Pragmatism in Deng Xiaoping’s “Cat” theory
American Pragmatism basically talks about truth and worth. It can be translated as: We should not fuss over what is the truth, but what enhances life. If something can do us good, it is true in a certain sense. This is a very popular idea in the American society, but such is not the case for China. For a long course of time, pragmatism is interpreted by the Chinese as:”To reach a certain goal by fair means of by foul.” As we look back in Chinese history, it’s hard to find an entire chunk of pragmatism. However, we can still see sprinkles of pragmatic ideas scattered around, among which Deng Xiaoping’s “Cat” theory is the most famous. We have reasons to believe the cat theory has overlaps with American pragmatism, but they don't coincide, or so mainstream Chinese would argue.
The whole line of the “Cat” theory goes like this: It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice. When I first heard of the line, I didn't have any background knowledge and I understood it as: “Cat” means method. “White” means good, appropriate, just. “Black” on the other hand, is everything evil, inappropriate, unjust. “Catch the mice” means do the job. So then again, I thought it meant,” To reach a certain goal by fair means of by foul.” And this is actually something very hard to accept for me.
With some research, I learned that the “Cat” theory wasn't meant to be a theory from the start. It was originally said by Deng Xiaoping’s battle companion. He meant in times of war, it’s always best to bear an open mind and make adjustments according to the current situation because dogmatism doesn't get you very far. Later Deng Xiaoping brought this sentence into public attention when making a speech concerning rural production situations. He justified himself for taking measures not all that “socialistic” to solve problems. The cat theory simply tells people to be practical, get things done, even if it means using ways they’ve not thought of or not exactly what they’ve learned from a textbook.
Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. This is also a very popular line by Marx that had been thought highly of by Chinese leaders. I think it bears the same meaning as the “cat” theory. The truth may not be what we think, any supposed truth needs testing, and the only way to test it is put it into practice. Although we assume the white cat is the truth and the black cat is the false. We do not know for sure, and we are in no position to justify either because we have no proof. This is a very similar to American pragmatism, but not identical. Because what Dewey meant was, we should adopt whatever works, and disregard the debate over what is genuinely true. Whereas what Deng Xiaoping meant was, something will work because it is true in the first place; all it needs for it to take effect is a chance.
Many Chinese hold the argument that Deng’s “cat” theory is something completely different from American pragmatism and it is only misinterpreted as that. But many hold this argument for the wrong cause. They fear that Deng would eventually put capitalism into practice and see it works better than socialism, they could not have that. By denying the similarities between them, they are denying China is currently strayed from the passway of socialism and heading for capitalism. Although it is obvious that this conversion is exactly what China is undergoing.