THE HEATHEN CHINEE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 14396, 12 June 1907, Page 10

THE HEATHEN CHINEE.

(By MRS ARCHIBALD LITTLE.) Author of * Intimate China, etc. [Ant Rights Reserved.] No. IV. Somo (lav Europo will find out that the real Chinese man is a groat deal more like John Bull than ho is to the typical Chinaman ae represented to us by the Heathen Chinee. Ho is essentially a home-loving, family sort of , mam who likes to grow fat, is fond of good cheer kind to little children, good-humoured, easy-going as an employer, liberal as a philanthropist? hardworking and uncomplaining as a day labourer. Chinese do not allow sentiment to interfere with business; ' the craves of their ancestors have blocked Joads and railways, but when a sufficient price is paid the graves of their ancestors are removed, whilst their respect for law and conservatism is barely greater tnan that felt in England. 1. Londoners look upon fogs as a dlspen- ■ §ation of Providence, not to bo meddled with. It is just so Chinese prdinarily regard dirt. They are amazed at our endurance of fogs, and rejoice to get back home from London, saying the latter is such a dirty place—as it-truly is. English ladies ever seem unaware - there ie horse dung in the streets, and will trail pretty new dresses over it. ' and then trail them over their friends’ new carpets! Very few English people : geem to be aware how their carpets smell. Chinese are very sensitive to all this. But they endure a manuro • heap by, their entrance gate, not because tneydike it, but because, like the ... English with hie fog and horse dung and dirty carpet, - they see no way of , getting rid of it without encountering greater evils. The loss of money endured owing to (juito prcvcntible fogs in London and many of our northern , cities is_ far greater than that euhmitted to in Pekin from removable dirt. THE CHINEE IN BUSINESS. The idea lids got about that the China- ■ man is a peculiarly sly rogue and a ' 1 fanny fellow. The Chinese man was a 1 good man of business in onr days of skins and woad; therefore he has some- , ' what perfected his system of business j ' artifices—when- he wants to take to them. But ho is the best man of busii ness in Asia, that is, the moss honest. And there is a largeness about his business dealings that will surprise the world yet. Indeed, there is every pres- ■ pect of a. good deal of astonishment . arising out of China, and not so very , long hence, that is for people who are content to believe of China what one casual observer reproduces from another casual observer's careless notes, and what has thus become stereotyped. There is one fact that stands out ' clear; the Chinese is a master of organisation. In tho days of despotism, torture and “ heads off ’’lie organised ■ secret societies of such wide and complex ramifications as no other nation has ever known. 1 Now, a good deal due to American sysi. teres, ho.has been indoctrinated in the •’ system of philanthropic societies, com- , puttees, public meetings and the like. The Chinese have taken to them as a duck tabes to water. They have fonu- ‘ ed Red Cross Societies to help the peasantry in times of war and unrest, Doors of Hope in the Treaty Ports, .v. etc. Suddenly the attention of the world has been arrested by the American boycott. It has all been carried on in the most business-like manner, goods already contracted for were to be received, but even as soon as the boycott was decided on a Chinese shopkeeper in Pekin refused to sell a pair of American shoes to a passing traveller, although well stocked therewith. - And the success of this boycott in obtaining concessions from tho United Stateslias been so marked that there is every - reason to think Chinese will oon- ' tinue to adopt this foreign policy, applying to it Chinese union andperthiacity ■. ■ - JOHN BULL AND THE CHINEE AS DINERS. •If.there is one thing John Bill! dearly loves it is a good dinner; a_ Chinese man dearly loves it, too, and in China no business of any kind is inaugurated without a dinner to help it oil. There )ti nothing John Bull more despises than jt noisy braggart; but has, ho over thought of so delightful a name for him as tho i Chinese have invented? They Would have called Falstaff a “paper ■' tiger 1” ‘ Even Shakespeare might have ■ been grateful to them for tho term. The English talked between Chinese and English in business circles, called business or pidgin-English, is very comical from its over-terseness, being as a rule a literal translation from the Chin- ; cse, the tersest language in existence. This has perpetuated the idea that the Chinese are very funny fellows, and this generally spread belief has been further intensified because people mostly discuss Chinese ways of thought much as if a Chinese were to say : “ The English are exceedingly ingenious and make carriages run. very fast, and pile up - buildings one storey on the top of , another higher than our pagodas, and have very fine churches, but they entertain strange old-fashioned superstitions: will not look at the new moon through glass, must turn their money when they sea it first, and consider blackbirds' unlucky. Thus their boasted science does not affect their daily lives, nor is the Christian religion tho real religion of the country.” In China people from other lands are apt to mix up the wise teachings of Confucius, the superstitions of their stable- ■ ,boy or children’s nurse, and the opiniofic of- the gentry they meet, if indeed they ever do have intercourse with ' ’ »uy Chinese gentry, and thus out of them all 1 make a curious hodge-podge. As it is, Chinese of the upper classes being only lately brought in contact Hvith Western ways themselves, make edd confusion at times like the rich Hong Kong merchant, who excused himself for having taken a ticket in a ■ new German lottery by saying: “My '. think better. My no want-chco have *ny bobbery with that Gorman Emperor.” THE OUTSPOKEN CHINEE. Chinese are far fresher and more out-, spoken than Japanese. It is a question whether, they are now openly displaying what the. Japanese are secretly feeling, or whether, as it has been wittily put: “The Japanese have conquered in a great war and the Chinese axe putting on side for them.” Putting on side is an art in which every Chinese excels. Quarrelsome amongst themselves Chinese have yet a great contempt for fighters, and if they ever are transformed into a nation of warriors it will be wholly against tho grain, tho peasantry of both China and Russia being peace lovers and disposed to leave *dl high affairs of State to the constituted authorities. The new leaven is bow working, however. _ American •ducation is indoctrinating Chinese with the idea of individualism. So far the family has been the unit, each family responsible for the support and the good conduct of the members. No Chinese needs to bo taught that “a man’s a man for a’ .that,” for no nation is more truly democratic than the Chinese, in spite of tho curious anomaly that when a Governor leaves a Province, all the lesser officials wait by the roadside and must go down on their knees in tho mud as he goes by. But they are learning now to think for themselves, to fight for themselves, and to that end to organise. Tho process may yet end like our marriage service In “ arrangement,” for there is no doubt of Chinese brain fever. THE CHINESE AS A NATION. In Australia, where they have been riven a fair field, the success‘of young Chinese men in examinations has been most remarkable. But as one of the , shrewdest writers about China once

