Blog Archives

#304 Mao's Rise to Power

2/28/2019

Check for understanding.

Context:

Today is a bridge, of sorts, between the early twentieth century and the middle and the rise of the Communists. Mao's rise--and especially, his thought--is our focus.
Practicing intentional discussion skills. Expectation is that everyone will offer at least one substantive comment; nobody will speak more than three times. I will keep track, but not nudge.

Discussion on Mao Zedong’s rise to power:

To what extent should historians (and biographers) seek to make sense of adults based on their upbringing? Were you convinced by arguments such as “By Mao’s own account, from his earliest years he was constantly on guard against the tyranny of his father, who regularly beat him. . . . It is hardly surprising, then, that his fraught relationship with his stubborn, powerful father bred within him a deep-seated antiauthoritarianism” (Schell and Delury, 200).

What might it mean to describe Mao’s early writing (and arguably much of his later writing) as “romantic”? How might we reconcile such a description with his commitment to the supposedly “scientific” nature of Marx’s theories?

What factors do you think were most important in leading Mao to communism? In other words, what was appealing about this radical ideology for him?

How did Mao come to place his revolutionary hopes in China’s rural masses? How might we reconcile such a commitment with Marx’s own dismissal of the peasantry when he described them as the “homonymous magnitudes, much as potatoes in a sack form a sack of potatoes” (Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon,” 1852). What did Mao see in the peasantry? Why do you think Marx had been so quick to dismiss them as revolutionary actors?

Since Joseph Schumpeter first coined the concept of “creative destruction” in the 1950s, it has become almost universally accepted as a model of economic transformation. What do Schell and Delury mean when they associate Mao with this concept? How might it be different than the market-oriented sense that Schumpeter introduced the term?
What does Mao mean by “contradictions” (maodun 矛盾)? What significance does he place on the concept and are you convinced by his approach?

#303 Devils on the Doorstep

2/26/2019

Background:

Jiang Wen: Three faces
- “Jiang the actor has long been a symbol of virile and masculine Han nationalism” (Peter Hays Gries, “China’s ‘New Thinking’ on Japan,” in The China Quarterly no. 184 (Dec. 2005), 835. Jiang starred in the 1988 film Red Sorghum (Hong gaoliang 红高粱) in which he led peasant resistance against Japanese in rural Shandong. In 1993 he played Chinese businessman Wang Qiming in A Beijinger in New York (Beijingren zai Niuyue 北京人在纽约) in which he bests an American competitor and even “hires a buxom blond American prostitute and has his way with her with a vengeance—fulfilling the fantasies of many male Chinese nationalists” (Gries, 835).
- As a director, Jiang has also repeatedly tested the boundaries and interrogated the past. He has directed two films tackling the Cultural Revolution--In the Heat of the Sun (Yangguang canlan de rizi 阳光灿烂的日子, 1994) and The Sun also Rises (Taiyang zhaochang sheng qi 太阳照常升起, 2007). We viewed perhaps his most controversial film, Devils on the Doorstep (Guizi laile 鬼子来, 2000), which challenges conventional narratives about Chinese resistance during World War II. He bypassed state authorities by entering the film in Cannes, where it won the Grand Prix, and was banned from filmmaking for seven years for work that “seriously distorts Chinese history” and “demonstrating the power of the Japanese army this way hurts the feelings of the Chinese people.” [Note this last part is a set phrase that often appears in official communications].
- Jiang is, of course, also an entertainer. In 2011, Jiang’s Let the Bullets Fly (Rang zidan fei 让子弹飞), featured big-budget action thrills in the context of the 1920s Warlord period. And in 2016 he had a supporting role in Star Wars: Rogue One.
Further context:
- Connection between three time periods:
  - Depicted: 1944-45 (end of World War II)
  - Created: 2000 (response to post-1989 Chinese nationalism)
  - Viewed: 2019 (us at Hotchkiss)
- By any measure World War II more significant part of Chinese history than it is in American history.
- World War II is nearly ubiquitous as a film on television and movies in China. In 2012, for example, 69 anti-Japanese television series were approved for production along with about 100 films.
- Narratives do not generally feature a lot of nuance, but then again, not generally a lot of nuance in Hollywood films about Nazis.

