Connecting the Nation and individuals: Scout uniforms in Republican China

ABSTRACT

This study examines the functions and ideology of the Chinese Scout uniform during the Republican period (1912–1949). It begins by identifying four issues related to the British influence on Chinese Scout uniforms in early Republican China, which demonstrate efforts to integrate foreign and local cultures. By analysing the regulations and standards governing Chinese Scout uniforms, this research sheds light on the topics of children, childhood, education, and national identity during the Republican era. The Scout uniform was designed to establish a distinct identity among Chinese Scouts, fostering a sense of pride and integrity. Additionally, the Scout uniform’s unification and standardisation aimed to promote teamwork, with accessories like ribbons, badges, stars, and neckers effectively managing and categorizing Scouts. Equally significant was its political function. Regardless of the organisation responsible for Scouting in China at a given time, whether local Scout associations or the Kuomintang, patriotic commitment and national respect were equally emphasised. However, the Kuomintang placed greater emphasis on shaping Scouts’ minds and bodies for political purposes. This study enhances the understanding of how the Scout uniform connected the nation and individuals, influenced the development and organisation of the Scouts, and contributed to youth discipline in Republican China.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese Scouts
• Scout uniform
• nationhood
• Kuomintang
• youth discipline

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to express my immense gratitude to my principal supervisor, Professor Clara Wing-chung Ho from Hong Kong Baptist University, who has given her invaluable support and assistance, Professor WU Xiaowei from Shanghai Normal University, whose research gives me the inspiration, Dr. Thomas Marling and Dr. LAW Ellie Yuen Yi from Hong Kong Baptist University, who standardised the English writing in this article. Also, I would like to thank the editor of Paedagogica Historica and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and kind assistance in editing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher, eds., Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning in Cultural Contexts (Providence: Berg, 1993); and Lidia D. Sciama and Joanne B. Eicher, eds., Beads and Bead Makers: Gender, Material Culture and Meaning (Oxford: Berg, 1998).

² Fred Davis, Fashion, Culture, and Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); and Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins, Joanne B. Eicher, and Kim K.P. Johnson, eds., Dress and Identity (New York: Fairchild Publications, 1995).

³ Joanne B. Eicher, ed., Dress and Ethnicity: Change across Space and Time (Oxford: Berg, 1995).

⁴ Ted Polhemus and Lynn Procter, Fashion & Anti-Fashion: An Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978).

⁵ Colin McDowell, Dressed to Kill: Sex, Power & Clothes (London: Hutchinson, 1992).

⁶ Susan B. Kaiser, The Social Psychology of Clothing: Symbolic Appearances in Context, 2nd ed. (New York: Fairchild, 1997).

⁷ Mary Ellen Roach and Joanne B. Eicher, eds., Dress, Adornment, and the Social Order (New York: Wiley, 1965).

⁸ C. D., “Boy’s Fashions: The Influence of the Scout Uniform”, The North-China Daily News (1864–1951), 20 June 1927, 8; and Bao Weixiang 鲍维湘, Beidengbao gushi: tongjun zhi fu 贝登堡故事: 童军之父 [The Story of Baden-Powell: The Father of the Scouts] (Shanghai: Ertong shuju, 1947), 3.

⁹ Mischa Honeck, Our Frontier is the World: The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018), 3.

¹⁰ Jiaoyubu jiaoyu nianjian bianzuan weiyuanhui 教育部教育年鉴编纂委员会, Dierci Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian第二次中国教育年鉴 [The Second China Education Yearbook] (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1948), 1334.

¹¹ Yan Jialin was the founder of Scouting in China. He served on the National Board of the General Association of the Scouts of China and the China YMCA. See “Fangwen Yan Jialin xiansheng” 访问严家麟先生 [Interviewing Mr. Yan Jianlin], Yishi bao (Shanghai ban) 益世报 (上海版), 23 May 1948, 4.

¹² Boone Memorial School, originally a boy’s boarding school established by the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States in Wuchang on 20 October 1871, later expanded to a six-year secondary school by 1890. James Jackson became the school principal in 1901 and oversaw the establishment of Boone University in 1903, followed by the addition of Boone Library in 1910.

¹³ Xu Zicheng 徐子成 and Wu Yaolin 吴耀麟, Chuji tongzijun 初级童子军 [Junior Scouts] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1934), 81.

¹⁴ Yang Pinji 杨品吉, “Zhongguo tongzijun shilüe” 中国童子军史略 [A Brief History of the Chinese Scouts], Zhongguo tongzijun zonghui choubeichu huibao 中国童子军总会筹备处汇报20 (1934): 19–20.

