Chinaman Criticises Oxford.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13638, 4 July 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

Chinaman Criticises Oxford.

There is a delightful account of a conversation between a Chinaman and the Hon. Maurice Baring recorded. in ; the Morning Post. Both were on the top of, a tram going to Hamjpton Court. Whethrer the Chinaman was getting at Mr. Baring or whether Mr. Baring is getting at ins leadens they alone mutt uecide.

Asked what he thought of Oxford, the Chinaman replied: ""I think,' he said "the yciing people seemed to enjoy it-,-and if they enjoy, it they are quite right to do it. But the way the older men talk about these things struck me as. being foolish. They talk as if these games and these sports were a solemn affair, a moral or religious question; they said the virtues and the prowess of the English race were founded on these things. They said that competition was the mainspring. of life; they seemed to think that exercise was the goal of existence.

COMPETITION SHARPENING THE FACULTIES.

A man whom I saw there, and who, I learnt, : had been chosen to teach the young on account of his wisdom, told me that competition trained the man to charpen his facilities; and that the tension which it provoked is in itself a useful training. I do not believe this. A cat or a boa constrictor will lie absolutely idle until it perceives an object worthy 4 of its appetite; it will then catch and swallow it, and once more relapse into repose without thinking of keeping itself "in training." But it will lie dormant and rise to the occasion when it occurs. These people who talked of games seem to me to undervalue repose. forget that repose is the mother of action, and exercise only a frittering away of the same.'

" What do you think." I asked, "of the education that the students at Oxford receive '

" Ithink,' said the Chinaman, 'that inasmuch as the young men waste their time in idleness they do well; for;the wise men who are chosen to. instruct the young' at your places of learning are not altogether wire. Another professor said to me that China would soon develop if she adopted a' large Imperial ideal, and that in time the Chinese might attain to a great position in the world; such as the English now held. He said the best means of "bringing this about would be to introduce cricket and football into China. I told him that I thought this was improbable, because if the Chinese play' games they do not care who 1 is the winner; the fun of the game is to us the improvisation of it,

as opposed to the organisation which appeals to the people here. Upon which lie said that cricket was like a symphony of music. In a symphony every instrument play 6 its part in obedience to one central ■ will, not for its individual advantage, but in order to make a beautiful whole. "So it is in our games," he said, "every man plays his part not for the sake of personal advantage, but so that his side may win; and thus the citizen is taught to' sink his own interests in those of the community." I told him the Chinese did not like symphonies, and Western music was intolerable to them- for this very reason. OUR COMPLICATED GAMES.

" It is the contrast between the tremendous apparatus and waste of energy on one side, and the light and playful character of the business itself on the other, which makes me, a Chinaman, as incapable- of appreciating your complicated games as I am of appreciating the complicated, symphonies of the Germans or the elaborate rules their students make with regard to the drinking of beer. We like a man for taking his fun and not missing a joke when he -finds it by chance on his . way, but we canot -understand his going out of his way to prepare a joke and to make arrangements for having some fun at a certain fixed date. That is why we consider a wayside song, a tune that is heard wandering in the summer darkness, to be better than twenty concerts."