Today's task:

Imagine you have been tasked with writing an article explaining the relevance of Devils on the Doorstep to American high school and university students of Chinese history.

Process:

Start by sharing your thoughts (one per note card—each with textual support if possible).
Then, take a moment to read what your teammates have written. Place a sticker on any comments you think are especially helpful.
Finally, we’ll reflect first in groups and then with the whole class.

If you feel stuck, consider these questions to prompt your thinking . . .

Why are films useful for learning about the past?
Consider the film as literature: is it a comedy, a tragedy, or something else? What relevance does this question have when thinking about this as a tool for teaching history?
How would you characterize the Japanese in this film? The Chinese?
Do you think this film has an argument? If so, what is it? If not, why?
Why do you think Jiang Wen was rebuked by state authorities for directing this film?
How does our present (or Jiang’s present) influence the way we see the film?

#302 Nanjing Massacre

2/21/2019

Memorial Hall to the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre

And maps can really point to places
Where life is evil now:
Nanking; Dachau.
⸺W.H. Auden, “Here War is Simple”

Essential question:

If war and revolution entail the breakdown of normal order, can and should there be rules for the use of violence in these circumstances?
- With a partner, identify the strongest argument on each side of this argument.
- How do you think the statement relates to the Nanjing massacre?

Technical set up for Devils at the Doorstep

Nanjing Massacre context:

For China, World War II began in July 1937 when Chinese and Japanese forces skirmished just outside Beijing at Lugouqiao (the Marco Polo Bridge). Jiang then committed to “throw every last ounce of
energy into a struggle for national survival.”
In the next major round of fighting in Shanghai between August-November 1937, Jiang lost 60% of the modern core of his army.
Having captured Shanghai, Japanese forces then turned their attention to the capital at Nanjing, where they would go on to murder between 200,000-340,000 civilians in December 1937 and January 1938.

Discussion on John Rabe’s diary:

What’s surprising here?
How would you summarize what Rabe is observing?
Why did Rabe think people would need to know about this? What did he expect from the international community?
Compare Rabe’s diary entries with the battalion report from Japanese forces, below. What is similar? What is different?
- Battalion report, at 2:00 (p.m.) received orders from the regiment commander: to comply with orders from brigade commanding headquarters, all prisoners of war are to be executed. Method of execution: to divide the prisoners into groups of a dozen. Shoot to kill separately. It is decided that the prisoners are to be divided evenly among each company . . . and to be brought out from their imprisonment in groups of 50 to be executed. The vicinity of the imprisonment must be heavily guarded. Our intentions are absolutely not to be detected by the prisoners. Every company is to complete preparation before 5:00 p.m. Executions are to start by 5:00 and action is to be finished by 7:30 (Empire of Japan’s 66th Regiment 1st Battalion Report, 13 December 1937).
Based on both accounts, what can you infer about the possible causes of the massacre?

#301 Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek): The Generalissimo

2/20/2019

(Left) Jiang in the early 1920s, (Center) in 1945 alongside Mao Zedong in Chongqing, and (Right) in 1960 with his wife, Song Meiling, and President Eisenhower on Taiwan.

Check for understanding

Brief background

Jiang Jieshi was classically educated, though rose to power mainly through the military ranks of the Guomindang (much like Yuan Shikai, who had been born nearly thirty years earlier).
By 1924, Jiang had been appointed as first commandant of the elite Whampoa (Huangpu 黄埔) Academy.
When Sun Zhongshan died the next year, Jiang emerged as his successor.
Led the Northern Expedition (beifa 北伐) in 1926-27 and established a new national government based in Nanjing.
In the mid-1930s, he promoted the “New Life Movement” (Xin shenghuo yundong 新生活运动)
Japan soon encroached on Chinese territory, seizing Manchuria between 1931-33 and then escalating a full-scale war in July 1937.
Jiang initially focused his attention on the Communists, though after the Xi’an Incident in December 1936 he grudgingly agreed to a Second United Front with them to fight Japan.
Jiang’s wartime government at Chongqing was marred by economic crisis, low army morale, and rampant corruption.
After Japan was defeated in 1945, the Guomindang gradually lost ground until Jiang was forced to retreat to Taiwan in 1949.

