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New Life Movement
The New Life Movement (Chinese: 新生活運動; Wade–Giles: Hsin1 Shêng1huo2 Yün4tung5) was a government-led civic campaign in the 1930s Republic of China to promote cultural reform and Neo-Confucian social morality and to ultimately unite China under a centralised ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo. Chiang Kai-shek as head of the government and the Chinese Nationalist Party launched the initiative on 19 February 1934 as part of an anti-communist campaign, and soon enlarged the campaign to target the whole nation.
Chiang and his wife, Soong Mei-ling, who played a major role in the campaign, advocated a life guided by four virtues, lǐ (禮/礼, proper rite), yì (義/义, righteousness or justice), lián (廉, honesty and cleanness) and chǐ (恥/耻, shame; sense of right and wrong). The campaign proceeded with help of the Blue Shirts Society and the CC Clique within the Nationalist Party, and Christian missionaries in China.
In February 1934, Chiang Kai-shek launched the New Life Movement in Nanchang, Jiangxi, in an effort to unify China with a single ideology. The New Life Movement began at a time when China, already weakened by Western imperialism, faced the threats of rising Japanese militarism, domestic factionalism and communism. The launch of the New Life Movement was set in the context of the Chiangs' growing concern with corruption, and moral decadence that they blamed on foreign influences. Historian Colin Mackerras writes that "Corruption was an abiding feature of Chiang Kai-shek's rule" and that nepotism and bribery were rife among the bureaucracy. Chiang stated, "If we do not weed the present body of corruption, bribery, perfunctoriness, and ignorance, and establish instead a clean, effective administration, the day will soon come when the revolution will be started against us as we did the Manchus".
Chiang claimed that Chinese were "unbearably filthy", "hedonistic", "lazy", and physically and spiritually "decrepit", and thus leading lives that were "barbaric and devoid of reason." Among the anecdotes Chiang used to explain his launching of the movement was a time when he saw a ten-year-old child loitering and smoking. Chiang's political rival, Wang Jingwei described Chinese life as a life of "smoking," "sickness," "gambling," "filth," "ghosts" (i.e., superstition), and "indolence". Wang argued the fundamental psychological basis of such behaviour was "lackadaisicalness" (隨便主義, suibian zhuyi) and "self seekingness" (自理主義, zili zhuyi). He contended that "lackadaisicalness" led to lives without a sense of right or wrong, and hence with no distinctions or purpose. "Self-seekingness," he argued, led to the rejection of all outside interference with this kind of behaviour as encroachment on "freedom". There was no consideration for others and their rights, only of one's own comfort, inevitably obstructing social life and group solidarity.
In Chiang's mind, these concerns were compounded by the influx of foreign ideas following the New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement which fostered Western concepts such as liberalism, pragmatism and nationalism as well as more radical ideas including Marxism respectively. The Movement attempted to counter such threats through a resurrection of traditional Chinese morality, which it held to more suitable to Chinese society to modern Western values. As such the Movement was based upon Confucianism, mixed with Christianity, nationalism and authoritarianism which have some similarities to fascism, which some saw as rejecting individualism and liberalism, while also opposing radical movements such as socialism and communism.
Soong Mei-ling called for a program of spiritual enlightenment. She wrote in Forum, an American magazine, in 1935, that "the mere accumulation of great wealth is not sufficient to enable China to resume her position as a great nation." There must be, she continued, "also revival of the spirit, since spiritual values transcend mere material riches. She played a major role both in launching the Movement and in representing its public face.
In 1936, Chiang appointed American Congregationalist minister George W. Shepherd to be the movement's directing chair. This was part of an effort to obtain support from American Protestants.
Soong Meiling insisted that while some puritanical Chinese politicians tried to co-opt the New Life Movement for their own ends, her husband made efforts to put an end to their activities. In her interview with Fulton Oursler, a famous American journalist who interviewed her in Shanghai regarding the Movement in August 1937, she stated that: "No. China would never take Fascism or any form of the totalitarian state. We can't ever be really regimented. Every Chinese is a personality. He will always think for himself. He has an ancient and magnificent culture, a sense of justice, a love of freedom. The New Life Movement has definitely rejected all forms of regimentation as being opposed to the principles of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and so betraying the people."
