Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-26
Nation Is Being Reborn

| banks, railways and other private Ell
terprises are organizing courses in tn
new script for their employees, who &c
to their lessons willingly. One of the
reasons probably lies in the fact that
the new script has been made as
simple as possible; that the rules gov
erning the new spelling and the new
grammar are infinitely easier than the
old ones. Spelling for instance, is
purely phonetic and almost all the
letters are familiar Western European
letters-already known to the Latin,
Jewish and Armenian element in
Turkey. and to many among the Turks
themselves.
Proof of the success of the change
is given by the fact that Mustapha
Renal at first estimated 1t would take
Is years for the change TO become gen.
orally accepted but now after only
a few months. this estimate has fallen
to couple of years.
OF course. it is expected that the
reform will bring sharp decreases in
illiteraCy throughout the country; at
present 90 per cent of Turkeys resi-
dents are deemed illiterate. 1t is also
hoped that Turkish literature will gain
a new impetus. for it will be held back
no longer by mental prison of Arabic
and Persian molds which arc really
foreign to the more realistic Turkish
spirit.
All that may we'll happen.
Seeks Moral independence.
But the historic importance of the re-
form. and that which makes 1t real
revolution, is that the Turkish nation is
irving to find again that moral indie
pendence and autonomy which-modest
as it may have been-Was lost when 1t
accepted and adopted the Persian and
Arabian cultures under the Selluk and
OsmanH Sultans.
We are really confronted by the spec
tacle of people deliberately turning
their backs upon centuries of their NOR
al and literary history.
The great question is: What will take
the place Of the discarded traditions?
Will the Turkish people turn to Western
materialism or to Western spiritualism?
Whence will the Turkey of tomorrow
draw her inspiration?
I venture to say that It will not be
from Leninistic Moscow. But I am not
sure in the least that it will be from
Christian Jerusalem.
An analogous spectacle. an analogous
revolution is to be witnessed at the OPP
posite side of Asia in China. / do not
allude to the political revolution that
any observer is able to see and follow
What I want to point out here is some
thing of the nature of that which I
have related for Turkey.
When 1 landed at Shanghai in 1927
for new trip to China. where I pre-
viously had spent five years at the be-
ginning of the revolution against the
Manchu Empire, a simple spectacle
ct>
trenches and the barbed wire around
the Settlement and the beheaded bodies
at the corners in the Chinese town. All
that was the habitual and obligatory
setting of the play-the play of the rev.
olution. knew all that beforehand.
What struck me so wildly was to see
even the humblest of the Chinese-the
coolies. the rickisha men-buying GER
tain small newspapers, glancing at
them and hiding them as something
precious in the depths Of their lurid
robes.
A few years before not Chinese
would have spent sapek for political
news.
The wonder grew to greater proper
lions when 1 learned later that not only
was there an eff1orescence of small pop
ular newspapers, but that thousands of
popular books printed in Picking were
invading all corners of China-bookS
written at last in simple, colloquial
language, easily understood by all. The
classical language exclusively used in
books up to that time was not under
stood by the people. 1t was like giving
Latin masterpieces to Italians with no
knowledge of Latin.
Since language is the main instru-
ment for the exchange of ideas, it is
there, and there only. that we may look
for deep change in the intellectual
life of the Chinese. 1t may be revo-
luton in the ideas and beliefs of China,
infinitely more important than the
revolution of 1911. In 1911 and in the
years China witnessed only a
change of, government, the overthrow
Of a dynasty. But through this recent
reform the social and re-
ligious life of the Chinese may be af-
fected.
A few facts show that the old moral
and mental structure is falling to pieces.
For instance, during the recent mill
tary movements when the Southern
troops entered the district of Kweichi,
in Kiangsi Province, it was decided to
confiscate all the property of the dis
trict. which for many centuries had
the sacred patrimony of the
Taoist Pontiff. This meant virtually
GIlG EIQ Vi ldOLSIl, Ollc VI CilC IillCG
great religions of China. Nobody pro-
tested, and probably few cared. except
the Taoist monks and priests.
II is these literary movements and
these events that one should follow
closely in China if one hopes to under
stand the situation better than is pos
sible through accounts of political de-
cisions in Marking and diplomatic
bordering in Picking.
It is like watching a mirror reflect
certain living forces springing up out
of a dead, putrid marsh.
But I am afraid that diplomats and
newspaper correspondents would dis
dain task so deprived of dramatic
flavor That is more or less the way
things happened in the first years of
the Westernization of Japan. We West
erners then had no end of smiling at
q spectacle we fancied funny.
Must we really draw the conclusion
that historical experiences do not teach
anything and that each generation Is
doomed to go through the same errors
as the preceding ones?