¹⁵ The first Scout troop in China was established in 1912. From 1928 to 1944, the total number of Chinese Scouts increased from 925 to more than 910,000. See Zhongguo tongzijun zonghui, Shinianlai de Zhongguo tongzijun zonghui 十年来的中国童子军总会 [Ten Years of the Chinese Scouts Association] (Nanjing: Zhongguo tongzijun zonghui, 1944), 21–2.

¹⁶ Zhang Jun 章骏, Canyu wanguo tongzijun dahui baogao 参与万国童子军大会报告 [Report on Participation in the World Boy Scout Jamboree] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1925), 74.

¹⁷ Wu Suchu 吴溯初, Kangzhan jianguo yu tongzijun 抗战建国与童子军 [Scouts and the War of Resistance and National Construction] (Chongqing: Zhongshan wenhua jiaoyuguan, 1938), 2.

¹⁸ Rong Zihan 荣子菡, “Guangdong tongzijun yanjiu 1915–1938” 广东童子军研究1915–1938 [A Study of the Scouts in Guangdong Province, 1915–1938] (MA thesis, Ji’nan University, 2005).

¹⁹ Luo Min 罗敏, “Kangri zhanzheng qian Jiangsu tongzijun yanjiu” 抗日战争前江苏童子军研究 [A Study of the Scouts in Jiangsu Province before the Anti-Japanese War] (MA thesis, Soochow University, 20090; Sun Yuqin孙玉芹, “Jiangsu tongzijun yanjiu: 1915–1926” 江苏童子军研究: 1915–1926 [A Study of the Scouts in Jiangsu Province: 1915–1926], Nanjing zhengzhi xueyuan xuebao 南京政治学院学报 27, no. 1 (2011): 76–81.

²⁰ Zhai Haitao 翟海涛and He Ying 何英, “Minguo Shanghai de tongzijun jiaoyu jiqi yingxiang” 民国上海的童子军教育及其影响 [Scouting Education and Its Influence in Shanghai in Republican China], Lishi dang’an 历史档案 29, no. 4 (2009): 112–117 + 124.

²¹ Xie Hua 谢华, “Yunnan tongzijun shulun” 云南童子军述论 [A Study of the Scouts in Yunnan Province] (MA thesis, Yunnan University, 2011).

²² Chi Weiqiang 池维强, “Minguo shiqi jingjin diqu tongzijun jiaoyu yanjiu” 民国时期京津地区童子军教育研究 [Research on Scouting Education in the Beijing–Tianjin Area in Republican China] (MA thesis, Tianjin Normal University, 2012); Han Dingdong 韩叮咚, “Guanyu minguo shiqi Beijing tongzijun de yanjiu (1917–1948)” 关于民国时期北京童子军的研究 (1917–1948) [Research on Scouts in Beijing in Republican China [1917–1948]], Jilinsheng jiaoyu xueyuan xuebao 吉林省教育学院学报 33, no. 12 (2017): 163–5.

²³ Chen Juan 陈娟, “Minguo shiqi Sichuan tongzijun yanjiu” 民国时期四川童子军研究 [Research on Scouts in Sichuan Province in Republican China] (MA thesis, Sichuan Normal University, 2014).

²⁴ Liang Jianhong梁剑宏, “Minguo shiqi Hunan tongzijun jiaoyu chulun” 民国时期湖南童子军教育刍论 [Preliminary Studies on the Education of Hunan Scouts in Republican China], Hunan shehui kexue 湖南社会科学 28, no. 3 (2015): 214–17.

²⁵ Shu Tingting 束婷婷, “Minguo shiqi Anhui tongzijun yanjiu” 民国时期安徽童子军研究 [Research on the Scouts in Anhui Province in Republican China] (MA thesis, Anhui University, 2016).

²⁶ Hou Yangyihong 后杨易虹, “Minguo shiqi Hubei tongzijun yanjiu” 民国时期湖北童子军研究 [Research on the Republican-era Scouts in Hubei Province] (MA thesis, Hubei University, 2018).

²⁷ Margaret Mih Tillman, “Engendering Children of the Resistance: Models for Gender and Scouting in China, 1919–1937”, Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 13 (2014): 134–73; and Li Keyang李珂杨, “Minguo shiqi nütongzijun jiaoyu yanjiu” 民国时期女童子军教育研究 [Research on Girl Scouting Education in Republican China] (MA thesis, Ningbo University, 2019).

