Chang’s brother, Poling, had been similarly impressed by Dewey’s ideas when organizing his system of Nankai Schools. Dewey and the educational progressives emphasized the value not only of theoretical studies but also the value of aesthetic and practical attainments and of inculcating democratic thinking. These precepts were to become guiding principles for teaching in the Nankai Schools.87
How exactly was Chang affected by Dewey’s ideas? For Chang, like Dewey, it was important to recreate the circumstances and factors that had resulted in the pioneering spirit and delight in discovery that had been defining features of the “frontier mentality” of American society and the journeys of discovery by previous generations, something we touched upon earlier. These journeys had led to the clear technological, cultural, and material development of “the West.” The purpose of a school was thus not only to create a challenging environment—one that encouraged a combination of thought and action, discipline, and responsibility toward matters of common concern—but also to foster a spirit of eager, critical discovery.
At the Nankai School, Chang had also introduced a school council with representatives from the school’s sports clubs and musical associations in order to promote democratic participation in the running of the school. Chang shared Dewey’s opinion that it was vital to preserve the valuable elements of the old culture while seeking to implement new and creative curricular reforms. In this Chang parted company with several members of the New Culture Movement, who wanted more radical changes in Chinese customs, language, and habits of thought.88 Chang seems to have been unwilling to tone down the Confucian legacy, which was to become increasingly pronounced for him with the passage of time. In the 1920s, China’s growing economy led to the emergence of major urban centers, such as Shanghai, whose increasingly Westernized cultures were being criticized by intellectuals, Chang among them, for being materialistic and fashion-obsessed.89
There are other striking similarities between John Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy and Chang’s anti-metaphysical view of human rights: both emphasized the importance of finding agreement on practical ethical questions and of not becoming embroiled in abstract philosophical considerations that lacked practical relevance.90 Ideals and precepts must be “lived” by the students in order for them to gain knowledge.
Chang and Dewey also shared the view that Communism represented a too-hurried and too-radical strategy for societal transformation. The path to modernization of China should instead be gradual and focused upon educational means.91 There is, then, a direct line from Chang’s doctoral dissertation to his activities as an author of the UN Declaration. Chang’s dissertation makes clear that he had thought deeply about the rights and freedoms of the individual, a theme to which he would return several times in his later writings. Several of the issues on which Chang focused in his dissertation—the importance of a basic education for all, the value of consuming and producing culture, respect for the individual’s particular needs and conditions—would once again come to the fore in his work on the UN Declaration. Chang also shared Dewey’s and Kilpatrick’s rejection of authoritarianism in schools (as well as their rejection of political theories of authoritarianism). Even though Dewey did not talk much in terms of human rights he was a strong supporter of academic freedom and free speech.92 Dewey as well as Chang was also eager to emphasize community values. In other words, Dewey did not accept a “self-centered individualism” but endorsed instead a “social liberalism.”93
Both Chang and Dewey were profoundly influenced by the dramatic societal changes that their respective countries were undergoing. Dewey grew up in a nineteenth-century agricultural society that by the turn of the last century had rapidly transformed into an increasingly urbanized industrial society. While not experiencing the same rapid pace of change as the United States, China in the first decades of the twentieth century was nonetheless characterized by increasingly rapid industrialization and urbanization. According to Chang, China was also experiencing growing emancipation and individualization among its citizens, particularly after the breakthrough of modernism and urbanism, with the result that its citizens were increasingly acting in accordance with their own conscience and following laws that they themselves had played a part in creating.
Dewey and Chang also shared a broadly congruent conception of democracy. According to Dewey, democracy should be understood as “communicated experience.” What a democratic society should strive for, he argued, was for its citizens to be able to freely share their experiences on the principle of freedom of thought and expression, without the restrictions imposed by cartel-like formations.94 While this democratization process might entail a liberalization of and liberation from oppressive customs, Chang argued, these wide-ranging social changes nonetheless contained the seeds of egoism and a failure of social community.95 In this emphasis upon the individual’s duties toward the rest of society, the Confucian legacy in Chang’s thinking revealed itself most clearly.
CHAPTER 2
Raising a Family, Theatrical Activities, University and Diplomatic Careers
For Chang, much of the 1920s and 1930s were taken up with raising a family, pursuing a career, and continued involvement in the dramatic arts. He began traveling between the United States and China with greater frequency. In addition to becoming a professor at the newly founded Nankai University at the end of the 1920s, he was a guest professor at various universities around the world and was also intensely active in matters of educational policy. In the mid-1930s, he also became increasingly involved in foreign policy issues, due in part to the serious conflicts that erupted between China and Japan. Because Nankai University wielded considerable political influence in China and was strongly engaged with issues at a national level, Chang and his brother Poling found themselves drawn into these political conflicts. Thanks to his successful campaigns in Europe and the United States to argue China’s case with regard to Japan, Chang had by the early 1940s qualified himself for diplomatic postings in Turkey and Chile.
Raising a Family, Return to China and Tsinghua University
In June 1922, Chang and his wife had their first child, Ming-Ming. On the invitation of the Chinese Education Advancement Organization, Chang made a trip home to China that summer. He had been studying the educational systems of an array of countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Denmark. His journey home from New York to Tianjin (Tientsin) took him through Europe and the Indian Ocean, via the Suez Canal, and lasted several months. Chang’s wife Ts’a was seasick for much of the journey, leaving her unable to look after her newborn daughter. When they arrived in China, one of her sisters remarked, “This child is not well.” During the long journey, Ming-Ming had contracted meningitis, which damaged the left half of her brain. The consequent disability left her with considerable learning difficulties that resulted in her being unable to look after herself or be fully independent for the rest of her life. She finished school to the sixth grade, showing an ability for elementary mathematics, and she learned English from watching television. According to Stanley, she was well aware of her limitations, including in logical thought, but despite these challenges showed great patience.
It has already been mentioned that P. C. Chang tried in a number of ways to shake off the influence of his elder brother Poling and to find sources of income other than the Nankai School. In September 1923, Chang accordingly began working as vice-dean at the Tsinghua School, an institution that was supported by the US Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Fund. Before Chang’s engagement in Tsinghua, his mother,