Jiang Jieshi through the frame of a virtual gallery

With a partner, conduct a virtual “gallery walk” (Google Doc) through the maps, images, and excerpts collected. Consider:
- Note the important elements that stand out in the gallery. Identify patterns you see emerging as you link up this exhibit and your reading last night.
- Based on those observations, what new questions do you have as a historian and where might you go to get answers to those questions?
Rework the gallery:
- Based on those questions, what do you think you might add or subtract from this gallery if you were to prepare a public history exhibition? What factors might drive those decisions?
If World War II had not broken out in 1937 in China, what kind of future do you think the future of Jiang’s Guomindang government might have looked like? How might it be similar or different from the China that emerged under the leadership of the Communists?

#300 Introduction to Unit III: War and Revolution

2/17/2019

Above (left) Richard Bernstein's article in The New York Times in 1989, and (right) Bernardo Bertolucci in the Forbidden City during filming of The Last Emperor (1987).

Class engagement self-assessment survey

Essential questions for Unit III:

If war and revolution entail the breakdown of normal order, can and should there be rules for the use of violence in these circumstances?
What ultimately motivates individuals to act? Material incentives (e.g. money, possessions, social position), or ideas (e.g. philosophy, education, belief systems, culture)? And can the answer to that question change, or it is a fixed product of “human nature”?
How does film compare to historical scholarship, still images, and literature as a medium for conveying “truth” about the past?

Film and history:

Start today with the third question. In small groups, brainstorm how your assigned medium can provide unique perspective on “truth” about the past:

Historical scholarship
Still images (particularly illustrations and photography)
Literature

Next, we’ll bring film into the conversation. We’ll start by reading a short excerpt from Richard Bernstein, “Can Movies Teach History?” in The New York Times (26 November 1989). Once you have finished reading the excerpt below, discuss, with a partner:

What are the opportunities and challenges of film as a medium for conveying meaning about the past?
How is film like—and unlike—the other media we discussed above?

Something strange—not new, but ever more conspicuous—haunts the cultural landscape. Movie makers and television producers have become our most powerful, though perhaps not our most careful, historians. It seems fair to say that more people are getting their history, or what they think is history, from the movies these days than from the standard history books. The phenomenon is probably unavoidable, yet, if the history as presented by the movies turns out to be a muddy blur of fantasy and fact, the consequences cannot be good. In the 16th century, Francis Bacon said that history makes men wise. It follows that bad history, trivialized history, history distorted and sensationalized, can make them foolish.

There have been history movies for decades, of course, from Eisenstein's “Ten Days that Shook the World” (with its famous—and unhistorical—scenes of Kerensky hiding under his couch) to “The Babe Ruth Story.” But the latest examples have been particularly big-budget affairs, [including] Bernardo Bertolucci's “Last Emperor.”

In a world dominated by Top Guns, Lethal Weapons and Police Academies, the mere fact that some directors concentrate on critical episodes of our past is in its way heartening. At the same time, there is something disconcerting about the tendency of movies-as-history to construct Technicolored and sound-tracked edifices of entertainment on the slender foundations of what appear to be actual events, or, at the very least, to mingle fact with fancy, history with imagination, in such a way that the average viewer has no way of sorting out one from the other. . . .

Mr. Bertolucci got the costumes splendidly right in “The Last Emperor,” which won nine Academy Awards two years ago [in 1987], but he fashioned a biography designed originally in China’s Propaganda Department to show the benefits of Maoist-style re-education. . . .

One obvious question about this is: Why shouldn’t the film maker, like the novelist, have license to use the material of history selectively and partially in the goal of entertaining, creating a good dramatic product, even forging what is sometimes called the poetic truth, a truth truer even than literal truth? The artist, one could argue, is an interpreter, not a reporter, a seeker after meaning, perhaps a prophet, but not a scribe; so the invention or rearrangement of details doesn't matter. Indeed, the question could be put this way: Does it matter if the details are wrong if the underlying meaning of events is accurate? Or, conversely, does it matter if the details are correct if the underlying truths remain twisted and unsubstantiated?

