PEOPLE in Shanghai were a formidable force in China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and played a positive role in the world’s anti-fascist efforts.

Dr Li Linsi (1896-1970), or Li Jiaxiang, was among those Shanghai people who campaigned tirelessly for national dignity and survival at the risk of their own lives.

The Shanghai educator, diplomat and linguist, who was fluent in six languages, was known for his status in Chinese cultural and diplomatic history, but few know this pioneering figure in the China-Europe cultural exchange was also an anti-fascist fighter, a rescuer of the Jews and China’s Mahatma Gandhi.

He managed to draw more support from the international community and Germany to fight against the Japanese aggression. His anti-Japanese philosophy inspired millions of people. His military research made considerable contribution to China’s resistance to Japan.

His wartime tale was one of the great untold stories that reflect the gigantic struggle those Shanghai elites waged during some of the darkest moments the city has ever faced.

Dr Li was born in Hangzhou, a beautiful city in Zhejiang Province, in February 1896. He came from a distinguished Chinese literary family. His father, Li Liangyu, was a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) official and renowned artist, who co-founded the Xiling Society of Seal Arts, one of China’s most important traditional arts associations. His paternal fourth great-grandfather, Li E, was a notable poet and scholar in the Qing Dynasty, who has been recognized as a leader of the Zhejiang School of poetry.

Dr Li Linsi spent his early years in Hangzhou before entering the Tongji University in Shanghai for higher education. After graduation in 1915, he went to Japan to study literature and education at Sophia University.

He pursued his further education in Germany following four years of study at Sophia University, and earned his master’s degree in law from the University of Jena and doctorate in philosophy from Heidelberg University.

He lived, studied and traveled in Germany for 10 years.

Traveling extensively around Europe, Dr Li came into contact with plenty of Western progressive ideas and got to know some promising Chinese students, who later became leaders of the Communist Party of China, such as Premier Zhou Enlai and Marshal Zhu De. He also established a deep friendship with German sinologist Richard Wilhelm.

He participated in Germany’s first China Institute at the University of Frankfurt, an research institution founded by Wilhelm, which was committed to making the West better understand Chinese culture.

Dr Li helped the institution start multiple journals on Chinese studies, such as the China-Germany Yearbook and East Asia Review, and contributed to organizing various seminars and exhibitions on Chinese studies for the institution.

Being reputed as a bridge that connects the Chinese and European cultures, Dr Li made great contribution to helping the West comprehend ancient Chinese philosophies, and introduced many Western progressive thoughts to China.

A key diplomat

Dr Li returned to China in 1930. As a senior education official as well as a cultural diplomat, he was a key proponent and practitioner of China’s League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations) diplomacy in the 1930s. He actively promoted communication, cooperation and coordination between China and the League of Nations, the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

He proposed that to better combat the Japanese aggression, China should try to draw more support and favorable public opinion from the international community through the League of Nations.

In 1932, in order to strengthen the relationship between China and the League of Nations, Dr Li served as a cultural and educational representative of the Chinese government to pay an official visit to Europe, including Switzerland where the League of Nations was headquartered. The six-month friendly visit was very successful which enhanced the cultural exchange and cooperation among China, Europe and the League of Nations.

He also co-founded some of China’s most influential organizations, including the China Institute of World Cultural Cooperation at the League of Nations in 1933.

In 1935, Dr Li met another Shanghai diplomat Gu Weijun. They hit it off straight away and became close friends. Dr Li was a major supporter of Dr Gu’s notion of peacefully resolving international disputes through the diplomacy with the League of Nations.

In March 1936, Dr Li and Dr Gu were both elected as members of the council at the League of Nations Association of China, the China branch of the league. He was also a participant in the founding of the China branch of the United Nations after the League of Nations was replaced.

Relocating to Shanghai

Shanghai has been known for its unique status in China’s resistance against Japan, and was widely recognized as the center for the anti-Japanese movement. The war of resistance brought Dr Li to Shanghai. Since then the city had become his home for the remainder of his life.

Before China’s anti-Japanese war, Dr Li was invited by his friend Jiang Baili, a noted Chinese military strategist, to contribute to his military works. After the war erupted in 1931, he resigned his post in the central government and took the advice from Jiang to move his family from Nanjing to Shanghai to help him finish his works.

During that time, Dr Li translated and researched on a large number of Japanese and German military works. His research contributed much to China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. And he even didn’t put his name on any of these studies. That explains why his name is not as well-known as his friend Jiang in the field of Chinese military education.

At the beginning of the war, Dr Li co-founded the Shanghai Cultural Salvation Association with revered educator Cai Yuanpei and other cultural celebrities in Shanghai, an organization that was the most influential among all the anti-Japanese organizations at the time in China. The organization played an important role in organizing the strength of Chinese cultural elites and motivating the masses to resist against Japanese invasion.

