Research On The Japanese "Cultural Undertakings To China" In The First Half Of The Twentieth Century

During the late 1910s, Japan began to lay more pressure to the Chinese government and demanded special interests and rights arbitrarily. Its intention of invading China becomes obvious. Therefore, the hearts of the patriotic Chinese citizens were seriously hurt, and anti-Japan patriotism movement was in its climax. Under this background, the Japanese Foreign Ministry began to carry out the"Cultural Undertakings to China"which developed the cultural and educational activities toward China by making use of the Chinese compensation from the"1901 Treaty". The organizations that had close relations to the undertakings included the"General Committee of Oriental Culture Undertakings"and the"Sino-Japan Academic Committee".With the"Jinan Incident"in May 1928 as the turning point, major cultural activities of the General Committee of Oriental Culture Undertakings can be divided into two periods. The former period is from October 1925 to May 1928 with the Beijing Human Science Research Institute as the center, and the latter period is from May 1928 to 1944 with the Tokyo Kyoto Research institute of the Oriental Cultural College as the center. The key project of Beijing Human and Science Research institute is to compile"The Abstract of Imperial Collection of Four, the revised edition"and in this project the expected goal of 34,865 sections had been finished by the time of 1945 when Japan was defeated. However, the Japanese members in the General Committee of Oriental Culture Undertakings who had given up the compiling project in the Beijing Human and Science Research Institute and went back to Japan and established the Tokyo Beijing Research Institute of the Oriental Cultural College with the Kang money in the name of the main committee and systematically began to work on the research of Chinese classical culture. These two institutes have built a solid academic foundation for research on the Chinese issue in modern Japan by accumulating lots of original materials and research experience.The Sino-Japan Academic Committee originally received its starting capital from a transferred fund by the Chinese Foreign Student Sympathy Association. In over 30 years from its founding in 1918 to its dissolution in 1945, the organization was active in the educational undertakings of the Chinese foreign students. Its activities include providing free accommodation as well as many living cares for the Chinese foreign students, operating prep educational institutions such as the East Asia Advanced Prep School, and organizing the entertainment activities of the foreign students as well as publishing institutional magazines such as"Sino-Japan Academic Newspaper". Therefore, it is a non-governmental organization that kept the closest relation with the Chinese foreign students.With the background of Sino-Japan relationship in the modern days and the core of responding attitude in the Chinese educational and cultural fields, this paper explores the developing trace of the General Committee of Oriental Culture Undertakings and the Sino-Japan Academic Committee by investigating the concrete evidence from the historical data of both China and Japan. On the basis of research results obtained by the Chinese and foreign scholars, this paper also analyzes the trace by using the Marxism historical concept and further explores and discusses the structural features of the Sino-Japan educational and cultural activities in the first half of the 20th century.Through the exploration of the activities carried out by the General Committee of Oriental Culture Undertakings and the Sino-Japan Academic Committee, we can see that the Sino-Japan cultural and educational exchange in the first half of the 20th century mainly existed among non-governmental activities. However, as government influence increases in the General Committee of Oriental Culture Undertakings and the Sino-Japan Academic Committee, conflict in the educational and cultural fields between China and Japan constantly increased as well. The main reason for the coexistence of exchange and conflict lies in the multi-structural feature of the Japanese diplomacy to China and the twofold feature of the Japanese intellectuals'understanding of China.Generally speaking, there are points of failure in the exchanges carried out by the General Committee of Oriental Culture Undertakings and the Sino-Japan Academic Committee in the Sino-Japan cultural and educational fields in the first half of the 20th century. Of course, it is a good idea to improve the friendship by promoting the exchange of cultural activities between the two countries and the development of education for the foreign students. The real international exchange is the exchange of culture and education. It is the foundation of maintaining long-term friendly exchanges and the best way to establish communication and cooperation between people of different countries. However, it is not a real international exchange when Japan puts itself in the center and Japanese interest is considered above everything else. China and Japan cannot carry out real communication and exchanges unless they stand on equal grounds with mutual-respect. Although the differences between the Chinese and Japanese points of view tend to be the main obstacle to Sino-Japan communication, the most important way of breaking the obstacle is to improve the understanding of each other."What are the others thinking about and what are they seeking for?"These questions are not easy to understand, but it is the first step towards the real friendly exchanges to make the greatest effort of understanding and communication with each other.