CHINA WAKING UP | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 1, 1905

CHINA WAKING UP.

MR. ARCHIBALD COLQUHOUN is one of the highest authorities upon all matters relating to China. That he is justly so regarded, is shown by his able work entitled "China in Transformation." Mr. Colquhoun contributes a most instructive and suggestive article to the July number of the North American Review, in which he calls attention to a number of important facts concerning recent movements which indicate that China is waking up. The article is entitled, "China in Transformation, and the War."

In the opening sentence, Mr. Colquhoun says: "Altho very few people, with any reputation as political students, would care to risk a prophecy as to the probable denouement of the present war, the writer is bold to foretell one thing: China will provide some surprises for the world at large, possibly before the conclusion of the war, inevitably after it is over. Russia and Japan present to the uninstructed observer the spectacle of two men fighting for the possession of a quasi-moribund third; but the supposed helpless one has opened, at least one eye, if not very widely, and is eagerly watching the struggle."

Mr. Colquhoun agrees with the statement made in The Northwestern a few weeks ago, that the great man of China to-day, the man whose name should be remembered, is Yuan Shih Kai. Yuan has secured the favor of the empress dowager. He supports the more practical reforms, and his present great effort is to train and equip properly a modern army in northern China, for he has become a convert to the idea that a policy, without force to back it, is useless. He is making use of Japanese military methods, and his purpose to create a strong Chinese army is based primarily upon the doctrine, "China for the Chinese."

An item of great significance, says Mr. Colquhoun, is found in the fact that in the Chinese civil service examinations, which open the way to official station, a revolution occurred last year. Hitherto, the examinations had been rigidly confined to that antique Chinese classicism which seems to Occidentals so very absurd in a practical age. But now the examinations include questions as to the significance of the Monroe doctrine, the value of the Panama canal and the Siberian railroad, the meaning of free trade and protection, the chief points in the educational systems of different countries, and the modern development of Japan.

Other significant facts are the following: Chinese workmen are now crowding Japanese arsenals and factories, to be taught the use of modern machinery and manufacturing methods. The Japanese influence in China is being widely extended by means of a native press, controlled and directed by Japanese, which extends to the remote interior of the Chinese empire. One of the early results of this form of agitation for modernization was an exodus of Chinese students to Japanese colleges, of whom in Tokyo last year there were over 1,000 enrolled. A network of postal service has been spread over the length and breadth of the eighteen provinces, which makes the dissemination of the newspapers and literature possible.

Mr. Colquhoun, in summing up these points, remarks: "Who can doubt that China is on the eve of a new era, and that the new reform movement, of which Japan is the prime instigator, will be successful, because it does not center in any one district, class of society, or political party, but has centers of activity in the army, the mandarin class, the literati, and the industrial class? All have been touched with the magic wand, while the widely-disseminated literature of the Japanese press carries new light to the farthest ends of China."

—Northwestern Christian Advocate.