²⁸ The Kuomintang, also known as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC), or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a significant political party in the Republic of China. It was initially established on the Chinese mainland and has been based in Taiwan since 1949. The KMT was the sole ruling party in China during the Republican era, controlling most of the Chinese mainland during that time. However, following its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, the party retreated from the mainland to Taiwan on 7 December 1949. See Chung-Gi Kwai, The Kuomintang–Communist Struggle in China, 1922–1949 (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 1970); Lloyd E. Eastman, Seeds of Destruction: Nationalist China in War and Revolution, 1937–1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984).

²⁹ Gu Zhenglai, a native of Baoshan, Jiangsu, also known as Gu Guo (顾果), graduated from the Chinese Gymnastics School, which was the most influential specialised sports talent school in China in the early twentieth century. He was engaged in Boy Scouts work for nearly twenty years. Among his notable achievements, Gu served as the Scoutmaster of China’s first Marine Boy Scouts, which was established by the Jimei School Aquatic Science Department on 9 May 1923. He was also the principal of the Suzhou Chinese Sports School, which was established in 1924. See “Gu Zhenglai xiansheng xiaoshi” 顾拯来先生小史 [A Brief Biography of Mr. Gu Zhenglai], Zhongguo tongzijun banyuekan 中国童子军半月刊3–4 (1932), 130–2; Chen Manyi 陈满意, Jimei xuecun de xianshengmen 集美学村的先生们 [The Teachers of Jimei School] (Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2018), 99–108.

³¹ “Jingshi xuewuju dingding tongzijun banfa (futu)” 京师学务局订定童子军办法 (附图) [Beijing Municipal Education Commission Formulated the Boy Scouts Regulations [Attached Photos]], Jiaoyu gongbao 教育公报 5, no. 6 (1918): 196–206.

³² “Gongli zhongxuexiao, shengli zhongxue shifan, mofan xiaoxue, liushixian zhishi: di sanwujiu hao [lingfa tongzijun jianzhang you]” 公立中学校、省立中学师范、模范小学、六十县知事: 第三五九号 (令发童子军简章由) [Public Secondary Schools, Provincial Secondary Normal Schools, Model Primary Schools, Governors of Sixty Counties: No. 359 [Issuance of Scouts Regulations]], Anhui jiaoyu yuekan 安徽教育月刊16 (1919): 44–51.

³³ Gu Zhenglai, “Gailiang tongzijun zhifu zhi chuyi” 改良童子军制服之刍议 [A Discussion on Improving Scout Uniforms], Shishi xinbao (Shanghai) 时事新报 (上海), 12 May 1922, 10.

³⁴ Zhonghua zhiye xuexiao, Zhonghua zhiye xuexiao gaikuang 中华职业学校概况 [An Overview of Zhonghua Vocational College] (Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1922), 19.

³⁵ “Shanghai shiyunian lai wujia zhi diaocha” 上海十余年来物价之调查 [A Survey of Commodity Prices in Shanghai over the Past Decade], Yinhang zhoubao 银行周报4, no. 2 (1920): 57–8.

³⁶ It should be emphasised that this was Gu’s belief about the British uniforms; see Gu Zhenglai, “Gailiang tongzijun zhifu zhi chuyi”, Shishi xinbao (Shanghai), 15 May 1922, 10. However, it is important to clarify that Gu’s belief was not entirely accurate. This can be exemplified by Figure 1, where the Scouts are depicted wearing long sleeves that have been rolled up, while a rolled coat is also visible on the back of the haversack. The same observation applies to the third issue raised by Gu Zhenglai.

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ Gu Zhenglai, “Gailiang tongzijun zhifu zhi chuyi”, Shishi xinbao (Shanghai), 17 May 1922, 10.

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴³ Zou Enrun邹恩润 and Xu Liang徐亮, Jiangsu zhongxue yishang toukao xuzhi 江苏中学以上投考须知 [Instructions for Jiangsu Students Applying for Secondary Schools and Above] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1924), 34.

⁴⁴ Shanghai tebieshi fanrihui jiancha weiyuanhui gongzuo yilan: Zhonghua minguo shiqinian liuyuefen zhi shiyuefen 上海特别市反日会检察委员会工作一览: 中华民国十七年六月份至十月份 [An Overview of the Work of the Procuratorial Committee of the Shanghai Anti-Japanese Association: June to October 1928] (place of publication unknown, 1928), 68.