As the co-founder of the organization, Dr Li was also engaged in international communication. He headed the organization’s International Communication Committee to campaign for support from people around the world, and helped the international community have a better understanding of Chinese people’s resistance against Japanese aggression.

Aiding the Jews

During Shanghai’s “Isolated Island” period (1937-41), Dr Li’s family lived on Seymour Road (today’s Shaanxi Road N.) in the International Settlement, an area that was not occupied by Japanese invaders, but in control of the British and American forces.

As a prestigious figure in China’s cultural and diplomatic circles, at the invitation of his friend He Bingsong, Dr Li was engaged as a professor at Jinan National University, the first university in China to recruit foreign students.

During that time, a huge number of Jews mainly from Germany and Austria fled to Shanghai to escape the Nazis. Dr Li had a reputation for helping the Jews among Shanghai’s Jewish community.

Using his personal connections and resources, Dr Li helped make Shanghai a better place that harbored the Jews while the rest of the world was turning their back on them. For a long period, Shanghai remained as the only place in the world that unconditionally offered refuge for the Jews fleeing the Nazis.

Dr Li was deeply moved by the tragedy of the Jews, and contributed as much as he could to the Jewish community as a better-off local who spent more than a decade in Germany. He even sheltered several Jewish refugees who were his friends in Germany.

With the aid from Dr Li and other wealthy natives, a modern Jewish community emerged, with more housing for the Jewish refugees arranged, businesses established, German publications circulated, even an orchestra formed. Shanghai became a bright spot for Jews in the dark plight of that age.

China’s Mahatma Gandhi

However, the Shanghai socialite’s life went sharply downhill after the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941 when the Japanese invaders occupied the British- and American-controlled parts of the city in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After the fall of the International Settlement, the Jinan National University moved out of Shanghai, but Dr Li stayed. Known as “China’s Mahatma Gandhi,” he began to lead Shanghai intellectuals to fight the Japanese invaders in a nonviolent manner.

Because he was a prominent public figure who served as a high-ranking education official and had experience studying in Japan, the Japanese occupiers attempted to lure him to their side many times, promising to appoint him as the Minister of Education or Minister of Examination if he agreed to work for them.

Facing both temptation and intimidation, Dr Li tried to find various excuses and refused them in a mild yet determined manner. He had made up his mind that he would never work for the Japanese invaders. He believed that China would be the final winner in this war.

His nonviolent strategy proved practical, particularly for the Chinese intellectuals.

Dr Li deemed that the nonviolent approach does not mean to succumb to the invaders’ power. True powers do not come from violence, but from nonviolence. It is the thoughts from within that hold the true power.

Dr Li was not a Gandhian who completely follows the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. He believed that Gandhi’s ideologies about nonviolence protest were partly the result of specific historical circumstance and cultural background; his law of success doesn’t necessarily apply to any nation at any time.

Dr Li’s nonviolent resistance philosophy originated from Gandhi, but was distinct from it. It was a theory that better fitted in with China’s situation of the time. He believed that a nonviolent approach should be an option only when one did not have enough capability for armed resistance.

He did not oppose the idea of fighting the invaders with armed forces. He even deemed it essential, in many cases, to resist the outside aggression by force. But he always insisted that the violent approach was inappropriate for the Chinese intellectuals to take. They should develop their own strength and play to their advantage. Employing an indirect strategy and combating the Japanese invaders in a nonviolent manner would be a wiser choice.

During this period, Dr Li quietly did extensive research on Japanese and German military works. His research played an important role in China’s anti-Japanese war.

His philosophy inspired a vast crowd, not only the Chinese cultural elites, but also a new generation of students, the Chinese masses and people from the international community.

Dr Li also pointed out that China should not fight the Japanese army alone, but unite all forces possible, especially Russia, England and the United States. If that would be the case, China’s victory over Japan would be inevitable.

History has proved him right. In August 1945, Japan surrendered. A new chapter unfolded.

After the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, Dr Li was back to where he started — to his beloved profession in a lifetime. As an esteemed professor at the Shanghai International Studies University, he had nurtured, through his teaching, a large number of quality language talents.

In October 1970, Dr Li, the prestigious cultural diplomat and educator, passed away in Shanghai at 74.

Dr Li will be remembered as an anti-fascist fighter for his resilience and intelligence to fight against Japanese aggression, a savior for his humanitarian spirit to save hundreds of Shanghai Jewish refugees at the cost of his own loss, and a legend for his wisdom and patriotism in the history of the world’s anti-fascist endeavors.

(Taylor Wong is a feature writer and culture/history scholar at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.)