Where Things Are Upside Down

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

Where Things Are Upside Down

By LILY KRUG

TRAGEDY OF THE UNWANTED CHILD IN CHINA

in truth, is the country whore things are upside down. For instance, there are people there who will take thoir canary birds in their cages for a walk in the sunshine, but who would be prepared to abandon their children, especially if those children should be girls. It is almost incredible how a mother can have the heart to leave her poor newborn baby to its own devices; and yet, according to recent statistics, there are about 20,000 children, mostly girls, abandoned in Shanghai every yoar. How many more have been drowned by the mothers in the filthy waters of the Wangpoo river is unknown, and the poverty in China is so great that the starving mothers will even take 20 silver cents for their babies to got rid of auother hungry stomach. In a little Chinese town called "Siccawei near Shanghai is a convent at the main entrance of which is placed a basket to receive poor little outcast human creatures. The usual "purchase price" for an unwanted babe is 20 silver cents and frequently the basket is found to be occupied three times a day, while a dirty Chinese hand is eagerly stretched forth in anticipation of the dole of 20 cents, which represents quite a fortune to these poor human beings. One of the nuns of Siccawei onco surprised a woman in the act of trying to drown her newborn babe, so she took the child with her and gavo the mother 20 cents. On the following morning thero were more than 100 women with their children along the convent gate,

all shouting for their babies to be taken away from them and paid for! Many of these Chinese women believo that the payment is made because the eyes of the children are required to prepare a certain medicine. llather a sad lot for little, slanting Chinese eyes, but 20 cents are 20 cents! Most of the babies laid in the basket are only two or three hours old—some not more than half an hour. Immediately after being taken in by tho nuns, the little ones are clad in clean, bright little kimonos, are then fed and finally afterwards carefully examined by the doctor of the convent. All the Children in Siccawei are under medical supervision and sometimes about 400 are heard crying simultaneously. The mothers are frequently warned by the priests not to give their children to the nuns, as it is supposed to bring bad luck to the whole family, but they do not listen and simply say, " Rlaski, what do wo care. Twenty cents are 20 cents!"

For tho past sixty-five years tho Helpers of Holy Souls, a French Catholic Order, has been coping with these sad conditions in China. When, they started to work, they had to overcome tremendous obstacles, and their lives were often in danger because of the superstition and ignorance of the women they were trying to help. Doors and windows of the cloister were shattered, and lives threatened. However, all that has been gradually overcome, and to-day the valuable work is done

out of their own funds; they are esteemed and beloved. The boys' orphanage at T'ong-se-we, which co-operates with the convent of the Holy Souls, was founded in 1864 by French Jesuits, who started their missionary work in the interior of the country, and fled to Shanghai when tho Taiping revolution broko out.

After the orphans of both institutions are grown up, they often inter-marry, work in the convents or live in the near by village until their death. The little boys, after staying for a few weeks in the cloisters, are given to families in the neighbourhood, who rear them in return for cash. When they are seven years of age they return to T'ong-se-we to attend school. The girls do not leave the convent at all. They are taught to pray at three years and at live they are already acquainted with the rudiments of schooling. They go to school till they are twelve or thirteen years old, and at fourteen they are taught sewing and mending, and instructed how to keep their own clothes in order, besides being taught how to make laces and beautiful Chinese embroideries. They receive no direct remuneration for their work, but the nuns keep an account of the work done, and on their wedding day, which is usually at their eighteenth year, they are paid the money which they have earned, to enable them to buy their furniture and trousseau. Most of their husbands come from T'ong-se-we or are orphans who rome to S'en-moyen to choose their brides. The peaceful rooms of the cloister are often repositories of lovely work in silver and wood, of prints, embroideries, vases and brooches.