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Cai Yuanpei (Part One)

© David Poulson

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CAI YUANPEI AND ESPERANTO

Cai Yuanpei (T'sai Yuan-pei: 1868-1940) went to Germany in 1907 when he was already middle-aged and he studied there until 1911. One of the subjects he studied was Esperanto and he absorbed and fully supported "la interna ideo" of the International Language. In fact, his admiration for the philosophy of Dr Zamenhof never faltered during his whole life. While in Germany, Cai is said to have "supported" ( perhaps by writing for it?) a progressive journal written in Chinese and published in Paris. The name of this journal was Modern (or New) Times and it frequently contained articles about Esperanto. Because this weekly journal was read in radical circles in China itself, it provided many Chinese with their first introduction to Esperanto.

When the revolution which was to displace the Manchu dynasty exploded in 1911, Cai returned to China. In Nanking, Sun Yat Sen was appointed provisional President of the Republic of China in 1912, and he made Cai Yuan Pei the Minister of Education. One of Cai's first reforms was an instruction to Teachers' Colleges throughout the country to offer elective (ie non-compulsory) courses in Esperanto so that a new generation of teachers would be able to learn - or, at least, to learn about - Esperanto. Cai also arranged for an Esperanto course to be run within the Ministry of Education itself.

In that same year of 1912, he made a speech to the Shanghai Esperanto Asssociation in which he explained the importance of Esperanto to a country such as China. He wrote:

"The Chinese language is very different from Western languages. However, it is essential for China, at this point in its history, to establish communication with other countries so that it can learn from them. In order for that to happen, China needs an auxiliary language and Esperanto is the most suitable. If may Chinese knew Esperanto, then any foreigner wishing to come to China would only need to learn that language. And that would increase the number of Esperantists in the world and help to propagate the language, as is our duty...It is much harder for Chinese people to learn other languages than it is for Westerners. However, once we have learned one European language, then we are no different from a Westerner who wishes to learn another language. If that first language we learn is Esperanto, it will definitely help us to learn other European languages."

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