The Visits Of International Scientific And Cultural Celebrities To Shanghai And Their Impacts (1919～1937)

During the years of 1920s and 1930s,a group of international scientific and cultural celebrities visited Shanghai.John Dewey opened the visiting prelude,then more and more famous people visited Shanghai,such as Bertrand Russel,Paul Monroe,Albert Einstein,Rabindranath Tagore,George Shaw,Guglielmo Marconi, Charlie Chaplin and so on.For different visiting reasons,some of them gave speeches to disseminate their academic thoughts while some of them toured around Shanghai when they stayed in Shanghai.And they gained an impression of China from Shanghai.On the other hand,Shanghai extended warm welcome to them.Reception and symposia was held.With their coming,they brought new ideas and vitality to Shanghai meanwhile they had a positive impact on whole China.From an individual point of view,every celebrity visited Shanghai for different reasons.Their experience in Shanghai varied from person to person.Their impact was different,too.But from a macro point of view,they had much in common.As an important component of Shanghai's history in cultural exchange,this period of history has its own value and it is necessary to study further.The article discussed the international scientific and cultural celebrities who visited Shanghai as a whole and took advantage of the existing material to explore the causes of their visiting and specific situation with historic logical method.It also analyses how they influenced China and Shanghai.The article is divided into four parts.The first part sets out Shanghai's macro-historical background,which attracted the celebrities coming.It mainly divided into two aspects.First of all,the unique traditional culture of Shanghai attracted the foreign celebrities coming.Secondly,the atmosphere of academic freedom created by the New Culture Movement supplied an opportunity for celebrities coming.The second part narrates and analyzes the specific circumstances of the arrival of the international scientific and cultural celebrities.First,it gives a brief description of the situation of famous people visiting Shanghai at that period of time.Then it analyzes the reasons why they visited Shanghai,the forms of hospitality and their main activities and ideas in Shanghai in details.From analysis,a significant proportion of them visited Shanghai on the basis of visiting China for giving lectures. Some visited Shanghai when they were on the way of travel.The rest visited Shanghai for other reasons.Some non-governmental academic organization played a major role in the reception.Celebrities' academic thoughts and viewpoints could be seen from their main activities in Shanghai.Finally,the article describes the impression between celebrities and people in Shanghai.In the eyes of celebrities, Shanghai was luxuriant outside but had many problems inside.In the eyes of people in Shanghai,they feel that there was a distance between them and the celebrities and their impression on celebrities was impressed by media.The third part analyzes the influence which brought by international scientific and cultural celebrities who visited Shanghai.Firstly,they promoted the development of the New Culture Movement directly or indirectly.They not only promoted the development of varieties of ideas in China,but also had an irreplaceable role in the three debates in the New Culture Movement.Secondly,with a group of famous foreign scientists and educators visiting Shanghai,the education and science in China were further developed,the modernization of education in China was promoted and the people's scientific awareness was stimulated.Thirdly,consumer business, especially Shanghai's cultural market,was boosted.In addition,some of domestic intellectuals were affected in the aspect of their academic research,individual thought and their behavior.Certainly,cultural exchange is two-way.The celebrities who visited Shanghai had an influence on China.In the same time,they were affected,too. However,every coin has two sides.There are some deficiencies inevitably when they visited Shanghai. The fourth part is a conclusion.In this part,I commentate on the history of the international scientific and cultural celebrities visiting Shanghai and clarify the practical significance by the means of combining the history and reality.