A turning point in Chinese history

I revisited my hometown of Wuhan in Hubei Province during a summer break and explored the Xinhai Revolution Museum, which sparked my interest in that historical period.

The Xinhai Revolution, occurring between 1911 and 1912, marked a pivotal moment in Chinese history by toppling the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and ushering in the Republic of China. This event not only changed the country’s political landscape but also instigated lasting transformations in China’s ideology and cultural norms.

Post-revolution, numerous traditional Confucian principles were discarded as China’s intellectuals and new government embraced Western concepts of modernity for the nation’s progress.

Practices like wearing queues, foot-binding, and kowtowing to authority figures were abandoned or prohibited by the new government. Many revolution supporters, spanning from elites to commoners, assisted individuals in severing their queues during this period.

The government also abolished various titles and terms reinforcing a rigid social hierarchy between different classes. Expressions like “your excellency” (daren or laoye in Chinese) were substituted with more egalitarian terms like “mister” or “sir” (xiansheng or jun in Chinese). Even common vocabulary underwent modifications to sound less hierarchical, exemplified by the transition from “xuetang” to “xuexiao” for the word “school,” where Confucian preaching was replaced by a modern, Western-style education. These adjustments in the Chinese language have persisted to the contemporary era.

The Xinhai Revolution and the establishment of a democratic governance system in China nurtured innovative forms of social criticism and language usage. Noteworthy among post-Revolution era figures is Lu Xun, or Zhou Shuren, esteemed as the pioneer of Chinese modern literature.

He was among the first to employ vernacular Chinese instead of Classical Chinese in his literary works. He brutally critiqued traditional Chinese thinkers and the Chinese society with the goal of propelling China towards modernity. His 1918 short story “Diary of a Madman” scathingly criticizes traditional Chinese customs and ideas, attributing societal miseries to the ideology that led the people to exploit and confront each other. Another notable work, “The True Story of Ah Q,” depicts the oppression faced by rural peasants at the hands of landowners.

Lu Xun’s writings heavily influenced Chinese authors that came after him, whether in fiction or non-fiction. They followed in the vein of his brutal critique of tradition, his advocacy for simple prose accessible to the common populace, and his aspiration for China to progress towards democracy and freedom.