By Shui Tianzhong
The history of Sino-German cultural exchange is relatively brief and without dramatic upheaval. However, this type of exchange had taken place in such unique cultural and psychological contexts that it was unlike those China had experienced with other countries (including its neighbors such as Japan and Russia).
While the Chinese intellectual's conception of German culture is clearly linked to thinkers like Goethe, Heidegger, Kant, Leibniz, Marx, and those brilliant German composers, there was yet another group of players in the history of Sino-German relations. These were individuals who had employed their expertise in the service of the Chinese rulers of their time. They might not have been representatives of German culture per se, but it was through them that the Chinese acquired their first impressions of German culture.
One such individual was Johann Adam Schall von Bell, the first German in China's recorded history to serve in a Chinese imperial court. Many have compared his contribution to the Sino-Western cultural exchange with that of the Italian Jesuit missionary Matto Ricci, who came to Beijing in 1601. The two Jesuits have been called "the twin heroes of the Society of Jesus." Schall was born into an aristocratic family in Cologne. He came to China as a Jesuit missionary in 1619, when the Ming Dynasty was giving way to the Qing Dynasty, and later became the director of the Imperial Board of Astronomy - the first foreigner in Chinese history to hold that position. With his erudition and meticulous nature, Schall became an intimate advisor to Emperor Shun Zhi. For a foreigner, such royal favor was virtually unprecedented. The Emperor called him "Mafa" (meaning "grandfather" in Manchurian) and conferred on him numerous official titles. Even his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were granted such noble titles as "Tongfeng Daren" (Supreme Mandarin) and "Erpin Furen" (Second Lady). After the death of Shun Zhi, Schall was falsely accused of wrongdoing by his enemies and was sentenced to death by dismembering the body. On the day the sentence was pronounced, a violent earthquake shook the state capital, an event which many believed at the time was brought on by the wrath of Heaven at the injustice done to Schall. The ruler at the time, who believed in the interaction between heaven and men, immediately decided to release Schall, and handed down a severe sentence against Yang Guangxian, who had spearheaded the accusation against Schall. Yang later died in exile.
While one may argue it was a mere accident that the Chinese rulers learned from Schall of the wisdom, meticulousness and principled spirit of the Germans, the decision by the Chinese leaders of the 1930s to adopt the German style of government was made after comparison and consideration. By the late Qing period, when the allied forces of the eight foreign powers entered Beijing, each Western power had already carved out its own sphere of influence in China. The Chinese writer Lu Xun once remarked that the Chinese had a tendency to view serious events as theatrical spectacle. The leased territories or concessions which the foreign powers had occupied on Chinese soil since the late Qing period became for the Chinese such a theatrical stage or window, through which the ethnic character and cultural systems of foreign powers might be observed. The German approach to the administration of Jiaozhou Bay and Qingdao gave the Chinese a glimpse into a model of government entirely different from what they had observed in neighboring Russia and Japan. At the time, rumor had it that the people favored the German approach. Among the Christian missionaries stationed throughout China were some German priests and nuns who took the initiative to establish close ties with the locals. Interpersonal exchange emerged somewhat spontaneously and extended to various aspects of life, from the routine of daily living to the spheres of production and culture. In the world of commerce, the German firms were known for reliability and quality, which in turn profoundly influenced the Chinese city dwellers' conception of the Germans.
The Kuomingtung leaders, who had just come into power, realized that the country lacked the historically conditioned requirements for democracy shared by such foreign powers as Britain, America and France, nor did they want to implement a democratic system, be it British, American or French. Thus, they turned their attention to Russia and Germany, and for ideological reasons eventually decided on the German model. Working through the German government, Chinese leaders began to import advisors from Germany one after another; the most important ones were the former German career military officers who became military advisors to the Chinese government. Among those who made the most significant impact on China were Georg Wetzell, Hans von Seeckt and Alexander von Falkenhausen.
General Hans von Seeckt, former commander-in-chief of the German army, was the highest ranking ex-German officer in China, as well as the most honored German advisor in the Chinese government. Not only did von Seeckt assume the position of chief military advisor to the Chinese government, he was also given an astonishing title: Committee Chairman Trustee - making him the representative of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, the highest ranking Chinese leader of the time. Senior Chinese military and civil officers were obliged to consult with Seeckt by appointment before making many important decisions. It was remarked by foreign observers that the influence exerted by the Germans on the Chinese leadership of the 1930s was indeed both "extraordinary and astonishing." Von Seeckt's successor, General von Falkenhausen, drafted for the Chinese government an overall resistance strategy against the Japanese invasion and brought about fundamental changes in the development of military reform, the training of troops, the deployment of the naval and air forces, and the air defence facilities. In his July 1935 report entitled "A Proposal in Response to the Current Situation," von Falkenhausen provided an accurate assessment on the progress of the war against the Japanese. During the early period of the war, he was directly involved in planning and directing a number of battles. As a result, the Japanese military suffered severe losses and called these engagements the "Battles of the Germans". In the British and American documentary films of the period, when the Chinese troops were shown in full German military gear, a voice-over narration would remind the audience that the troops on screen, wearing German helmets and firing German-made guns at the Japanese troops, were in fact "Chinese and not German troops." Such images of Chinese soldiers appeared frequently on the anti-Japanese posters of such well-known Chinese artists as Li Keran and Wang Shikuo.
