BY THE GREEN GOAT

Evening Star, Issue 21836, 27 September 1934, Page 12

BY THE GREEN GOAT

CHINA HOLDS A FAIR RELIGION AND COMMERCE The annual fair of Chengtu has just closed. It’may not have been of such world-wide importance as the fairs at Olympia or Chicago, but, nevertheless, it was an ©vent or great moment in Sze-Chwan—this westerly province of China which is comparable to Germany in size and population (writes W. G. Sewell, in the Manchester ‘ Guardian ’). For twenty centuries, so the story goes, a Flower Fair has been held in the spacious grounds of the Green Goat Temple, just outside the city walls. The first sunny days of spring attract many thousands not only from Chengtu, but also from more distant places. Large numbers of these daily visitors make their excursion to the fair an opportunity to burn incense before the gods; one special object of their pilgrimage is to seek relief for their ailments by rubbing the shining brass goats which stand before the highest altar. An important section of the fair has always been devoted to flowers and trees, while another contains bamboo goods—baskets, furniture, chopsticks, or oil containers, toys, and such necessities as flea-traps or back-scratchers. These are mostly made by farmers during the days when they cannot work in their fields. There are also wooden buckets, carrying poles, and rice chests, square tables, and trestle stools. During the last generation or so each county of the province has sent samples of its handicrafts for exhibition and sale, so that to walk among the booths is to take stock of Sze-Chwan’s wealth. “ BUY CHINESE!” Some years ago, emphasis at the Flower Fair, or Annual Exhibition, as the modern-minded callled it, was laid on the coveted foreign produce which was finding its way into the interior. The stalls under the plaited bamboo roofs were filled up with textiles—cotton cloth and woollen yarn—much of which came from England; also toys, vacuum flasks, and small, flashy odds and ends. One year the fair was supplied with running water, the first installation in the province, and another time with electric light. Thjs year, moved by the spirit which is abroad in every land, the fair has become' an “ Exhibition of National Goods,” dominated by the slogan: “ Buy Chinese!” Everything has been drastically reorganised to give prominence to homemade manufactured goods. Foreignmade articles are noticeably scarce, especially the miscellaneous junk from Japan. Although some things are from down-river —lacquer from Foochow, fancy textiles from Shanghai—most are from Sze-Chwan or have been made in the province from imported materials. Improved soaps, tooth powders, and cosmetics are popular. A group of younger people in foreignstyle clothes, conscious that they have come to the fair by motor car or rickshaw and not by the old-fashioned wheelbarrow or pony, stroll in one of the roadways which is kept dustless by a newly-invented watering-cart, and gaze at a locally-made hydro-extractor used in the refining of sugar. There are also textile machines, pumps, lathes, and other products of the local engineering shops. SOME OF THE EXHIBITS. An exhibition of improved breeds of hogs, hens, goats, and ducks attracts great attention. There are for sale 60,000 young apple trees from good American stock, introduced by the West China Union University in 1922. There are also glass bottles and new types of crockery, moulded on foreign patterns. The bookshops are stocked with up-to-date Chinese and foreign books, some of the latter in pirated editions. Scrolls, painted or written by famous artists, and of wellknown inscriptions are still a feature of the fair, but their sober colours are eclipsed by the bright, crude, modern prints, mostly of half-dressed Chinese maidens. Textiles occupy a leading place, cotton and Chinese linen (ramie), both bleached and natural, of simple weave or cellular for bed nets, are shown in many of the shops. These materials are dyed in all shades, and sometimes stencilled. For those with longer purses there is “ Indanthrene ” material, also dyed in China. Silks of all descriptions abound, and there are signs of experimentation with local wool for knitting yarn, cloth, and carpet-mak-ing. The cotton or silk three-quarter hose which men and women alike used to wear is being replaced, so far as the women are concerned, with fulllength hose, the finest grade silk stockings fetching the equivalent of 6s a pair, while average cotton socks for men cost only 6d. Ten years ago, everyone, both rich and poor, wore cloth slippers or straw sandals, but now all except the poorest possess leather shoes. This growing demand for leather is also reflected by the specimen, chiefly chrometanned, on view.