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New Life Movement
The New Life Movement (Chinese: 新生活運動; Wade–Giles: Hsin1 Shêng1huo2 Yün4tung5) was a government-led civic campaign in the 1930s Republic of China to promote cultural reform and Neo-Confucian social morality and to ultimately unite China under a centralised ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo. Chiang Kai-shek as head of the government and the Chinese Nationalist Party launched the initiative on 19 February 1934 as part of an anti-communist campaign, and soon enlarged the campaign to target the whole nation.
Chiang and his wife, Soong Mei-ling, who played a major role in the campaign, advocated a life guided by four virtues, lǐ (禮/礼, proper rite), yì (義/义, righteousness or justice), lián (廉, honesty and cleanness) and chǐ (恥/耻, shame; sense of right and wrong). The campaign proceeded with help of the Blue Shirts Society and the CC Clique within the Nationalist Party, and Christian missionaries in China.
In February 1934, Chiang Kai-shek launched the New Life Movement in Nanchang, Jiangxi, in an effort to unify China with a single ideology. The New Life Movement began at a time when China, already weakened by Western imperialism, faced the threats of rising Japanese militarism, domestic factionalism and communism. The launch of the New Life Movement was set in the context of the Chiangs' growing concern with corruption, and moral decadence that they blamed on foreign influences. Historian Colin Mackerras writes that "Corruption was an abiding feature of Chiang Kai-shek's rule" and that nepotism and bribery were rife among the bureaucracy. Chiang stated, "If we do not weed the present body of corruption, bribery, perfunctoriness, and ignorance, and establish instead a clean, effective administration, the day will soon come when the revolution will be started against us as we did the Manchus".
Chiang claimed that Chinese were "unbearably filthy", "hedonistic", "lazy", and physically and spiritually "decrepit", and thus leading lives that were "barbaric and devoid of reason." Among the anecdotes Chiang used to explain his launching of the movement was a time when he saw a ten-year-old child loitering and smoking. Chiang's political rival, Wang Jingwei described Chinese life as a life of "smoking," "sickness," "gambling," "filth," "ghosts" (i.e., superstition), and "indolence". Wang argued the fundamental psychological basis of such behaviour was "lackadaisicalness" (隨便主義, suibian zhuyi) and "self seekingness" (自理主義, zili zhuyi). He contended that "lackadaisicalness" led to lives without a sense of right or wrong, and hence with no distinctions or purpose. "Self-seekingness," he argued, led to the rejection of all outside interference with this kind of behaviour as encroachment on "freedom". There was no consideration for others and their rights, only of one's own comfort, inevitably obstructing social life and group solidarity.
In Chiang's mind, these concerns were compounded by the influx of foreign ideas following the New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement which fostered Western concepts such as liberalism, pragmatism and nationalism as well as more radical ideas including Marxism respectively. The Movement attempted to counter such threats through a resurrection of traditional Chinese morality, which it held to more suitable to Chinese society to modern Western values. As such the Movement was based upon Confucianism, mixed with Christianity, nationalism and authoritarianism which have some similarities to fascism, which some saw as rejecting individualism and liberalism, while also opposing radical movements such as socialism and communism.
Soong Mei-ling called for a program of spiritual enlightenment. She wrote in Forum, an American magazine, in 1935, that "the mere accumulation of great wealth is not sufficient to enable China to resume her position as a great nation." There must be, she continued, "also revival of the spirit, since spiritual values transcend mere material riches. She played a major role both in launching the Movement and in representing its public face.
In 1936, Chiang appointed American Congregationalist minister George W. Shepherd to be the movement's directing chair. This was part of an effort to obtain support from American Protestants.
Soong Meiling insisted that while some puritanical Chinese politicians tried to co-opt the New Life Movement for their own ends, her husband made efforts to put an end to their activities. In her interview with Fulton Oursler, a famous American journalist who interviewed her in Shanghai regarding the Movement in August 1937, she stated that: "No. China would never take Fascism or any form of the totalitarian state. We can't ever be really regimented. Every Chinese is a personality. He will always think for himself. He has an ancient and magnificent culture, a sense of justice, a love of freedom. The New Life Movement has definitely rejected all forms of regimentation as being opposed to the principles of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and so betraying the people."