These are not easy questions to answer, especially given the difficulty, even for historians, of knowing exactly what is the underlying truth in the first place. But any answer has to take into account two things. First, even “poetic truth” is a mere handy justification for historical fabrication if it derives from a willful disregard of the facts of history. We live, after all, in a time shadowed by the great falsifications of the dictators, reflected in literary form by Orwell’s memory hole, or by Milan Kundera’s concept of forgetfulness. The recent past does suggest the sacredness of scrupulous, sober remembering, of the need to treat the past as a vessel that cannot be filled with whatever combination of truth and falsehood can compete with “Top Gun” at the box office.

Second is the plain fact that the movies and television are our most powerful media. “The difference between movies and novels is the fundamental illusion of photography,” says Richard Slotkin, a professor of history at Wesleyan University who has written about the movies-as-history genre. “Even when you know that something didn’t happen, movie photography gives you the illusion that it did.”

Armed with their special persuasive power, many of the latest history movies deal not with distant events but with the central episodes and actors of our era. They deal with colonialism and war, freedom and civil rights, corruption and malfeasance in office—the events and issues, in short, on which public consciousness is forged. And so if you believe with the historian Wilhelm Dilthey that man can know himself only in his history, then the distortion of the past, particularly for motives of profit or politics, becomes a matter for serious contemplation.

#209 Lao She's Teahouse

2/14/2019

Left: photo of the author Lao She. Right: scene from the 2010 CCTV production of Teahouse (茶馆)

Background: Lao She (老舍, 1899-1966)

We get a nice synopsis about the author before the excerpts begin.
Here are two fascinating additions about his literary legacy from writer Paul French in the Los Angeles Review of Books:
- “Set in the first half of the 20th century, his work describes the lives of dispossessed Chinese: Mr Ma and Son, his London novel, describes the experiences of being a Chinese in a Yellow Peril-obsessed Britain of the 1920s; Crescent Moon describes a family’s impoverishment and descent into prostitution; Rickshaw Boy, perhaps his most important and enduring novel, tells the futile and desperate story of a Beijing rickshaw puller; and Teahouse is a sprawling social commentary of one Chinese family from the late 19th century to the cataclysmic year of 1949. Along the way he produced numerous short stories, plays, and even an early Chinese science-fiction novel, Cat Country, which imagined a Chinese astronaut stranded on a Mars populated by debauched and decadent drug-addicted cats. His readers understood his commentaries on contemporary China, but the godfathers of China’s literary establishment didn’t always appreciate his modernist critiques and vernacular style—especially after the revolution, when Lao She fell foul of Mao’s Red Guards.”
- “And still Lao She is censored, remade in the image of the Party, the only image allowed in China, then and now. In 2010, CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, screened a 39-episode adaptation of Teahouse with the requisite ‘official’ ending of a joyous ‘liberation’ in 1949 added; in recent theatrical adaptations of Lao She’s final work Beneath the Red Banner, a semi-autobiographical novel of the dying days of the Manchu Dynasty, mention is never officially made of the fact that the book remains unfinished, as the author was instructed by the Red Guards that all art and literature had to describe life since 1949. Still control is denied him, futility forced upon him. At his former home in Beijing his writing desk has been preserved as it was on his final day. The calendar turned to August 24, 1966. Keen, seemingly enthusiastic young student volunteers offer to answer any questions foreign visitors may have about Lao She. So let’s begin at the end and ask them what happened on that day? They turn away, embarrassed, giggle nervously, see the person asking the question as a problem, not even attempting a shilly-shally answer.”

Performance and analysis

We will divide the class into three groups covering pages 1-6 (A), 7-11 (B), and 12-18 (C), respectively.
Choose one short passage within the pages assigned to your group.
- Prepare a short script for a narrator to describe the scene. If the audience could transport themselves into the scene, what would they see, hear, and smell? Are there any other important contextual details of note? (Feel free to sketch an image if you would like).
- Perform your short selection (as written) for the class.
- Prepare a short post-reading analysis. Among your observations, be sure to include:
  - How does this passage reflect the political, social, and economic conditions of Beijing—and China, more broadly—in 1922?
  - What are some of the different philosophies and strategies employed by the characters to navigate the social changes of this period?

