Chinese (Republic of China) Boy Scout Movement


Figure 1.--This Chinese Scout was photographed probably in the early 1940s, but this is only an estimate by HBU.

The Chinese Scout movement was founded in 1912. Its growth was limited by the poverty and turmoil experienced in China during the early 20th century. Scouts initially came from small, relatively affluent European oriented population of China. It was strongly promoted by Chiang Kai-shek was rose to leadership of the Kuomintang party (KMT). He was impressed with Scouting and sought to use it as a modernizing influence. The movement grew and by the 1940s over a half milliion Chinese boys had become Scouts. The Communists abolished Scouting in China aftter their victory in 1948, repacing it with the Party controlled Young Pioneer Movement. Scouting continued on Taiwan where the Nationlist Chinese found refuge.

History

Scouting appeared in Scouting with the birth of the Republic. Here we are primarily in terested in the Scouting movement on the Mainland. A true picture of Chinese Scouting is aittle more complicated and has to include the programs in the Treary Ports, especially Shanghai and Hong Kong. The military victory of the People's Army ended Scouting on the Mainland (1949). The Communists bnned Scouting abd founded the Young Pioneers which they controlled. Chinese Scouting continued on Taiwan.

The Mainland

Following the birth of the Republic in 1912, the first scout troop was organized by Reverend Yen Chia-lin in WuChang (February 25). The growth of Scouting in Chima was aided by the foreign Scouters in the Treaty Ports and the Christian missionaries scattered aroujnd the country. The movement spread rapidly all over the county, at least within the more moden elements of the Middle Class in the major cities. We note Chinese Scouts participating in Ntionalist rallies. Chiang Kai-shek was rose to leadership of the Kuomintang party (KMT) was impressed with Scouting. He used the movement during the Nanjing decade (1927-37) to help promote the ethos of Republican civic duty and citizenship. He saw the Scouts as a modernizing influence to help attract young people. The KMT wanted to modernize China andsaw the Scouts as helpful in building a base of dedicated young citizens. A major impediment for Chaing nd the KMT was traditionalism in the countryside and villages. Chaing hoped Scouting could help in this effort by helping to transform the younger generation. The General Association was formally established in Nanking (1934) and became a member of the International Scout Conference (1937). The registered membership reached 570,000 boys (1941) in the midst of World War II, making it one of the largest Scouting movement around the world. Scouts played an active role in the Second Sino-Japanese War from (1937-45). All Scouting activities bruptly ceased when the Peoples Army won the Chinese Civil War (1949). The Communists banned Scouting. Chinese Scouts reorganized on Formosa (Taiwan) where the Republic of China (ROC) found refuge (1950). in 1950 after the ROC government was relocated to Taipei,

Treaty Ports

The first Boy Scout troop in Chin was formed, in Sganghai (190?). It was a branch of the then existing (British) Boys’ Brigade. This was how the Scouts in Britain were founded. The boys were representative of the cosmopolitan, but culturally Western population of the city. Shahghai was the most important of the Treaty Ports. The 1st Dragon Troop, was the first troop to operated on the principles worked out by Baden-Powell (early 1909). Most of the boys were British.

Taiwan

All Scouting activities on the Mainland were interrupted in 1949 when the Communists defeated the Nationalist Army and seized power. The Association was reorganized in 1950 in Taiwan, and resumed the membership of International Scout Conference. Since then it regained its vigorous momentum and became more active than ever. the membership is approaching 70,000 in 1997.

Structure


Program

Cultivation of good citizenship is the major objective of Scouting movement, and the outdoor activities and community service are considered to be the best ways to achieve this goal. Chaing and the KMT hoped to use the younger generation to help transform znd moderize China. The idea was to create a cadre of citizens committed to serving the Chinese nation and KMT Party. The Chinese Scouting citizenship training program combined moral cultivation, political indoctrination, and military drills, with lessons in etiquette, hygiene, and practical skills. This effort proved complicated developing in a traditional soviety. Civic training clased to an extent in a society where the family was central. The KMT iytself did not have a unified vision for the future. The scouts were taught forms of etiquette accepted by modern urban elite society in a country where the vast majority of the people lived in the countryside. The boys were taught practical skills needed by modernizing youth such as cooking, cleaning, and washing in aociety where work like that was done by sevants in most middle-class homes. And there were questions about the social order for the Chinese future. Some Scouting lessons projected a future society which sas created by the he autonomous actions of its members who were differentiated by their many diverse contributions. This was the Western concept. Other lessons promoted the idea of a society as a homogeneous mass organized into ordered ranks by an authoritarian KMT. This is more along the lines of how the Cimmunists would use their Young Pioneer Movement.

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Created: November 15, 1998
Last updated: 8:00 AM 10/16/2012