THE NEW CHINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 19, 17 July 1911, Page 8

THE NEW CHINA.

AN INTERESTING ARTICLE. Pekin, April 10. A friend of mine (writes the Pekin correspondent of the London Times), who has just returned to Pekin from Yunnan by way of Burma, sends me the following interesting note on the conditions prevailing in that part of Yunnan which adjoins British territory, and to it lie has added a reference to the Chinese in Burmn, with whom he has had recent opportunities of intercourse. He writes with exceptional knowledge, having been stationed in Yunnan in an official position f</r several years:

"Even in Far Western Yunnan the desire of reform and the idea of patriotism are penetrating. The disappearance of opium from the province can only be described as wonderful. Prohibition has caused less distress to the agricultural population than was generally anticipated. From the beginning the cutlivators were wise enough to recognise that the officials were in earnest, and, abandoning opium, they turned their attention to the possibilities of less profitable crops—chiefly buckwheat and different varieties of beans—with . encouraging results. Everywhere the soldiery are being regularly drilled on more modern methods; and, in place of the old-style, slovenly-dressed ruffian, wearing a coat that was once red, and armed with an umbrella and an opium pipe, who formerly acted as escort to the foreign travellers in Yunnan, one now gets an alert, active individual, who carries a Mauser rifle of recent pattern, and knows more or less how to use it. EDUCATION. .**<

"But the change that will tell most for the good of the province is the spread of the educational movement. In the Tali and Yungchang Prefectures many new schools have been opened, where teaching is being conducted on new principles. Formerly any dirty little cubicle served as a schoolroom, and a crowd of unkempt youngsters, presided over by an ill-paid, bespectacled pedagogue, produced appalling discord by reciting—at the top of their voices and each in a different key—passages from the classics. Now one enters a spacious, well-lighted room, with orderly rows of desks, where sit the boys poring more or less silent'y over their tasks. Only five years ago a Yunnanese girl who could read was a rarity, one who could both read and write a phenomenon. Now, in every town, one or more buildings bears outside the legend in Chinese, 'Elementary School for Girls/ and any morning one may meet bevies of little inaidens bound thither, clad in long, dark-blue gowns, and with hair in neatly plaited queues. None but girls with natural feet are admitted to these schools—a sensible rule which the officials are bound to maintain. For the foot-binding custom is dying hard In Yunnan. There are two simple reasons for this. In the first place, none of the women of the hill tribes—who are regarded as savage by the Chinese—bind their feet. Again, all families with any pretensions to social rank own one or two slave girls, whom strict custom —based on convenience—demands should go barefooted. THE CHINESE COLONY IN BURMA.

"At the time of the Mahommedan rebellion in Yunnan thousands of Chinese poured into Upper Burma. Many of these took to themselves Burmese wives, and settled down in Mandalav, where they have prospered exceedingly, as they do everywhere under fair government. Into Lower Burma there is a steady influx of Chinese by sea, coming mostly from Ainoy or Canton. They are very numerous in Rangoon, where they form the richest and most influential section of the community, and where they are treated with the respect which they have commanded by half a century's excellent behaviour and good citizenship. Many of them are of mixed ChineseBurmese parentage, and have never visited China. But in Canton and Amoy, whence their fathers came, are the graves of their ancestors, which is equivalent to saying that uiey are bound to China by the strongest ties. It is, indeed, surprising to find with what sentiment and affection the Chinese in Burma regard me land of iheir fathers, One see 3.. them often referred to as loyal (British) subjects; they should be more truthfully regarded as highly desirable anil public-spirited citizens. I KEEN POLITICAL CRITICS.

The reform movement in China is being closely followed by the betterinformed Chinese in Rangoon. At the time of my visit the doings of Tzu Cheng Yuan (Senate), in particular, were exciting the keenest, interest. Every decree and official change or shuffling of posts was the subject of intelligent criticism. The proposed boycott of British goods, which was then being discussed in the papers in connection with the Pienma frontier incident, left them indifferent. They could not hee what all the fuss was about. Some opined that a Bouniiarv Commission would be necessary, ami expressed a hope that tne Chinese Government would select competent surveyors for the work. They considered that the time is now past when any illiterate old general, without even a rudimentary knowledge of such matters, may be entrusted with

the delimitation of the frontier between two great Empires. Another topic of interest was the status of Chinese in the Dutch colonies. The Chinese I met seemed keenly to resent the wrongs of their countrymen in Java and Sumatra, and talked of starting a subscription in aid of a movement towards securing for them fairer treatment from the Dutch authorities.

"'Altogether, I was much impressed by what I saw of the Chinese in Burma. One rather curious circumstance dwells in my memory. I noticed that the queue was generally worn, and enquired of some Chinese friends what they thought of the movement that was on foot in China to discard this so-called badge of serviture. The purport of the reply was that unless they adopted some equally distinctive dress it would be unwise for them to discard the queue. Its disappearance might bring in its train certain inconveniences, such as the being confused with some of the other less law-abiding of the many peoples who go to make up the population of Rangoon. The fact of being a Chinese in Rangoon is sufficient to ensure a certain amount of respect from, for example, the native police.