he was in an outer room and we were seated in the inner one. Well Lucy caught him quick and backed him out while talking. His errand was to bring a blank to be filled out to request the privilege of embarking from this Japanese port to another J port. The blank had the heading of the South Manchurian R. Way. It must be very good polcy to have many kinds of small business on hand which enables you to make an excuse to enter the guests room whenever any thing is going on which it is desirable to see, It was interesting to see that there was no conversation here on the part of the Chinese gentlemen which might not have hd witnesses safely, Tonight we shall go to a Chinese restaurant and we shall see what goes on there. One of them was recommended as knowing every thing worth knowing and seldom opening up, We hope we may smile on him and get him open. He was educated by a missionary whom we saw yesterday who lives in Weihsien. where very interesting things happened during the first occupation of this province. That story has much which the American people know nothing about and perhaps will not believe when they are told, I should like to have friend Wilson compelled to listen to those stories everyday the rest of his life. We have been for the drive and have seen all the old German forts now deserted. It beats the bnd to see how they have abolished every ger word The streets look as if they had been born with the Emp when nothing else but Jap words existed, Before the i[n]vasion of Chinese civilization as they themselves have the nerve to say. The Imperial interpreter called on Pa a little wisp or wasp of a thing with a pinched face who said he knew Pa was here because he had read it in the papers, We said but not to him well you need not have added the because. A man is waiting down stairs to escort us to the dinner party and this must start for Tsinan at nine tonight, so heres a goodby perhaps the last in China if this can be called China, Glad we have the dinner tonight to remind us of that part of the world. And here is the red letter telling you the winecups are clean and ready and waiti[n]g for you. Love and love till we get more time to write, Mama. |
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| 63 | 1921.07.22 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey family Tsinanfu, July 22. [1921] I've got to do this by hand as Mamma is using the machine to write marginal notes in a book of rubbings. We got some more of those books from Chufu with the story of Confucious' life that Evelyn got last year, and Mamma is getting the story translated bit by bit. She's typing the translation in the margin so the thing will be most complete and natty. Some girls who are being sent to U.S. by the provincial government did the translating and they nearly had hysterics over it. Some of the tales are screamingly funny. [begin TL] Its just occured to me that Dad is lecturing and I can use his machine. We had a wonderful trip to Chufu and Taishan this time, much better than last year as it was cool and we had more time. It rained most of the time we were in Chufu but we went and saw the things anyway. We were taken to call on the Confucian duchess but she refused to see us. The gentlemen who conducted us were furious as it had all been arranged ahead of time and the old lady was too lazy or something to bother with us. The major domo of the palace was toting the baby duke around the court and he was heard to remark that we all wore glasses and they didnt want to have anything to do with people of that kind. They took us out to the tomb of an emperor who died five thousand years ago and to the temple of the king who drove Confucius out of the kingdom of Lu. Confucius certainly has the better of him now. We stayed in a school house and lived on bad Chinese food. It can be trying when it is bad, too. Chiefly eggs and at the end of three days I had reached a state where the sight of an egg made me sick. The Chinese went right on eating them, tho. At Taian we had better luck as we were being taken care of by the magistrate. We slept that night in a school and had a delicious dinner. We started early the next morning and had breakfast at a nunnery about a quarter of the way up. It was a regular feast and the Chinese gentlemen all drank brandy for breakfast. This machine sticks like the devil, I dont see how Papa writes on it at all. The trip up the mountain was lovely. It was a partly cloudy day and the light on the plain below was beautiful. There has been a lot of rain here this spring and the brook bed was full of water, a real mountain stream and clear and nice. We got to the top about half past two. I had a chair this time and got out and walked past the place where Evelyn and I collapsed last year, just to show them I could do it. Its a shame Evelyn never got to the top as it is one of the most stunning views I ever saw. Taishan is the highest mountain around and the lower ranges and the valleys look just like the relief maps in school. You can see the Yellow River and beyond to the north and to the south a great plain. Theres been plenty of rain this year and the country is very rich and green, much more beautiful that I have ever seen it before. In fact there has been about all the rain the country can stand for awhile. There are floods already at places on the Yangtse and the people