AWAKENING OF CHINA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2590, 26 August 1909, Page 5

AWAKENING OF CHINA.

SIGNS IN WELLINGTON.

THE NEW CLUB-HOUSE. A two-storey house of eight or ten rooms, with almost nothing to distinguish it externally from those which flank it on the north side of Ghuznee Street, Wellington, is the habitation of the newly-formed Chinese Club. A “Dominion” reporter who called there recently was not sure that he had found the place until he saw affixed to the woodwork beside the door a small white card, bearing the printed words: “Chinese Association of Wellington.” Then he pushed the electric button. A well-dressed, pleasantly-smiling Chinaman promptly opened the door. This was Mr Gan Charm, the secretary, and, after a brief explanation, he led the way to the reading-room. A largo table was the chief article of furniture, and upon this were placed, with perfect rectangular neatness, a large number of newspapers in Chinese, and one in English—the “Dominion.” The Chinese papers came from presses in Sydney. Melbourne, and San Francisco, as well as Shanghai, Hong Kong, and other places in China. One, which was of pamphlet size, was, so Vr Gan Charm was understood to say, the local paper of his own district in China. “Once a week?” asked the pressman. “No; ten days. Three a month.” By and by, it was gathered, the Chinese hope to. publish a paper of their own in Wellington. There were also some missionary periodicals on the table, and a publication which resembled, in its size, shape, and paper, and the excellence of its half-tone illustrations, the Christmas numbers of the New Zealand weeklies. The pictures were not of Chinese scenes, but of fine buildings, (many of them colleges) in the different countries of Europe. Maps of the same countries were interspersed, and anyone who could read the Chinese letterpress would probably have found in it a further evidence of the awakening of the East. A DECORATIVE LANGUAGE.

Half-tone engravings look somehow out of place in the midst of Chinese print, but the incongruity is more striking when one notices, on the advertisement pages of the Chinese newspapers, the same not always artistic pictures that embellish the advertisements in English journals. Chinese writing or printing, whatever its drawbacks from the utilitarian standpoint, strikes one as much prettier than ordinary English. A hand of it, dono on pink paper, and stretching across one of the longest walls of the room, has quite a decorative effect. Mr Gan Charm explains that this is a list of the names of all those who have subscribed to the funds of the association. He adds that £7OO has been collected. Excepting the Chinese papers, inscriptions, and one wall picture in the transparent Oriental coloring, there is nothing to mark the reading-room as different from hundreds of other readingrooms in New Zealand. Returning towards the front, the courteous secretary shows the reception room, softly carpeted and furnished with satin-upholstered chairs and couches —all quite European. CLASSES IN ENGLISH.

Upstairs are a large classroom, small smoking room, a waiting room, and the secretary’s office. A bla9kboard in the classroom is covered with Chinese writing, and inkpots and pens are arranged oil the table with Chinese precision. Twenty-five or thirty young men come her© twice a week to learn English and other things, says Mr. Gan Charm. Mr Hwang, the Chinese Consul, is the principal teacher at present, hut his private secretary and other Chinese residents assist, and a Chinese Christian missionary gives religious teaching. The club-house may be used by any of the Chinese at any hour of the day. The largest numbers (the cicerone asserts) come on Mondays and Wednesdays. “And Sundays?” asks the reporter. “Oh, no. They go to church.” “A SMALL BEGINNING.” “It is a very small beginning,” paid the Consul, to whom the pressman was indebted for an introduction to Mr Gan Charm. “We are going to start a small library of Chinese books on modern questions. The rooms are open to ail Chinese, and it is a place where they can hold meetings. We have a committee to manage it. I simply act as leader for the present, but by and by I shall ask somebody else to take the position. ’ ’ ■