Apart from its impact on the military affairs of China, Germany also played an extremely important role in the development of China's military industry, civil aviation, and railway construction with its capital, technology and management techniques, until Hitler clearly sided with Japan. For this reason the Western media dubbed the Sino-German relations of the 1930s a "brief honeymoon period."
Although most Chinese people today are unaware of Schall, Seeckt or German military thinking, or else find them incomprehensible, any mention of Germany to the typical Chinese is still associated with such positive qualities as orderliness, composure, precision, quality and efficiency. Undeniably, these associations are somehow inevitable.
In the areas of art and culture, very few Chinese artists and men of letters studied in Germany, far less than those who studied in France or Japan. However, those who chose to study in Germany were all experts and scholars with highly professional attitudes, and very few of them entered the bureaucracy. Within the Chinese academic world there were some pivotal figures. The most representative member of this group was Cai Yuanpei, considered one of the founders of modern education and modern art in China. Cai was educated at the University of Leipzig in the fields of Aesthetics and Art History. German art and culture had made a profound impression on him. Moreover, he was struck by the seriousness of the German academics in their studies of Chinese culture. "The Germans are willing to study the issues that China is facing," he once remarked. "Of the 23 universities in Germany, five offer Sinology courses. In particular, the School of Sinology in Frankfurt has developed close ties to the scholars in China." To a large extent Cai had adopted a German education model in developing and planning for China's modern universities and arts. In his later years, Cai was once asked what he would do if he were 20 again, to which he replied, "I would specialize in my most beloved subjects, Aesthetics and Art History, because I did not pay any attention to European culture and study German until I was 30 years of age." Clearly his university experience in Germany and German academic culture had given him a lifetime of unforgettable memories. He even gave his children German names - Willem Cai and Berlin Cai.
Most Chinese artists who studied in France in the early part of the 20th century also visited and studied in Germany. Artists such as Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian had been to Germany, and this experience had profoundly influenced their art and their lives. Lin married a German citizen, whose early death became a source of anguish throughout his life. It can be said that for this group of artists, their understanding of art was derived from both French and German influence, a fact that explains why the works of the French-educated Chinese artists do not reflect a purely French style.
For young Chinese artists, the attraction of German art was multifarious, but the main source of this attraction was the rational mode of thinking and serious inquiry into human life and fate which they encountered within this art. For people brought up in the environment of traditional Chinese culture, this mode of thought and moral pursuit were far more important than a formalistic style.
Sino-German cultural exchange was interrupted towards the end of the 1930s and did not resume until the 1950s when China began to send students to East Germany. It was not until the last two decades of the 20th century that real cultural exchange between the two nations gradually opened up. By this time the entire Western art scene had undergone major changes. Traditional painting and sculpture were being pushed to the fringes. Artists in China began to abandon conventional realism, which had been quite popular for several decades. Both viewers and artists began to sneer at uniform, standardized political themes. The pursuit of individualism in form and rationality in content became the trend of mainstream artistic creation during this new period of reform and openness.
Within this context, the works of contemporary German artists provided young Chinese artists with a direct and tangible source of inspiration and influence. Joseph Beuys became a virtual idol in the Chinese post-modern art scene. In recent years, in art exhibitions held in China one can easily find works that import the styles of Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, Jorg Immendorf and A. R. Penck. Gerhard Richter also drew a following of young artists for each period of his evolving style. Certainly, the Chinese artists might not have fully understood the works and ideas of the German artists; what interested them most was the individualized and powerful form found within the works of these artists.
The Chinese painters of the 1990s were largely influenced by German Expressionism. A number of Chinese painters sought to achieve a kind of freedom of form that is in line with its logical development. However, the cultural tradition and political environment of China did not allow these painters to be German-style Expressionists. Thus, while many expressionist works in China might display techniques and forms that are passionate, the underlying ideas tend to remain rather tame. Perhaps such development is to be expected - apart from following the ancient advice to seek "beauty in moderation" and express "poignancy without grief," the Chinese artist tends to endorse the modus operandi of "learning widely from others and adapting what is helpful for one's own use." This approach is analogous to the Chinese response to foreign cultures and religions throughout China's history. The Chinese have no qualms about modifying any original form or idea, be it religious or artistic, according to their own interpretations, habits and needs. The concept of "fundamentalism" never goes far in China.
While German culture might not have influenced China as deeply and widely as American, Russian and Japanese cultures, it has done so in ways that are different from these other cultures. Without exception, German culture has always left a positive impression on all Chinese individuals that have come into contact with it. In the history of China, there has never been any movement that is hostile to or critical of German culture. This phenomenon is worth examining. One possible explanation is perhaps the sense of distance that has existed in Sino-German relations, in that the two countries have always managed to keep a certain distance from each other while at the same time maintaining contact. "Distance creates beauty." What the Chinese intellectual remembers is the best of Germany in every field, including philosophy, literature, music, art, as well as other aspects. For the average Chinese today, Germany conjures up images of the quality of a Mercedes and BMW and a methodical way of managing its national land. Those Chinese with a strong sense of nationalism see in the heart-felt contrition expressed by the German people toward the war crimes committed by their country the best justification for their condemnation of the rulers of Japan....
Objectively speaking, most Chinese people have no inkling of the depth of knowledge the Germans have about them. Is there any other scholar since Leibniz who can match his ceaseless enthusiasm and good will toward Chinese culture? We do not quite know whether a German audience would do what their Chinese counterparts have done with regard to German art - even without complete understanding, we still appreciate the genuineness, seriousness and depth of the German artists, and seek to discern in their works that which connects the spirit of these two peoples.
September 2003, Beijing