Culture. Mindset. Personality: Understanding Hu Shih

Author: Shen Weiwei / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1992-08-01
Features: At the age of 13, Hu Shi was betrothed by his mother to Jiang Dongxiu, a village girl with bound feet. Later, Hu Shi studied in Shanghai and went abroad to the United States, returning to his hometown at the age of 27 to marry her. This is what most people know as the "little-footed wife of the 'Ph.D. Hu Shi'"—one of the "Seven Great Wonders of the Republic of China," and even more interesting because Hu Shi and Jiang Dongxiu lived together in the United States for a time. The "foreign Ph.D." and the "little-footed wife," a blend of East and West, traditional and modern, are rare in modern history. This unique combination has certain historical and cultural significance. A drop of water can reflect the brilliance of the sun, and one person's marriage can reveal the spirit and culture of an era. As an intermediary between traditional China and modern China, and as an enlightening teacher who bridges the past and the future, Hu Shi's journey in love and marriage itself is a history rich in complex content—a unique and typical contradiction embodying "the model of old morals in the new culture and the teacher of new thoughts in the old ethics." To showcase this contradiction reveals not only the essence of a cultural figure and enlightenment thinker but also the historical era and cultural matrix in which he lived.
One interpretation: The contradiction at the beginning of their union
At the age of four, Hu Shi lost his father and lived with his mother as an orphan. In early spring 1904, at the age of 13, Hu Shi was betrothed by his mother to Jiang Dongxiu, the daughter of Jiang Shixian, who lived 20 kilometers away from his hometown of Shangzhuang. Soon after, he went to Shanghai to study, while Jiang Dongxiu was an illiterate with bound feet. Faced with this situation, Hu Shi neither resisted nor defied his mother's decision, as the early 20th century was still the era of the Qing Empire before its collapse, and social customs were such. Moreover, the marriage was arranged by his mother, whose words were like "divine orders" to him. After spending several years in Shanghai, a metropolis deeply influenced by capitalist political, economic, and cultural trends and ahead of the new social of the early 20th century, Hu Shi began to reflect on his marriage and also became concerned about the marriages of Chinese people. In the 25th issue of the Jingye Xunbao (Competitive Weekly) published by the China Public College, he wrote an article titled On Marriage, advocating that parents should arrange their children's marriages because parents love their children and understand them. At this time, he read La Dame aux Camélias for the third time. He basically held a negative attitude toward the book. P95-96