Defining Modernity: Guomindang Rhetorics of a New China, 1920-1970 (review)

In recent years there has been increasing scholarly attention given to the efforts of the Guomindang (GMD) in China prior to their retreat to Taiwan. It is becoming clear that many assessments of the GMD have been too harsh. The Nationalists have often been portrayed simply as a band of corrupt leaders who colluded with rich financiers and industrialists and cared little for China's workers and peasants. This excellent volume, free of partisan ideological baggage, helps us realize just how misunderstood the GMD experience on the mainland has been. The Nationalists did try to build a vibrant and dynamic state but failed for a whole number of reasons. Both the efforts and the failures of the GMD have been largely glossed over by those who have either sided with the Chinese Communist Party's version of history or accepted early interpretations of the Nationalists' failures. This book considers a wide variety of GMD policies and programs and demonstrates how complex the Party's activities were in building a new China.

Michael G. Murdock's chapter demonstrates the GMD's complicated attempt to accommodate Christian missionary activity in China at the higher levels of government while at the same time portraying missionary activity as an egregious example of imperialism among the masses. Fighting against the churches was deemed a much safer way to spread the anti-imperialist message of the GMD than taking on foreign firms and governments when the GMD felt vulnerable without their support. Murdoch convincingly argues that the anti-Christian movements were important tactically for gaining the support of students and others in society who were angry at the influence of outsiders in China.

Robert Culp wrestles with the difficult task of unraveling how the GMD taught civics in the schools. The GMD called for rights for workers, women, and children, but Culp points out the difficulty in teaching rights when the goal of individual development was deemed not an end in itself but a way to foster support for national development. As in some of Sun Yat-sen's writings, civics lessons pointed to the necessity of manners, good posture, neat dress, and Confucian ethics for developing national character. The problem with this approach, of course, is that these sorts of things may not have anything to do with democracy; the individual is not necessarily free and equal but merely one component of the state in the process of national development.

Terry Bodenhorn's chapter shows how Chen Lifu tried to develop his own concept of revolution and political thought, which he thought could guide the nationalists' efforts. Bodenhorn convincingly portrays Chen as a man far more interested in ideology than his reputation as one of the Chen brothers of the CC Clique would suggest. Chen's "vitalism" theory was an attempt to create a world-view that combined traditional Chinese philosophy with contemporary ideas of modernization. He wanted to collectivize the nation and unify people behind the common cause of building a vibrant and modern state based on superior traditional Chinese virtues and modern methods of political organization. A hierarchical system of leadership and mutual assistance at every level of society would foster national harmony and mutual trust. Chen's work proved difficult, if not impossible, to teach to all but a few ideologues and revealed a disconnect with those GMD ideologues who rejected modern notions of liberalism by insisting that they could provide a more appropriate way of bringing discipline and unity to the Chinese people.

Julia C. Strauss writes about the government's efforts to train effective leaders. Initially a military method of training, xunlian, became a tactic for training civilian leaders as well. The martial values of confidence, ambition, and hard work were taught in order to correct the bad habits of civil servants. The GMD realized that the civil service had imperfections that needed to be addressed but...