◆ SpookStack

w . How is tt possible that a person acknowledging such broad responsi- H bilities as Miss Buck should permit i herself utterances which ean be : misinterpreted and seized upon by. ' our enemies to incite race war and : - - disunity? | | E “Tt can be explained only by her | ! failure to understand the essence of | the struggle for national liberation, which has for its aim the overcom- | ing of internal feudal and patriarchal barriers to evolution as a nation and freedom from foreign, : imperialist control. White chauvin- : ism, of course, plays a role in. establishing autocratic and arrogant _ methods of rule, but it is the excrescence and not the essefice of imperialism. Her approach, arising largely from ! @ deeply-felt but confuse: reaction | to racial- injustices, is illuminated ; further by her concept of deméc- racy as a “state of mind.” In her opinion, the Chinese are the great- est democratic nation in the world because the individual Ohinese “state of mind” is intrinsically democratic. Her admiration for the Chinese People arises no t primarily from their great advance towards nation- hood as a people and their heroic struggle against -aggression, b u ¢ from s misreading of Chinese his- tory. She mistakes the paternal- istic family relations established in @ pre-capitalist form of social ‘organization for the “true” democ- racy. Instead of seeing in the new forces arising in China the réliable promise of people’s democracy, she; tends to view these as a threat to ’ the “state of mind” established by feudalism. Her writings are pervaded by a! ’ Geep nostaigia for the sluggishness| of the old society unmarred by fac~! ‘tory sirens and the turbulent awakening of modern. —, (To be _Sontinued) oe