THE CHINAMAN AS HE IS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6936, 27 October 1900, Page 6

THE CHINAMAN AS HE IS.

. ty (Lloyd's Weekly.) John Chinaman as neither quit* the rogue represented in Bret Harte's poem, "The Heathen Chinee," nor altogether the eimpleton pictured iv Lamb's imiuortal " Dissertation on Boast Pig." He is the world's donkey. He can be led ; ho will ntfb be driveu. As in tho case of Gordon, lie will, aiter proving him, honour a great man, whatever his nationality. But to Western ideas John's life is devoted to fraud. He believes, and always has believed, that he sees with two eyes, and that the "foreign devil" sees with only one. W<*wear black for mourning or for our boots; he,. uses white. We care for the living, he cares for tho "dead. With him the place of honour is on the left hand. He doffs iois hat as a sign of disrespect. His nses have-no fragrance. His women-folk wear no petticoats and do no shopping. If he is happy enough to escape from. 'the poverty and drudgery which iorm the rule of life in the Flowery I Land, his table is the measure of his riches. His legal code is formed on the supposition that fraud is universal. Trial by this code is synonymous with torture. It is not novel to find a governor who has baen exiled fir his misdeeds recalled and promoted because his successor has eclipsed him in rascality. From those near the throne to those in the hovel tho practice is to give bribes to all above and to exact them from those below. Government goods are sometimes a. year in transit, the officials in charge being more anxious to levy fees for alleged obstruction than to expedite 'the Imperial) business. And yet during the time the East India Company traded with China there was no reccrd of money being lost through j-the fraud or failure of a native merchant, j though large sums 'had to be handed to Chinamen for the purchase of tea in tho interior of the country, where the foreigner was not permitted to go. John's simplicity is exemplified in the fact th.it cluring the China- Japan war he put-up umbrellas to protect him from the enemy's shells. One writer, describing the capture • of Amoy by tho British, in 1841 1 says tie

"officials prepared a battery of 200 guns along the shore. Sailing vessels would have had to run the gauntlet of their fire. Admiral Parker, however, had his sailing vessels towed up to the town at a. safe distance. The town was taken with the loss of one man, whilst the natives lost fifty. The Chinese general declared such practices were without precedent. When Sir H. Gough landed •i mountain battery, and from a neighbouring hill attacked the Chinese gunners from the rear, the officials, who had never dreamt of guns being fired down a lull, sent off hurried despatches informing the Emperor of THE TItEACHtfROTJS IMPBOPIUETY OF THE " B.VRHARIAKS." A Chinese woman is expected when young to obey her father and her eld&*t Frother; when married, her husband ; when a widow, her eldest son. Sho gives no orders. Thtro is a Chinese proverb which says, "Women and children arc clothes " — to be had when wanted, to >be cast off as desired. But in the language, the symbol for " rest " and " quiet " is that for " woman under the domestic roof." Married sons are compelled to live under their parents' roof, where their wives are subject to the liile of a mother-in-law or of an elder sister-in-law. With his poverty may be compared John Chinaman's callous view .of the value of human life. This callousness seems to be even more contemptuous than that met with in India. And yet the Chinese dread the name of dsa.th. When one has died he has been "killed." In Fuhkien, which in sume respects is the most promning part of China, to mention death to a native is to render him an insult, especially at the opening of the year. Tire dreaded word is evaded wherever possible. John is much of a devil worshipper. What is called the " worship of ancestors " is a, complicated system for laying the spirits of i'he departed. It is the common belief that if the ghosts are not worshipped and fed they wreak vengeance on the l-.ving. The worship being the province of the son facilitates divorce and polygamy, but it is not without certain redeeming features. It has been computed that <th« public "Avoruhip 'of ancestors " costs thje emjjire

£6,000,000 per annum, and the private w«r. ship £24,000,000. -.■•■• In Chinese society the scholar is regarded as next to the Emperor ; then comes tie farmer, and after him the mechanic, a;:<l the trader. The amusement or decorat vo caterer comes last in the scale, in accordance with the saying that " the man who pnys highly lor a s<ng wHI not give much for virtue." Scholarship, hi Wt.ver, is scarcely such as we should designate by limb name. But i ■ ■ i CHINESE LITERATUBE is not destitute of fancy. For in^taa:c6 I there is an old Chinese romance of which j Voltaire made use, and which has ma.-uy ! renderings but one moral. A doctor <i I Reason, meditating among the tombs, observed a young widow fanning one of them. Seeing her in tears the philosopher. asked the cause. She replied, " You see a widow at the t< mb of iher husband. He was mo^ti dear to me. He loved me with tenderness. Afflicted with the idea of parting, his la.-to words wore, 'My dearest wife, should you ever think of marrying again, I conjurs j you to wait at least until the plaster of my I tonib be entirely dry.' Now-,",, said she, "as the Avails ar still damp, I thought I would help them to get dry." The philosopher told his adventure to his young and beautiful wife, who declared that should lifl die belore her she would never many again. The plulosopher puts her to the test by shamming death, and finds her constancy i;'o greater than that of the w<men he had mrt amongst the tombs. She, being discovered, commits suicide, and he 6esolves never to take another wife.