Diplomacy and Deception: The Secret History of Sino-Soviet Diplomatic Relations, 1917-1927 (review)

92 China Review International: Vol. 6, No. ?, Spring 1999 Ida Pruitt came closer—in A Daughter ofHan—to recording an ordinary woman's life than did the writers anthologized here.3) Still, do we understand the China of these times better because of this book? Of course we do. At the very least, we know that more women were writing than we had previously thought. And we know something of their concerns. That those concerns lay largely with the conditions of women of their own class is worth knowing, and is hardly cause for great surprise. It is, however, disturbing. One wonders ifmost of these women absorbed not only the status-laden lessons of Confucianism but also imperialism's tacit teachings on the dominant and subordinate. In both condescending to and ignoring the "other," did many of these writers unwittingly adopt an imperialist position vis-à-vis their countrywomen? Karen Gernant Southern Oregon University Karen Gernant teaches Chinese history andAsian women's history. NOTE S 1. See Patricia Fister, "Female Bunjin: The Life ofPoet-Painter Ema Saiko," in Gail Lee Bernstein, ed., RecreatingJapanese Women, 1600-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), PP- 108-130. 2.Lin Yu-sheng, The Crisis ofChinese Consciousness: Radical Anti-traditionalism in the May Fourth Era (Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 1978). 3.Ida Pruitt, A Daughter ofHan: The Autobiography ofa Chinese Working Woman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1945). Although this book was not published until 1945, it deals with the same period as Dooling and Torgeson's anthology.© 1999 by University ofHawai'i Press Bruce A. Elleman. Diplomacy and Deception: The Secret History ofSino-Soviet Diplomatic Relations, 1917-1927. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. xviii, 322 pp. Hardcover, isbn 0-7656-0142-7. The Revolution of 1911 and the overthrow ofthe Qing dynasty ofthe Manchus, accomplished with comparatively little effort, bloodshed, or social upheaval and without interference by the great powers, marked the beginning in China of a long period of instability and disorder that has witnessed a considerable displacement of China's traditional institutions and culture. Perhaps never before in China's history has there occurred such a transformation as during its modern revolutionary era. Reviews 93 Although both the Manchus and the institutions of monarchy were overthrown , the events surrounding this overthrowproved to be only the beginning ofthe revolution and ofone ofthe most difficult periods in China's history. Clearly, any regime that succeeded the Manchus would be confronted with the staggering problems of administrative corruption, economic stagnation, and general demoralization—the legacy ofManchu misrule. Moreover, die unequal treaties and concessions to foreign spheres ofinterest that had been imposed on China made the attainment of a unified modern state doubly difficult. Progress was bound to be slow at best, and the men who attained power during this stage of the revolution seemed more bent on advancing their own interests than those of the country. Yuan Shih-kai, who had not the least sympathy with republican principles, maneuvered himself into the position of a dictator. He refused to transfer the seat of government to the south, and when a parliament met in Peking in 1913 to draw up a constitution, he bribed, tricked, and intimidated the delegates. Dr. Sun Yatsen 's Mutual Alliance Society had reorganized as the Kuomintang ("Chinese Nationalist Party"), and Kuomintang elements were dominant in the parliament, which was attempting to prepare a framework for the new government. The constitution as drafted placed limits on the power ofthe executive, but so successful was Yuan in corrupting the members ofparliament that they elected him to the presidency. Yuan then contemptuously dissolved the parliament, outiawed the Kuomintang, and promulgated a "Constitutional Compact" ofhis own devising, retaining himself as president. From 1914 until his death two years later, Yuan ruled China as a military dictator, backed by the northern army that he had organized for the Manchu imperial service. When a second revolutionary attempt (this time against Yuan) failed in 1913, Sun and his group fled to Japan, where they remained in exile until after Yuan's death. The Western powers were on the whole favorably disposed toward Yuan and extended loans to him through international banking groups. The Great Powers were willing...