AS OTHERS SEE US

Evening Star, Issue 19763, 13 January 1928, Page 8

AS OTHERS SEE US

AH ORIENTAL VIEW OF THE WEST To see ourselves as others see us is always a salutary—albeit sometimes a chastening—experience, and an interesting picture of Western civilisation as viewed through Eastern eyes is to be found in * A Chinaman’s Opinion of Us and of His Own Country.’ The book consists of a series of letters said to he written from Australia by HwuyXlng, a Mandarin of the Fourth Button, to a correspondent in China, and translated by the Rev. J. A. Makepeace. It was in 1899 that Hwuy-Ung left his native land to study the manners and morals of the Westerns. His first impression is one of complete bewilderment. He is particularly perplexed by the tight dresses worn by the Australian women, and can only surmise that they were ‘‘intended to prevent them running about far from their homes; as are the immense hats also meant to hide their faces from the public view.” “If such was the first intention, it has failed,” ho observes, caustically. THE GAME OF CRICKET. His astonishment appears to grow with every spectacle that he encounters. A game of cricket, for instance, is thus described:— “It was warm sitting body in the shade, but what for the players I do not know. They struck fiercely with heavy, flat clubs at a hard ball, and sometimes hit. They ran past each other between sticks stuck in the earth, as if hunted by ox-headed tormentors. One face other man pursue the ball they fling back with the speed of the wind. The people, usually quiet, had much excitement at times, and ten thousand roices roared like the noise of a thunder clap. 1 asked my cousin what made them so furious, and he said because one man caught the ball. For the average sentimental novel, which appears to be the staple form of intellectual refreshment enjoyed by the

Australian “ flapper,” Hwuy-Ung lias the most unmitigated contempt: “Marriage is finish of story, for what reason? Story of life that time commences, with happiness of harvest time. For that what man not-hope? These hooks give pictures only of morning head of Life’s Day, and not speak of noon and lower half-day, ending with approaching black night. I desire know reward for thus great sufferings.” “ONE’S OWN IGNORANCE.” If Hwuy-llng, however appears as a rather ruthless critic of this Western civilisation he has a great deal to say in disparagement of his own, and the suggestion is that if Europe has much to learn from China, China herself has not a little to learn from Europe. The writer passes in rapid survey a targe number of subjects—among them science and surgery, trade, sport, manners, fashion, and modes of government. There is, too, a suggestive consideration of the rival claims of Christianity and Confucianism. “The best part of knowledge is being aware of one’s own ignorance'.” These •words of Lao Tsz, the Chinese philosopher, are printed on the title page. They may be taken as the text upon which the whole book is an instructive commentary.