⁴⁶ “Tongzijun xiaoxi: Shanghai yuxiang hao laixiao chengban tongzijun zhifu” 童子军消息: 上海裕祥号来校承办童子军制服 [Scout News: Shanghai Yuxiang Comes to [One] School to Provide Scout Uniforms], Jimei zhoukan 集美周刊115 (1925): 12.

⁴⁹ Zhi Yongqing, Tongzijun zhuanlun童子军专论 [The Book of Scouting] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1926), 6. Zhi Yongqing’s book was reprinted multiple times and was an important reference for the development of Boy Scouts in Republican China.

⁵⁰ In present-day French, “ni” is translated as “laine”, which typically refers to fabrics made of wool, rabbit hair, camel hair, or blends of wool with polyester, viscose, or acrylic. In the context of China, the use of wool was not widespread until the twentieth century. Traditional Chinese clothing incorporated three primary fibres in its construction. Hemp and cotton were commonly donned by individuals engaged in labour, while silk was the preferred fabric among the wealthier class. Therefore, “ni” cannot be translated as “laine” or “wool-blend fabric” in this context. Considering the insights of other scholars, I propose that the “ni” mentioned in this article was likely to be a fabric blend of wool and hemp. See Valery M. Garrett, Chinese Clothing: An Illustrated Guide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 191–8.

⁵¹ Diana Crane, Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1.

⁵² Davis, Fashion, Culture, and Identity, 11.

⁵³ The Nanjing National Government, led by the KMT, was established in Nanjing, China, in 1927. It was disbanded in 1949 following the Chinese Communist Party’s victory in the Chinese Civil War. See Hung-mao Tien, Government and Politics in Kuomintang China, 1927–1937 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972); Lloyd E. Eastman, Seeds of Destruction.

⁵⁴ Although there are no specific requirements for applying to become a member of the Kuomintang Boy Scouts in the Tongze, other documents mentioned that age, height, weight, and the opinions of the applicant’s parents need to be filled out on the application form. See “Dang tongzijun dengji ji tianbiao xuzhi党童子军登记及填表须知” [Instructions for Registration and Application for the Kuomintang Boy Scouts], Dang tongzijun silingbu yuekan 党童子军司令部月刊2 (1929): 15.

⁵⁵ Applicants who wanted to become a member of the Kuomintang Boy Scouts needed to submit their application through their regiment’s headquarters, and the unit would then forward it to the Kuomintang Boy Scouts headquarters for review. See “Zhongguo Guomindang tongzijun zhangze” 中国国民党童子军章则 [Regulations of the Kuomintang Boy Scouts], Zhongyang dangwu yuekan 中央党务月刊8 (1929): 15.

⁵⁶ “Zhongguo Guomindang tongzijun zongzhang shixing tongze”, Zhongyang xunlianbu buwu huikan 中央训练部部务汇刊1 (1928): 31–2.

⁵⁷ This echoes the principle emphasised in the Tongze that “all training should be child-centered”, indicating that, in principle, the KMT government hoped to distinguish the Boy Scouts from the adult military. See ibid.

⁵⁸ As the social anthropologist Paul Connerton notes, each piece of cloth transforms into a distinctive combination of “textual qualities”, which generates a series of statements concerning “age, sex, activity, class, time and place.” This view is supported by the archaeologist Ellen Swift, who notes that clothing and accessories are employed as social tools to transmit certain identities or aspirations to identities that individuals and groups wish to embody. Paul Connerton, How Societies Remember (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 33; Ellen Swift, “Dress Accessories, Culture and Identity in the Late Roman Period”, Antiquité tardive 12 (2005): 217–22.

⁵⁹ “Lingzhi feizhengshi tongzijun bude zhuoyong tongzijun fuzhuang” 令知非正式童子军不得着用童子军服装 [Unofficial Boy Scouts Are Not Allowed to Wear Boy Scout Uniforms], Anhui jiaoyu xingzheng zhoukan 安徽教育行政周刊 3, no. 41 (1930): 7.

⁶⁰ Wang Renhou 汪仁侯, “Zenyang youdao tongzijun rixing yishan” 怎样诱导童子军日行一善 [How to Induce Boy Scouts to Do a Daily Good Turn], Mingde xunkan 明德旬刊 6, no. 8 (1932): 142.

⁶¹ Jian San, “Sannianlai tongzijun shenghuo de huigu (fu zhaopian)” 三年来童子军生活的回顾 (附照片) [A Review of the Past Three Years of the Scouting Life [Attached Photos]], Mingde xunkan 6, no. 8 (1932): 142.

