CHILDREN IN CHINA

Evening Post, Issue 79, 2 April 1936, Page 6

CHILDREN IN CHINA

TEEATED AS TOYS

TRANSITION TO ADULT LIFE

I In the Far East it is a calculable asset to travel with children (writes Ralph Morton in the "Spectator"). In place of the suspicious glances and indrawn skirts, of the growls and faroutstretched newspapers, that welcome the apologetic parent in the West as he bundles his infant into the cor ns partment, seats are vacated not chivalrously but joyfully. Seats are vacated for the parent and for the child. Sweets and fruit are offered and with difficulty refused. The most forbidding major or pompous merchant will fondle and coo and caress and pour forth a torrent of adulation and congratulation. To the newcomer this habit is as novel but not as disconcerting as the habit that Japanese men indulge in of removing their trousers in the train.

' In no land are children worshipped so much as in China. They are allowed to do what they like. Their misdemeanours are welcomed as signs of precocity. No trouble is too great to,give them,what they.: want. And yet in.no farid do)children have so |pitiable -a-. time.;of it; For it is the baby that the Chinese love.' 'Once the innocent lamb has become the human mcunkey interest drops. But the evil has been done. The worship and the petting have dispelled': all; love of adventure. The child early settles down to adult life. The shades of the prisonhouse'are over him .by- the time he goes to school. In the West the child rebels against the snubs he incurred in infancy. He wages an endless insurrection against adult values. He itches to destroy the things his elders hold dear. His >play is a parody of his parents. He wants to do. the things that his elders do not-do: to climb on walls, to play on roofs. In all -he wants to assert his future superiority. : .';'. There is little of that love of adventure or defiance of authority in the Chinese child. NOT UNDERSTOOD. Destruction.'for destruction's sake does not specially appeal to him. There is, one" incident in..'American history "known to, every' Chinese schoolboy. And, as in the case of most well-known historical facts, the reason is for him so. far;, to., seek as to. 'leave - the fact wholly mysterious. Every Chinese schoolboy knows, that George Washington ■'-never.;, told ~a- lie but none can understand why he cut ; down the cherry- tree. Recently in school a class of boys were asked to retell the story. They did so accurately but many felt the story so unintelligible at this point that they had to add a reason: One boy said that Washington cut down the tree to get the fruit. That to him was intelligible. But tha -love-.of that led Washington, to. try his new axe on a living tree and the defiance of adult values that made him choose that particular tree was something .that he. could not' understand. His sympathies were all with1- the .father. It is not that the • Chinese youth, is especially protective of property. But his casual destructivenes's, .like, his [cruelty to animals, ■! is exactly the same as his father's. He is neither rebelling against his elders'nor iplaying at being grown up. He is grown 'up.v-■•■..;■'■■ :, And in -'the same Way. there is no :fear.of irate disapproval to incite him to acts 61~ foolish bravery. You rarely see a group of Chinese boys egging each other on to some foolhardy act. Walls are. not for Chinese youngsters the most'attractive of promenades nor do high branches especially invite. I imagine that there is a good deal of self-pity in the Chinese worship of children. v With-more.-justice than the conventional uncle the Chinese regards childhood as the happiest time in life: not because he femernbersfit as happy, but because adult life is so painfully dreary. He envies- the ignorant innocence of-the.child and encourages him in the getting of his own way. He never: thinks of the child ,as a nuis-ance'-because'he never thinks of his own affairs as supremely important. If ,they areHnterrupted, what does it matter? Once when I was interviewing a Japanese official, his baby was.brought in that he might admire its new shoes. Our conversation had to be abandoned. The official passed, to the more important business with;neither apology nor a sense of embarrassment: ' - IN MAN'S CLOTHES. And so the Chinese regards the child as if-vhe were a man and,-ends by treating him as a doll. He dresses him' in ai- man's 'clothes.. A child 6f two years wears the same: clothes that he will wear when he'is'twenty or forty or eighty; the,only .difference is in size. A child that can hardly walk will be seen wearing the. old-fashioned, round, black silk hat, or, a modern soft, felt hat. There is for him no proud: progression through braces and a jacket to trousers and. a bowler. His only life begins when he is yet a baby. No definite breaks mark new beginnings. Even marriage does not mean setting up!a new home. He finds himself married and involved in the process of directing a younger generation before he is -responsible ;for his own livelihood. When we'. vi6ok at Chinese children we think that they look like little old' mien. Perhaps we could more truly say that the Chinese in manhood is still.wearing his baby clothes, and looks back longingly to the days when they really did fit. ■' Last spring a building near us went oh'flrje.' The flames from the wooden rbof mounted on high. .The sparks flew:; A" crowd gathered.. An " hour later "the fire brigade arrived. Four men dragged alonga small two-wheeled cart on which hose pipes were piled. From, the neck down the men wore? ordinary dress. Above, the.large shining, brass helmets proclaimed their office. They fixed the hose to our well and began to pump. With great noise ■they unrolled the hose in the direction ■of the fire. But before beginning to extinguish the fire they thoughtfully ran to tell the children in the school 'to come and see the "fun. But for such consideration Chinese children pay a fbig price. They see no great gulf between them and their elders. No attractive land lies ahead cut off by the barrier of adolescence and responsibility. They already know too much of adult life to believe in dreams of enchanting adventure and uncharted freedom.

Yet China is changing. The few kindergartens are teaching children to walk on walls and destroy trees. The colleges are teaching some youths to take themselves very seriously, and the educated are not rushing into parenthood quite so early. Some day soon a Chinese father will spank the child who interrupts him. That will be another of. China's revolutions; perhaps her' greatest. . .