Abstract
The journal Dongfang zazhi 東方雜誌 (Eastern Miscellany) was established in 1904 by the Shanghai-based publishing house Shangwu yinshuguan (Commercial Press). In the 1910s, when headed by Du Yaquan 杜亞泉 (1873 1933), it combined promotion of recent scientific discoveries with the opposition to the radical inconoclasm of the New Culture Movement.
Science inspired the conservative standpoint of its editors, who reconciled the professed need for modern science and technology with conservative attitudes deeply critical of Western modernity. The Dongfang zazhi devoted much space to the popularization of Western science and technology, but also to discussions about humanistic values endangered by the scientistic worldview.
The journal often reported curiosities and spiritualist scientific experiments which stressed fundamental limits of scientific knowledge. Social Darwinism was criticized as immoral but accepted as a fact of international relations, necessitating the development of modern industry.
By accentuating practical utility of science and introducing latest idealist philosophy, the editors approached science as an essential but culturally ambiguous part of modern life, which resonated with their doubts about the values imported from the West.