The "Dewey Fever" in Jiangsu and Zhejiang During the May Fourth Movement and Its Relation to the Cultural Tradition in Jiangnan

Abstract

From 1919 to 1921, John Dewey (1859-1952), American philosopher and educator, traveled extensively in China and gave over 120 lectures upon invitation in eleven provinces including Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian, and Guangdong and the three cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. Previous research on Dewey in China has largely overlooked the regional difference of Dewey's influence. The statistics obtained by the author based on the previous research show that nearly half of Dewey's lectures were given in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and most of his lectures on education were delivered in this region as well. This article gives attention to the "Dewey Fever" and "Dewey Schools" in Jiangsu and Zhejiang informed and inspired by Dewey's series of lectures. By looking into several pairs of relations—the relation between academic tradition in Jiangnan (southern Yangtze Delta) and Dewey's pragmatism, between Jiangnan's statecraft scholarly ethos and Dewey's educational philosophy, as well as the relation between the tradition of Jiangnan's culture and Dewey's "populist education" and the "Dewey School"—the article argues that there are intrinsic relations between the Dewey Fever in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the cultural tradition in Jiangnan.