Anarchism in China - Early Growth of Anarchism

Early Growth of Anarchism

It was for this reason that the Paris group would declare that education was the most important activity revolutionaries could be involved in, and that only through educating the people could anarchism be achieved. Accordingly, they geared their activities towards education instead of assassination or grass roots organizing (the other two forms of activism which they condoned in theory).

To these ends the Paris group would set up a variety of student-run businesses, including a tofu factory, to fund the studies of radical students from China who wanted an education abroad. The students would come to work part-time and study part-time, thus gaining a European education for a fraction of what it would cost otherwise; and in the process gaining first-hand experience on what it might mean to live, work, and study in an anarchist society. This study-abroad program would play a critical role in infusing anarchist language and ideas into the broader nationalist and revolutionary movements as hundreds of students participated in the program. The approach was eminently pragmatic in that it served a real need for students who wanted to study abroad but lacked the financial resources to do so, and it demonstrated that anarchist organizational models based on mutual aid and cooperation were viable alternatives to profit-driven capitalist ventures.

Despite the occasional friction, the overwhelming tendency of both the Paris and the Tokyo groups was to assist the nationalist cause. In fact, several of the Paris groups members were early members of the Kuomintang and became close friends of Sun Yet-Sen. On at least two occasions Sun asked for and received “considerable” economic assistance from Chang Ching-Chiang, who was associated with the Paris group.

This collaboration was understandable given the emphasis by both the anarchists and the nationalists on the importance of Revolutionaries working together, and because of the extreme eclecticism of Sun Yat-Sen who stated that “the end goal of the three peoples principles communism and anarchism.” It may also explain the willingness of the Paris group to accept funding from the Nationalist government to expand their programs during World War I some years later.