Whose Modernity? Anti-Christianity and Educational Policy in Revolutionary China, 1924-1926

Abstract

TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA 33 WHOSE MODERNITY? ANTI-CHRISTIANITY AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN REVOLUTIONARY CHINA, 1924-1926 MICHAEL G. MURDOCK, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 1 In December 1926, shop workers from the Silk and Satin Industry Union adorned the eastern Guangdong town of Shantou with copies of a fiercely anti-Christian propaganda poster. Presented as a signed declaration, the notice first recounted developments from the year before: Last year Christian running-dogs of imperialism in eastern Guangdong were taught a lesson and dealt a blow by the antiChristian revolutionary masses. Christian voices faded, their tracks vanished, and they disappeared into heaven. Since then, because the revolutionary masses have been busy with other types of revolutionary work and have gradually relaxed their anti-Christian efforts, the Christian imperialist running dogs have again unveiled their forces and staged a comeback. Daily they spread rumors and crafty speech claiming that “The God of Heaven” and “The Lord Christ” have extraordinary power to eradicate the Anti-Christian Movement. As a result, for the last several months … chapels everywhere again have more asses than seats and consequently the running dog believers have again extended their claws and bared their fangs with greedy vigor! Strong denunciations followed, accusing local Christians of wearing “false masks,” hoarding weapons, rejecting national “awakening,” planning massacres, and operating as the “vanguard of imperialism.” Employing colorful imagery designed to evoke a powerful emotional response, the workers warned their fellow countrymen: “Fire has already singed our 1 Working drafts of this project were presented at the 1997 annual meeting of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations and the 2000 anniversary meeting of the Social Science History Association. Research was completed thanks to the generous support of the College of Family, Home, and Social Science and the History Department at Brigham Young University. I would also like to thank Twentieth-Century China’s two anonymous reviewers for their exceptionally helpful comments as well as Christopher A. Reed and Anne Collinson for graciously lending so much of their time and editing expertise. MICHAEL G. MURDOCK 2005 34 eyebrows; calamity has already begun gnawing at our bellies! The AntiChristian Movement can never again relax midway! Quickly, quickly revive! COMPLETELY KNOCK DOWN THE VANGUARD RUNNING-DOGS OF IMPERIALISM (THE CHRISTIANS); SWEAR … REVENGE FOR OUR HUMILIATION.”2 A similar poster presented by the Anti-Christian Society of Shandong nearly two years earlier, excoriated foreign imperialists for seizing territory, leases, indemnities, and treaties while flooding the land with foreign troops. Demanding the same general destruction sought by Shantou anti-Christians, the Shandong agitators warned: Our Chinese sisters and brothers were violated, captured, and robbed by foreign soldiers … All these disasters have been brought about by the preaching of Christianity … Now the influence of the Christians is more extended, their methods of preaching are cleverer, and it is a more apparent fact that the Christians help the foreign devils to kill and injure Chinese … At this time it is hoped that our brothers and sisters … will rise up without delay to oppose the Christians and knock down the foreign devils.3 Anti-Christian forces had long condemned Christian schools and hospitals, but attacks became particularly acute after January 1924 when the Nationalist Party (國民黨, Guomindang or GMD) added its support. Outside school and hospital walls, anti-Christian students, workers, and peasants picketed entrances, blockaded deliveries, cut electricity and water, held rallies, spread literature, and paraded banners. Inside those same walls, infiltrators coordinated strikes, planned sit-ins, organized defections, submitted petitions, demanded reforms, and interfered with daily operations. Besieged by and infused with anti-Christian propaganda 2 “Wei Tangkeng geming minzhong bei diguo zhuyizhe de zougou Tianzhu jiaotu Jidu jiaotu cansha xuanyan” (Declaration for all revolutionary peoples of Tangkeng brutally murdered by imperialist running-dog Catholics and Protestants), November 1926, Zhongyang qian wubu dang’an (Archive of the first five ministries), Nationalist Party Archives, Taipei, Taiwan [hereafter QWBD] 8751. 3 United States Department of State, “Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of China, 1910-1929,” National Archives Publications, #329, Washington, D.C.: The National Archives, 1960, series 893.00, [hereafter USDS] 6118, Enclosure 7, Milbourne to Schurman, Jinan, 5 February 1925. TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA 35 and...