Tue Cuvee Coxtacts oF Tue Uxirep Searne_ ano Cina The Earliet f-tsut. By George H. Danton. Columbia" University Press, " New York, 6: who inaugurated the first cultural Telations between the United States China. After such personalities ave been actively' at, work, certain Inrger movements begins."
There are revealed a number of reasons why America appealed to the Chinese, such as:—(1) the eom-
The short book under review la mon love of democracy; (2) lack the first part of a two-volume study of the culture contacts of America easy social approach. "The Ameri any Feal caste system and an and China from the viewpoint of cans were known to mix well', to educational psychology. The very, take their fellows. at their dace brief and concise treatment leaves value, and their Jack of constraint] one with the feeling that this is just and convention fitted in very well fan introduction to stil! more absorb. with "what was enjoyed by the ing material left over for the eccond Chinese in general social "inter. volume not yet published, since this} course"; (3) less feeling of racial one ends with the Treaty of Wang-superiority. than that held. by Eu-hsia negotiated by Caleb Cushing in Fopean people accustomed to" look-1st4, It is attractively written, in. ing down on colonials, and among clusive enough to depict broad] yom social intercourse was some-trends, and sufficiently brief to war-what "stiffer"; (4). common belie! rant the statement that much more in education as a panacea for social material might have been includ and: moral 3 without sacrificing interest The early period was_one of close clarity. The author is professor of, fon "between. English and; German at Oberlin College in Amer. indeed, it isin. some and gained some experience of Wille at Teing Hua Univers- te, infers Impossible to separate wielded by th ity in Peking from 1916 to 1927.
'Although the general tome of the work is scholarly and well docamented it is by no means dry read-on the contrary, once begun invites one to keep on to the end, Professor Danton's "interest lies' in what he calls "culture con-{gc between the two peoples, using the word culture in a sociologic rather than in a popular sense. There are only five chapters which in order deal with: first interactions; beginnings of American commercial relations; early Anglo-'American cooperation in China background and personality of the first American missionaries; and the cultural implications of the treaty of Wanghsia.
In discussing first contacts, thi point is made that Americans into contact with China of corruption and decay nationality from that exercised "by the other, The totality of imprese lon we hat of Protestant Chris:
In many ways British and Amezican ionones cooperated, for ex. ample, in the Morrison Educational the "Medical Missionary Society, and the Society for Diffusing Useful. Knowledge Among. the! Chinese.
British Sinology outclassed that of the Americans. toward the i is weather, and it. only gradually that their own cultural significance:
became apparent to. them.
There was among them a great devotion to their cause, a single-mess of purpose for the conversion of souls, but with all this, the prisingly little of pinion which definitely based on their theological Bent.
The cultural influence of the early merchants is depicted a3 having been practically nil because in the Chinese scale merchants were at the bottom of the four classes, furthermore because this class of foreigners did not particularly wish to spread ideas as they did goods, and tually because of the isolation which surrounded the early foreign traders. The use of pidgin English as a medium for business transactions and the unwillingness of the Chinese to teach the language to the foreigner, constituted another set of reasons for the failure of the early trader to influence the Chinese eult-
It appears to the reviewer that the book does not analyze suliciently_ the effects of the trade itself upon the Chinese. Although the cultural influence of the trader may have been less than that of the mission-two peoples cannot carry on lo with each other for sixty years without bringing some results in changed habits of consumption and the utilization of new articles. "We do not have presented clearly of what items this early trade consisted. Material objects are as much of "culture" to the anthropoloof new foreign oppress began to dawn upon their minds that the foreigner was bringing not only a new type of material culture but also more fundamental concepts tion and learning about the ruling literati greatly feared that all their mass of learning would be overthrown, consequently the Confucian scholars and the gentry were against the foreigners and stirred up the people likewise to resist this cultural invasion. And behind all this there was a genuine dislike of the foreigner, his food his dress, his manners, free mingling of the sexes, and yacial arrogance.
After all ex eases have been made there eas a substratum of Teal Gistike "and" stubbornness, an. unwillingness to meet the' foreigner half way, which is. dificult to. ae-and whi There was a. certain simest panic terror on the part, of the Chinese to be accounted for only. fon the basis of some strange mob-
These earliest contacts were personal rather than national in nature, -..1t was individual -and specific personalities, inthe present case lilmost exclusively the missionaries the only ae ly" minded narrowly nation: that of the America during this early period knew surprisingly little about China, although a few commercial and religious journals included articles and information concerning] the Orient. Although there were 'a few individual Chinese in Amer-fea, yot as cultural stimuli to the Aniericans toward an active interest in China they were unimportant, 'The medical missionary and diplomat, Dr, Peter Parker, was an important figure on both' sides of the world in arousing. interest, in America toward the Chinese, and in ina toward Americans, Paying a tribute to the effect of missionary effort, the author states:
An impartial review of mission:
4 must lead even the mont ponents to those who question mit the sociological ignifeanee of the contacts.
this book seems tention to the missionary than to the trader, it is because the former was the more Potent cultural infiuence in the period under considera-
the author's interest is in missions tion, In "his impartial appraisal not for their own sake but for ther cultural connotations, apart. from their religious impulses and trans. cen dental strivings—H.0..
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.