THE CHINESE HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15234, 22 February 1913, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CHINESE HOME.

i • ♦_—__ > The Chinese conception of a hoii varios" i","f2ry considerably from ours. They do ■• •■"• tot seem to take into account that therv a?e certain elements essential to the snaking up of what we consider to be a happy home,: ;; For example',' amongst ■the.'; five" '■ eternal virtues enumerated ;by ,Mencius, .■ unfortunately, cleanliness is not one.: You ; step into any horns of the miidldle and '.': lower classes, and you get a shock;;! This ; .. eh lira are stiff-backed and angular, and i evidently designed by the founders of thp -i • >.*ce to discourage their descendants from 3 .sluing too much. : The wooden, .benches... 1 j ik. : ';< supplement these are so narrow that £ i ? ' person using them by and by-nncpn-; j I piously leans forward • and relive* his i [ wsariness by resting his elbows- on kin t ' i-aees, like the typical -America: sifcttiing .q 'oh a rail' in the" backwoods. It is, no , I ; <?,(?*ubt, for the same reason '. that a- CjfiraefS '■$ \te >:o much: given to sitting on his heels, r \<>w it is not uncommon to see a, man * I pi'iisbsd upon ' one of these • benches in a . f I 4cfciii')n that an Englishman could hardly J1 'ii: -- for 10 minutes, but which. to a ° .(M.me, is an ideal .way; of ,passing:his ;, I imnii time. . ■ , . T ■ Tiit. beds are, on the'same, plane-as tl !'ivto 8 - ~0. ,t of the furniture, and consist Ci ' M tV ■ordinary four :posts, with a bottom ft -,i',jJo of hard boards. The only covering y iaid on these is a thin mat 'made of ;. ; ,-. vushes, on which the people sleep. "; An •'■!• "ice dental would writhe and wriggle the «* -~2 night, and the next morning his '« boa/ would be fall 1 ' of pains and aches, J■whilst a Chinese would sleep as calmly as f? 1 though he were imposing on a c .ii The pillow is a curiosity .in its • way, bnfe \ti an Englishman would 1 consider it a verifr 1 ,|, able instrument of : forture. It is not in- -J tended to be something soft and comfort* v able on which]to recline • the head, but „• simply as a rest "■ for the neck. It. con- *' sists of a variety .■ of' articles according to ■"' the financial position of the individual. U With the veryjaooi? hfis a block f-o£;:woo&' ; v <> or a brick. This is .placed nudes? the i nape: of the neck. It would seem -to=• be ■» an nxceedingly uncomfortable'-place #to "i have, such a. pillow, but '-: the; nation, with, t singular unanimity has .selectedto ■'have lib it there and nowhere else! -/■ Tho richer f't have more elaborate and : expensive ones, } I but always of some hard and unyielding '> subaiance, , , "' -. ■■;-';"' x s -™y -~'. ■..'...- ';, ._.": ;•;•;: - ' .A*