⁶² Huang Xiaonan黄孝南, “Tongzijun yu xiaoxue tiyu” 童子军与小学体育 [The Boy Scouts and Primary School Physical Education], Qinfen tiyu yuebao 勤奋体育月报1, no. 6 (1934): 56.

⁶³ Wang Renhou, “Cong dingding chuzhong xuesheng zhifu tandao tongzijun zhifu” 从订定初中学生制服谈到童子军制服 [Talking about Boy Scout Uniforms in Relation to Determining Junior High School Uniforms], Tongzijun jiaoxuezuo 童子军教学做 2, no. 12 (1947): 3.

⁶⁴ Nathan Joseph and Nicholas Alex, “The Uniform: A Sociological Perspective”, The American Journal of Sociology 77, no. 4 (1972): 723.

⁶⁵ Tammy M. Proctor, “(Uni)forming Youth: Girl Guides and Boy Scouts in Britain, 1908–39”, History Workshop Journal 45 (1998): 103–34.

⁶⁶ Fan Xiaoliu 范晓六, Xinshidai chuzhong tongzijun chuji kecheng 新时代初中童子军初级课程 [An Introductory Curriculum for Junior High School Boy Scouts in the New Era] (Shanghai: Ererwu tongzijun shubao yongpinshe, 1936), 102.

⁶⁷ Idem, 119.

⁶⁸ Idem, 115.

⁶⁹ On details about styles, materials, issuing institutions, and wearing positions of badges, see idem, 115–16.

⁷⁰ Robert H. Ferrell, “The Mukden Incident: September 18–19, 1931”, The Journal of Modern History 27, no. 1 (1955): 66–72.

⁷¹ Xiaoliu, Xinshidai chuzhong tongzijun chuji kecheng, 120.

⁷² For an example of one such ceremony in Xiamen, see “Zhizeng yiyongdui tongzhi ganxiezhang” 致赠义勇队同志感谢章 [Appreciation Badges Given to Comrades of the Volunteer Team], Jimei zhoukan 243 (1930): 21.

⁷³ Leng Xueqiao, “Dangwo diyitian chuan zhifu de shihou” 当我第一天穿制服的时候 [When I Wore My Uniform for the First Day], in Jiangsu tongzijun sanshinian 江苏童子军三十年 [Thirty Years of Jiangsu Scouting], ed. Gai Qixin 盖其新 (Chongqing: shuowenshe chubanbu, 1945), 98–100.

⁷⁴ He Yingqin, “Rongyu caipanting shouci kaiting jinian tekan” 荣誉裁判庭首次开庭纪念特刊 [Special Issue Commemorating the First Session of the Court of Honorary Magistrates], Yishi bao (Chongqing ban) 益世报 (重庆版), 25 February 1943, 4.

⁷⁵ Feng Zhuomin, “Tongzijun rixing yishan” 童子军日行一善 [Scouts Do a Daily Good Turn], Huaguangxue qikan 华光学期刊 (1934): 26.

⁷⁶ See “Zhongguo Guomindang tongzijun zongzhang shixing tongze”, 31–2.

⁷⁷ For details of the style and colour of hats, neckers, shirts, trousers, belts, socks, and shoes, see Jia Zizheng贾子铮, “Hubei zhongxiaoxue tongzijun jihua” 湖北中小学童子军计划 [A Plan for the Scouting in Hubei Primary and Secondary Schools], Hubei jiaoyu gongbao 湖北教育公报 1, no. 1 (1928): 283.

⁷⁹ “Ling geji xuexiao ji xiaoxuexiao, gexian jiaoyuju: zhunsheng zhiweihui xunlianbu hansong nannü tongzijun fuzhuang yangshi qing zhuanchi suoshu gexiao zunzhao banli” 令各级学校及小学校、各县教育局: 准省指委会训练部函送男女童子军服装样式请转饬所属各校遵照办理 (An Order to Schools at All Levels, Primary Schools, and County Education Bureaus: The Training Department of the Provincial Command Committee Has Issued Uniform Styles for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Please Instruct All Relevant Schools to Abide by the New Regulations], Shaanxi jiaoyu zhoukan 陕西教育周刊3, nos. 22–23 (1930): 9.

⁸⁰ Ibid.

⁸¹ “Nannü tongzijun fuzhuang shiyang” 男女童子军服装式样 [The Uniform Styles of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts], Shaanxi jiaoyu zhoukan 3 (1930): 23.

⁸³ “Zhongguo tongzijun zongzhang”, Zhonghua jiaoyujie 中华教育界 21, no. 6 (1933): 94.

