S05: New Cultures

China, earliest civilization of East Asia,
Admiring America and chasing Europe
The old nation is under new construction.
The Five Colored Flag flutters high,
The glory of the Republic
shines over mountains and rivers.
My compatriots,
let us sing for civilization,
the universal peace shall forever be protected.

• “New Culture Movement”: What culture? What intellectuals? Tradition vs. Modernity
• “Mr. Science” and “Mr. Democracy”: What do they mean? How do they apply to China?
• What do people remember when they remember May Fourth? Why does the CCP celebrate China’s most famous protest movement?

June to September, 1898

• Intellectuals into statesmen: Kang Youwei appointed to Foreign Office, Tan Sitong to he Grand Council
• Opening of “pathways of words”: soliciting reform suggestions
• Replacing Six Boards with Western-style cabinet ministries
• Introduction of an independent judiciary

• The Qing’s abandonment of the Grand Canal and competition from foreign cotton goods caused poverty in Shandong.
• Flooding of the Yellow River in 1898 and drought in 1900 worsened poverty and discontent.
• Resentment grew due to foreign missionaries, especially German Catholics.
• The Spirit Boxers targeted foreign artifacts and violently attacked foreigners and Chinese Christian converts.

• Signed between China and eleven Great Powers on September 11, 1901
• 450 million silver taels as indemnity; 668 million with interest
• Entire revenue structure, except land tax, placed under foreign control
• Further erosion of national sovereignty: Japan retained troops in north China

• Rise of modern, activist, and fiscally efficient state
• Bureaucracy streamlined: Six Boards replaced by cabinet ministries
• New ministries: Trade, Education, Interior, Posts and Communication, etc.
• New sales tax on consumer goods; provincial revenue contributions
• Nationalization of profitable industries, mines, shipping lines

• Translation of Western legal texts
• Synthesizing Western law and Chinese tradition
• End of collective responsibility and cruel punishments
• New institituional structure: Ministry of Justice, Imperial Supreme Court
• New laws: criminal code, company law, citizenship (nationality by bloodline), etc.

• Creating centralized modern army to supplant Eight Banners and remnants of Taiping regional militia
• 1903: Commission on Military Reorganization
• Creation of Beiyang Army – first national army and China’s strongest military force
• Rise of Yuan Shikai (1859-1916) and key warlords of early Republican era

• Abolished in 1905
• End of traditional pathway to official service for over a millennium
• Establishment of Western-curriculum schools in all localities
• Modern school diploma replaced exam degree as credential for official service and social mobility

• 1905-1906: Overseas tour and study of political systems
• 1907: Commission to Study Constitutional Government established
• 1908: “Principles of the Constitution”, elected assemblies on local (1908) and provincial (1909) levels
• 1910: Provisional National Assembly convened in Beijing

The regime that a revolution destroys is almost always better than the one that immediately preceded it, and experience teaches that the most dangerous time for a bad government is usually when it begins to reform.

The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856)

What did the Qing accomplish?

• Multinational, universal empire
• Expansion of geographical scope of “China”
• Incorporation of non-Han peoples
• Small government: centrality of indigenous elites and groups in imperial governance

Choose your role:

• President Xi’s speech at meeting marking 1911 Revolution
• Ma Ying-jeou speech at Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing

Discuss in group:

• Is the 1911 Revolution still relevant in contemporary China and Taiwan? Why (or why not)?
• Specifically, how will you address the role of Sun Yat-sen and his legacy?
• What should we remember about the Xinhai Revolution?

• Japan: Twenty-One Demands (1915)
• Outer Mongolia: Declaration of independence (1924)
• Xinjiang: Anglo-Russian/Soviet rivalry
• Drawing of MacMahon line (1914), de-facto border between Tibet and British India

• At the start of World War I, China remained neutral, but joined the Allied Powers in 1917, primarily hoping to regain control of German-held territories in Shandong province.
• China’s direct military involvement was minimal, mainly due to internal political instability.
• But China contributed to the war by sending laborers to the Western Front. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers served in support roles (logistics, construction, etc.) for the British and French armies.

Context

• A statement of principles for peace negotiations after World War I.
• Presented in a speech to the US Congress in January 1918.
• Intended to promote democracy and international cooperation.

Key principles

• Open diplomacy (no secret treaties).
• Freedom of the seas.
• Free trade.
• Arms reduction.
• Self-determination for nations (allowing people to choose their own government).
• Establishment of a League of Nations to guarantee peace.

