China's Forgotten Revolution
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China’s Forgotten Revolution: Radical Conservatism in Action, 1927-1949 Brian Kai Hin Tsui Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2012 Brian Kai Hin Tsui All rights reserved ABSTRACT China’s Forgotten Revolution: Radical Conservatism in Action, 1927-1949 Brian Kai Hin Tsui This dissertation examines Republican China’s state-led revolution under the Guomindang. Since the anti-Communist purge in 1927, the party-state had strived to re- energize mass activism and dissolve proletarian political subjectivity with a rightwing program that stressed interclass and national unity. Under Chiang Kai-shek’s leadership, the Guomindang put an end to the ideological ambiguity of Sun Yat-sen’s national revolution, broke ties the party forged with the Communist International in 1923, and launched an all-round assault on the fledging Chinese Communist Party. Refusing to challenge unequal power relationships domestically and abroad, Guomindang leaders promised to bring China and Asia back to their cultural essence and towards a superior ethical order. Despite its conservative socio-economic agenda, the party retained a radical organizational mode it derived from revolutionary socialism that prized Leninist vanguardism, reliance on mass involvement and cultural transformation. The Chinese nation-state under Guomindang rule experienced a conservative revolution and partook in a global fascist current that swept across Asia, Europe and Latin America during the second quarter of the twentieth century. The distinctiveness of China’s conservative revolution is demonstrated in this dissertation through a multilayered study of its ideological formulations, mass mobilization programs, and ability to garner support from outside the Guomindang domestically and abroad. Senior party ideologues among radical conservatives, who produced tracts attacking the Guomindang’s Communist allies in the mid-1920s, provided theoretical justifications for the April 1927 purge and heralded the party-state’s drastic shift to the right. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Guomindang state deployed the scouting and wartime spiritual mobilization movements to re-channel mass activism towards strengthening the nation’s organic unity and consolidating defense against Japanese invasion. Potentially subversive popular demands were diffused through a new focus on refining and rationalizing consumption habits, time management and other social mores. Instead of political participation, popular will found expression in public rituals, physical recreation and cultural entertainments. Conservative revolutionaries were adept in building elite support. The state’s goal of disciplining everyday life converged with liberal intellectual fear over a social order collapsing under mob rule. While uncomfortable with some authoritarian behaviors on the Guomindang’s part, prominent liberals such as Zhu Guangqian shared the state’s priority of reining in an intransigent mass society. Internationally, China’s repudiation of Soviet-supported anti-imperialist activities led the Guomindang to appeal to cultural affinities in the overtures it extended to the Indian independence movement. The regime’s celebration of Eastern spiritual superiority proved attractive to Pan-Asianists like Rabindranath Tagore and informed exchanges between the Guomindang and Indian National Congress at the height of the Second World War. In highlighting the ascendency of radical conservatism in China and its transnational circulation across Asia, this dissertation sheds light on the distinct qualities, often downplayed in the historical literature, of the Guomindang’s revolutionary enterprise vis-à-vis the radical left. CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii INTRODUCTION 1 PART I. IDEOLOGY 33 Chapter 1. Theorizing Revolutionary Activism 34 Party Purification and the Rise of Radical Conservatism PART II. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 78 Chapter 2. Reining in the Masses 79 The Scouts of China as a Guomindang Youth Movement Chapter 3. Mobilizing Hearts and Minds 123 The Everyday in Revolution During the Resistance War PART III. ALLIANCES 169 Chapter 4. Liberal Support for the Conservative Revolution 170 The Case of Zhu Guangqian Chapter 5. The Revolution and the World 211 Pan-Asianism, India and the Guomindang CONCLUSION 255 BIBLIOGRAPHY 281 i LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 Girl scouts at a Nanjing high school doing needlework 102 Fig. 2 Scouts at review ground, Nanjing, 1936 111 Fig. 3 Emblems of the Boy Scouts of America and the Scouts of China 119 Fig. 4 National Spiritual Mobilization Campaign launching and pledge- 153 taking ceremonies, 1939 Fig. 5 Children taught to make “aerial bombers” 163 Fig. 6 Tan Yunshan in Gandhian cap and khadi, 1931 233 Fig. 7 Tan Yunshan welcoming Song Meiling and Chiang Kai-shek to 245 Cheena-Bhavana, 1942 Fig. 8 Tan Yunshan welcoming Zhou Enlai to Cheena-Bhavana, 1957 252 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing a