1/12/2023 0 Comments New life programIn Chiang's mind, these concerns were compounded by the influx of foreign ideas following the New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement which fostered Western concepts such as liberalism, pragmatism and nationalism as well as more radical ideas including Marxism respectively. There was no consideration for others and their rights, only of one's own comfort, inevitably obstructing social life and group solidarity. "Self-seekingness," he argued, led to the rejection of all outside interference with this kind of behaviour as encroachment on "freedom". He contended that “lackadaisicalness” led to lives without a sense of right or wrong, and hence with no distinctions or purpose. Wang argued the fundamental psychological basis of such behaviour was "lackadaisicalness" ( suibian zhuyi) and "self seekingness" ( zili zhuyi). Ĭhiang claimed that Chinese were "unbearably filthy", " hedonistic", "lazy", and physically and spiritually "decrepit", and thus leading lives that were "barbaric and devoid of reason." Chiang's political rival, Wang Jingwei described Chinese life as a life of "smoking," "sickness," "gambling," "filth," "ghosts" (i.e., superstition), and "indolence”. Chiang charged that “If we do not weed the present body of corruption, bribery, perfunctoriness, and ignorance, and establish instead a clean, effective administration, the day will soon come when the revolution will be started against us as we did the Manchus”. Historian Colin Mackerras writes that “Corruption was an abiding feature of Chiang Kai-shek’s rule" and that nepotism and bribery were rife among the bureaucracy. The launch of the New Life Movement was set in the context of Chiangs' growing concern with corruption, and moral decadence that they blamed on foreign influences. The New Life Movement was founded at a time when China, already weakened by Western imperialism, faced the threats of rising Japanese militarism, domestic factionalism and communism.
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