The brief 1933 visit to Shanghai by the famed Irish playwright and socialist George Bernard Shaw was the theme of the third Shanghai Public Relations Academic Symposium on Irish Literature, held on July 26.
An article published in this regard by the website Sixth Tone notes: “Before his arrival, articles about Shaw had been published in various newspapers and magazines. Some discussed his communist advocacy in Hong Kong, while others talked about how his satirical writing style had influenced European society.”
Shaw was welcomed to the city by Soong Qingling, the widow of China’s first president Dr. Sun Yat Sen, who remained true to his revolutionary ideals and ended her days as Honorary President of the People’s Republic of China and with her long-standing wish to be admitted to membership of the Communist Party of China granted.
With help from Soong, Shaw met and talked with several leading left-wing Chinese intellectuals, including Yang Xingfo, a social activist and patriotic democrat, former Peking University president Cai Yuanpei, literary icon Lu Xun, writer and linguist Lin Yutang, and the American journalists Harold Isaacs and Agnes Smedley. He also met Mei Lanfang, the renowned Peking opera artist and founder of Shanghai’s Left Theatre Club.
According to Sixth Tone: “Although Shaw spent just over eight hours in Shanghai, his visit sparked considerable discussion and reverberations among the city’s left-wing intellectual circles. The writer and poet Yu Dafu wrote in Free Talk, a supplement of the Shun Pao newspaper, that he hoped Shaw could tell the world, in his own sarcastic tone, about Japanese imperialism and its invasion of China.”
Following the visit, a group of left-wing writers and cultural workers, including Lu Xun, began compiling reports from various newspapers and periodicals about the Irish writer’s short visit. The collection was published in March 1933 by Yecao Shudian, or Wild Grass Bookshop, under the title ‘George Bernard Shaw in Shanghai’.
In his preface, Lu Xun wrote: “Those who truly welcomed him were the Chinese people, as well as the literary and artistic circles that stood by the people. The Chinese people did not regard him as a ‘revolutionary leader’ or a ‘thoroughgoing socialist writer,’ much less as an idol. They regarded Shaw as a loyal friend of the oppressed people of the world, and of China.”
In a video address to the symposium, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland Zhao Xiyuan said that despite the great distance between China and Ireland, the two countries share long histories, splendid cultures, and rich literary traditions. He emphasised that three years ago, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI), highlighting the need for civilisations to live together in harmony.
“As long as the two countries remain committed to openness, inclusiveness, and mutual learning, and continue to transcend estrangement through dialogues, overcome conflict through exchanges, and transcend superiority through mutual respect and inclusiveness, we will further strengthen the public foundations of China-Ireland friendship. In doing so, we will make new contributions to the sustained and sound development of China-Ireland relations, and to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.”
Former president of Ireland Michael D. Higgins also made reference to Shaw’s visit to Shanghai during his state visit to China in December 2014.
In a speech delivered at the Sun Yat Sen Museum on December 11, he noted:
“A Nobel Prize winning playwright and novelist, Shaw was also an essayist and polemicist, a free-thinker and a stout defender of the rights of the working classes and the marginalised.
“George Bernard Shaw continues to inspire us as the epitome of the engaged public intellectual, somebody who put his talent to the service of emancipatory change. Indeed, Shaw was an astute observer of his times but never a bystander – he consistently sought to translate his ideas into actual, public realisations. For example, he was a co-founder of the distinguished London School of Economics, and he helped to establish the New Statesman magazine; two ‘institutions’ which have been handed on to us.
“Shaw’s visit to Shanghai coincided with an era of great turbulence globally – a period when foreign powers were pushing rival claims onto China, as the Chinese people struggled to assert national sovereignty and define both an appropriate form of government and a new model of society for themselves.
“As a Fabian, Shaw was undoubtedly alive to the possibilities of a wider socialist awakening in China. As an Irishman he would have been sensitive to the Chinese calls for national sovereignty. At the same time, he was mindful not to be prescriptive in his conversation with his Chinese counterparts – conscious as he was of the travails of Europe’s own economic and political affairs.
“In the message he addressed to the Chinese people on the occasion of his visit, Shaw thus wrote:
“‘It is not for me, belonging as I do to a quarter of the globe which is mismanaging its affairs in a ruinous fashion to pretend to advise an ancient people striving to set its house in order.’”
Higgins concluded by, “by saluting all the academics and students in the Irish Studies Network who are here with us this afternoon. Shaw recognised no boundaries in the commitment to international solidarity. I believe that your interest in our culture and language, as well as the revived interest in your great civilisation currently manifest in Ireland, offer a robust and fruitful base for the future of Irish and Chinese relations.
“May the relations between our two peoples, Irish and Chinese, continue to be infused by the spirit of cross-border friendship and mutual curiosity which animated George Bernard Shaw’s visit in 1933.”
The following articles were originally published by Sixth Tone and on the website of the Chinese Embassy in Ireland. The full text of the above quoted speech by President Higgins can be read here. And a speech he made the next day at Fudan University, which also references Shaw’s visit can be read here.
Shaw in Shanghai: How the Irish Writer’s 1933 Visit Inspired China’s Literati
After George Bernard Shaw’s whistlestop wartime visit, left-wing Chinese intellectuals hailed the playwright and polemicist as a “loyal friend of the oppressed.”