Discussion

What are some of the major concerns raised by the characters?
How might the characters in the play compare to the other figures we have encountered this unit: Liang Qichao, Sun Zhongshan, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun (and his “madman”), He Zhen, Hu Shi, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong, Deng Yingchao, and even Edward Hume. What similarities do you note? Differences?
This play unfolds during several the overlapping periods and movements: the nationalism of the May Fourth Movement, the intellectual foment and literary experimentation of the New Culture Movement, the instability of Warlordism, not to mention the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, in July 1921) and the increasing intensity of Christian missionary efforts. How do you see this play intersecting with these movements? And, how do the movements connect with and inform one another?

#208 Yu Dafu's "Sinking"

2/12/2019

Check for understanding / written reflection

Background:

Yu Dafu was born in 1896, and was 25 when he wrote “Sinking,” which is perhaps his most well-known short story. He died, likely by Japanese security forces, in today’s Indonesia in September 1945—just after Japan’s surrender in World War II.
The story is seen as representative of Romantic flavor of May Fourth / New Culture Era literature.
It is notable as one of first psychological works of modern Chinese literature. Highly subjective, personal, and subjective in a way that echoes a type of high poetry, but set in a world fundamentally changed.
How do we read it?
- Guo Moruo: “Audacious self-exposure”?
- Michael Eagan: Ironic depiction of a “pitiable mock hero”?
To what extent is society important in this story:
- Leo Ou-fan Lee: “Sex, racism, and nationalism” tightly interconnected?
- Michael Eagan, again: “Essentially apolitical and individualistic”?

Discussion

#207 Lu Xun's Outcry

2/11/2019

Left: Photo of Lu Xun in 1930 (Source: China Story), Center: A 1974 portrait of Lu Xun by Li Yitai titled "Marxism is the most lucid and lively philosophy: a portrait of Lu Xun" (Source: China Story), Right: A woodcut illustration accompanying "Diary of a Madman" (Source: Harvard).

Background on Lu Xun

Lu Xun was born in Shaoxing, in Zhejiang province in 1881 and was known to those around him as Zhou Shuren. His hometown is notable for its networks of native sons in government and abroad, a group that counted increasingly reformist—even radical—figures at the end of the Qing dynasty, including educator Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940), anti-Manchu revolutionary Qiu Jin (1875-1907—her cousin and co-conspirator, Xu Xilin, is mentioned in "Diary of a Madman" on page 29), and future Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976).
As he points out in the preface, Lu Xun's father was ill (with tuberculosis among other ailments), leaving his family to struggle.
He attended school, but did not prepare for imperial exams. This was a less prestigious route, but also an increasingly path for non-elites eager to gain access to formal schooling. He attended two military academies in Nanjing between the time of the Hundred Days’ Reform and the end of the Boxer Uprising, finding his way to Japan in time for the Russo-Japanese War. The image he mentions the preface is likely this one, below:

Literary career began by translating Japanese and Western stories (first collection in 1909). He was well versed both in classical Chinese literature as well as writing from Japan, Russia, Germany, and France.
He read a Japanese translation of Nikolai Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman,” the inspiration for his own story of the same name, depending on translation. Though inspired by a Russian story and modeled after
Gogol’s own protest, there are distinct differences that separate the two works and exemplify
the unique mindset of the Chinese people and the unique nature of their dilemma at this point
in history. Stephen Owen, a scholar of Chinese literature, explains:
- “Both [stories] are written in the form of a diary, and both depict the diarist’s descent into
  madness as a result of the oppressive systems in which they live. However, in Gogol’s
  story, as the diarist descends into madness, the diarist moves further away from truth and reality. In Lu Xun’s story, the diarist’s descent into madness brings him closer to truth
  and reality—the reality that the chaotic backwardness of Chinese society is chipping
  away the spirit of the Chinese people.”
Lu Xun’s cultural and political influence was significant. Mao Zedong viewed Lu Xun as “nothing less than the intellectual forefather of the Chinese Communist Revolution.” While Owen suggests that he “became the cornerstone of the New Culture Movement.”
He co-founded the League of Left-Wing Writers in 1930 and was mainly able to avoid the fierce factional politics within the left before his death in 1936 due to tuberculosis and other ailments.