here are quite worried about the Yellow river. There have been two days without rain now and that ought to give time for some of the water to run off and they say of there is no more for a few days longer they will be all right. In 1917 there were very bad floods, last year famine, and this year floods again, it doesnt give the people much chance to recuperate between catastrophes. They have resumed the airoplane service between here and Peking after stopping for nearly two weeks because of floods in the landing field. One of the aviators I know came in last night and offered to take me back to Peking today and bring me back again tomorrow. It sounded awfully tempting but quite impossible, of course. I guess I never told you that I was taken up to see Peking from an airoplane. We were up for ten minutes and going beautifully along towards the city when the engine died. We landed in the middle of a corn field and walked three miles back to the aerodrome. And that ended that episode. I was very much disappointed because I loved the sensation of flying and I have wantd to see Peking from an air ship ever since Ive been there Such is life. We leave here for Tsingtau on Sunday, stay there till the following Tuesday, probably, and then go across to Japan. Its getting quite exciting being so near home, Im beginning to realize that we are leaving China. Well, I must go and do the family ironing. Evelyn will be pleased to know that we are still carrying the electric iron around. Loads of love to you all and well see you soon. Lucy |
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| 64 | 1921.07.25 |
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 |
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| 65 | 1921.07.28 |
Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Dewey family THE GRAND HOTELS, LIMITED. TSINGTAO. [July 28, 1921] Pa and Lucy have gone out to walk and I am staying at home to nurse my side. I have the door locked for it is not safe to assume that your room is your own in this hotel. Some D Jap just opens the door and walks in whenever he wants to. One stranger came this morning before I was out of bed, The otehrs had gone ou[t.] I thought it might be the boy wanting to come in to do the room so I went in my nightdress and opened the door, Bu stepped back and stranger boldly presented himself at the crack of the door which I made narrower as fast as I could, He said in suave tones, Is the doctor No he didny say that either, he just said Doctor Dewey? I said he is not in and as I shut the door I heard him murmer thank you. They are certainly the best illustration of the vulgarity of trying to follow customs they know nothing about that the world can show. This was nothing to what the manager of the hotel has ju[st] done, Lucy was undressed and said to me some one knocking. So I started but before I got underway this man opened the door wide and looked in at Lucy who requested him to withdraw, He closed the door and when I got there I asked him in no uncert[a]in tone to please never walk into this room without being invited again. It had happened enough times that strange men had com[e] in and we did not like it, He looked me squarely in the face without changing a muscle and said he wanted t[o] speak to the doctor and he thought he was in. I finihed by saying that he would please not think again but remember that this room was ours and not his and that we expected him not to come in unless he was invited. he wound off by saying he thought the doctor was in and that was why he did it, I couldnt take time to go into that question but left it to Pa. At one point he looked as if he were going to laugh at me but thot better of that but continued to stare and to wonder how I dared to talk to him like that. There is no doubt this has its reason for he was entirely brazen to the end of the talk and he will do it again of the door is not kept locked, I hate to go off for two days as we are planning to do on Saturday when we go. Lucy and I conversed with Mr Ding last night at the bankers dinner, He has a son at Cornell studing engineering. Also a nephew. He has one little daughter six of who he seems very proud. He will send her to the states. He said he coud see the difference between his mother and his wife, His m never went to school his wife has. He believes it is very important to educate the mothers, Says the Chine women are good financiers, they make excell accountants in the banks and good shopkeepers. Unde[r] the old system a certain number have always succ in this way, they get their training in the family where all work together Regarding the Pacific conference he said it that man Nono, (Ono) who is trying to get Chin appoint as the Chinese representative, I know that man, I have seen him oftenly, Why he does not know anything, he just does not know anything. The loan which Mr Ono has come to arrange is not ye[t] settled. No I do not think it is settled yet. The Pekin Govt is bad, The Tuchuns are bad. I think Wang [Ching-wei] of Hupei will have to go, but we can not get rid of the system immediately. I think some one will follow Wang and he will be just as bad and after that we may throw it all away. The defeat of Kwangsi make it look as if the system were failing fast. No one would have thought it possible that Lu Yung Ting would fall down as he has done. They thought he was strongly entrenched, but now he is down and out, he wil have to go soon perhaps at once. It looks now as if the Canton Govt would have a chance. Speakig of women in business he said the women of his family in Yangchow run a silk store, They do the ent business of buying and judging themselves as well as administering the shop. It is the best store in Yangchow The rich women like to buy there better than of the men they get better skill and better attention. Yangchow is one of the old rich aristocratic towns above the Yngste on the Pukow R.R. It is famou[s] for good food and effete living. A rich town.6 [Alice Chipman Dewey] |
