The influence of the new life movement

Excessive propaganda is most likely to lead to formalism. Many jokes and false nostalgia during the "New Life Movement" almost became the biggest failure of the "New Life Movement". American writers who have always sympathized with the Song sisters told Meili that the "new life movement" later became a national joke. Huang Huilan, the third wife of China's modern diplomat Gu Weijun, said in her memoirs that China's overseas personnel often had affairs, which led to marriage change, so before the Anti-Japanese War, the diplomatic circles dubbed the New Life Movement "the New Wife Movement".

General Feng Yuxiang criticized: "For more than ten years, I have had a meeting every year on the anniversary of freshmen and have been asked to speak many times. In fact, the new life is deceptive. For example, playing cards is not allowed in the new life. Only when you hear Chiang Kai-shek, you put the mahjong tiles in the drawer and show a very disciplined appearance. When I heard that Chiang Kai-shek had left, I immediately started playing mahjong, 24 rounds of sanitary mahjong, pushing Pai Jiu and gambling. For another example, in the new life, people are not allowed to eat and drink. Ordinary people only spend 8 yuan to eat a table of rice, and the big officials around Chiang Kai-shek eat about 60 yuan to eat a table of rice. They always eat bird's nest seats and shark's fin seats. Not only high-ranking officials are so extravagant, but also their women and slaves. ..... If these stories that violate the so-called new life happen to small officials who are far away from Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek can pretend not to know that these things happen to civil and military officials who are close to Chiang Kai-shek. Can you pretend not to know? "

"Feng Yuxiang added ... What are the names of those books, new life and military affairs, new life and politics, new life and this and that, and dozens of famous books? Political corruption, military incompetence, economic corruption and cultural destruction. What will it be like to implement a new life? "The movement itself is" the split of form and spirit "

On the one hand, under the banner of "the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation", on the other hand, it calls on people to learn from outsiders. This peculiar "split of form and spirit" runs through the whole "new life movement".

It is precisely because of this "split between form and spirit" that He Hanzhong and Zhang Xueliang, both of whom strongly advocate "new life", have completely opposite wonders in their understanding of "new life". He said: "The sole purpose of the New Life Movement is to turn the destructive movement of the May 4th New Culture Movement into a construction movement." The May Fourth Movement "completely abandoned China's inherent exquisiteness, and today's new life movement is to carry forward China's inherent essence"; Zhang Xueliang sang the opposite: "Outsiders beat us not only in material civilization, but also in spiritual civilization. All those who still believe in their spiritual civilization and think that there is no need for a new life movement today, I think we should wake up quickly. "

It is conceivable that this split between form and spirit will inevitably attract many people and forces who want to respect Confucius' retrospection, and on the other hand, it will inevitably exclude many intellectuals (such as Hu Shi) who are in conflict with "China's traditional culture". It is not without reason that "New Life" was labeled as "looking back at Confucius" by intellectuals that day. The Kuomintang has hardly penetrated into the society below the county level, so it is naturally unable to promote "rebirth"

Although Mr. and Mrs. Jiang themselves can live a standard "new life" and regard them as role models for China people, the unfair rules of social games have not changed, and the power of role models is actually very limited. The Kuomintang is nominally a "one-party political discipline", but the "party" is actually unable to "discipline" the people or the government. Just as Gao Hua said: "The Kuomintang only practices' ruling by the party' at the central level, and the party and government below the provincial level are completely separated. At the grassroots level below the provincial level, its party organizations are ineffective. "

During the mainland period, the Kuomintang hardly went deep into the society below the county level. The party does not lead the government or the army, and even "local autonomy" at the grassroots level is almost invisible. "There are millions of party member, ... but most of them are in the name of party member, and there will never be any organizational contact on weekdays." According to the statistics of 1942, 70% of the branches can't even hold regular meetings. The party power of the Kuomintang at the grassroots level was so fragile that Chiang Kai-shek had to rely on social consciousness. But as I said before, under the laws of deformed society, society has never consciously "reborn".