It is Truth that Heals

Existentialism came into China in the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time when a galaxy of Chinese reform-minded intellectuals launched the New Culture Movement, which was likened to the Renaissance by Hu Shi, the leader of this revolution. Existential philosophers and writers such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky inspired this group of Chinese visionaries. They began to reevaluate the Chinese tradition of culture by exposing how Chinese people had been indoctrinated by feudalistic ideology and tyrannical rule which led to a Chinese mentality twisted into escapism. Lu Xun, a modern Chinese novelist and thinker, exposed this fact and advocated Zhi Mian as the antidote. The term Zhi Mian resonates deeply with existentialism in terms of facing the truth of reality, reflecting on suffering and a focus on the individual.