MR. HWANG.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 121, 20 May 1909, Page 2

MR. HWANG.

(By Frank Morton.) Mr Hwang is ijhe new or newish Chinese Consul at Wellington. He is a shrewd and kindly man, and he announces that he is.a Christian. Both his speech and his religion haye a strongly marked American accent.^ He does not speak nearly such good English as some of my Singapore Chinese friends do, and he is not'nearly so dignified and impressive; but he shows the unthinking that a Chinese is not of necessity, a "Chow," and he is likely to be a very good Consul after hismanrier, .Needless to say, he has suffered d lot' of that pawing patronage with which the dear redeemed heathen is treated in this country; but he has < concealed his. smiles. Indeed, Mr Hwang, good Christian and all that, would seem to be somewhat of a humourist. In the course of a lecture on "The Religion and Literature of China," he showed his dry vein aptly. Confucianism was not a religion at all, but a school of moral philosophy, political philosophy, and the highest'and best literature in China; Yet the influence of Confucianism had been the principal influence in China from its .first propagation until the present time. The influence of Confucianism had

been more 1 greatly felt by the Chinese than the influence of • Christianity had been- felt by the nations. The reason was ■'.. that its teaching appealed equally to the educated and tlie uneducated, there was , nothing mysterious or very deep about it, and nothing be- , yond" one's power to practice. Mr i Hwang might have added that the whole idea and intention of Christianity is beyond the comprehension of the Chinese, and can make no true appeal to them. Of the Infinite' One, Jehovah, the Chinese, have no conception s There is no word in Chinese to express the idea. The Chinese cannot grasp the idea of the Fall, or the beauty'of the doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice. So that among Chinese Christians so-called Christianity is at t best a sort of fetichism.