said in conversation, “ It is impossible to tell tho truth about China without tolling a lie at the same time;” and thus there still remains the question, in spite of their brain power, of their vaunted gifts for organisation and tho like, whether Chinese leaders of Chinese will ever bo found. For three centuries now they have been governed by | an alien, race, the Manchu, and already several times before in history has this been the case. For tho English to govern China would have been easy; there is a -natural affinity between tho two races; and possibly even now it would bo easier for an Englishman than for a man of their own race. For the French it would bo impossible, even j French missionaries do not talk of lov- j ing their converts. But England shows no disposition to | govern China, and the time for any Englishmen to attempt anything of tho kind is past. Tho one choice therefore seems to be, shall wo make these Chinese our very good friends, standing by them ourselves as friends, or shall wo treat them as une quantite negiigoable ? THE CHINEE’S LESS PLEASANT BIDE. It is true they are not a pretty, graceful people; they have nasty ways and customs. Their women are far more respectable than fascinating, and yet they have themselves the very poorest opinion of their women. Their walk is ungainly, their language - dissonant, and almost impossible to acquire. Their stare is possibly the most offensive stare of all creation, and their curiosity boundless. They will ask you the price of everything you have on, and examine with their lingers every article of your clothing if you will let them. Tills not only amongst poor people, but amongst the upper classes in tho interior of China. Perhaps the meet attractive part of tho population is the little boys. With very soft, round faces, and little sprouting pigtails, and clear little voices, they will tell any educated European an astonishing mass of fact that ho docs not know; which plait• euros fever, which is good for headache, and which is absolutely useless, i how to stop a donkey from braying by tying a stone to his tail, how to fasten a whistle like an diolian harp to a pigeon’is tail, how to bring up white mice, or train birds to fly up into the air and come back again. They will

follow you like little dogs, and if you give them a copper coin they . will beam upon you, and they will Jove you, and learn anything of you you may like to teach them. THE COOLIE CLASS. Tho next most attractive class is the coolie. He will carry a heavy load for you all day, make up your bed for you at night, cook you a really delicious little meal, wait noon you as if it were a pleasure, and he wore proud to do so, and only after your every want is satisfied retire to gulp down his evening rice. After which you must forgive him if, while ho washes his feet ancf legs, ho carries on an animated conversation with brother coolies in a loud voice before one after another drops off to sleep. It is not, of course, true that the Chinese working man never drinks, nor beats his wife, but he-is always kind to his little child, and may often bo soon in the evening sitting outside his cottage door engaged upon a game of chess or cards, or beguiling leisure with one of the Chinese puzzles we know in ivory, made in bamboo. Tho worst of it is, as one rises in tire social scale sterling merit seems to diminish, and it is a ead truth in China that the little girl is certainly ] C --:s attractive than the little hoy ; but then, poor child, her feet have been mutilated in the past, and as a natural result the women are less attractive still. We are about to change all that, lIAIVPVPT.