In addition to trade negotiations, land replacement and international student issues, cultural exchanges between East China and Germany were also underway as scheduled. Moreover, Gu Hongming quickly turned this cultural exchange into his personal one-man show, and other scholars participating in cultural exchanges in the visiting group became his foil.

On December 26, when the cultural group of the East China visiting delegation was communicating with German scholars at the University of Berlin, Gu Hongming gave a speech entitled [Similarities and Sameness of Eastern and Western Civilizations], and also gave a speech in full German. In the speech, Gu Hongming, on the one hand, recorded the differences between Eastern and Western cultures and civilizations, and on the other hand, emphasized the shortcomings in Western cultures and civilizations. How to make up for these defects? Gu Hongming gave the answer to Eastern Confucianism. The content of this speech also aroused great interest from German scholars.

Moreover, although the University of Berlin had a holiday at this time, since this was the first cultural exchange activity held between China and Europe, and the public opinion report of Germany on East China in recent years was also relatively positive. In addition, the victory of the Far East War also added a lot of weight to this cultural exchange activity. Germany is a martial country, and most of the people also advocate force and respect the strong. Therefore, it eventually attracted more than 500 students to listen to Gu Hongming's speech.

In fact, Eastern and Western cultures and civilizations have their own strengths, and they have their essence and weaknesses. However, the level of Western science and technology and social development in the West is higher than that in the East. Therefore, in the direction of culture and civilization, the West’s discourse power must be greater than that in the East. However, this does not mean that Western culture and the shortcomings in civilization have disappeared.

Of course, politicians like to label the culture and civilization of their own nation as the most perfect and flawless, in order to increase the cohesion of the country and boost the morale and confidence of the people. However, as scholars, they have seen a crisis in the prosperous Western era. The crisis not only exists, but is also very serious. Therefore, many Western scholars are trying to find ways to solve the shortcomings and crises of Western society. Some start from the system, some look for it in religion, some hope to improve the moral level of society through education, and some pin their hopes on a powerful ****.

German scholars may not agree with the answer given by Gu Hongming, but it does provide these scholars with a new idea, which can at least be used as a reference. Of course, some scholars who listen to the speech have a strong nationalist thought and are not only unable to agree with the answer given by Gu Hongming, but also think that Gu Hongming's answer is meaningless. How can an inferior nation solve the shortcomings and crises in Western culture and civilization? Therefore, in the questioning session after Gu Hongming's speech, people spoke and questioned one after another, and some people's speeches were even quite intense.

However, Gu Hongming was prepared for this, and refuted these people's questions one by one, and said it in a reasonable and consistent manner, neither humble nor arrogant way. After all, academic exchanges are not a curse on the street. It is important to say reason and present the facts. It is not anyone with a loud voice to be right. Therefore, Gu Hongming's rebuttal not only made the questioners speechless, but also took the opportunity of refutation to further prove that his answer was correct, at least with a certain degree of correctness. There are also some scholars and students who have a more objective attitude who admire Gu Hongming's knowledge, wit and profoundness.

In fact, Eastern culture and Confucian civilization have their own shortcomings and shortcomings, but the German scholars here basically know little about Eastern culture and Confucian civilization. Although some people have studied Eastern culture and Confucian civilization, they are just a little bitch and lack a systematic understanding, and students are basically ignorant of Eastern culture and Confucian civilization. In this era, there were basically no scholars who had a deep understanding and research on Eastern culture and Confucian civilization in the old time and space. In fact, it was not until the 1930s that Western society and academics did not systematically study Eastern culture, and a group of well-known sinologists emerged. Fairbank (English name John King Fairbank) was the most typical representative of them.

However, Eastern culture is too broad and complex, far exceeding Western culture. Many people may not be able to see the comprehensive view after exhausting it. Western scholars are often preconceived by Western civilization, so some deviations are inevitable in research. Even scholars like Fairbank will have many wrong views in their works.

Gu Hongming studied in Europe for 14 years and was a rare scholar who was well-versed in the East and West in this era. This also allowed Gu Hongming to take advantage of the debate with German scholars, because German scholars knew very little about Eastern culture and Confucian civilization and did not know the shortcomings of Eastern culture and Confucian civilization, and sometimes they would quote some wrong views; while Gu Hongming was as follows: the advantages and disadvantages of Eastern and Western cultures and civilizations were as clear as the debate, and he could naturally avoid the real and the false views of some Eastern cultures and civilizations. This also explained and clarified the wrong views of some Eastern cultures and civilizations one by one, which also made most scholars and students present feel that they only understood so much about Eastern cultures and civilizations, and this time listening to the speech was worth it.

