NEW CHINA REVEALED

Evening Star, Issue 20139, 2 April 1929, Page 11

NEW CHINA REVEALED

STRIKING SPEECH BY FAMOUS SCHOLAR A great speech was recently delivered at Boston by Dr Y. C. James Yen, the great Chinese scholar. He said: “ 1 propose to speak to-night about one of the tilings that are not in the newspapers at all. i am not qualified to speak upon journalism, but 1 will speak to you about something that will make journalism possible. A great mass of the people of China do not read at all, and we must teach them to read. This Mass Educaion Movement will have a hearing on this problem. “ China says that six to twelve years is the school age, and some day tlie Government will be able to take cafe of all between these ages. But what about the two hundred million beyond the age of twelve? The Mass Education Movement is making a drive for this group. If we could give these young men an opportunity for a language education and citizenship education, you would see a different country altogether. Now they are indifferent because they have not a chance.

“1 have often .been asked why it is that so many cannot read or write when China gave printing and paper making to the world. We have two languages in China, the classical and the spoken, or Pai-Hua. In China, Japan, and Korea the same characters are used.

“ There is as much difference between the classical and spoken languages as there would be between Latin and modern English. For centuries the classical has held sway. To learn it means a lifetime of study, and most of the people have not the time, for they must earn their living. This is why we have a great country where many people do not read. “ Fortunately for China, four-fifths of the country can use the spoken language. Also, there is a small class of literature in this language, and this is what we want to teach to the two hundred millions. But even in this spoken or Pai-Hua language we have 4U,0U0 characters. And so unless we uould modernise this, the task is hopeless. “ We collected 200 kinds of Pai-Hua publications, and counted how many times a given character was used. After this kind of study we reduced the characters from 40,000 to 1,300. Based on these, we prepared four readers. There are twenty-four lessons; one hour a day to learn a lesson, and one month to complete a reader. In ninety-six hours the average person can grasp all the fundamental characters of this Pai-Hua language. “ In addition to these four readers, we issued another, called ‘ People’s Pocket Dictionary,’ containing 2,000 additional characters. When a man lias completed the learning of the 1,300 characters from these readers he is able to read anything in the Pai-Hua language. The cost of the course was twelve cents.

“ Our next problem was to bring these lessons into the hands of the •people. And .so the Mass .Education Movement started in Central Cliiria. The classical schools objected, saying that the farmers and artisans should not be given an education, and we had to tell them that every Chinese must know at least one language. They agreed to this, hup said they ought to be taught the Pai-Hua language. We told them that if we could not get the people educated China would always be a sleeping nation. So the organisation was Cumed to carry on our woik.

Out slogan was ‘Recruit 1,000 students to study 1,000 diameters.’ Wo were lolu that we could not get 100 students. So we employed methods to get too community interest. Wc used a poste>’ showing in the corner ‘ The Sick Man of the Far East—China,’ then a pictiue of a young man, a volunteer teacher; on tho extreme right, the picture of a doctor with a big bottle of medicine, and the label on the bottle was ‘ People‘.l; 1.000-Character Readers.’

“Wo warded the well-to-do fo'contribuie to the campaign. And to aropso the illiterate, we used a parade with brass bands. The marchers would ask on either side of the street: ‘ Can you read Chineself you can’t, come to school.’ In a short time 1,450 students enrolled, fifty buildings were put at our disposal, and eighty teachers volunteered to serve without pay. Alter four mouths of study a final examination was held.

“ The old governor had been sceptical, but said that be would not oppose the movement. Twelve hundred and twenty-five stuck to the last, and 967 passed their examinations, which the governor supervised. He also made the commencement address, and presented the diplomas. They were much more picturesque than the sheepskin J received from Vale. “ We then went to Fast China and South China. All this made a wide stir, and it was thought that we must organise nation wide. And so in the fall of 1923 a national council met in Peking, and 6UO representatives formed the Chinese National Association of the Mass Education Movement. Branches sprang up everywhere. Five millions are now studying among the labouring class, in the rural sections, and even in the army. “ I have been asked why in all these recent revolutions the Mass Education Movement has been able to carry" on. There are at least two reasons; (1) The common people are eager to get an education, and (2) there has lieen a na-tion-wide awakening to the need of educating all the people of China. “ China now realises that she must train her common people if she is to take her place in the sisterhood of nations. Now we have 120,000 volunteer teachers serving without pay. This seems to he far more significant for the ancient nation and the young republic than what we sometimes read in the newspapers. “ We realise that to make the people literate is just the first step. There remains the task of teaching citizenship. We must stress qualitative as against quantitative, and depth as against breadth. And so we are faced with the question as to the content of this great movement. AVe have the problem ol training, supervision, and the matter of literature. A T ct nothing can slop the movement. But what, are the millions going to rend? In the Pai-Hun Inn-

gunge there is very little literature availalde, and we must provide a literature. It must be a kind that will influence the people to great thinking and fine living. “ What is the relation of this Mass Education Movement to the rest of the world? I think this world is shrinking. Space doesn’t count as it once did. The people of the world are thrown together more and more. I think what one-fourth of the human race is going to do in the next few years is a matter of concern to China and the rest of the world.”