In 1947, at the opening ceremony of Peking University, President Hu Shi said in his speech: "The sky in the United States is bluer than in China, so their moon is also rounder than in China." As soon as these words came out, they really shocked all the students present. Hu Shi lived in the United States for 25 years, and since his return to China, he has always admired American culture.
From the moment he dared to say so in his speech, we clearly understood the place of American culture in his heart and the unforgettable feelings he had for the United States as a nation. What influence did American culture have on him, causing him to say that the moon in the United States is rounder than in China?
Literature has been questioned by the world
Hu Shi made many achievements in his lifetime, and also had a lot of research in many aspects. Later generations also commented on him in mixed reviews. In fact, his influence in history has both positive and negative aspects, but most of them are positive and progressive. The negative evaluation is basically that people are extremely dissatisfied with his sublime attitude, and there are even a group of people who question his extremely high literary status.
There are a group of people who think that Hu Shi is just a man who seems to be very knowledgeable, and his scholarly works are actually very simple. These people claim that after delving into Hu Shi's literary research, they found that Hu Shi's research was very in-depth and did not even have too high literary value.
Therefore, some people will question how people like Hu Shi became the leaders and academic pioneers of the new era. Second, since Hu Shi advocated lifelong learning from American civilization in China, how could he afford the leadership of the Chinese Renaissance? The integration of various reasons, Hu Shi's extremely high position in history is indeed difficult to convince.
Hu Shi's admiration for American culture is indeed unsatisfactory, but this does not negate his achievements in other areas. Hu Shi was one of the most influential Chinese thinkers and scholars of the last century, advocating the vigorous dissemination of vernacular language and leading the New Culture Movement, making an indelible contribution to the emancipation of the mind in modern China. In addition, he has vigorously advocated democratic and liberal ideas and rationalism all his life, which has played a great role in promoting the growth of China's democratic forces.
But the idea of "total Westernization" mentioned in his article is indeed too extreme, according to him, China's modern development is quite passive under the impact of foreign forces. If China wants to speed up the pace of modernization as soon as possible, it must fully accept the advanced civilization of western modernity, especially in the two aspects of democratic liberation and science and technology.
If we want to completely solve the current dilemma, we must first modestly admit that we are lagging behind the Western countries in many aspects. Our current backwardness is not only manifested in mechanical and material terms, but also in political, cultural and moral aspects. He also gave many examples to illustrate his point, he repeatedly compared China during the period of feudal autocracy with the Western powers, and used the lessons of the many unequal treaties we signed after our defeat in the 19th century to warn future generations that we should bow our heads and humbly learn from all aspects of the Western countries.
The self-righteousness of the radicals
As a radical democratic philosopher, he did not want to watch the country fall step by step, he wanted to awaken the people ideologically, so he put forward the concept of "comprehensive Westernization" to change the status quo of China's backwardness and beating.
He chose everything in the United States as a benchmark, in addition to his single-minded desire to save the country and save the people, but also deeply hidden his deep feelings for American culture. But he did overcorrect in learning from the West, completely ignoring the best parts of his own culture.
Born in 1891, Hu Shi has been studying at a private school in his hometown since he was a child, and at the age of 19, he went to the United States to study for further study, and studied under the famous American philosopher Dewey. He returned to China in 1917 and taught at Peking University. In his youth, he studied in the United States for 7 years, in addition to serving as a Chinese ambassador to foreign countries for 8 years, and in his later years he settled in the United States again with his wife Jiang Dongxiu. In this way, Hu Shi lived in the United States for a full 25 years of his life, and he has fully adapted to and enjoyed everything in the United States.
During his studies in the United States, he witnessed the huge gap between the two countries in many aspects, whether it is cultural level or living standards, China's development is far behind that of the United States. In Hu Shi's view, the fundamental reason for the gap between the two countries lies in the different ideologies, politics, systems, and so on between countries.
Over time, he regarded everything about the United States as an example to learn from, and when he desperately revealed his envy and admiration for American life, he could no longer see the excellence of his country. He began to irresponsibly preach and boast of flawless American culture, and gradually he forgot about the culture of his homeland. One of the things that got the public's biggest opinion of him was that during his tenure as ambassador abroad, he did not hesitate to accept any suggestions and opinions given by the United States.
Mr. Jiang once made the following evaluation of Hu Shi's total negation of Chinese culture: Hu Shi was a person with unparalleled achievements in literature and made outstanding contributions to promoting the development of Chinese thought and culture. However, if we consider that he is too admiring and admiring American culture, and on top of this, it can be regarded as a meritorious and negligent person, you can call him a literati who has no merit and no contribution!
Abandoning the East and thinking of going into the West
Combined with the present, not to mention the fascination with foreign cultural life in Hu Shi's period, the atmosphere of modern people admiring the foreign world is still prevalent. In the eyes of many young people, Western science and technology are developed and lead the world, while China's scientific and technological level is far inferior to that of people, so some people blindly envy foreign ways of life and education. Is China's five-thousand-year historical civilization so worthless?
We must remember that we are the descendants of Yan Huang, our motherland is a country of etiquette, and our ancestors have left us so many splendid and dazzling cultural heritage, we must not discard and deny it without thinking. It is true that we lag behind the West in technology, economy, and even living standards, but this is true, but it is all due to historical reasons. In the new era, we should be confident and believe that our country must be moving in a better direction.
Sadly, we abandon the East and think we have entered the West. Cultures are diverse, and we must have the correct attitude of "taking the essence of foreign cultures and removing their dross" when facing them. On the one hand, we must recognize the cultural or technological advancement of the West, but on the other hand, we must not forget or even deny the essence of our own national culture because of the advancement of foreign cultures.
We should combine the excellence of others with our own culture for dialectical treatment, and creatively think about how we should do it at present in order to make our own national culture flourish, so that we can be more confident and confident in the face of foreign cultures.