CHINESE ETIQUETTE

New Zealand Tablet, 6 March 1913, Page 61

CHINESE ETIQUETTE

As might be expected in such an ancient country as China, the system of etiquette is not only thoroughly crystallised and fixed, it is also very complicated and tedious in its forms. It enters into the most minute detail of action and speech, and covers the most simple questions between friends with a varnish or lacquer of extravagant adjectives and bombastic nouns as to render it silly and, to us, absurd. The following short dialogue is an exact translation of the invariable conversation that occurs between two gentlemen, or two beggars for that matter, who meet for the first time : ‘What is your honorable cognomen?’ ‘ The trifling name of your little brother is Wang.’ What is your exalted longevity?’ ~ ‘ Very small. Only a miserable seventy years.’ ‘Where is your noble mansion?’ The miserable hovel in which I hide is in such or such a place.’ ‘How many precious parcels (sons) have you?’ ‘ Only so many stupid little pigs.’ In such a dialogue the various facts sought are correctly given; but the formula of each question must be carefully preserved, and to omit a single flattering or deprecatory word would be noted as a breach of politeness and hence insulting. Among equals in China it is a gross breach of courtesy to call a person by his given name. _ A Chinese would be angry if his brother addressed him in that manner. It mast be ‘Venerable elder brother,’ or Venerable younger bro-

ther,’ as the facts warrant. On the other hand, superiors are expected to use the given name, though the use of such name among Equals is considered an offensive assumption of superiority. A foreign gentleman brought upon himself the ridicule of all the natives about him by addressing his porter as ‘ Venerable elder brother,’ knowing not a word of the language, and hearing the other servants address the man by that title, he had, very naturally, concluded that it was his name.