Why is George Bernard Shaw said to be hypocritical?
Because Bernard Shaw's words and deeds were inconsistent, he claimed to understand and respect him, but when it came to China's issues, he neither had a deep understanding nor gave him enough respect.
Zhou Hexuan was still patient at first, but he couldn't bear it anymore.
In mid-October, everyone came to Nanjing.
Chang Kaishen personally received Arthur Henderson and Bernard Shaw and accompanied them to visit the historical sites in Nanjing. The next morning, the two went to the Central Military Academy and the Central University to give speeches respectively, publicly expressing their support for China's anti-Japanese resistance, and received the division
The unanimous support of the students.
In the evening, Lampson, the British Minister to China, also hosted a banquet in honor of them. The next day, Mrs. Lampson held a cultural salon and specially invited Bernard Shaw to participate, while Arthur Henderson visited various government departments in Nanjing.
Arthur Henderson behaved extremely normally. He was a staunch progressive socialist. To put it bluntly, he was a capitalist reformist and had no conflict with the political system of the Republic of China. Coupled with his status as the former British Foreign Secretary, he became a
Chang Kaishen's guests had no problems.
Arthur Henderson is not interested in participating in cultural activities. He is keen on socializing with Chinese politicians. Similarly, the Chinese cultural circle is not interested in Arthur Henderson and does not bother to invite him to various activities.
Only Bernard Shaw has an endless stream of visitors every day, and foreign ladies are also very fond of this old man.
Because of the presence of Bernard Shaw, the cultural salon held by Mrs. Lampson, all the wives of ministers from various countries in China came to participate with great interest. Soong Meiling naturally did not miss this opportunity, dressed up elegantly, and came to the British Minister in China early.
's official residence.
There were only three celebrities from the Chinese cultural circles who were invited. In addition to Zhou Hexuan, there were also Cai Yuanpei and Lin Yutang.
In fact, Lin Yutang was not qualified to enter the eyes of the wife of the British Minister in China, but he admired Bernard Shaw extremely and flattered him very much. Bernard Shaw regarded Lin Yutang as his little brother in China and specially asked Mrs. Lampson to send an invitation letter to Lin Yutang.
Zhou Hexuan took Vivien Leigh to the minister's residence, and happened to meet Cai Yuanpei coming in a rickshaw.
Cai Yuanpei greeted: "Mingcheng, long time no see!"
"Hello, Mr. Jiemin." Zhou Hexuan smiled and shook hands.
Cai Yuanpei suddenly whispered: "Mingcheng, Mrs. Sun, Lu Xun, Yang Xingfo and others are organizing the China Civil Rights Protection Alliance. The purpose of the Civil Rights Alliance is to fight for civil rights, oppose dictatorship, and actively resist Japan. Are you interested in joining?"
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "I'll think about it again."
So Chang Kaishen's rule was unpopular. During the Northern Expedition, Cai Yuanpei believed that only the Kuomintang could save China, and actively helped Chang Kaishen plan to purge the party, killing countless progressives. But only a few years later, Cai Yuanpei
His thoughts quickly changed, and he began to oppose Chang Kaishen's dictatorship, and actively participated in the rescue of persecuted political prisoners, including many Communist Party members such as Yang Xuhui, Ding Ling and others.
"Does this kind of thing still need to be considered?" Cai Yuanpei was quite dissatisfied.
Zhou Hexuan could only say: "Okay, I agree to join."
The "China Civil Rights Protection League" is a patriotic organization and is tentatively called the "Civil Rights League". It is not the "China Democratic League" that everyone is familiar with. The full name of the latter is the "China Democratic League."
As the name suggests, the core proposition of the "Civil Rights Alliance" is to protect civil rights, and regards Chang Kaishen's rule as a fascist regime. Because of this, Yang Xingfo, who serves as the director-general, will die in an assassination attempt by a Kuomintang agent next year. And Mrs. Sun, who serves as the chairman
, and Cai Yuanpei, who serves as vice chairman, the reason why they can live well is because they have such great influence that Chang Kaishen does not dare to get rid of them easily.
When Cai Yuanpei heard that Zhou Hexuan agreed to join, he immediately said happily: "Our Civil Rights Alliance has added another general!"
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "I'm not a general, at most I'm just a little guy who waves the flag and shouts."
After Cai Yuanpei was happy, he pointed at Vivien Leigh and asked: "Mingcheng, is this your British confidante?"
Zhou Hexuan smiled and introduced: "Mary, this is Mr. Cai Yuanpei, a famous educator in China."
"Hello, Mr. Cai." Vivien Leigh greeted.
"Hello, nice to meet you, beautiful lady." Cai Yuanpei spoke fluent English.
Vivien Leigh is having a good life these days, because she has been with Zhou Hexuan, and both foreigners and Chinese people treat her with great courtesy. Moreover, Vivien Leigh discovered that Chinese people are really amazing. Anyone they meet can speak English, which is not the same as
It is said to be a barbaric and backward country.
At this moment, Lin Yutang also came and said with a smile: "Why don't you two gentlemen go in? They are hiding here and whispering."
"Yutang is here too," Cai Yuanpei said happily, "I have just developed a comrade, and Mingcheng is also willing to join the Civil Rights Alliance."
Lin Yutang smiled and said: "Then our team has grown again."
