An Anthropological View on China’s Troubles

Abstract

Every thoughtful Chinese has time and again asked himself: What is after all at the root of China’s national troubles? How are we to account in the simplest terms for the chronic state of affairs including famine, war, pestilence, ignorance, and almost every other thing that characterizes a disorganized country? Granting that there are many factors responsible for the state of affairs that we have been witnessing for the last few decades, we would still like to know if there is any single factor to which we can point as the most vital of all. To this there have been of course many answers or attempts at answering. If we have enough time and, what is more important, enough patience to make an inductive study of these answers, so amply furnished by modern facilities for free discussion and publicity, we shall surely land upon three or four issues of great moment. They are:

(Originally published in The China Critic, Vol. I, No. 3, June 14, 1928, by the name of: Quentin Pan)