The next day, almost all major German newspapers published Gu Hongming's speech in full text. Since Gu Hongming used German speeches, the content was basically not biased, and all the meanings that Gu Hongming wanted to express clearly were expressed, without any translation deviations. Gu Hongming was also famous. At this time, a newspaper reported Gu Hongming's experience of graduating from the University of Leipzig, a well-known German university, and obtained two doctoral students in literature and philosophy. This aroused the enthusiasm of the German academic and educational circles. Such an oriental scholar who was well-educated, knowledgeable, and smart, had studied in a German university and obtained a doctorate, which naturally made the German academic and educational circles feel light on his face. Before that, Gu Hongming's experience of studying at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom was ignored by the German media.

Then on the 29th and 31st, Gu Hongming gave two speeches at the University of Berlin under the theme of [Chinese temperament] and [China is a civilized country]. There were many scholars, students and celebrities who came to listen to Gu Hongming's speech, and it was almost impossible to get a ticket. Nearly half of the people in the third speech were listened to it while standing.

At the same time, well-known universities in other parts of Germany also generated electricity to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, invited the cultural team of the East China Mission to conduct academic exchanges, and of course they also called for Gu Hongming to be present in person. Therefore, for a moment, Gu Hongming became the hottest figure in the visiting group, and his light completely overshadowed the others.

However, with the arrival of New Year's Day, Germany had to rest for three days, so the visiting group temporarily stopped activities and stayed in the apartment to celebrate the New Year spent in a foreign country. East China ** adopts the calendar that focuses on the Gregorian calendar and takes into account the lunar calendar. According to the rules of old time and space, January 1 of the Gregorian calendar is designated as the New Year's Day, the Lunar New Year is called the Spring Festival, and the 15th of the lunar calendar is designated as the Lantern Festival. This set of calendar rules has been implemented since the beginning of the establishment of East China **. The staff and students of the visiting group are also used to treating January 1 of the Gregorian calendar as the beginning of the New Year. At home, Gu Hongming once complained about this calendar system, believing that it is mainly Western calendars, which is putting the cart before the horse, but at this time there was no dissatisfaction, and they happily celebrated the arrival of the New Year with everyone.

Of course, during the New Year's Day holiday, the visiting delegation did not relax all, and also reported the results of the previous phase of the visit to the country. At the same time, it also formulated a plan for the visiting itinerary after the holiday. In fact, it was not only the cultural group received a large number of invitations, but also received invitations from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and other countries. It was hoped that the visiting delegation could visit their country after the visit to Germany.

Although the transportation in this era has improved significantly compared to before, it is not easy to come to Europe from China, and it is also very rare to come to a visiting group from China. When Li Hongzhang visited Europe 10 years ago, he visited five countries, including Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France. Now East China has just won the Far East War, which is the time to be in full swing, far better than Li Hongzhang back then. Therefore, European countries have invited East China to visit their country, which is also a grand event.

However, Britain and France did not invite the East China delegation. After all, the two countries had just finished the war with East China and were defeated in a crushing situation. They could not bear the pressure for a while. In addition, the two countries accused Japan and East China delegation of improving relations and sanctioning Japan on this ground. Now if the East China delegation is invited to visit their country, what's the matter! But Britain and France do not want to directly confront East China delegation, but adopt the strategy of supporting agents to restrain East China delegation. After all, the distance is too far and beyond reach, and the strength of East China delegation cannot be easily defeated. Moreover, the two countries now have a large number of colonies in Southeast Asia. If they really make East China delegation angry, these colonies will be under a huge threat. Therefore, appropriate improvement of the relationship with East China delegation is actually beneficial to the two countries. Now Britain and France are evaluating the pros and cons of inviting East China delegations.

Another participant in the Far East War, the Netherlands, has sent an invitation to the East China Visiting Team. After all, the Netherlands is too weak to compete with the East China, so it is better to improve the relationship with the East China. Anyway, for European countries, it is normal to fight today and make peace tomorrow.
Chapter completed!