Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
CHINESE REFORM PLAN
Movement of Magnitude is Now
Gathering Strength.
FACTORS BUSILY AT WORK
Many Different Opinions as to Means
to Employ.
THE HATRED OF THE FOREIGNER
Common Ground Upon Which the Va
ricus Elements Of Society Stand
Students Are Active.
HE HATRED OF THE FOREIGNER
BY J. M. EGAN.

+ PEKING, March 2.-The question is
everywhere being asked what is the real
significance Of the reform movement in
China, and what will be the outcome of
such a movement. That movement of con-
siderable proportions has begun, and that it
Is going on with gathering strength Is GER
tain, but Europeans in this as in other
things which pertain to the Chinese are
forced to acknowledge being at sea. They
are forced to admit that the vast problem
remains obscure a whole, and that even
the most careful observer can scarcely hope
to detect the real causes of the apparently
inexplicable contradictions that mark the
situation.
. Fifty years ago the prospect of the regen-
Grafton of Japan would have appeared as
hopeless q task as does that of a similar
regeneration of China today. There were
factors In the Japanese situation at that
time that were not understood, just as there
are factors in China today that are not
understood
. The dynasty and the court are not likely
to introduce reforms of their own will. And
nobody knows what the strength of the
court party Is, or the strength of any of the
various parties for that matter. The pow
ers that be- have recently issued orders
concerning the dress of every subject in the
empire, and to these orders even the party
Of Young China submits without diff
Guilty or question. Quite recently they have
hidden scores of millions of men in all
classes of life to renounce within brief
period an intimate personal habit which is
almost invincible, and many persons have
seemed to think that this command may be
obeyed. They often aver, nevertheless, that
they cannot compel their own officials in
the provinces to carry out the conventions
for railway construction and other like pur-
poses which they conclude in the most SOL
rrvSk1 Gov No, Ilx,
questions are being asked would the reforms
be as easy to enforce as the orders for wear
ing the pig tail, or as impossible to enforce
as the authorities in Peking declare their
railway contracts to be. Are the emperor
and the court as omnipotent as the opium
edict would seem to imply, or as impotent
as their repeated failures to keep their word
suggests? If 1t is answered that they are
able to enforce edicts which have the sup
port Of public opinion and unable to en-
force those which have not, the world is
driven to inquire what is this public opin-
ion and what are genuine and comprehen-
stve reforms? Are the emperor and the
court as omnipotent as the opium edict
would seem to imply, or as impotent as
their repeated failures to keep their word
suggests?
Public Opinion Of China.
There are many different things to be
said concerning public opinion in China
There is the opinion of the provincial Off
cial classes and of the rural gentry, which
is mainly reactionary. There is the opin-
ion of the students, who think they are
quite capable of remaking China out Of
hand on a brand-new social western model
There is the opinion of the Cantonese
school, which Is possibly the most impor-
tant of all. This school has behind it
powerful organization with numbers of
wealthy and enlightened members at Singa-
pore. in the Straits Settlements and along
the Pacific coast 1t favors reform, but
the reform which it favors involves. some
times explicitly and sometimes implicitly,
the overthrow of the Manchus. The ques-
ton is being asked What attitude would
these several parties adopt If wide scheme
Of genuine reforms were introduced from
above and attempts made to execute it?'
What following would they have among the
4O0OO0lO0O of Cinnamon, mostly dumb"
who have hitherto lived from century to
century as their fathers lived before them?
How would the oriental humanity, with it's
'ungovernable passions and unfathomable
impulses" act were the framework which
Hatred of the Foreigner.
However, the point upon which re-
dictionaries and reformers seem to agree is
hatred of the foreigner. A class of stu
dents Is said to be increasing which does
not regard this passion as the cornerstone
of Chinese nationality, but SO far they do
not appear to be very prominent. The man
darins naturally hate the foreigner; he is
disturbing, with his pestilent notions, a
world with which they are content. The
country gentlemen are honest conserva-
tives. whose detestation of Europeans Is
rooted in their astounding ignorance of
everything outside their own districts.
|; The greater party of the students have
gorged themselves with the commonplaces
of extreme democratic doctrine without as
Stimulating such elements of truth as these
may contain, and their enthusiasm renders
them an invaluable tool to the mandarins
in their efforts to saddle the foreigners in
the eyes of the people with the guilt of
their own extortions. How far the more
sagacious members of the Cantonese school
may share these decisions 1t is, of course,
hard to guess. They have lived long
abroad, and they have accumulated wealth
there. 1t is difficult to suppose that men of
experience; of knowledge and of proved
business ability can really believe that
China Is able and willing to govern herself
with honesty and intelligence without for
eign aid,