Gu Hongmings Eccentric
Chinese Odyssey
ENCOUNTERS WITH ASIA
Victor H. Mair, Series Editor
Encounters with Asia is an interdisciplinary series dedicated to the exploration of all the major regions and cultures of this vast continent. Its timeframe extends from the prehistoric to the contemporary; its geographic scope ranges from the Urals and the Caucasus to the Pacific. A particular focus of the series is the Silk Road in all of its ramifications: religion, art, music, medicine, science, trade, and so forth. Among the disciplines represented in this series are history, archeology, anthropology, ethnography, and linguistics. The series aims particularly to clarify the complex interrelationships among various peoples within Asia, and also with societies beyond Asia.
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Copyright 2019 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Du, Chunmei, author.
Title: Gu Hongmings eccentric Chinese odyssey / Chunmei Du.
Other titles: Encounters with Asia.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019] | Series: Encounters with Asia | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018051855| ISBN 9780812251203 (hardcover: alk. paper) | ISBN 0812251202 (hardcover: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Gu, Hongming. | Gu, HongmingPsychology. | ScholarsChinaBiography. | Eccentrics and eccentricitiesChinaBiography. | Identity (Psychology) | East and West. | ConfucianismRelationsChristianity. | ChinaIntellectual life19th century. | ChinaIntellectual life20th century.
Classification: LCC CT3990.G8 D8 2019 | DDC 920.051dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018051855
(
dong xi nan bei zhi ren)
Born in the South (Penang), educated in the West (Europe), married to a woman from the East (Japan), and now working in the North (Peking)
Noted for his ultraconservatism and eccentricity, Gu Hongming
(18571928) remains one of the most controversial figures in modern Chinese intellectual history.
Gu Hongmings conservative ideas and unusual behaviors were eccentric, to say the least.
Is Gu Hongming a Chinese sage This study examines the controversial scholars intellectual and psychological journeys across geographical, national, cultural, and racial boundaries. Adopting a global-historical approach, I first reevaluate Gus roles in transcultural exchanges during the major crisis of the World War I era. He engaged in intensive debates and dialogues with Western sinologists, missionaries, and travelers to China, and forged a unique intellectual and life trajectory as a diasporic professional and global scholar. In addition, I try to unfold a trickster-sage figure who danced between critical intellectual engagements and symbolic public performance, fighting modern Western civilization with pranks and lampoons in a time dominated by industrial power and empire building. Gu Hongmings defense of China was both personal and national, and his resistance of the West was as much psychological as intellectual. For an examination of the fascinating odyssey of this Chinese trickster-sage, lets begin with his life journey.
A Biographical Sketch
Gu Hongming was born in the British colony of Penang in 1857. Located off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, the island of Penang had been a British colony since 1786 and, at the time of Gus birth, it was part of the Straits Settlements, together with Malacca and Singapore.zone where Malay, European, Chinese, and Indian cultures interacted and mingled.
Gu came from a wealthy Chinese family that had originally emigrated from Fujian, where the majority of Chinese immigrants to the Straits Settlements originated. Gus clan belonged to the elite group of Straits-born Chinese and for several decades remained one of most prominent Chinese families in Penang. Gu Hongming appeared to have maintained a close relationship with his elder brother, continuing his visits before and after his sojourn in Europe and helping to support the brothers family after the latters death on Hainan Island in 1901.
In many ways Gu Hongming was brought up in a familial, political, and sociocultural environment quite distinct from that of the Chinese literati of his generation in Qing China. Together with his family, Gu lived in the Brown estate in Sungai Nibong, outside downtown Penang, and had close interactions with the Brown family members. Such a hybrid living experience separated him from the children of poor immigrant families, especially the recent coolies living in downtown Penang.
As some English education was considered beneficial to a career in the colony, Gus English education was typical among local elite Chinese families; his brother and cousins were also alumni of the school. In contrast to the literati in Qing China, most of Gus family members were nearly illiterate in classical Chinese, spoke Southern Fujian (Minnan) dialect and the Hokkien-Malay creole known as Baba Malay, and appeared to be Peranakan, a term for a creolized Chinese group whose language and culture integrated both Chinese and Malay elements. In their choice of career, Gus family exemplified the priority placed on material wealth over scholarship in local Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia. A degree of proficiency in English was considered desirable because of its instrumental value, while mastery of the Chinese classics was not regarded as necessary or valuable. Gu grew up in essentially a colonial and culturally hybrid setting, with different political, social, and value systems from those encountered in the Qing empire, where the centuries-old negotiation between Manchu rule and Confucian cultural and bureaucratic practices presented a different set of issues. As a consequence, while the trajectory of Gus life would eventually resemble and overlap with that of many intellectuals from the mainland, especially those who received a European education and went on to pursue careers in China, Gus colonial origins would continue to shape his thinking throughout his life in subtle but significant ways.
In 18701871, Gu went to Scotland with his guardian, Forbes Scott Brown. The famous Scottish essayist, philosopher, and historian Thomas Carlyle had a particular influence on Gus political and cultural beliefs. Carlyle was appointed the universitys rector in 1865, and his writings were influential in the Victorian era and popular among Edinburgh University students.
