Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-03-03

Der Of the faculty Of the National Uni
versity at Peiping. editor and jour-
nalist, now lecturer on Far Eastern
affairs at Columbia University and
Wellesley College, has chosen China
as typical Of the Orient because lin
the number Of her people, the size of
her territory and the qualities Of her
culture, China, though politically weak
now, remains potentially by far the
most important part Of the Orient"
He has not attempted history of
China or even of China's international
relations, but tries to show In broad
outlines why the ancient wall of isola-
ton has crumbled and what that
which is now going on mean to China
and the world.
Mr.. Clark's discussion Of China falls
into three parts: Conditions in an
Gent China which favored isolation,
the first penetration of the West and
the reasons for it, and China Of today.
Differences between East and West
are basic. In the West the individual
has been the social unit; in China, as
the result of congested population, the
group is the unit and the tendency,
generation after generation, has been
Ito breed for conformity and to breed
out individualistic aggressiveness."
This fundamental difference shows it
self in the art, the religion, the gov
eminent and all the other phases Of
life in the two parts of the world"
High mountains and wide seas also
separate China from the West. not so
high and wide in this mechanical age
as In ancient times; and the Great
Wall, extending for 1900 miles from
the sea to the far interior. completed
by Shin Huang II, was intended to
make invasion from the outside even
more difficult. The first important
entrance of the West into China was
by back street" and the rear door,"
from the south and east by the sea.
Western penetration of China falls in
to five periods: 1516-l842, from the
first modern adventures to the opium
war; l842-1860, to the ratification of
treaties which were the foundation of
Western trading in China: 1860-l90l,
to the settlement after the Boxer up
rising. when European powers reluc-
family accepted the reafirmed claim
Of the United States for the open
door; 1901-1922. period of economic
expansion, ending with the Washing
ton Conference; 1922 to the present
time. a period Of progressive with
drawal. It may be that China is now
entering upon sixth period Of for
eign penetration, begun with the
Japanese military incursion into Man
churia in 1881.
Mr.. Clark's analysis of the new
nationalistic currents in China, with
the diminution of Western power and
privileges and the increase Of japanese
intervention, occupies the last third
of the book and is both comprehensive
and extremely clear. Under all the
influences which have come from the
outside, new China is emerging, still
torn by revolution, still economically
chaotic, but developing national
consciousness. though national unity
is far In the future, If 1t is ever to be
attained. New things and new ideas
have trickled back into the most re-
mote hamlets Of China. The ponder
ables and imponderables cannot be
separated. New goods create new de-
sires and new ways Of living, which
create new ways of thinking" OF the
chances Of Japan in China, Mr.. Clark
says: Though Japan for time may
be able not only to hold what she has
taken, but to take more, this funda-
mental fact remains to tip the scales
in China's favor sooner or later in the