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隨著威爾遜的足跡

In Wilson's Footsteps

Presidential Election, 1912 & Transfer From Michigan to Princeton, 1913

        As China wrestled with its new status as a republic, it appears that Han Liang fell under the spell of Woodrow Wilson, who was elected President of the United States in November 1912.

        In the fall of 1912, Han Liang was a sophomore at Michigan. Meanwhile, back in China, President Yuan Shikai, who had been in office for barely more than half a year, was already trying to expand the powers of his role. At the same time, emerging parties and politicians were preparing for the Republic of China's first-ever elections to a new National Assembly.

        Sun Yat-sen's "Tongmenghui" or Revolutionary Alliance and several small groups would win a majority of seats in the Assembly under the coalition "Nationalist Party" name or "Kuomintang" (國民黨 Guomindang, also KMT or GMD).
Picture
President Yuan Shikai would begin to dress in imperial garb (https://www.hpcbristol.net, image # he03-249)

Picture
        With China’s new political system still in flux, it’s assumed that Han Liang embraced the opportunity to follow a US presidential campaign at close range. We know that another Boxer Indemnity scholar in the US did so. If he and Han Liang had not yet met or did not cross paths at the Chinese Students’ Alliance conference in Ithaca in 1914, we know they were acquainted by 1915. This scholar was Hu Shih (胡適 Hu Shi). He was a year ahead of Han Liang at Cornell and had also abandoned a practical major, switching from agriculture to philosophy. Hu was destined to soon become one of China’s most influential writers and thinkers. He would write in his memoirs that in 1912 he threw his support behind Teddy Roosevelt, who was in a come-back bid for the presidency at the head of the Progressive or “Bull Moose” Party. He did this as a way to learn more about the US and to cultivate an enthusiasm for public affairs that he could take back to China. ​

​        It appears that Han Liang did something similar, though siding with the Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson, the Governor of New Jersey and a former president of Princeton University. The 1912 elections were a particularly exciting four-way contest among Wilson, Roosevelt, sitting president William Howard Taft on the Republican ticket, and a Socialist candidate. Wilson emerged the winner, in part because Roosevelt and Taft split the traditional Republican vote.
​
        It isn’t difficult to see why Wilson might have been attractive to Han Liang. Unlike Roosevelt, Hu’s choice, who cultivated an image as an outdoorsman and adventurer, Wilson was the consummate scholar, a long-time professor who had written textbooks on the American political system. His dual accomplishments as an academic and a politician would have matched nicely with the Chinese ideal of the “scholar-official” – a person both learned and of service to his country. Moreover, a great many of the goals of the Progressive Movement that Wilson had helped to define would have seemed hugely relevant to China’s political and social needs at the time, be it eliminating corruption from government, breaking up business monopolies, or using science to improve the lives of the less fortunate.
        In 1913, within a few months of Wilson taking office, it seems that Han Liang was able to turn admiration into action. He transferred to Princeton, where Wilson had been a student as well as university president. Han Liang also joined the American Whig Society, a venerable debating organization that Wilson had also belonged to and where Wilson had honed his speaking skills. Upon his graduation, as a member of Whig Hall, Han Liang would receive a diploma signed by Wilson. Half a century later, when asked to state his political affiliation for his reunion report, Han Liang defaulted to the allegiance of his youth, which was "Democrat". ​​
Picture
Princeton's Whig Hall
        Interestingly, another young man also coming to Princeton in 1913 from the Midwest (albeit by way of an Eastern boarding school) was future author of The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald. There is no evidence that he and Han Liang met or were acquainted in any way. But this writer's preoccupation with privilege and acceptance reminds us of the world that Han Liang was throwing himself into by joining the Ivy League.

SOURCES
      Hu Shih's support of Roosevelt and interest in politics:
  • Seeking Modernity in China’s Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927 (Stanford University Press, 2002) by Weili Ye
​
      Whig student diplomas signed by President Wilson:
  • The Daily Princetonian, May 11, 1915
      Affiliation as a Democrat:
  • Han Liang's Princeton alumni file includes a "Fifty Year Record" that he submitted (see Biographies page) with additional bio facts based on a form with the question: "Political Party of Preference – Same as 1915?" He ticked "Yes."

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  • Home/Prefaces
    • A Granddaughter's Preamble
    • Eulogy for a Grandmother
    • In Her Own Words
    • His Official Biographies
    • New on This Site
  • HAN LIANG
    • A Widow & Her Sons
    • Treaty Port City
    • First Lessons
    • Provincial Capital
    • Imperial City
    • Cream of the Crop
    • Last Stop Shanghai
  • US STUDIES
    • A Midwestern Start
    • This Land Belongs to You & Me
    • In Wilson's Footsteps
    • Not to Be Ministered Unto
    • War & Reunion
    • PhD Years
    • Dr. Huang & Mrs. Hyde
    • Professional Practice & Alliance
  • RAPID STRIDES
    • Return to the East
    • Networking
    • Career Moves
    • Ho Hong Bank
    • Marriage to Mo-li How
    • The How Empire
    • Setting Up House
    • Extended Family
    • Han Ho & Family in Amoy
  • BOILING POINT
    • Under One Roof
    • Brief Service
    • The Clamor of the Financiers
    • Merger & Dissolution
    • Laid to Rest
  • ZING WEI
    • New Silk Town
    • Tsunghua Girls' School
    • Room & Board
    • St. Elizabeth's Hospital
    • She Married Him
  • WAR YEARS
    • Children At Last
    • Back to Business
    • Fleeing the Japanese
    • Hong Kong Roots
    • Return to Shanghai
    • Escape to Hong Kong
  • TO THE US & CODAS
    • The Children's Schooling
    • A Circle of Friends
    • Family Milestones
    • Han Ho & His Family
    • Cousins & Their Families
    • Mo-li & Her Family
  • EXTRAS
    • Love-Love: Tennis Anyone?
    • Who's Who
    • Family Tree
    • Huang Genealogy & Xiamen
    • Tang Genealogy & Wuxi
    • Timeline
    • Inspiration & Acknowledgments
    • Further Quests & Questions
    • Site Map