Quotes and questions

Start by taking some time to pull out 1-2 significant, provocative, or perplexing quotations from the text. Pair each quotation with a question intended to engage your classmates.
We will use this this shared Google Doc (link) to collaborate.
These will be the selections and questions that we anchor our discussion around.

Lu Xun’s afterlife

View the posters on the “Lu Xun” page of Stefan Landsberger’s Chinese Posters (external link).
Discuss the following issues:
- How is Lu Xun’s image being employed in each poster? How is that effect achieved?
- If you were asked to draw up a poster on the theme of “Diary of a Madman” for the Chinese Communist Party, what might it look like?

#206 The May Fourth Movement and the Founding of the CCP

2/7/2019

Background:

The cartoon below, captioned “Down with Cao, Lu and Zhang by the workers, the students and the merchants,” was published in 1919. I have provided translation (the blue italicized text) to help you understand the Chinese printed on the figures.

Based on your reading, answer the following questions using evidence from the image above:

What background is essential to know to make sense of this cartoon?
What does the author of this text choose to include in the story of the May Fourth protests? What does the author choose to exclude?
What reasonable inferences might we make about the views of this author?

TED Talk

Step 1. You and your partner will receive two cards:

The “bio card” will be a brief biographical sketch.
The “document card” will contain a brief primary source selection.

Start by reading both cards and underlining key points.

Step 2. Take turns asking questions as you circulate around the room using this pattern:

Holders of the bio sketch card may ask yes/no questions. For example, “Does your document card mention Marxism?”
Holders of the document card may respond only with a yes or no.

Ask questions of multiple classmates before you commit to a single card and are reasonably certain that you have found a match. Once you have found your match (please confirm with Mr. Hall!), the holder of the document card should hand over their card to the holder of the bio card.

Step 3. The two partners that hold the bio card should create a brief “TED Talk” that contains elements of the personal introduction that synthesizes the biographical details and the arguments on the document card. Effective TED Talks are clear, narrative-driven, and focused on making one big idea accessible to a broad audience. Both partners should contribute to the short speech. This is also the point where you may wish to consult additional resources if you would like.

Step 4. Deliver your “TED Talk” and take questions from the audience. Every audience member should expect to ask three thoughtful questions over the course of the presentations.

Grading considerations:

How clear and precise is the talk?
How compelling is the narrative?
How accurate are the supporting details?
To what extent is the talk successful at expanding on a “big idea”?

#205 Chen Duxiu and New Youth

2/6/2019

Introduction to New Youth

One of Chen Duxiu’s most important contributions was the creation and editorship of New Youth (Xin qingnian 新青年) magazine.

New Youth served as a kind of virtual meetinghouse for China’s iconoclastic public intellectuals in the 1910s and 1920s.
Its spirit reflected Chen’s “Call to Youth” in the 1915 inaugural issue:
- “The Chinese compliment others by saying: ‘He acts like an old man while still young’. Englishmen and Americans encourage one another by saying ‘Keep young while growing old’. Such is one respect in which the different ways of thought of the East and West are manifested. Youth is like early spring, like the rising sun, like trees and grass in bud, like a newly sharpened blade. It is the most valuable period of life. The function of youth in society is the same as that of a fresh and vital cell in a human body. In the process of metabolism, the old and rotten are incessantly eliminated to be replaced by the fresh and living.”

Start by looking at the table of contents (PDF ) from a 1919 edition of New Youth magazine. As you look it over, consider:

Describe the range of topics discussed in this magazine. What were some of the important social, political, and literary issues that these writers were concerned about?

Team investigation

Next, let’s look a little more closely at a few of the articles from this edition. Each team will focus on one document and the "consider" questions that follow. You will be asked to guide your classmates briefly through each text.

Team A. Excerpts from Hu Shi, “Why I write poems in the vernacular,” New Youth, May 1919.