Well, Lin Yutang was also one of the founders of the Civil Rights League. It was just that he liked petty bourgeoisie and didn't care much about affairs, and he wasn't very enthusiastic about the specific affairs of the Civil Rights League.
Several people came in hand in hand, and Mrs. Lampson warmly welcomed them and personally brought them coffee to invite them to sit down.
Cai Yuanpei asked: "Where is Mr. Minister?"
Mrs. Lampson smiled and said: "He went to accompany Mr. Henderson."
Lampson, the current British Minister to China, is a very traditional British diplomat.
When the September 18th Incident broke out in Northeast China, Chang Kaishen actively sought help from the British and American powers. Lampson's reply was: "I hope China will not use (Japan's) troop withdrawal as a condition for negotiation." Chang Kaishen received this reply and expressed it in his diary.
He felt "very surprised".
When China wanted to confirm its sovereignty over Tibet, Lampson suggested that the British government simply ignore it. The British government adopted this suggestion, leaving China's sovereignty issue over Tibet unresolved for many years.
From the Chinese perspective, Lampson, the current British Minister to China, is a very, very annoying guy. However, this guy is still a China expert. He is familiar with China and is not the kind of blind and arrogant diplomat.
There were more and more guests in the living room. Soong Meiling appeared in a cheongsam, which attracted admiration from foreign ladies.
George Bernard Shaw was the last to arrive and instantly became the focus of the audience. He made everyone laugh by saying a few words. Lin Yutang sat next to him and kept flattering him.
Unknowingly, the topic of the salon switched from British drama to Chinese drama. George Bernard Shaw said unabashedly: "In the past few days, I have watched many Chinese dramas, including Peking Opera, Anhui Opera, Kunqu Opera, etc. To be honest, China
Drama is still stuck in the medieval stage, and both content and form of expression are outdated. The same was true for British drama 100 years ago, but after a series of reforms, British drama has kept up with the changes of the times, and Chinese drama undoubtedly needs reform."
Zhou Hexuan asked: "Reform in content or form?"
"Both content and form need reform." George Bernard Shaw said.
Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Chinese drama has matured in form, and each drama type has its own performance system. As for content reform, which is really needed, Chinese dramatists are also trying, and it needs to be more in line with the flavor of the times."
Bernard Shaw said: "No, no, no, the form also needs to be reformed. The performance method of Chinese drama is too old, just like Chinese culture. In this regard, I discussed this with Mr. Lu Xun and Lin Yutang a few days ago. I
He believes that China now has no culture at all. Everything is following the footsteps of the West and is still in the stage of rough imitation. Chinese scholars rarely have their own ideas and always try to cater to the West, but fail to learn what they learn. This is very embarrassing.
Already."
Cai Yuanpei was silent. Although George Bernard Shaw's words did not sound good, they also spoke to the current situation of China's cultural sector.
Lin Yutang echoed: "What Mr. Bernard Shaw said is absolutely true. Chinese scholars really need to go further. We are too far behind the Western world. I am afraid it will take decades or even longer to catch up."
George Bernard Shaw smiled and said: "Of course, Mr. Zhou is an exception. He has pioneered research in many fields. But I think Mr. Zhou's excellence is precisely because he has lived in the West since he was a child, and his thinking is actually Western-style.
It has nothing to do with Chinese culture. I have always regarded Mr. Zhou as a Westerner, not a Chinese."
Bernard Shaw's vision was very accurate. Many of Zhou Hexuan's thinking habits were indeed Western-style. However, Zhou Hexuan did not agree. He believed that he belonged to modern thinking, not Western-style thinking. He immediately laughed and said: "Mr. Bernard Shaw, you are wrong. Many of my
My behavioral habits are indeed Western-style, but my core values are Chinese-style, and Chinese traditional cultural concepts have long been rooted in my blood."
"Chinese traditional culture? Those are all things that have long been outdated," Bernard Shaw said disdainfully. "Chinese culture has made no contribution to the progress of modern human civilization."
Cai Yuanpei was super angry, but couldn't find a reason to refute. You can talk about the four great inventions, but they are all antiques. They are talking about modern cultural achievements. Which one of them is China not following in the footsteps of the West?
Zhou Hexuan sneered: "What is modern Western culture? A colonial culture of cruel plunder, or an industrial culture of slavery and exploitation?"
George Bernard Shaw smiled and pointed at Zhou Hexuan: "Zhou, you are changing the concept. You know that I am talking about professional fields such as science, medicine, education, and economics, but you want to use the concept of pan-culture to refute me. This is not
Argument, but sophistry.”
This guy's mind was so bright that Zhou Hexuan was momentarily speechless and didn't know how to refute.
Suddenly, Zhou Hexuan laughed and said: "Mr. Bernard Shaw, you are also sophistry. You use all the great powers to replace the West, and then use the West as a whole to belittle China. How can you make such a comparison? Today's Western civilization is the common denominator of countless Western countries.
The result of efforts, rather than the unique contribution of any country or nation. Can Britain fight against the whole world? No. Can China fight against the entire West? Nor can it. What you are saying is not an argument, but discrimination, a kind of white people versus yellow people.
Human discrimination! You must take back what you just said, otherwise I will break off our relationship with you!"
Bernard Shaw was stunned, and suddenly felt that what Zhou Hexuan said was very reasonable. He was indeed playing racial discrimination.
Lin Yutang was thoughtful, Cai Yuanpei was smiling, and Soong Meiling watched the men quarreling with interest.
