New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-09-05
When East Met West 1t Was the Orient's Death War;

the story Of Chinass poudsruus 70.
sistance and gradual submission 10
the inportunate demands Of Oeci-
dental civilization and trade. The
history Of the first two decades of
the twentieth century is the story
Of China's reaction under the inn
pact.
To the Chinese the moral of their
neither position in the world OF states
and the sharp discontents and tragic
EMBELLISHMENTS in their own go
ciety that have been forced to the
surface by the impact seems to lie
in the lack Of those elements most
conspicuously characteristic of Occi-
dental civilization. There has been
the resultant eagerness to fill that
lack among those Chinese most alive
to the needs Of their country and
broadcast In their synpathies and
contacts. The swing Of the pendu-
lum to anything new and Of the
West has been natural enough, then,
even if only the familiar confusion
Of coincidence with cause and effect.
Thus the republic. Western educa-
ton, Western armies, Western food,
Western architecture, Western Gus
toms.
The Debt to- Sentiment
Not all of our protest represents
sentimentalism. Much Of it, un-
doubtedly; much Of it is only un-
analysed resentment at the cheating
of our instructive longing for the
remote and unfamiliar. But there
is deeper basis. There is that in
our civilization by which the Chinese
can and will profit. Our superior
development in materialism, our
higher humanitarianism, our free
dom in individualism as contrasted
with the restrictions under the fam
lily as the unit, give US the advantage
over Eastern peoples that is trans
lated in our political eand economic
domination Of them. And since the
East has given up its isolation at the
insistent demand Of the West and
must live in the world of which
we have framed the rules Of the
struggle for existence, it must arm
itself with our weapons and use our
instruments or go down in the
struggle. Willy-nilly and at how
ever great a cost, If necessary, in
many Of its cherished beliefs and
spiritual foundations.
In any period Of transition also
it is inevitable that the best Of the
old should be discarded first and the
worst of the new assumed. Stand
ards do not come by volition or fat,
nor are refexes developed in a gen.
GRAFTON. Americas nouveau richie
is eloquent testimony. When the
Chinese first take shelter in West
ern houses it is inevitable that they
should furnish them with the taw.
driest of Western furniture; when
they buy our pictures that they
should first choose chromos. Regrets
are vain and merely baying the
moon of evolution.
Theater as am Example
That is inevitable, but the absence
of any sense of selection or weighing
of comparative values as between
civilization is not inevitable. The
theater is an example. It is sure
instinct that leaves the play of inn
agination in the Chinese theater un.
encountered Of scenery. The effec-
tiveness Of the effacement of nom
essentials through symbolism we saw
in America in "The Yellow Jacket"
1t is still better to be seen here. Yet
in the newer theaters in the outports
the simplicity Of symbolism and the
gorgeous color harmonies in cos
tumery are thrown against crude
backdrops Of painted trees and fat
hills, and scenes in the spirit world
move through festoons of gar;shly
colored electric lights.
While the Western art world in
its ultra-modern schools is but now
cropping toward the truths that were
the axioms Of the Chinese artists of
nearly a thousand years ago, the
contemporary Chinese painter is do
ing pale limitations of Western tech
nique. His forerunner Of thirty gem
erations ago when he set out to
paint a mountain went into the
mountains, lived in them, studied
them for months, for years even.
Then he secluded himself in his
courtyard and painted, not that
mountain, nor mountains even, but
the spirit, the soul Of mountains, the