July 30 (Sixth Tone) – Editor’s note: The theme of the third Shanghai Public Relations Academic Symposium on Irish Literature, held on July 26, was playwright George Bernard Shaw’s eight-hour visit to Shanghai in the 1930s, when China’s cultural and anti-imperialist movements were gaining momentum. The following is an account of the writer’s time in the city and its impact on Chinese intellectuals.
When George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright and novelist, paid a brief visit to Shanghai as part of his global voyage in 1933, the city’s intellectuals were thrilled.
Before his arrival, articles about Shaw had been published in various newspapers and magazines. Some discussed his Communist advocacy in Hong Kong, while others talked about how his satirical writing style had influenced European society.
According to a biography of Soong Ching Ling, the Chinese politician and wife of Sun Yat-sen, sometimes called the “father of modern China,” Shaw arrived at Wusongkou port — today the Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal in northeastern Shanghai — at 6 a.m. on Feb. 17 aboard the Empress of Britain, accompanied by his wife, the political activist Charlotte Payne-Townshend. At 5 a.m., Soong went to Wusongkou with Yang Xingfo, a social activist and patriotic democrat, to welcome the couple. At Shaw’s invitation, she joined him on board for breakfast.
More than 200 reporters rushed to Wusongkou early that morning, but Shaw initially refused to go ashore, telling Soong that apart from her, there was no one in Shanghai he wanted to meet, nor anything he wanted to see. But in the end, Soong persuaded him to pay a visit to the city. They took a steamship to Lanlu Wharf in today’s Yangpu District, where he finally went ashore. The reporters waiting at Wusongkou left empty-handed — not a single photograph of Shaw was taken.
At 10:30 a.m., Soong and Shaw disembarked and set out for the city’s downtown. Shaw met and talked with several left-wing Chinese intellectuals, including Yang, former Peking University president Cai Yuanpei, literary icon Lu Xun, writer and linguist Lin Yutang, and the American journalists Harold Isaacs and Agnes Smedley.
Later, at the invitation of the Chinese branch of PEN International, a global association of writers founded in London in 1921, Shaw and other Chinese intellectuals visited the World College on Route Ferguson (now Wukang Road) to attend a gathering with local PEN members. When Shaw met Mei Lanfang, the renowned Peking opera artist and founder of Shanghai’s Left Theatre Club, he expressed his puzzlement over the differences between Eastern and Western theater.
“Will you please tell me how a Chinese actor can do anything in the midst of such infernal uproars as one hears on your stage?” he asked. “In our theater, they put a man out if he sneezes. But you have gongs and cymbals and the competition of half the audience and innumerable vendors. Don’t you object?”
Mei explained that Peking opera was a folk art first performed in the open air, and drums and gongs were then used to attract people to the show. This tradition had simply endured.
Around 3 p.m., Shaw finally spoke with some Chinese and foreign reporters in the garden of Soong’s residence, discussing socialism, national oppression, Eastern culture, and revolutions, among other topics. Afterward, Soong accompanied Shaw back to the Empress of Britain, which then carried the playwright northward to Beijing.
Although Shaw spent just over eight hours in Shanghai, his visit sparked considerable discussion and reverberations among the city’s left-wing intellectual circles. The writer and poet Yu Dafu wrote in Free Talk, a supplement of the Shun Pao newspaper, that he hoped Shaw could tell the world, in his own sarcastic tone, about Japanese imperialism and its invasion of China.
At the time, intellectuals including Lu Xun and the poet and translator Qu Qiubai were working to build a central stronghold for China’s left-wing cultural movement. After Shaw’s departure, they, along with partners Xu Guangping and Yang Zhihua, began compiling reports from various newspapers and periodicals about the Irish novelist’s short visit. The collection was published in March 1933 by Yecao Shudian, or Wildgrass Bookshop, under the title “George Bernard Shaw in Shanghai.”
In the preface, Lu wrote: “Those who truly welcomed him were the Chinese people, as well as the literary and artistic circles that stood by the people. The Chinese people did not regard him as a ‘revolutionary leader’ or a ‘thoroughgoing socialist writer,’ much less as an idol. They regarded Shaw as a loyal friend of the oppressed people of the world, and of China.”
Ambassador Zhao Xiyuan Delivered a Video Address to the 3rd Shanghai Public Relations Academic Symposium on Irish Literature
July 28 (Chinese Embassy in Ireland) – On July 26, Ambassador Zhao Xiyuan delivered a video address to the 3rd Shanghai Public Relations Academic Symposium on Irish Literature.
Ambassador Zhao said despite the great distance between China and Ireland, our two countries share long histories, splendid cultures, and rich literary traditions. Cooperation across a wide range of fields continues to flourish. People from different sectors all have remarkable enthusiasm for strengthening exchanges and cooperation.
Ambassador Zhao emphasized that three years ago, President Xi Jinping put forth the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), highlighting the need for civilizations to live together in harmony. As long as the two countries remain committed to openness, inclusiveness, and mutual learning, and continue to transcend estrangement through dialogues, overcome conflict through exchanges, and transcend superiority through mutual respect and inclusiveness, we will further strengthen the public foundations of China-Ireland friendship. In doing so, we will make new contributions to the sustained and sound development of China-Ireland relations, and to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.
Themed on “Lu Xun and George Bernard Shaw: A Literary Dialogue Across Time and Space”, the Symposium brought together nearly 100 participants from China and Ireland, including academics, artists, and other representatives from various fields.
