Chapter 507 506【Refutation】

Why do you say Bernard Shaw is hypocritical?

Because Bernard Shaw's words and deeds were inconsistent, he kept saying that he understood and respected China, but he neither had a deep understanding nor paid enough respect to the issue of China.

Zhou Hexuan was still patient at the beginning, 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, publicly expressing their support for China's resistance against Japan, and won the unanimous support of teachers and students.

In the evening, British Minister to China Lampson also hosted a banquet for 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 was perfectly normal, a staunch progressive socialist. To put it bluntly, he is a capitalist reformist, and he has no conflict with the political system of the Republic of China. Coupled with his status as a former British foreign secretary, there is no obstacle to becoming Chang Kaishen's guest.

Arthur Henderson is not interested in participating in cultural events, he is keen on communicating with Chinese politicians. Similarly, the Chinese cultural circles are not interested in Arthur Henderson, and they are too lazy to invite him to various events.

Only George Bernard Shaw received an endless stream of visitors every day, and foreigners and noble ladies also loved this old man very much.

The cultural salon held by Mrs. Lampson, because of the presence of George Bernard Shaw, the wives of foreign ministers to China came to participate with great interest. Soong Meiling naturally did not miss this opportunity, dressed gracefully and luxuriously, and arrived at the official residence of the British Minister to China early.

Only three Chinese cultural celebrities were invited, besides Zhou Hexuan, Cai Yuanpei and Lin Yutang.

In fact, Lin Yutang was not qualified to be in the eyes of the wife of the British ambassador to China, but he admired Bernard Shaw extremely, and flattered Bernard Shaw very comfortably. Bernard Shaw regarded Lin Yutang as a little brother in China, and specially asked Mrs. Lampson to send an invitation letter to Lin Yutang.

Zhou Hexuan brought Vivien Leigh to the ambassador's mansion, just in time to meet Cai Yuanpei who came by rickshaw.

Cai Yuanpei greeted: "Mingcheng, long time no see!"

"Hello, Mr. Lai Min." Zhou Hexuan shook hands with a smile.

Cai Yuanpei suddenly said in a low voice: "Mingcheng, Mrs. Sun, Lu Xun, Yang Xingfo and I are preparing to form the China Civil Rights 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 Nationalist Party could save China, and actively helped Chang Kaishen plan to clean up the party. I don't know how many progressives were massacred. Only a few years later, Cai Yuanpei's thinking changed rapidly, 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 Xhui, Ding Ling and others.

"This kind of thing still needs to be considered?" Cai Yuanpei was quite dissatisfied.

Zhou Hexuan could only say: "Okay then, I agree to join."

The "China Civil Rights Protection League" is a patriotic organization - let's call it the "Civil Rights League", not the familiar "Democratic League", whose full name is "China Democratic League".

As the name suggests, the core proposition of the "Civil Rights League" is to protect civil rights, and regards Chang Kaishen's rule as a fascist regime. Because of this, Yang Xingfo, who is the director-general, will die in the assassination of the Kuomintang agents next year. The reason why Madam Sun, who was the chairman, and Cai Yuanpei, who was the vice-chairman, were able to live well was because they had too much influence, and Chang Kaishen didn't dare to get rid of them easily.

When Cai Yuanpei heard that Zhou Hexuan agreed to join, he immediately said happily: "Our Civil Rights League has added another general!"

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "I'm not a general, at most I'm a little boy who is waving the flag and shouting."

After Cai Yuanpei was happy, he pointed to 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 Li greeted.

"Hi, nice to meet you, beautiful lady." Cai Yuanpei spoke fluent English.

Vivien Leigh is doing well these days, because she has been by Zhou Hexuan's side, no matter if she is a foreigner or a Chinese, everyone treats her with courtesy. And Vivien Leigh discovered that the Chinese are really powerful, and anyone they meet can speak English, and they don't belong to a barbaric and backward country like the legend.

At this moment, Lin Yutang also came, and said with a smile, "Why don't the two gentlemen go in? They are hiding here and whispering."

"Yutang is here too," Cai Yuanpei said happily, "I just developed a comrade, and Mingcheng is also willing to join the Civil Rights League."

Lin Yutang smiled and said, "Then our team has grown stronger again."

Well, Lin Yutang was also one of the founders of the Civil Rights League. It's just that he likes petty bourgeois sentiments, doesn't take much care of things, and isn't very keen on the specific affairs of the Civil Rights League.

