FOREWORD

A long deferred hope was fulfilled when Dr. Hu Shih of the National Peking University accepted appointment as Haskell lecturer for the summer of 1933. His lectures on cultural trends in modern China are here presented under a title selected by him expressly to characterize the nature of the cultural transformation described-The Chinese Renaissance.

The Haskell Foundation was established by Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell as an aid to mutual understanding among the peoples of the world, separated so long by their varied heritages of culture and religion. She intended the Barrows Foundation to provide a scholarly presentation of Christianity to the Orient and completed the circle by the Haskell Foundation which brings a sympathetic interpretation of the religions of the East to the Christian West.

During the last decade all religions, in all parts of the world, have been awakened from the slow rhythm of past ages by new forces compelling startling and revolutionary change. Since all cultures are penetrated by the same influences and all religions are of necessity wrestling with the same problems, it seemed wise and in line with the intention of the founder to devote the Haskell Lectures during this period of transition to an interpretation of the process of re-embodiment through which old religions and cultures are assuming new and vital forms.

Both as an interpreter of China's cultural renaissance and as an ambassador of interracial and intercultural understanding Professor Hu was an ideal Haskell lecturer. Culturally he belongs to both East and West. The vast changes in the cultural life of China are so recent as to fall within the span of his youthful age and in many of these movements he has been a pioneer and a trusted leader. His western education and his work in the field of international conciliation have given him the background and the detached vision necessary to an evaluation of the processes of intercultural penetration at work in his native land. The personal note in some of the chapters was retained at the urgent request of members of the committee who won in the contest with Dr. Hu's self-effacing modesty.

A. EUSTACE HAYDON UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO