Chang was, as was said before, part of a unique cohort that had been schooled in both the old Confucian ways and the educational traditions of the West. Several members of this cohort became multilingual and viewed the preservation of the core defining features of Chinese culture as an urgent task even as they sought to convey valuable insights gleaned from their experiences in the West, especially the achievements of modern science and the liberal political worldview.32 This cohort formed a network in which most of the scholarship recipients were acquainted with each other.
During his time at Clark University, Chang wrote prolifically, including for its newspaper the Chinese Student Monthly. There he published essays on Chinese nationalism and the effects of colonialism on the international legal system and China, essays that show him to have been deeply engaged with international politics and the political problems in China from an early stage.33 These early works also reveal his close involvement in the problems of politics and national-identity formation in his native country. Later writings from Chang would show a pattern of connecting with important political problems of the day that specifically affected China and its identity in a volatile world.34
In “National Ideals,” Chang’s first published essay, which won second prize in a lecture competition in Williamstown, Massachusetts, he discussed what he understood by real patriotism and the prerequisites for a democratic republic. The essay was undoubtedly inspired by political events in China, which included the overthrow of the imperial order and the creation of a new republic in 1912. In the essay, Chang set out his national ideals and his vision of a “healthy republic” in terms of patriotism, an unswerving and productive life, and a public morality capable of counteracting the selfishness and political conflicts of society. As regards patriotism, Chang did not consider citizenship of the world—or a world state—as realistic options; the focus must instead be on a nationalism capable both of counteracting narrow local interests in China and of utilizing the Chinese people’s shared frames of cultural reference. A democratic republic, Chang argued, also presupposed an educated citizenry, a condition that was essential for being able to claim that the republic was government by, of, and for the people.35 It is worth noting that by this point Chang was already meditating upon the meaning, potential, and desirability of a kind of global organization and global citizenship. As noted above, later in life Chang would play a part in defining the shape and direction of the UN and, with it, a way of thinking specific to citizens of the world.
In another article by Chang from 1912, titled “China’s Real Situation” and also published in the Chinese Student Monthly, he reflected upon what he called the external and the internal problems of China. On the one hand, the Chinese Republic faced the challenge of confronting the colonial powers (Japan, France, Great Britain, Russia, Germany) and their ambitions to curtail China’s independence and freedom. According to Chang, China was bound by protocols, conventions, treaties, and contracts that had annulled her powers as a free agent. On the other hand, the internal problems consisted of severe poverty in many provinces. In addition to these internal problems, China also had to confront serious problems such as famine and flood. Chang also stressed that the Manchu dynasty had not left a well-organized department of administration. For example, there had not been any definite, uniform system of taxation in China. A common currency and a well-functioning educational system were also lacking, as well as a developed railroad system. Additionally, the country had no dialect in common, and its written language was so hard to learn that the common people were unable to read an ordinary newspaper. A simplification of the written language was urgently needed. At the end of the article, Chang stressed that the group to which he belonged—the chosen few who had been privileged to receive a university education overseas—had an important duty to help the self-sacrificing populace at home to modernize China and fulfill the goal of making China an independent, prosperous, and free country.36 He was to follow this precedent himself when, after completing his studies in the United States, he returned to China and worked intensively to modernize Chinese society through education.
In another early essay, published in 1913, “A Brief Survey of Extraterritoriality, or Consular Jurisdiction in Non-Christian Lands,” Chang discussed the phenomenon of having different laws for foreign citizens and natives. In this article, Chang presented a historical overview of how individual-based law emerged as an entity distinct from simple territorial legislation, focusing in particular on conditions in China and in Muslim countries. In the latter, such as Ottoman Turkey, extraterritoriality was based on custom and early treaties. These traditions, treaties, and practices would later on serve as “role models” for the treaties and extraterritorial laws that were established in the Far East.37 Chang’s hope in this essay was that the advent of the new Chinese republic in 1912 would steadily eliminate the rights and influence of foreign powers in China. In the case of states in which religion and legislation were closely intertwined, as with Muslim states, Chang argued that there were grounds—from both perspectives—for having separate legislative codes.38 From the perspective of the Western countries, there was also the concern that the citizens of their countries would not be treated in courts in a safe and fair manner according to their legal principles if no extraterritorial laws existed.39
Chang was very active in various student organizations during his time at Clark, including associations for Christian Chinese students and the Congregational Church of China. This kind of engagement in the college environment was typical for many of the students in the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Programme. Chang also attended Christian student conferences during his tenure as secretary of the Chinese Students’ Christian Association, even giving an address to the conference of the association, a large convention held in Missouri in 1914. He organized bible classes at various American universities.40 The Christian circles in which he moved at this time were evangelical and heavily involved in missionary work overseas, particularly in China. During this time, Chang also published three confessional essays on Christianity.41
Where did this Christian involvement spring from? Poling had become a Christian a few years previously as a result of his contact with the YMCA and other organizations. In seeking to account for Chang’s own interest in religion, it is easy to speculate about his brother’s influence. In 1908, Poling visited the United States and Britain for the first time and pursued studies at several educational institutions. During these visits he also came into contact with a number of Christian networks and, upon returning home to China in 1909, chose to be baptized; he was then thirty-three years old.
The Americans had hoped that their scholarship program, among other things, would result in the Chinese students becoming drawn into the Christian culture of the United States. In the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, however, and in contrast to his brother, Chang’s interest in Christianity appears to have flagged, something we will return to in due course. Poling’s Christian faith seems not to have affected the character or image of his schools, which were established with the intention of being a nonconfessional alternative to the Chinese mission schools. In the 1910s, P. C. Chang’s intellectual environment in the 1910s was deeply influenced by the efforts of Christian missionaries to allow Christianity to take root in China on the country’s own terms and by means of the Chinese themselves.42
In the republic’s early years, religious freedom also increased in China, with thousands of missionaries from different societies travelling around the country. Chang’s view was that only by taking indigenous traditions as its starting point could Christianity acquire real momentum and influence in Chinese society. He opposed the notion that Christianity was, as a religion, alien to China. The Good News should be