John Dewey as a Learner in China

John Dewey as a Learner in China Jessica Ching-Sze Wang The decade of the 1920s marks an important period in the life of John Dewey; his trips to Japan, China, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey undoubtedly broadened his horizons and enriched his understanding of international politics. Of all the foreign nations Dewey visited, China is where he stayed the longest and about which he wrote the most extensively. However, this particular phase in the life and work of Dewey has been largely ignored. In fact, Dewey's two­year visit (1919­21) marks a geographical and cultural transition from the West to the East as well as a personal, psychological transition from the tensions of wartime polemics to the soberness of postwar reflections. In a letter, Dewey wrote, "Noth­ ing western looks quite the same an[y] more, and this is as near to a renewal of youth as can be hoped for in this world."2 However, the existing literature has fo­ cused exclusively on how Dewey influenced China, rather than what Dewey learned in China. This paper aims to explore this much neglected aspect about Dewey's visit, namely, his own education. A Timely Visit Dewey arrived in China on May 1, 1919. Excited about this adventure, Dewey wrote, "We are going to see more of the dangerous daring side of life here I pre­ dict," and he added, "Nothing worries us. . . . We ought to have a very good time."3 Interestingly, Dewey was right about the "dangerous daring side of life" in China. Three days after he made this remark, Dewey learned of a serious stu­ dent revolt, which came to be known as the May Fourth Movement. On the fourth of May, from which the movement took its name, more than three thou­ sand students in Beijing held a mass demonstration against the decision of the Versailles Peace Conference to transfer German concessions in Shantung to Ja­ pan. Feelings of indignation and the zeal for reform expressed by the students in Beijing triggered similar demonstrations throughout China in the few weeks that followed. In big cities, people went on general strikes to support the students and promoted boycotts against lapanese goods. Dewey's response to the May Fourth movement was more than enthusias­ tic; he was galvanized by the social energies being released. As Dewey wrote to his E&C/Education and Culture 21(1) (2005): 59­73 • 59 60 • Jessica Ching­Sze Wang children in June 1919, "never in our lives had we begun to learn as much as in the last four months. And the last month particularly, there has been too much food to be digestible."6 In fact, such an eye­opening experience was not unprece­ dented for Dewey. Earlier in his life when Dewey was moving from rural Michi­ gan to the city of Chicago in 1894, he found himself in the midst of the Pullman strike.7 He was so excited about the scene that he wrote his wife, Alice: Every conceivable thing solicits you; the town seems filled with problems holding out their hands and asking somebody to solve them—or else dump them in the lake. I had no conception that things could be so much more phenomenal and objective than they are in a country village, and simply stick themselves at you, instead of leaving you to think about them.8 The strike, conflict and chaos Dewey witnessed in Chicago and Beijing uplifted rather than dampened his spirit. Dewey said, "To the outward eye roaming in search of the romantic and picturesque, China is likely to prove a disappointment. To the eye of the mind it presents the most enthralling drama now anywhere enacting." The May Fourth movement was China's gift to Dewey. It kept him excited, interested, involved, anxious, puzzled, and, at times, frustrated. It was also an intellectual bait that en­ ticed Dewey to stay in China for a full year, and later, to extend his stay to a sec­ ond year. Dewey as a Political Commentator: The May Fourth Movement Dewey's timely presence in May­Fourth China provided a great opportunity for his own learning and gave him a vantage point to witness the...