Abstract:

Before John Dewey’s reception of coming to China, Hu Shi had launched the moments of new cultural education in college liberal arts, pedagogy, and basic education. The arrival of Dewey provided Hu Shi, who suffered troubles caused by the outside political interference, with strong supports to carry forward his enterprise. Dewey was interested in Chinese democratic movement against the warlord government, hoping Chinese educators to seek for new ideal of the modern cultural education based on their own understanding of political situation and social progress. Hu Shi’s expectation for Dewey, however, was to escape the political reality, and to transmit the pragmatism in the Dewey’s educational, and social political philosophy. Meanwhile, Marxism also had begun to spread since Li Dazhao published a series of articles. Hu Shi provoked ideal conflicts to unify the new cultural education. Dewey had to help Hu Shi to expand the influence of pragmatism. It was not until the end of his journey in China that Dewey could express his real and kind concern of Chinese social political progress, before his pragmatism shaped by Hu Shi was erased by the rise of Marxism in the field of new cultural education in 1948.

Key words: field of New Cultural Education, John Dewey' visit to China, ideal conflicts