⁸⁴ The yarn here is a fabric blend of cotton, wool, hemp, and even silk. See Valery M. Garrett, Chinese Dress: From the Qing Dynasty to the Present (Tokyo: Tuttle Publications, 2007), 158–63.

⁸⁵ Liu Chengqing刘澄清, Zhongguo tongzijun jiaoyu中国童子军教育 [Chinese Scouting Education] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1938), 183–5.

⁸⁶ See Wang Renhou, “Cong dingding chuzhong xuesheng zhifu tandao tongzijun zhifu”, 3; Liu Hanmin 刘汉民, Guomin gemingjun yizu xuexiao tongjuntuan niankan (diyiqi Zhongguo tongzijun di yilingjiu tuan niankan) 国民革命军遗族学校童军团年刊 (第1期中国童子军第一〇九团年刊) [Scout Regiment Yearbook of the School for Descendants of the National Revolutionary Army [First Annual Report of the 109th Regiment of the Chinese Boy Scouts]] (Nanjing: Guomin gemingjun yizu xuexiao tongjuntuan, 1948), 83.

⁸⁷ Shusun Tong叔孙通, Han liqi zhidu 汉礼器制度 [The Han Ritual System], comp. & anno. Sun Xingyan 孙星衍 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 26.

⁸⁸ Peter Corrigan, The Dressed Society: Clothing, the Body and Some Meanings of the World (London: Sage, 2008), 5.

⁸⁹ “Gongli zhongxuexiao”, Anhui jiaoyu yuekan, 47.

⁹⁰ For detailed information on style, material, issuing institution, and wearing position of badges, see Xiaoliu, Xinshidai chuzhong tongzijun chuji kecheng, 102–4.

⁹¹ See idem, 110.

⁹² See idem, 107.

⁹³ Zizheng, “Hubei zhongxiaoxue tongzijun jihua”, 283.

⁹⁴ Shashi shidifangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui沙市市地方志编纂委员会, Shashi shizhi 沙市市志 [Gazetteer of Shashi] (Beijing: Zhongguo jingji chubanshe, 1999), vol. 4, 22.

⁹⁵ Hubeisheng guchengxian difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui湖北省谷城县地方志编纂委员会, Gucheng xianzhi 谷城县志 [Gazetteer of Gucheng County] (Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe, 1991), 281.

⁹⁶ Hubeisheng dangyangshi difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui湖北省当阳市地方志编纂委员会, Dangyang xianzhi 当阳县志 [Gazetteer of Dangyang County] (Beijing: Zhongguo chengshi chubanshe, 1992), 753.

⁹⁷ Wu Yaolin, “Tongzijun yezhan tan (futu)” 童子军野战谈 (附图) [Talking about Boy Scout Field Operations [Attached Photos]], Zhongguo tongzijun silingbu yuekan 24 (1931): 20–9.

⁹⁸ Cai E, Cai Songpo ji蔡松坡集 [The Collected Works of Cai Songpo [Cai E]], comp. Zeng Yeying曾业英 (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1984), 16. In addition to Cai, Jiang Baili (蒋百里, 1882–1938) also mentioned the importance of martial spirit; see the discussion in Wu Xiaowei, “Why Boy Scouts? The Prevalence of the Scouting Movement for Child Training in Republican China, 1911–1925”, History of Education 51, no. 5 (2022): 673–4.

⁹⁹ Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao wenxuan 梁启超文选 [Selected Works of Liang Qichao], comp. Xia Xiaohong 夏晓虹 (Beijing: Zhongguo guangbo dianshi chubanshe, 1992), vol. 1, 152–3.

¹⁰⁰ Valentina Boretti, “Patriotic Fun: Toys and Mobilization in China from the Republican to the Communist Era”, in War and Childhood in the Era of the Two World Wars, ed. Mischa Honeck and James Marten (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 21.

¹⁰¹ “Jiaoyubu zongzhang Cai Yuanpei duiyu xinjiaoyu zhi yijian” 教育部总长蔡元培对于新教育之意见 [Minister of Education Cai Yuanpei’s Opinions on New Education], Zhonghua jiaoyujie 1, no. 2 (1912): 9.

¹⁰² Tai Shuangqiu 邰爽秋, Lijie jiaoyu huiyi yijuean huibian 历届教育会议议决案汇编 [Collection of Resolutions of Previous Education Conferences] (Shanghai: Jiaoyu bianyiguan, 1935), 91. For more discussions on the effects of martial spirit and the military citizen concept on school reforms in late Qing and Republican China, see Nicolas Schillinger, The Body and Military Masculinity in Late Qing and Early Republican China (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2016), 285–317.

