YOUNG CHINA AND ITS PROBLEMS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 237, 8 May 1933, Page 3

YOUNG CHINA AND ITS PROBLEMS

By PROFESSOR WOOD-JONES

CORRUPTION AND CUSTOM HOLD UP NATIONAL REFORMS

In various parts of the world I have

come into contact with members of ,tjie .local young national group. In .jnost places their recognition is no difficult matter and all too often the attributes by which they arc most readily distinguished from their less progressive fellow-countrymen are those that arc least lovable. There is no need to specify any particular country of which the young national group is recognisable by characteristics that are more conspicuous than attractive. It is enough to say that if in China one looks to see a Young China group distinguished by any of these outward and visible signs, one looks in vain. The new arrival in a Chinese city

may perhaps imagine that Young China could be recognised by its wearing a felt hat. But the criterion fails before the next street corner has been turned. The familiar “Trilby’’ is today as much a hallmark of old China and middle-aged China as it is of Young China. The felt hatmay be said to be the national male headgear of tfrban China almost as universally as it is in Australia. Again, the test of wearing western garment’s fails. It is true that in some ways the Chinese national costume is unsuited to present-day working conhitiops, and, for that many Chinese dress in western fashion when engaged in their daily work. Bui i that does not mean that Young- China, £ or Young China’s leaders, are discards' i n g , their beautiful and dignified nags tionhl costume in favour of that inti-o-ff 4uced by a newer civilisation. Young » China does not ape the West in clothf ing. but adopts its garments when cm--0 ‘ployed in its occupations.

IL Chinese Philosophy W By no sartorial criterion can Young "T China bo positively identified. The If difficulty of recognition is further mm- cr,eased bv the fact that agi cement W ould be hard to come by, between Sr- observers in different Chinese cities, $ as to which particular section of W Chinese youth should rightly be dell signaled .as Young China. Just as dress fails us, so do speech and manf ner; and in the end wo nuiy have to fall back on such less, obvious 1 criteria ff as outlook and mental attitude. Probably it is the outstanding distinction of the Chinese that, when 1 brought into contact with a newer and a raoro materially advanced cultiire, he has always been sanely eclectic. He would no spoil or think _of blindly accepting an alien doctrine that did not suit his general philosophy than he would of wearing brown bbots because bis foreign teacher happened to do so. He gains from an alien culture only what suits him, and he does not necessarily lose anything of his' own in the process. And this may bo true, even for the foreign born and the foreign educated Chinese. But it is. true only if, during 'their absence from China, they do not lose remembrance of their own language and of their own ethical and social codes. Provided these conditions are fulfilled, no amount of foreign teaching produces unbalanced' thinking and no intimacy with foreign manners and customs upsets the ageold poise inborn in the Chinese. But it is only when the circumstances are thus that the gain is certain to outweigh the loss. It may truly be said that, in the exchange of cul- . tures with the West, the Chinese may gain a great wealth of material culture: but, if he loses his ’own, he •loses a spiritual one that he is unable \ .to. replace. , !

Religion and Culture Much has> been written’"about, the religion of the Chinese; ;thul it appears to have been decided that they have a great many religions, or, alternatively, that they have none. It matters but little which alternative we accept as the truth, for it is beyond doubt that the whole ancestral heritage of culture, to which the Chinese is heir, is a complete system of ethical and spiritual principles. From this* system any of the formal religions to which an individual happens to give his allegiance may be taken without doing violence to the system itself. But once the system is tampered ..with it is likely to fall in complete .ruin. It is for this reason that those who are responsible for the teaching of You’ng China should think well before they, attempt to undermine a faith in the doctrines of Confucius or the cult of ancestor worship. They should npt deprive Young China of these things until they have something better than the materialistic codes of western science to offer in their place. This is indeed the danger in which Young China stands, and the danger probably threatens more from the foreign-trained leaders of his own ‘race than from the foreign teacher himself. There is one peculiarity of Chinese psychology to which attention has been drawn by every writer who has undertaken to discuss the complex!-, ties of the Chinese character. In all j parts of the world the psychology of the mob differs in degree from that of the constituent individuals that compose the crowd. The actions of the crowd are either a good deal worse, or perhaps a little better, than those that would be embarked on by the i solitary individual. But in China these | things are much exaggerated; aiu\ the observer who has had, as his friends, large numbers of individuals distinguished by the gentlest good nature is apt to differ in his estimate of the Chinese character from one who has witnessed the fiendish cruelty of a Chinese mob. Marvellous Industry

In every attribute there is this dual estimate of the Chinese character, and both estimates are correct. The only difficulty is to decide which opinion should be accepted as representing the true Chinese racial character. Perhaps it is better to avoid making a decision on the matter. We may confess at once that the youth of China, when judged by some of the collective actions of university students, appears to be composed of very foolish and irresponsible young people who are prepared to embark upon ridiculous and even shameful, courses of action. But with this confession must also come - the claim that the individual Chinese student is a young person of sterling merit and of Truly loveable Characteristics —a young person who, while avid for Western learning, is yet a real Chinese, with all the innate racial attributes that are, in their totality, so worthy of our respect and

so capable of appealing to our affections. . There remains one aspect of tue Young China question that, in all its dreadful sadness, must find most ready sympathy from the foreigner who has not been in China long enough to have become accustomed to its conditions, but who has yet had opportunity of realising them. To see the real China spread out along the railway m /be whole long journey from Shanghai to Peiping, is to be impressed with the marvellous industry of the individual and the extraordinary merits of the whole vast population. Surely there must be a glorious future for such a people, a golden age awaiting the country that has such patient, indnstnous and self-respecting inhabitants. No one is idle. Nothing in all this wide land is wasted, no spot uncultivated, no soil untilled. In the tirst realisation of it all there comes the dream that the golden ago is just about to dawn. Were the stay m China to be of no more than a week or two, tins feeling would remain, and , one woulo return to tell of the regeneration of China that even now was beginning and would so soon be accomplished.

Pathos of China But the time reveals another aspect of China; the hopeless poverty patiently borne, the corruption of administration and the immovable, inertia ot age-long custom hampering all attempts at reform and seeming to thrust into an immeasurably distant future the dawn of real regeneration. With all these things long residence may beget familiarity, and the pathos of China become so much a part of the ordinary routine of things that in the end it is hardly noticed. But to one who has lived in China only a few months the thing becomes a. nightmare- not to bo shaken off. The whole business seems hopeless. It is to this depressing thought that Young China is awakening. ‘ “Chang Ai-min. a graduate of the local high school, committed suicide at the Temple of Heaven on Monday morning by taking poison. Dn the northern flight of steps leading to the Temple he left a poem in which he said, ‘Differing from other cases, the reason why I commit suicide is not because of disappointment in love, nor because of economic pressure, but owing to the fact that 1 am powerless to do anything toward the salvation of my country.’ The late Mr. Chang Ai-min was 23 years old. He was neatly dressed, and his head rested on u bundle of newspapers.” Srtdi is the announcement in the Peiping Chronicle, and the pit of it ail is that the cause of the young man’s suicide is by no means so_ unusual as he fancied. In China, suicide has always been recognised as an honourable end; but for the youth of China a far more glorious destiny is waiting. The thousands of young men and women who, while still retaining the spiritual birthright of their native culture, have adopted much of _ the utilitarian and material culture ol the West, have the making of the new China in their own hands. For the regeneration of China must come from within, and hy its own people; no alien power can effect it from without.