Esperanto Esperanto in China Part 2Author: David Poulson Introductory note for new visitors to the Esperanto Topic. If you have only just begun to take an interest in Esperanto and wish to know some basic information about this fascinating subject, please start your reading at the first article of this series. Having already completed 70 articles, I am now at the stage of writing articles for those readers who have learned quite a lot about the Esperanto language and movement already, and who are now wanting to find out more than just the basic introductory information. To get to the beginning of this series After you have read the first article, click on the link at the top of the page which says "Articles" to find the rest of the series, which is listed in reverse chronological order. ________________________________________________________ When I began to write this series of articles on the growth and development of the Esperanto movement I said that I would divide it into four periods, the first of which would last from 1900 to 1931. And in my first article I described how, for twenty years, pioneer Chinese Esperantists slowly but tenaciously built the foundations for a movement which has lasted for a hundred years and which is still alive and well. Centres of activity were created and maintained in the cosmopolitan cities of Canton and Shanghai, and in the capital city of Peking (Beijing). From this base the movement was able to spread throughout other parts of China and between 1920 and 1930 growth was more rapid. By the end of 1931, there was some form of Esperanto activity (typically, of course, teaching and learning and publishing) going on in about 25 different cities. Apart from the three cities already mentioned, the two most important centres of activity were to be found at Guangzhou and Hankou. At Guangzhou, Esperanto was taught in over twenty locations (schools, and colleges, mainly), and at Hankou there was a very active group who operated a bookshop and a library, who organized summer schools, and who published the journal ?La Espero.? Of course, this great effort was only accomplished by the hard work, courage and outstanding commitment of a small group of individuals, some of whom I have already mentioned. and to conclude this brief summary of the first thirty years of Esperanto history in China, I want to describe the life and career of one of them: Cai Yuanpei. My choice of this particular pioneer from the past has, no doubt, been prompted my own personal and, some might say, biassed perspective of my circumstances today. I have been disappointed and disillusioned to watch Australian universities (like those in the USA and England, if what I hear is true) captured one by one - without any kind of a struggle - by money-focussed managerialists and bureaucrats whose main talents and energies seem to be focussed solely in the area of increasing their own personal wealth, furthering their own career, and squandering public money on luxury travel and accommodation around the world. As a result of their disastrous and profligate mismanagement, once beautiful campuses, which housed communities of scholars, have been reduced to permanent building sites, parking lots and academic slums in which academic standards, working conditions and service to the student body have declined. It is no small consolation for me to be able to turn my back on these delinquents in office and talk about a former head of a university who did show himself to be worthy of the position of leadership which he held. CAI YUANPEI (1868-1940) All the information I have found about Cai has been obtained from an article by Hou Zhiping which appeared in El Popola Cxinio a long time ago. Unfortunately, I no longer haved an exact reference but it was probably at least 20 years ago and if I re-locate it at a later date, I will amend this text and provide it. The article describes Cais?s career from the time he was 39 years old and does not provide any specific information about the first half of his life. However, we can make some faily safe assumptions. He was appointed Minister of Education in 1912, in Sun Yat Sen?s provisional government. It is logical, therefore, to assume that Cai had become an influential figure in the democratic revolutionary movement which overthrew the imperial government of theManchu Dynasty in late 1911. In my next article I will discuss the major contribution which Cai Yuanpei made to the development of Esperanto in China, and quote some of the speeches he made in support of the International Language. My target date for this article is Friday November 17th and I hope you will rejoin me then. |