¹⁰³ Zhonghua quanguo tongzijun xiehui, Tongzijun guilü 童子军规律 [Scouting Regulations] (Shanghai: shangwu yinshuguan, 1921), 13–14.

¹⁰⁴ “Zhiling Jiangsusheng jiaoyuhui Jiangsu tongzijun lianhehui zhangcheng ji yuanci guilü kecheng zhunbei anwen” 指令江苏省教育会江苏童子军联合会章程及愿词规律课程准备案文 [Instructions for Jiangsu Provincial Education Bureau and Jiangsu Boy Scouts Association with Preparatory Text for Oaths and Rules], Jiaoyu gongbao 4, no. 12 (1917): 73.

¹⁰⁵ Hwang Jinlin, “Authority over the Body and the Modern Formation of the Body”, in Creating Chinese Modernity: Knowledge and Everyday Life, 1900–1940, ed. Peter Zarrow (New York: Peter Lang, 2006), 189.

¹⁰⁶ The Three Principles of the People were the teachings of Sun Yat-sen, which he developed in cooperation with close confidants. They consist of the doctrine of nationhood (minzu zhuyi 民族主义), the doctrine of people’s welfare (minsheng zhuyi 民生主义), and the doctrine of people’s rights (minquan zhuyi 民权主义). Many scholars assert that this philosophy was the cornerstone KMT policy; see, for example, Harold Z. Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen and the Origins of the Chinese Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968).

¹⁰⁷ See “Zhongguo Guomindang tongzijun chuji kecheng biaozhun” 中国国民党童子军初级课程标准 [Kuomintang Boy Scouts Introductory Curriculum Standards], Henan jiaoyu 河南教育1, no. 18 (1929): 25–8; “Zhongguo Guomindang tongzijun zhongji kecheng biaozhun” 中国国民党童子军中级课程标准 [Kuomintang Boy Scouts Intermediate Curriculum Standards], Henan jiaoyu 1, no. 18 (1929): 28–31; “Dangtongzijun gaoji kecheng biaozhun” 党童军高级课程标准 [Kuomintang Boy Scouts Advanced Curriculum Standards], Junshi zazhi (Nanjing) 军事杂志(南京) 29 (1930): 1–2.

¹⁰⁸ Gao Yihan 高一涵 [Robert Culp], “Zhongguo tongzijun – Nanjing shinian tongzijun shouce zhong de gongmin xunlian yu shehui yishi” 中国童子军 – – 南京十年童子军手册中的公民训练与社会意识 [Scouting for Chinese Boys: Civic Training and Social Consciousness in Nanjing Decade Boy Scout Handbooks], Xin shixue 4, no. 11 (2011): 47.

¹⁰⁹ The proposal to use “domestic products” was not only a prerogative of the Nationalist government. The wider context was the “National Products Movement”, which was active from the 1900s. See Pan Junxiang 潘君祥, Jindai Zhongguo guohuo yundong yanjiu 近代中国国货运动研究 [A Study on the National Products Movement in Modern China] (Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 1998); and Karl Gerth, China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003), 125–200.

¹¹⁰ Chengqing, Zhongguo tongzijun jiaoyu, 183–5.

¹¹¹ Jin Yuan今猿, “Tongzijun de zhifu” 童子军的制服 (Scout Uniforms), Jingangyuan 金刚猿, 18 September 1931. It is important to clarify that Jin Yuan’s statement here does not suggest that the KMT was the first to raise possible issues arising from the incorporating of foreign elements into Chinese children’s clothing. It aims to underscore the fact that the KMT employed official documents to emphasise the adoption of some domestically sourced elements in Scout uniforms.

¹¹² Gu Yimin顾亦民, “Zenyang zuo yige zhanshi tongzijun” 怎样做一个战时童子军 [How to Be a Wartime Boy Scout], Zhanshi tongjun xiangdao 战时童子军向导25 (1940): 10–11.

¹¹³ “Boy Scouts to Be Mobilized for War Time Work”, The China Press, 31 July 1937, 2.

¹¹⁴ Nicolas Schillinger, The Body and Military Masculinity in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 221.