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| 66 | 1921.07.28 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey family Tsingtau July 28. [1921] Dear Family. Here we are in this historic, not to mention famous, spot. I am trying to write with Dads machine and first it hesistates, then it shimmies and ends up with a long glide at the end. I cant keep up with its speed so dont blame any little inperfections on me. We have a lovely room here on the top of the building looking out over the bay towards the real Tsingtao, which is a little bit of an island with a light house on it. The water is covered with square sailed fishing junks and there are mountains in the background. Its really a lovely place and the Germans hve built a fine city here. The architecture is pure German with broad streets, lots of trees, both in the city and on the hills around. As Papa remarks, its no wonder the Germans are sore for this is in many respects the finest piece f work we have seen in China. Last night the Chamber of Commerce and business men gave us a dinner. And gosh how they hate the Japs. They seem to have really liked the Germans and got along well with them but not so the present possessors. The Germans confined themselves to wholesale business but the Js are gradually driving out the Chinese retailers and small shop keepers. There are thirty thousand Japs here, the figures for the Chinese varies fom fifty to seventy thousand. Its an absolutely Japanese city to appearances, they run most of the shops and sell goods of J manufacture. There are some Chinese stores but they are small and not very numerous. Every one agrees that business is not very good just now and the town seems very dead. I gather its just temporary as those business men said last night that business on the whole was as good as before the war. I am absolutely feeble minded today, the letdown from the constant rush in this damp climate has left me a rag so Ill leave this and write more later. [Lucy Dewey] |
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| 67 | 1921.07.29 |
Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey family THE GRAND HOTELS, LIMITED. TSINGTAO, July 29. [1921] I've given up the typewriter as a hopeless job. They took us out the other day to the old German fortification on the point. The Japs didn't do much damage there, only one of the guns had been injured at all. The Japs evidently do not consider the place tenable as they are not doing anything with it and these great guns are all rusting with their machinery. There are new forts up on a hill, higher & farther inland, which our cab drive said are not so large as the Germans. What a beastly thing war is, anyway, it made it all seem very real & vivid to see those fortifications with the shell holes and barbed wire. Yesterday we didn't do much. Mamma has cracked her old broken rib and it bothers her a great deal. She stayed at home quietly all day yesterday to try and rest it and we stayed with her except for a short excursion down-town. She says her rib is some better this morning. Last night Dad & I went to the movies, it was quite an amusing show. This morning I am going out to swim with a girl I knew in Peking who is here for her vacation. It's very misty today—hasn't been really clear since we got here & we may give up the trip to the mountains tomorrow. Mamma is not very keen about it, especially as it involves spending the night and sleeping on board beds with all your ribs is not the most comfortable way to pass a night. If there is no chance for a view I think the whole thing will be given up, probably. I must run along to my swim. This will be continued in our next. [Lucy Dewey] |
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| 68 | 1921.10.03 |
Letter from John Macrae to John Dewey October 3. 1921. Prof. John Dewey, | 2880 Broadway, | New York City. My dear Professor Dewey: I am taking a liberty with a busy and a distinguished man. Your daughter, Miss Evelyn, informs me that you are back in New York; this I take to be official. I read your article in the NEW REPUBLIC on China. You probably have stored in your brain and graven across your heart a good deal of valuable feeling on the subject of China. I should like to publish a book by you on China; and I should like to publish another book by you on your feeling regarding the whole Asiatic and Japanese question,—in fact, I urge you to write such a book and to let me publish it for you. It is good to realize that you are back here, and that you will devote your marvellous gifts to the education of America. With my very kind personal regards, I am Sincerely yours, | [John Macrae] |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
|