THE SKETCHES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3610, 22 May 1923, Page 59

THE SKETCHES.

CHINESE DRAGON AWAKING.

••THE ‘RISING TIDE OF COLOUR’ IS NO PHANTOM.” If there is a great race in the "world to-day whose character is an enigma to the man in the street, it is the Chinese. People talk of the teeming millions of China much in the same way as they did of the Russian steam-roller early in tne, war—without in the least realising what i t means. China is as big as Europe and has a population of say 400 millions, this is a huge potential force. In what way will it expend itself? Is it antagonistic to Western civilisation? Is it a menace to the peace of the world ? And, lastly, what sort of man is the individual Chinese? —Religious Intolerance. China is a continent —no less; it would be absurd to suppose, therefore, that the character of tne people is the same throughout. It is not, and it must be borne in mind that the following remarks are directed more particularly to the inhabitants of Northern China, with whom the writer is familiar. Racial character depends upon religion, tradition, climate, foo<i, and condition. Let us take each of these five in turn and consider its relation to China. In the course of the centuries China, has given official sanction to such widely differing creeds as Buddhism, Ortnodox Russian missions, Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Taoism, Confucianism, and even Mohammedanism. She has welcomed all, refused none. This shows a fine tolerance and broad-mindedness. Buddhism has probably exercised a greater hold over the mind of the people than any othei belief, and it teaches, as everyone knows, the ultimate Nirvana that may be reached by the soul after long years of contemplation and a blissful detachment from the material and temporal things. —Tradition. — Tradition, our next consideration, has been strengthened and influenced by such ethical and philosophical teachings as Taoism and Confucianism. The former teaches man to follow the “Tao’ —or norm —to follow the middle path, turning neither too much to the right nor too much to the left. The latter teaching is so strong in its hold over the people that it may almost rank as religion, though in practice it teaches no more than the reverence due to the head of the family, and hence the worship of ancestors. The moral teaching of Kung-fu-Sze (Confucius) is so important in its relation to Chinese life that it is deserving of further mention here. The Master, who arrogated to himself no divinity, lived in the days when the Jews returned from Babylon, over two thousand years ago, and taught a code which has held China together throughout her many vicissitudes until the present day. Briefly it may be described as follows: the sanctity of the family depended upon reverence of the children for their father, the fatner in turn revered the headman of the village, the headman of the village the head of the district, the head of the district the governor of the province, and the governor of the province the emperor himself. W ith the disintegration of the monarchy, the principal governors found themselves without control, and this is responsible for much of the civil strife and chaos in China to-day. Passing next to climate, we find it surprising by its regularity. To an inhabitant of England it seems strange that a country can exist where the weather forecast is truthful, and where sun, wind, rain and frost can be foretold to within three days, years ahead. The climate is a continental one—of extreme heat and cold. (This, of course, refers to North China.) But, whether hot or cold, the sun always shines. Except in the hot and rainy season, the sky is always a stainless blue. Bv centuries of observing and recording the "weather, from the mists of antiquity until the present day, its cycles are so accurately known that any Chinese is able to tell you when the three great heat waves will start, when the first cold snap will come, and when the ice will break up—and he will always be right. The outstanding features of the climate, then, are its regularity and its sunniness. —Poor Food.— Fourthly, food. The staple diet, of the Chinese —rict —is not over-nourishing. All sorts of flesh it is true, are consumed by the masses, but meat is a very small percentage of an otherwise all-vegetable diet. This may account for generally poor individual efficiency. In passing, the writer would like to remark that he believes it is a fact that the stature, brain power, and general efficiency of the Japanese have greatly increased since thev came into touch with Western meat-eating civilisations and began to copy them. He will not however, vouch for this fact. Lastly condition. The condition under which the people live. The struggle for existence is keen. Largely an agricultural population, the failure of the crops means famine and death, since over v,ast areas there is no other means of transport than mule, donkey, or slow-moving water cartage. Each area, even each village, lives on the food grown on its surrounding fields - should this fail, as in the famine of 1920, then thousands are doomed to perish, since no supplies from other sources can reach them. Even when all goes well there is barely enough to go round. His religion gives the Chinese a contemplative outlook and a stoic calm in the face of disaster. A condemned man, being drawn through the streets on a cart to his execution, will show no outward signs of perturbation. His traditions—the traditions of one of the oldest civilisations in the world—give him a distaste for sudden movement or change (the architecture, dress, habits. And customs of the people

have remained unchanged, in essentials, for centuries). These traditions, too, give him a reverence for his family tree and a desire to improve not only his own lot, but that of his parents and the graves of his ancestors. —Cheerful Fatalists. — His climate, sunny and regular m its cycles, gives him a naturally cheerful disposition, a readiness to laugh, and a love of bright colours; and the climates regularity contributes also to a fatalistic outlook.' Our climate is wilful, liis is preordained and works to the clock. His food gives him a low individual efficiency, a lack of manliness a-nd spirit, and his condition —that of living from hand to mouth and struggling for every penny — makes him particularly keen in money matters. He will argue the price down to the last tenth of a penny. No Jews have ever been able—though they have attempted—to thrive in China. No Menace—Yet.

We have seen more or less what the individual Chinese is like : a lovable fellow with all his faults. The first impression the Chinese make on a new-comer to tlieir country is that of laughter and cheerfulness; and although this may be somewhat modified on closer acquaintance, it is still the out-standing feature that remains when leaving the country. Is China a menace to the peace of the world? No yet. Is she antagonistic to Vv estern civilisation? She is antagonistic to change in any form —utterly conservative. She looks upon the foreigner as a robber making money out of her (which he is), and though she cannot develop her country unaided, she resents this; but, on the other hard, she is amused by Western methods, inventions, and the like, particularly if she can see her way to make money - out of them. She copies, too, everything she can, aping the West, whom she despises inwardly. The last manifestation of her hatred of the West manifested itself in the Boxer rebellion, and then the overthrow of the monarchy, and the weakness of the Republic, and the avarice and unscrupulousness of the Tuchuns (provincial governors in name, but greedy war-lords in deed) brought about the present chaos and travail, which will ultimately settle to give birth to a new China. This will be slow: a century is nothing in her civilisation. But when her country is at last opened up and her vast wealth set to a use ; when her armies, in their millions, are marshalled and the old Dragon becomes again, after two thousand years, the aggressor —then there will be a force that will task the world to hold it. The “rising tide of colour” is no phantom. It is a force of a hundred million arms — with the brains behind them. This problem is not for us. We cannot if we would, solve it. But it may be the heritage of our children's children. — C kcii, A. Lewis, in John o’ London's Weekly.