¹¹⁵ Sarah E. Stevens, “Hygienic Bodies and Public Mothers: The Rhetoric of Reproduction, Fetal Education, and Childhood in Republican China”, in Mapping Meanings: The Field of New Learning in Late Qing China, ed. Michael Lackner and Natascha Vittinghoff (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 676. For representative scholarship on the relationship between Chinese children and the state, see Andrew F. Jones, “The Child as History in Republican China: A Discourse on Development”, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 10, no. 3 (2002): 695–727; James Flath and Norman Smith, eds., Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011); Colette Plum, “Lost Childhoods in a New China: Child-Citizens-Workers at War, 1937–1945”, European Journal of East Asian Studies 11, no. 2 (2012): 237–58; Sofia Graziani, “Youth and the Making of Modern China: A Study of the Communist Youth League’s Organisation and Strategies in Times of Revolution (1920–1937)”, European Journal of East Asian Studies 13, no. 1 (2014): 117–49; and Peter Zarrow, Educating China: Knowledge, Society, and Textbooks in a Modernising World, 1902–1937 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 77–146.

¹¹⁶ Zihan, “Guangdong tongzijun yanjiu 1915–1938”, 11.

¹¹⁷ Ma Yongchun 马永春 and Luo Shigao 罗识高, Tongzijun chuji kecheng 童子军初级课程 [An Introductory Curriculum for Scouts] (Beiping: Zhongguo tongzijun Beipingshi zhihui lishihui, 1947), 17.

¹¹⁸ After the Chinese Communist Party took over mainland China in 1949, Scouting activities there ceased. The Chinese Scouts Association was reorganised in 1950 after the Republic of China government was relocated to Taipei, and resumed membership in the World Scout Bureau as the Scouts of China.

¹¹⁹ “Zhongguo tongzijun zongzhang”, 93.

¹²⁰ Zhongguo tongzijun zonghui, Huizhang fuhuizhang jigejie lishizhang jianshizhang dui Zhongguo tongzijun jiaoyu zhiyanlun会长副会长及各届理事长监事长对童子军教育之言论 [Remarks by the President, Vice President, Chairman, and Supervisors on Scouting Education] (Nanjing: Zhongguo tongzijun zonghui, 1945), 1–4.

¹²¹ Margaret Mih Tillman, “Engendering Children of the Resistance”, 146.

¹²² Wu Xiaowei吴小玮, “Yi xunlian weizhongxin de ertong zuzhi – – Minguo shiqi tongzijun zhi yanjiu” 以训练为中心的儿童组织 – – 民国时期童子军之研究 [A Training-Oriented Children’s Organization: A Study on the Boy Scouts in Republican China] (PhD dissertation, East China Normal University, 2013), 174.

¹²³ According to Hwang Jinlin, following the establishment of the Kuomintang Boy Scouts by the KMT, the Chinese Boy Scout movement became closely connected to the concept of the “national revolution”, effectively transforming into a means of state control and discipline. See Hwang Jinlin, “Authority over the Body and the Modern Formation of the Body”, 191. For other representative academic works, see Margaret Mih Tillman, Raising China’s Revolutionaries: Modernising Childhood for Cosmopolitan Nationalists and Liberated Comrades, 1920s–1950s (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 19; and Brian Tsui, China’s Conservative Revolution: The Quest for a New Order, 1927–1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 68–113.

¹²⁴ Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys, 36.

¹²⁵ The Scout badge designed by Baden-Powell (Figure 7) has been described as “a stylised lily symbolic of peace and purity”. However, it is important to note that the lily itself is not a politically neutral symbol. It previously served as the emblem of the French monarchy and continues to be associated with the Prince of Wales. See “The Story behind the Scout Emblem”, Scouts.org, https://www.scouts.org.uk/about-us/our-history/our-online-exhibitions/scouting-innovations/the-story-behind-the-scout-emblem (accessed 7 December 2023); Robert Baden-Powell, Scoutmastership: A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920), 9–11.

Figure 7. Scout badge created by Baden-Powell.¹³⁰

¹²⁶ Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 82.

¹²⁷ Tijana Todorović, Tomaž Toporišič, and Alenka Pavko Čuden, “Clothes and Costumes as Form of Nonverbal Communication”, Tekstilec 57, no. 4 (2014): 327.

¹²⁸ Zicheng and Yaolin, Chuji tongzijun, 30.

¹²⁹ Xiaoliu, Xinshidai chuzhong tongzijun chuji kecheng, 66–7.

¹³⁴ Jinlin, “Authority over the Body and the Modern Formation of the Body”, 192.

¹³⁷ Katrina Navickas, “‘That Sash will Hang You’: Political Clothing and Adornment in England, 1780–1840”, The Journal of British Studies 49, no. 3 (2010): 548.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yu Fu

Yu Fu is a PhD Candidate from the Department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research focuses on the history of Chinese education and the history of children’s education.