Prevailing analyses susally take the New Life Movement either as an act to implant fascism in China, an act to carry out the anti-Communist campaigns, or an act to prepare the resistance war against Japan. In contrast to these accounts, this essay contends that the movement was initially a passive choice the Nanking regime made to counteract the crises it faced. Yet, with its appeal to create a "new citizen" for China, the movement dramatically became a progressive and revolutionary activity. The grotesque discourse that it contained not only helped shape the development, and dispense Nanking regime from social responsibilities, but made it the greatest defender of the new life movement.