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'''Chinese Characteristics''' is a book of essays by [[Arthur Henderson Smith]] first published in Shanghai in 1890, then in a slightly revised version in London, Glasgow, and New York in 1894. Smith, a missionary of the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]], arrived in China in 187??, and took up residence in a village in [[Shandong]]. The book consists of ??? chapters, most of which were first published as articles in the [[North China Herald]].
'''Chinese Characteristics''' is a book of essays by [[Arthur Henderson Smith]] first published in Shanghai in 1890, then in a slightly revised version in London, Glasgow, and New York in 1894. Smith, a missionary of the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]], arrived in China in 187??, and took up residence in a village in [[Shandong]]. The book consists of ??? chapters, most of which were first published as articles in the [[North China Herald]].


Smith's book became the most widely read American book on China until at least the 1920s, perhaps until [[Pearl Buck]]'s [[The Good Earth]] replaced it in 1931.{{sfnb|Hayford|1985|p= }} The book was translated into Japanese soon after its orginal publication, then from Japanese into Chinese. The book drew strong responses from prominent Chinese intellectuals such as [[Gu Hongming]] and [[Lu Xun]] in the early twentieth century. In the late twentieth century, it was translated into Chinese at least three more times, an "Arthur Smith" fever. {{sfnb|Liu|2013|p= }} By 2014 there were at least 29 Chinese editions and dozens of articles.{{sfnb|Yang|2016}}
Smith's book became the most widely read American book on China until at least the 1920s, perhaps until [[Pearl Buck]]'s [[The Good Earth]] replaced it in 1931.{{sfnb|Hayford|1985|p= }} The book was translated into Japanese soon after its original publication, then from Japanese into Chinese. The book drew strong responses from prominent Chinese intellectuals such as [[Gu Hongming]] and [[Lu Xun]] in the early twentieth century. In the late twentieth century there was an "Arthur Smith" fever in which it was translated into Chinese at least three more times. {{sfnb|Liu|2013|p= }} By 2014 there were at least 29 Chinese editions and dozens of articles.{{sfnb|Yang|2016}}


==Structure and content==
==Structure and content==
Line 102: Line 102:
* XL. Conclusion
* XL. Conclusion
* Index
* Index
Several chapters are devoted to characteristics Smith declares that Chinese lack or do not have: "Absence of Nerves" XXVI. The Absence of Public Spirit XXXIV. The Absence of Sympathy, XXXVII. The Absence of Sincerity, XXXVIII. The Absence of Altruism. These are the characteristics, remarks one historian, that respectable middle-class Americans of the time emphasized and used to describe themselves. {{sfnb|Hayford|1985|p= }}
Several chapters are devoted to characteristics that Smith declares that Chinese lack: "Absence of Nerves" XXVI. The Absence of Public Spirit XXXIV. The Absence of Sympathy, XXXVII. The Absence of Sincerity, XXXVIII. The Absence of Altruism. These are the characteristics, remarks one historian, that respectable middle-class Americans of the time emphasized and used to describe themselves. {{sfnb|Hayford|1985|p= }}


==Reactions and critics==
==Reactions and critics==

Revision as of 03:13, 15 April 2024

Chinese Characteristics
AuthorArthur Henderson Smith
LanguageEnglish
Published1890; 1894
PublisherNorth China Herald 1890; Fleming H. Revell (1894)
Pages430 (1890); 342 (1894)

Chinese Characteristics is a book of essays by Arthur Henderson Smith first published in Shanghai in 1890, then in a slightly revised version in London, Glasgow, and New York in 1894. Smith, a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, arrived in China in 187??, and took up residence in a village in Shandong. The book consists of ??? chapters, most of which were first published as articles in the North China Herald.

Smith's book became the most widely read American book on China until at least the 1920s, perhaps until Pearl Buck's The Good Earth replaced it in 1931.[1] The book was translated into Japanese soon after its original publication, then from Japanese into Chinese. The book drew strong responses from prominent Chinese intellectuals such as Gu Hongming and Lu Xun in the early twentieth century. In the late twentieth century there was an "Arthur Smith" fever in which it was translated into Chinese at least three more times. [2] By 2014 there were at least 29 Chinese editions and dozens of articles.[3]

Structure and content

The 1890 first edition has ?? chapters, while the 1894 edition, subsequently reprinted many times, has