I clearly stated that, “Classical Chinese is a half dead language and should not be taught using a methodology used to teach a live language.” I also stated that “so-called live language is a language that is used in daily life, such as English, French and vernacular Chinese. The so-called dead languages, such as [ancient] Greek and Latin, are not used daily, in other words, they’re dead. . . .

[T]he literary revolution that I propose is based on the current situation of Chinese literature and has little to do with the new literature movements in Europe and America. The reason that I sometimes quote Western literary history, (specifically the part when European authors began to write in their native languages three or four hundred years ago), is only because the need for vernacular literature in China today is very similar to the need in Europe then. If we study what those countries accomplished, we will reduce our conservatism and increase our courage. . . .

There are eight rules in new literature:

1. Do not quote idioms;
2. Do not use set phrases;
3. Do not use couplet format;
4. Do not avoid vernacular words;
5. Do follow correct grammar;
6. Do not write claptrap;
7. Do not imitate ancestors;
8. There must be a point to the writing.

Consider:

How would you distill Hu’s message in your own words?
Which sentence do you think is most significant in this selection? Why?
What might Hu be trying to achieve by promoting vernacularization of Chinese?
Who would likely defend to continued study and usage of “dead” Classical Chinese? Why?

Team B. Excerpts from Li Dazhao, “My view on Marxism,” New Youth, May 1919.

I have not done much research on Marxism; therefore it is bold of me to attempt to talk about Marxism here. However, ever since the Russian Revolution, Marxism is about to sweep through the world. Countries such as Germany, Austria, and Hungary started their revolutions one after another following Marxist ideology. While Marxism has caught people’s attention around the world and has stirred up great changes, it also has generated many misunderstandings and misinterpretations.

Although our study of Marxism [at New Youth] is slight, there has been a great deal of interest in, and criticism of, his works in various countries as a result of the 100th anniversary [of Marx’s birth] in 1918. We have collected and edited these writings to introduce them to our readers in this Marxism edition of New Youth magazine. I believe it is not without benefit for readers to gain some insight into this world-altering theory through our discussions. If there are any errors due to the editors’ limited knowledge of Marxism, we hope our dear readers will offer their corrections.

Consider:

How would you distill Li’s message in your own words?
Which sentence do you think is most significant in this selection? Why?
Why might Li Dazhao be so interested in Marxism, particularly coming from a country of farmers rather than industrial workers?

Team C. Excerpts from Chen Duxiu’s opening editorial, New Youth, December 1919.

(Note: this was published several months after the other selections and is therefore not included in the table of contents above).

We believe that the moral progress of mankind should expand to a standard above the life based on animal impulse; therefore, we should extend a feeling of friendship and mutual assistance to all peoples of the world. But toward aggressive and possessive warlords and plutocrats, we have to be hostile.

We advocate mass movement and social reconstruction, absolutely cutting off any relations with past and present political parties.

Although we do not believe in the omnipotence of politics, we recognize that politics is an important aspect of public life. And we believe that in a genuine democracy, political rights must be distributed to all people. Even though there may be limitations, the criteria for the distribution will be whether people work or not, rather than whether they own property or not. . . . We recognize [political parties] as a necessary device for political practice, but we shall never tolerate membership in parties that support the interests of the few or of one class rather than the happiness of the whole society.

We believe that politics, ethics, science, the arts, religion, and education should all meet practical needs in the achievement of progress for present and future social life. . . .

We believe that to respect women’s personality and rights is a practical need for the social progress at present, and we hope that they themselves will be completely aware of their duty to society.

Consider:

How would you distill Chen’s message in your own words?
Which sentence do you think is most significant in this selection? Why?
Who in 1919 might disagree with Chen’s arguments that “politics, ethics, science, the arts, religion, and education should meet all the practical needs . . . for present and future social life”?
What is the editorial’s final paragraph suggesting? Why?

Wrap up:

What are some of the values represented in the selections we have read here?
How did publications like New Youth mobilize intellectuals to think, discuss, and debate about social, political, and literary issues in Chinese society? What would it mean to describe all of these issues as “political”?
How might New Youth served to mobilize intellectuals? And what might such a mobilization suggest about the changing role of intellectuals in Chinese society at this time?

#204 Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen): A Nation of Citizens?

2/6/2019

Check for understanding.