dissertation is as much about making new discoveries as confronting one’s limitations. This work would never have seen the light of day without the help of teachers, friends and family. I owe my greatest debt of gratitude to Eugenia Lean. She was an exemplary mentor in her intellectual openness and commitment to students’ well- being. Always patient with misguided questions and requests to read yet another draft, she brought rigor, acumen and compassion to my years at Columbia University. Madeleine Zelin was most generous with her time and insights, encouraging me not to be too carried away by my own train of thought as to leave readers behind. Lydia Liu’s command of theoretical ideas and historical materials is something I can only aspire to emulate. Victoria de Grazia’s pioneering works on European fascism and perceptive comments on my writings are constant sources of inspiration. Vijay Prashad, who did not hesitate to offer support from afar, is a great model of how academic pursuits and political commitments can sustain each another. I also thank Dorothy Ko for persistently but ever so gently pushing me to think outside the box, and Kim Brandt for planting the seeds of my interest in radical rightwing culture and politics. In Hong Kong, Alfred Lin has continuously offered encouragements and advices since my undergraduate years at the University of Hong Kong. Wong Siu-lun and Angela Leung provided me access to library resources and a vibrant intellectual community during much of the dissertation write-up process. Arif Dirlik, Lin Shaoyang, Dan Vukovich and Yan Hairong broadened my intellectual horizon; Daniel Kwan opened institutional doors. In Taipei, Peter Zarrow, Pan Kwang-che and Lin Chih-hung iii introduced me to important archival collections at Academia Sinica and beyond. Wang Yuan-yi, at the National University of Taiwan, enlightened me with his insights on fascism in Republican China. Hu Cheng and Chen Yunqian, both at Nanjing University, provided intellectual stimulation and made sure I had a productive time at the Second Historical Archives. Finally, Ravni Thakur at the University of Delhi took interest in my research on China-India relations and helped me secure useful materials from India. I was fortunate to have received wonderful comments on my work-in-progress. Prasenjit Duara and Tansen Sen brought me to conferences in New Delhi and Singapore, where I met people who witnessed the period this dissertation covers. Tan Chung generously shared with me his recollections of Tan Yunshan and unique take on the future of Sino-Indian relations, even as he could not agree with how I approached his father’s illustrious career. John Carroll and Renaud Egreteau gave me opportunities to share my work with audiences in Hong Kong. Rebecca Karl and Fabio Lanza made timely interventions with their brilliant comments at different stages of this project. Maggie Clinton invited me to a join her in presenting a fresh perspective on the nature of the Nationalist regime. Profound gratitude is due to fellow-graduate students – Liza Lawrence, Chelsea Schieder, Shim Mi-ryong, Nate Shockey and Zhong Yurou – who valiantly parsed through my convoluted drafts and convinced me that something could be salvaged from the mess. Friends at Columbia and elsewhere made my long journey meaningful. I thank Dan Asen, Chang Yi-hsiang, Reto Hofmann and Annie Shing for their camaraderie during the darkest days of my time in the program. Chen Buyun, Anatoly Detwyler, Arunabh Ghosh, Gal Gvili, Ho Han-peng, Sara Kile, Li Pei-ting, Lin Shing-ting, Andy iv Liu, Greg Patterson, Meha Priyadarshini, Myra Sun, Then Siew Fung and Tim Yang treated me to relaxing humor, profound wisdom and good company. Ding Xiangli, Liu Qiong and Yen Hsiao-pei played generous host in Nanjing and Taipei. Calvin Hui and Lorraine Wong, whom I have met as an undergraduate, have been the best intellectual companions and caring friends one could ever have. My parents, Tsui King Wah and Tam Oi Ling, are ever indulgent of their son’s many failings and faults. They give me the freedom to tread my own path, but are the first to hold me up when I do fall and tumble. My grandmother Cheng Mei Hing and great aunt Lau Wai Sok shower me with endless love and patience. Charles and Loretta Matthews, Tam Tak Wai, Lee Li-shyan and Li Hoi Hung encouraged me to find happiness in things other than academics. I thank Agnes Pau for always standing by me. She partakes of my joy and frustration, and invites me to share hers. Generous financial support came from a variety of sources. Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute provided a continuous stream of funding. American Historical Association and the Consortium for Intellectual and Cultural History supported summer trips in my pre-dissertation and dissertation write-up stages respectively. A fellowship from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange allowed me to focus on completing the dissertation in a timely manner. To these organizations I am forever grateful. Parts of chapter 5 have previously been published in the China Report, Vol.