Several people entered hand in hand, and Mrs. Lampson greeted them warmly, and personally brought coffee for them to sit down.

Cai Yuanpei asked, "Where is Mr. Minister?"

Mrs. Lampson laughed: "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) withdrawal of troops as a condition for negotiation.” Chang Kaishen received this reply and expressed in his diary He expressed his own mood - "very appalled".

When China wanted to determine its sovereignty over Tibet, Lampson suggested that the British government simply ignore it. The British government adopted this suggestion, which led to China's issue of Tibet's sovereignty being unresolved for many years.

From a Chinese point of view, Lampson, the current British Minister to China, is a very, very annoying guy. But this guy is still a China hand, and he is familiar with China, and he 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 the admiration of foreigners and noble ladies.

Bernard Shaw came last, and instantly became the focus of the audience. He made everyone laugh with a few casual words, and Lin Yutang sat next to him and kept flattering him.

Unknowingly, the topic of the salon changed from British dramas to Chinese dramas. Bernard Shaw said unabashedly: "In the past few days, I have watched many Chinese dramas, including Peking Opera, Huiju Opera, Kunqu Opera, etc. To be honest, China Drama is still at the stage of the Middle Ages, and the content and form of expression are outdated. The same is true of 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: "Content or form reform?"

"Both content and form need to be reformed." Bernard Shaw said.

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Chinese drama has matured in form, and each genre has its own performance system. As for the reform of the content, Chinese dramatists are also trying, and they need to be more in line with the atmosphere of the times."

Bernard Shaw said: "No, no, the form also needs to be reformed. The performance method of Chinese drama is too old, as old as Chinese culture. In this regard, I discussed with Mr. Lu Xun and Lin Yutang a few days ago. I I think that China has no culture at all, everything is following the footsteps of the West, and is still in the stage of rough imitation. Chinese scholars seldom have their own ideas, and they always try to cater to the West, but they don’t learn like them. This is embarrassing gone."

Cai Yuanpei was silent. Although Bernard Shaw's words were not pleasant to listen to, they also hit the current status of Chinese cultural circles.

Lin Yutang echoed: "What Mr. Bernard Shaw said is very true. Chinese scholars really need to go further. We are too far behind the Western world, and I am afraid it will take decades, or even longer, to catch up."

Bernard Shaw said with a smile: "Of course, Mr. Zhou is an exception. He has groundbreaking research in many fields. But I think Mr. Zhou's excellence is precisely because he lived in the West since he was a child. His thinking is actually Western-style. It has nothing to do with Chinese culture. I always see Mr. Zhou as a Westerner, not a Chinese."

Bernard Shaw's foresight was very accurate, and many of Zhou Hexuan's thinking habits were indeed Western. However, Zhou Hexuan disagreed. He believed that he belonged to modern thinking, not Western thinking, and immediately said with a smile: "Mr. Bernard Shaw, you are wrong. Many of my behaviors and habits are indeed Western-style, but my core values ​​are Chinese-style. Chinese traditional cultural concepts have long been rooted in my blood."

"Traditional Chinese culture? That is outdated," said Bernard Shaw with disdain. "Chinese culture has not contributed to the progress of modern human civilization."

Cai Yuanpei was very angry, but he couldn't find a reason to refute. You can talk about the four great inventions, but they are all antiques. People talk about modern cultural achievements. Is there any one in China that is not following in the footsteps of the West?

Zhou Hexuan sneered: "What is modern Western culture? A colonial culture of brutal plunder, or an industrial culture of slavery and exploitation?"

Bernard Shaw smiled and pointed at Zhou Hexuan: "Zhou, you are secretly changing concepts. You know that I am talking about science, medicine, education, economics and other professional fields, but you want to refute me by secretly changing pan-cultural concepts. This is not Argue, but sophistry."

This guy's brain was so bright that Zhou Hexuan was at a loss for words for a moment, and didn't know how to refute for a while.

Suddenly, Zhou Hexuan laughed and said: "Mr. Bernard Shaw, you are also sophistrying. You use all the great powers to replace the West, and then use the West as a whole to belittle China. How can there be such a comparison? Today's Western civilization is the common cause of countless Western countries. The result of hard work, not the unique contribution of any country or nation. Can Britain fight against the whole world? Human discrimination! You must take back what you just said, or I will break up with you!"

Bernard Shaw was taken aback for a moment, 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 great interest.