China

• How to convince the Allied powers that Shandong should be returned to China?
• What could win the argument of the day – Westerners’ sense of justice, their stated principles, and their own self-interest?
• How do you counter the claims of Japan?
• How do you justify your position to the public at home, especially protesting students?

United States

• How can you balance your sympathy for China with the need to maintain Allied unity?
• What would you do to secure the League of Nations? What compromises are you willing to make?
• How do you justify your position to isolationists at home?

European powers

• How do you justify honoring the secret wartime treaties with Japan?
• What are your primary concerns and priorities at the conference?
• How do you respond to China’s appeals for justice and self-determination?

Japan

• What arguments can you make to justify Japan’s claim to Shandong?
• How do you address concerns about Japanese expansionism in East Asia?
• What are you willing to concede to maintain good relations with the Allied powers?

• Utilized international law to defend Chinese territorial sovereignty against imperial encroachment
• Koo argued that Shandong, as birthplace of Confucius, was a Chinese holy land and that no power had a claim to it based on the Fourteen Points.
• Koo initially wanted to sign with “reservations”, but ultimately refused after the May Fourth Movement.

• Settling the war – without Ukraine or Europe
• Weakening of Trans-Atlantic Alliance
• Collapse of “rule-based int’l order”
• New age of empire? Greenland, Canada, Panama, etc.

• Student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919
• Part of broader New Culture Movement
• Against the Versailles Treaty, which transfers the former German concessions in Shandong province to Japan.

Cai Yuanpei:

• President of Peking University from 1917 to 1927
• Independence of higher education
• Recruited key scholars of the New Culture Movement
  • Chen Duxiu (1879-1942) and Li Dazhao (1889-1927), instrumental for introducing Marxism to China
  • Hu Shi (1891-1962), liberalism

• From gentry scholar-officials to newly independent and professionalizing intellectuals
• New public sphere and avenues of intellectual exchange: newspapers, tabloids, magazines
• Nationalistic and patriotic, but also insecure and alienated
• Modern, but also traditional: Inheritance of traditional ideal of self-cultivation and public service

• Lu Xun (1881-1936): leading figure of modern Chinese literature.
• Born into a declining scholar-official family, studied medicine in Japan but ultimately turned to writing.
• Pioneering use of vernacular Chinese, the spoken language, in writing, rather than classical Chinese.
• Call for a new, more accessible, and relevant Chinese literature.

How can a man like myself, after four thousand years of man-caring history—even though I knew nothing about it at first—ever hope to face real men? […] Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men? Save the children. . . .

• Describe the narrator: Who is he? Is he a reliable narrator?
• Who’s “mad”? Is it literal, metaphorical, or both?
• Why a “diary”? What effect does the narrative structure have?
• What is Lu Xun’s message?
• How does the story reflect concerns and anxieties at the time of writing?

我们今天是桃李芬芳，
明天是社会的栋梁；
我们今天弦歌在一堂，
明天要掀起民族自救的巨浪！
巨浪，巨浪，不断地增长！
同学们！同学们！
快拿出力量，
担负起天下的兴亡！

Today we are the fresh graduates,
Tomorrow we will be the pillars of society;
Today we sing in harmony,
Tomorrow we will stir up a great wave of national self-salvation!
The waves, the waves, keep growing!
Fellow students Fellow students!
Quickly muster your strength,
Shoulder the fate of the world!

We believe only these two gentlemen can bring salvation from all the darkness in China, be it political, moral, intellectual, or spiritual. In support of these two gentleman, we are willing to endure any oppression from the state or attacks from society. Even bloodshed and martyrdom are no reasons for abandonment.

Chen Duxiu

• Society is an organization of individuals
• “An individual should devote his efforts to create happiness and to enjoy it, and also to keep it in store in society”

• Thought is an instrument to deal with environment
• “Absolute truth is imaginary, abstract, vague, without evidence, and cannot be demonstrated”
• True philosophy is pragmatic: it should solve human problems

• Why does the Chinese Communist Party make a point of celebrating China’s most famous protest movement?
• What do people remember when they remember May Fourth?

Liberal / Progressive

• Emphasis on education, individual autonomy, and active citizenship.

Cynical / Critical

• The utopian vision of “new citizens” or a “new culture” never affected reality in the political system.
• This movement discarded China’s Confucian heritage and led to utopianism and radicalism.

• Anti-imperial and patriotic movement, driven by national spirit
• Young generation encouraged to join effort in achieving the Chinese dream and the great rejuvenation of the nation