Emergence and transformation of the China’s “wholesale westernization” idea

Abstract

In the early 20th century, Chinese society was in the process of searching for new directions of development and state building. The inability to reform was one of the reasons for the fall of the old government, and the experience of young people educated in the West and Japan became the basis for a broad cultural debate on the modernization of the country and society. Prominent figures of the May Fourth Movement period sought to change the country and theorized about the ways and directions of necessary transformations. The concepts of “modernization” and “westernization” were perceived as virtually synonymous, but the idea of “wholesale westernization” proposed by Chen Xujing and Hu Shi became an occasion to reconsider the importance of one’s own traditional achievements and the significance of national unity in the face of external threats. “Wholesale modernization” also touched upon the problem of cultural nihilism in intellectual circles of the time. While Lu Xun called for abandoning the reading of Chinese literature, abandoning the complex and inaccessible to the masses of the literary language, representatives of the Nationalist Party revived the compulsory study of literary canons. Westernization was perceived by part of society as a complete and unquestioning recognition of China as a backward country that needs experience and knowledge from the developed Western world. The uncompromising desire to reject the worst manifestations of traditional Chinese culture had patriotic motives, but received very little support from society. The war of resistance to the Japanese occupation left no room for continuing the dialogue around the idea of “wholesale westernization”. The poor formulation and untimeliness of the idea left it out of the attention of Chinese intellectual circles for a long time. The Chinese path of reform and development has again raised the issue of modernization and westernization, but in the new context these concepts acquire new meaning. At the end of the 20th century, there is a rethinking of following the example of Western countries – patriotic considerations of predecessors are seen as unrealistic and treacherous ideas. With the development of Chinese society and state, the idea of blindly copying someone else’s experience is increasingly losing its relevance.