ABOLITION OF THE PIGTAIL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 141, 7 August 1911, Page 7

ABOLITION OF THE PIGTAIL.

WHAT IT .MEANS. The abolition of the pigtail in China would mean far more to the great Eastern nation tlian tlie West migiit suppose. If to-day every Chinaman i‘. ore to remove the few feet of hair from his head, an annual saving of SQventy-threo million? pounds would result. On the other hand, great industries would bo dislocated and thousands of men ruined. Apart from the monetary question, no other reform could do more to reconcile the masses to the spirit of ,the West. It would mean, in all probability,, the complete revolution of the thoughts of four Hundred millions of people. These ai'e tne salient features of a striking article by Ching-Chun Wang in the “At-, lautic Monthly.” The first item results from.a saving jn tiiho ah 1 money. To comb and braid his cjubue tiie Chinaman takes fifteen minutes of the time he most values, i\nd twice that much of the barber’s time. Each queue costs, roughly, a cent.''a day, and there are over a hundred hu'ilibn of them in China. There would bo a saving in material, braicj, and tlie increased life of the clothes when the friction of the queue was removed, amounting to £8,000,000. The second consider anon retards the cutting of the queue, it is thought by the Chinese that removing, the pigtail would result in the complete adoption of the European stylo 01 dress. The weavers of silk and the makers of hats would therefore be thrown out of business. Of course, there is no reason why snort hair should nob bo worn with China’s national chess. Jiul, having gone one stop torwaid, it is thought likely that the' Chinaman would, to use the colloquial expression, “go the whole hog.” This is what the Chinese are afraid of. ‘ One-- an average Chinaman cuts off his queue ho will at once take it for-granted that he has also become one of those ‘.foreign devils,’ and hence regard it as his lot to adopt things foreign. Instead of being opposed to Westeriv innovations, bo will oocomc eager to adopt them.” Granted that China’s destiny depends upon the introduction of Western institutions, an introduction which can only 1)0 made by changing the attitude of tlie masses, and since nothing will do this more effectively than the abolition of the queue, it might ho fairly .correct to say that in a large measure the destiny.of China hangs on the pigtails of her people.