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212 Beyond Orientalism
expected to play his full part in the future of the world.” China’s culture was
both its greatest weakness and its greatest strength, for the virtues of the Chinese
people, particularly their undiminished vitality and commercial acumen,
it was widely agreed, provided a solid cultural platform for modernization. One
reviewer predicted that “the regeneration of China will be accomplished, like
the operation of leaven in meal, without shattering the vessel.” 25
The inability of China’s intellectuals to understand natural science was a
poor predictor of future per for mance. “In such knowledge he is a child,” said
one essay, “but in mental force he may at the same time be a giant.” Institutions
like the examination system, the capacity for hard work and deferred gratification,
and the high seriousness of state functionaries could, if suitably redirected,
become im mense advantages. As for Confucianism, the fact that it was
not a Western- style religion suggested that it could be more easily overcome
or adapted to the requirements of the modern world. Not surprisingly, then,
many were quick to detect signs of a reinvigoration of national spirit. “A mental
awakening is taking place among the people of China, by which the Chinese
mind will be brought proportionally nearer to our own,” declared the Rev.
W. A. P. Martin. Richard J. Hinton wrote that the Chinese had already “crossed
the Rubicon” and were “breaking through the reserve and isolation of centuries.”
The progress already made, according to The Nation, was enough “to
convince the most sceptical as to the possibility of her advance in everything
which makes a nation great.” 26
Unfortunately, it was equally apparent to most Americans that China would
not modernize without external stimulus. Either the Chinese did not want to
modernize at all, or, what came to the same thing, they wanted the fruits of
modernity without paying the steep cultural cost of acquiring them. According
to Porter, change would not take place in the absence of “some extraordinary
and constant friction.” That friction could take a number of forms. Missionaries
and their allies tended to view Christianity as the key to China’s spiritual and
secular salvation. Writing of “the missionary invasion of China,” W. L. Kingsley
asserted that “the revolution of thought has begun.” But many doubted the
ability of Christianity alone to effect China’s rejuvenation. Porter gave pride
of place to commerce, as did many others. Christianity, he argued, was “far
more likely to be reinforced or preceded by the advances of commerce and science,
than to lead in the regeneration of that country.” Observers in China in