The first chapter is "Face." Face

  • CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.
  • Introduction
  • I. Unity in Variety — Variety in Unity ... 6
  • II. Solidarity 9
  • III. Social Solidarity .'. 12
  • IV. Face IS
  • V. The Faculty of Absorbing 18
  • VI. Eating 22
  • VII. Economy 26
  • VIII. Hunger tor Gain and Thirst for Fame ... 33
  • IX. Industry $6
  • X. Credulity ... ... 42
  • XI. Peaceableness 46 '
  • XII. Social Typhoons ... 49
  • XIII. The Dread of Giving Offence 57
  • XIV. Politeness 63
  • XV. Benevolence 68
  • XVI. The Disregard of Time ... , 74
  • XVII. The Disregard of Accuracy 78
  • XVIII. The Talent for Misunderstanding 86
  • XIX. The Talent for Indirection 91
  • XX. Flexible Inflexibility 98
  • XXI. Parasitism 105
  • XXII. The Absence of Nerves
  • XXIII. Disregard of Foundations
  • XXIV. Contempt for. Foreigners 124
  • XXV. Intellectual Turbidity 131
  • XXVI. The Absence of Public Spirit 138
  • XXVII. Inability to conserve Tangible Memorials of the Past ..' » 145
  • XXVIII. Conservatism 151
  • XXIX. Indifference to Comfort and Convenience 160
  • XXX. Patience and Perseverance 177
  • XXXI. Physical Vitality 186
  • XXXII. Employment of Intermediaries 193
  • XXXIII. Filial Piety 201
  • XXXIV. The Absence of Sympathy 214
  • XXXV. Mutual Responsibility and Respect for, Law
  • XXXVI. Mutual Suspicion
  • XXXVII. The Absence of Sincerity
  • XXXVIII. The Absence of Altruism
  • XXXIX. Polytheism; Pantheism; Atheism ... .
  • XL. Conclusion
  • Index

Several chapters are devoted to characteristics that Smith declares that Chinese lack: "Absence of Nerves" XXVI. The Absence of Public Spirit XXXIV. The Absence of Sympathy, XXXVII. The Absence of Sincerity, XXXVIII. The Absence of Altruism. These are the characteristics, remarks one historian, that respectable middle-class Americans of the time emphasized and used to describe themselves. [1]

Reactions and critics

The New York Times reviewed the first American edition, saying the volume is "a highly entertaining one, showing uncommon shrewdness, with a keen analysis of character, but on the whole, it is not favorable to the Chinese." Perhaps, the review suggested, the missionary feels a "certain amount of chagrin, seeing how futile have been his well-meant efforts for the conversion of the heathen." [4]

Chinese intellectuals challenged, ridiculed, and absorbed Smith's views. Gu Hongming, for instance [5]

while the pre-eminent New Culture period intellectual, Lu Xun offered congratulations on the publication of a new translation in [6]

The sociologist Pan Guangdan translated fifteen of Smith's twenty-seven chapters to include in a 1937 volume of his own essays, Minzu texing yu minzu weisheng (民族 特性 与 民族 卫生 Racial characteristics and racial hygiene). He argued for eugenics, urging educated and intelligent Chinese to increase their birth-rate and improve Chinese people's health by increasing the number of people who were genetically superior, using Smith's chapters "Absence of Nerves" and "Disregard of Accuracy" and "Absence of Public Spirit" to show the selfish, unscientific, face-loving, "Chinese Everyman" who weakened the Chinese race. [7]

Western scholars found Smith's book a convenient source of illustration of foreign images of China. Harold Isaacs, for instance, devoted several pages to Smith's views in his 1958 study, Scratches on Our Minds. He commented that Smith XXX YYY ZZZ [8]

Historian use the book to illustrate the attitudes of [1]

A more recent historian used Smith to illustrate Western misunderstanding that Chinese had no respect for "facts," that Smith

[9]

In the late twentieth century, Chinese intellectuals conducted an extensive debate on Smith and his evaluation of Chinese cultural identity. The scholar Yang Hui found that from 1991 to 2014 at least 29 editions appeared, inspiring dozens of articles. [3]

Editions

  • Smith, Arthur H. (1890). Chinese Characteristics. Shanghai: North China Herald. hdl:2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t4mk6wq37. Hathi Trust Online HERE
  • Smith, Arthur H. (1894). Chinese Characteristics. New York: Revell. Available at Internet Archive here. Hathi Trust here

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Hayford (1985).
  2. ^ Liu (2013).
  3. ^ a b Yang (2016).
  4. ^ "Chinese Characteristics (Review)", New York Times: 24, 4 November 1894
  5. ^ Liu (1995), p. ?.
  6. ^ Liu (1995), p. ??.
  7. ^ Ruth Rogaski, Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004): pp.241-242
  8. ^ Isaacs (1958).
  9. ^ Tong Lam, A Passion for Facts: Social Surveys and the Construction of the Chinese Nation State, 1900-1949 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011) pp. 29-32

External links

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