S03: 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?

The empire has fallen. But what about its remains?

• State-building: How to incorporate the frontier and defend China’s sovereignty?
• Nation-building: How to identify, classify, and assimilate 20-40 million minority population into a single national identity?

China and India share a long – and long-disputed – 3,440km de facto border (the Line of Actual Control):

• Oct 1962: Sino-Indian Border War; China gained Aksai Chin territory in Ladakh region
• Jun 2020: Battle in in the Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region; 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers died.
• Repeated skirmishes since 2020

• Born in 1935 in Taktser, Amdo, Tibet, as Lhamo Dondrub.
• Enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama in 1940 in Lhasa.
• Fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
• Established the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

• Altannaryn Aguidai (or) Achiltai (b. 2015) chosen as 10th Jebtsundamba, spiritual head of the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia
• Departure from tradition: Born in US, chosen in Mongolia, not Tibet
• Latest struggle between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Communist Party: Who has the right to appoint reincarnations?
• 2007 Chinese law: all reincarnation of Buddhist lamas require official registration and Chinese government approval.

• 1904-1905: Exile in Mongolia after British invasion
• 1908: Visit to Beijing; unsuccessful agreement
• 1909: Arrival of Qing troops led by Han bannerman Zhao Erfeng to assert control
• 1910-02-10: Flight to India

• Imperial rule without distinction of race or language
• Kinship and lineages as focus of localized identities, rather than ethnicity or race
• Criss-crossed local identities, rather than sustained cross-regional ethnic or proto-nationalistic political identity
• Maintenance-oriented approach, aimed at pacification and stability for different territories and peoples

• The Treaty of Aigun of 1858 established the modern border between the Russian Far East and China.
• Much of Manchuria ceded to Russia; Qing lost access to the Sea of Japan.

• Desire for nationhood: Fear of “extinction of our country and race”
• Radical reformers: Chinese nation for the Han people; “Expel the Manchus and Restore China”
• Assimilation policy vs. Backlash against local elites
• Separatism encouraged by foreign powers: Japan in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria; Britain in Tibet, Soviet Union in Xinjiang

• Rivalry between Russia and Britain to control Asia
• Much of central Asia was ruled by the Tzar
• Britain controlled India, Burma, Bhutan, and Sikkim
• Shared interest in Inner Asia: Tibet and Mongolia

Form groups of three:

• Tibet: 13th Dalai Lama
• Mongolia: Bogd Khan
• Great Britain
• Russian Empire

Questions:

• How would you define the relationship between Tibet/Mongolia and GB/Russia?
• What would the political arrangement look like? Independence, assmilation, association, something in between?
• How would you secure your status?

• Declarations of independence of Outer Mongolia and Tibet from the ROC government
• Blow to the strategy of territorial unification through the “Republic of Five Nationalities”
• Treaty of Mutual Recognition (1913), but ignored by the great powers
• At the same time, new opportunity for Russia and Britain to enhance their control of Mongolia and Tibet respectively

• Commercial and security for India, not domination of Tibet
• No recognition of China’s dominance over the region, no incorporation into Dalai Lama’s government
• Creation of “inner Tibet” as buffer zone: Partially admits China’s control in order to avoid direct contacts between the autonomous Tibet and Mongolia
• Concern with imperial rivalry, i.e., Russia’s possible strengthening of its presence through Mongolia

• After 1911: Formal self-rule with Bogd Khan as head of state
• 1919-1920: General Xu Shucheng reoccupied Mongolia; formal transfer of sovereignty to China
• 1921: White Russian baron Ungern-Sternberg occupied Urga; plan to use Mongolia for counterrevolution against the Bolsheviks and monarchical restoration of Russia

• March 1921: Founding of the Mongolian People’s Party
• 1921-11-05: Treaty of Friendship was signed between Mongolia and USSR
• 1924: Death of Bogd Khan; end of constitutional monarchy and birth of the Mongolian People’s Republic

• Mongolia People’s Party: Not a creation of the Comintern and not even Marxist or socialist
• Anti-Chinese nationalism, but also accommodation of existing Buddhist hierarchy
• A military organization was essential to ensure political success
• Soviet Russia as the only possible external support for resisting China

Unresolved questions:

• Political status: Who represents Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia?
• Territorial boundary: Where does it begin/end?

Interpretive challenges:

• Not just ethnic conflicts: Han Chinese vs. Tibetans/Uyghurs/Mongolians; these identities were in flux and in construction
• No clear definitions of “Tibetan territory” or “Chinese territory”
• Need to study broader power relations in the region

• Increasing use of “Xizang” as the romanized Chinese name on official documents, rather than “Tibet”
• Politicization of language, designed to prevent the Dalai Lama from re-establishing the right to speak about Tibet
• Is the name change a solution to the Sino-Tibet conflict, or is it fueling more conflict?

• Chinese government places around 800,000 Tibetan children in boarding schools where they are taught in Chinese.
• Boarding schools aim to assimilate Tibetan children, potentially leading to the destruction of Tibetan national culture and identity.

How to save china?

• Western tech not enough; cultural and intellectual change needed.
• The people of China must be made new by learning
  • how to treat each other with respect as equal citizens
  • how to rethink China’s place in the world
  • how the world worked

Three new concepts

• “People” as new identity: Citizens, rather than subjects
• Nation / country / Chinese nation (zhonghua minzu): No longer an empire, but a nation-state.
• “Truth”: Social and personal move toward equality, with constitutional monarchy the best institutional change

Today’s responsibility lies not with others but solely with us, the youth. […] the freedom of the youth is the freedom of the nation; the progress of the youth is the progress of the nation; if the youth surpasses Europe, then the nation will surpass Europe; if the youth is mighty on Earth, then the nation will be mighty on Earth.

• 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?

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