Opening question:

If you had lived in China in the first decade of the twentieth century, would you have supported gradual reform efforts under the Qing or a republican revolution to overthrow the dynasty? Why? (Note: try to stick with what someone at the time would know—you can’t see into the future!)

Discussion questions:

After more than two thousand years under some version of the imperial system, Sun Zhongshan re-imagined China as a republic. What is a republic? How do you recognize one when you see it? What are its distinguishing features—what, in other words binds together the American republic, France, and the People’s Republic of China as a common form of government?
What are the “radical” and “conservative” elements of Sun Zhongshan’s thought?
Three People's Principles (Sanmin zhuyi 三民主义):
- Nationalism (minzhu zuyi 民主主义). What is the “ethnicity” or the “race” that Sun might have had in mind?
- People’s rights (minquan zhuyi 民权主义). Sun said the “aims of the Chinese Revolution are different . . . methods we must use must also be different.” If he did not have in mind “the kind of natural or God-given rights that Enlightenment thinkers viewed as the birthright of all human beings,” then what did he have in mind?
- People’s livelihood (minsheng zhuyi 民生主义). Sun’s socio-economic vision for China. How does this compare to “socialism”? Where would he be on the left-right political spectrum in the nation grew up in?

Why might Sun be one of the few major political figures in modern China celebrated in both the Mainland and on Taiwan?

Wrap up activity:

By the 1890s Sun had worked to organize a series of revolutionary associations—eventually culminating in the Guomindang as a formal political party in the aftermath of the Xinhai Revolution. Naturally, he did not have access to social media during this time. If he did, describe an image-driven meme or tweet (140 character limit) that he might have used to promote one or more of his ideas.

#203 Early Twentieth-Century China in Film

2/4/2019

Unit I feedback report (5 min):

Note I read and appreciated all of the feedback offered. The comments highlighted below lean more to the critical end, however overall the comments were fairly positive.
Most engaged:
- 7 said discussion and/or Opium Debate
- Others included briefings, visual analysis, and the Cixi exhibit.
Most distanced:
- 4 said discussion
- “Sometimes there were very specific conversations centered around about 2 people having a back-and-forth. I felt unable to participate then, which led to a bit of distraction.”
Puzzling or confusing:
- “I think the group project on Cixi involved misunderstanding by all parties, including myself. Didn't feel like the directions were clear enough and the execution well enough.”
- “I was puzzled by how some conversations that are unrelated to the topic of the day can go on for longer periods of time, taking up valuable class time.”
- “maybe when YY took a lot of the chocolate pocky.”
Surprised you the most:
- “It is surprising that the more recent the incident is, the more ways of interpretation there is.”
- “Sometimes the readings were longer than I expected and took more time”

Timeline overview (5 min):

1905 Tongmenghui (“Revolutionary Alliance”) established by Sun Zhongshan to overthrow the Qing dynasty
1908 Guangxu emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi died days apart; two-year old Puyi crowned as Xuantong emperor
1911 Wuchang Uprising sparked Xinhai Revolution, ending two millennia of imperial rule in China
1912 Republic of China established; Yuan Shikai emerged as president
1913 Sun fled to Japan after attempted overthrow of Yuan’s government
1915 Yuan Shikai died months after crowning himself emperor; warlords soon carved up China
1917 China entered World War I on side of Allied Powers
1919 May Fourth protests in Beijing
1926-28 Northern Expedition reestablished partial central control under Guomindang

Questions to consider:

What can you learn from each format? In other words, what are the strengths of each?
How does the format influence the narrative presented to the viewer?
How do intentional choices on part of the creators (writers, directors, narrators, actors, et al) shape the narrative presented to the viewer?

Viewing (20 min)

Documentary: China: A Century of Revolution (first 7 minutes)
Film: The Last Emperor (1987) (7 minute clip)
- “Where’s the cricket?” circa 1908
- “You’re not the emperor!” circa 1912
- “China was in turmoil” May 1919
Film: The Founding of the Party (Jiandang weiye 建党伟业 2011) (4 minute clip: 1:08-1:12):
- “A historic moment is before us” May 1919

Debrief (time remaining based on questions)

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