'rickshas about the middle of the day and I don't believe I ever felt
such heat. It is like the Yosemite, only considerably more intense as
well as for longer periods of time. The only consolation one gets from
noting that it isn't humid is that if it were, one couldn't live at all.
But the desert sands aren't moist either. Your mother asked the coolie
why he didn't wear a hat, and he said because it was too hot. Think of
pulling a person at the rate of five or six miles an hour in the sun of
a hundred and twenty or thirty with your head exposed. Most of the
coolies who work in the sun have nothing on their heads. It's either
survival of the fittest or inheritance of acquired characteristics.
Their adaptation to every kind of physical discomfort is certainly one
of the wonders of the world. You ought to see the places where they lie
down to go to sleep. They have it all over Napoleon. This is also the
country of itinerant domesticity. I doubt if lots of the 'ricksha men
have any places to sleep except in their carts. And a large part of the
population must buy their food of the street pedlars, who sell every
conceivable cooked thing; then there are lots of cooked food stores
besides the street men.
PEKING, July 2.
The rainy season has set in, and now we have floods and also coolness,
the temperature having fallen from the late nineties to the early
seventies, and life seems more worth living again.
This is a great country for pictures, and I am most anxious for one of a
middle-aged Chinese, inclining to be fat, with a broad-brimmed straw
hat, sitting on the back of a very small and placid cream colored
donkey. He is fanning himself as the donkey moves imperceptibly along
the highway, is satisfied with himself and at ease with the world, and
everything in the world, whatever happens. This would be a good
frontispiece for a book on China--and the joke wouldn't all be on the
Chinese either.
To-day the report is that the Chinese delegates refused to sign the
Paris treaty; the news seems too good to be true, but nobody can learn
the facts. There are also rumors that the governmental military party,
having got everything almost out of Japan that is coming to them and
finding themselves on the unpopular side, are about to forget that they
ever knew the Japanese and to come out very patriotic. This is also
unconfirmed, but I suppose the only reason they would stay bought in any
case is that there are no other bidders in the market.
PEKING, Wednesday, July 2.
The anxiety here is tense. The report is that the delegates did not
sign, but so vaguely worded as to leave conjectures and no confirmation.
Meanwhile the students' organizations, etc., have begun another attack
against the government by demanding the dissolution of Parliament.
Meantime there is no cabinet and the President can get no one to form
one, and half those inside seem to be also on the strike because the
other half are there.
PEKING, July 4.
We are going out to the Higher Normal this morning. The head of the
industrial department is going to take us. The students are erecting
three new school buildings this summer--they made the plans, designs,
details, and are supervising the erection as well as doing the routine
carpenter work. The head of the industrial department, who acted as our
guide and host, has been organizing the "national industry" activity in
connection with the students' agitation. He is now, among other things,
trying to organize apprentice schools under guild control. The idea is
to take the brightest apprentice available in each "factory"--really, of
course, just a household group--and give them two hours' schooling a day
with a view to introducing new methods and new products into the
industry. They are going to take metal working here. Then he hopes it
will spread all over China. You cannot imagine the industrial
backwardness here, not only as compared with us but with Japan.
Consequently their markets here are flooded with cheap flimsy Japan-made
stuff, which they buy because it's cheap, the line of least resistance.
But perhaps the Shantung business will be worth its cost. The cotton
guild is very anxious to co-operate and they will supply capital if the
schools can guarantee skilled workingmen, especially superintendents.
Now they sell four million worth of cotton to Japan, where it is spun,
and then buy back the same cotton in thread for fourteen million--which
they weave. This is beside the large amount of woven cotton goods they
import.
I find in reading books that the Awakening of China has been announced a
dozen or more times by foreign travelers in the last ten years, so I
hesitate to announce it again, but I think this is the first time the
merchants and guilds have really been actively stirred to try to improve
industrial methods. And if so, it _is_ a real awakening--that and the
combination with the students. I read the translations from Japanese
every few days, and it would be very interesting to know whether their
ignorance is real or assumed. Probably some of both--it is inconceivable
that they should be as poor judges of Chinese psychology as the articles
indicate. But at the same time they have to keep up a certain tone of
belief among the people at home--namely, that the Chinese really prefer
the Japanese to all other foreigners; for they realize their dependence
upon them, and if they do not make common cause with them it is because
foreigners, chiefly Americans, instigate it all from mercenary and
political motives. As a matter of fact, I doubt if history knows of any
such complete case of national dislike and distrust; it sometimes seems
as if there hadn't been a single thing that the Japanese might have done
to alienate the Chinese that they haven't tried. The Chinese would feel
pretty sore at America for inviting them into the war and then leaving
them in the lurch, if the Japanese papers and politicians hadn't spent
all their time the last three months abusing America--then their sweet
speeches in America. It will be interesting to watch and see just what
particular string they trip on finally.
It's getting to the end of an Imperfect Day. We saw the school as per
program and I find I made a mistake. The boys made the plans of the
three buildings and are supervising their erection, but not doing the
building. They are staying in school all summer, however--those in the
woodworking class--and have taken a contract for making all the desks
for the new buildings--the school gives them room and board (food and
its preparation costs about five dollars per month), and they
practically give their time. All the metal-working boys are staying in
Peking and working in the shops to improve and diversify the products.
Remember these are boys, eighteen to twenty, and that they are carrying
on their propaganda for their country; that the summer averages one
hundred in the shade in Peking, and you'll admit there is some stuff
here.
This P.M. we went to a piece of the celebration. The piece we saw wasn't
so very Fourth of Julyish, but it was interesting--Chinese sleight of
hand. Their long robe is an advantage, but none the less it can't be so
very easy to move about with a very large sized punch bowl filled to the
brim with water, or with five glass bowls each with a gold fish in it,
ready to bring out. It seems that sometimes the artist turns a
somersault just as he brings out the big bowl of water, but we didn't
get that. None of the tricks were complicated, but they were the neatest
I ever saw. There is a home-made minstrel show to-night, but it rained,
and as the show (and dance later) are in the open, we aren't going, as
we intended.
You can't imagine what it means here for China not to have signed. The
entire government has been for it--the President up to ten days before
the signing said it was necessary. It was a victory for public opinion,
and all set going by these little schoolboys and girls. Certainly the
United States ought to be ashamed when China can do a thing of this
sort.
Sunday, July 7.
We had quite another ride yesterday, sixty or seventy miles altogether.
The reason for the macadam road is worth telling. When Yuan Shi Kai was
planning to be Emperor his son broke his leg, and he heard the hot
springs would be good for him. So one of the officials made a road to
it. Some of the present day officials, including an ex-official who was
recently forced to resign after being beaten up, now own the springs and
hotel, so the road will continue to be taken care of. On the way we went
through the village of the White Snake and also of the One Hundred
Virtues.
Y. M. C. A.'s and Red Crossers are still coming from Siberia on their
way home. I don't know whether they will talk freely when they get home.
It is one mess, and the stories they will tell won't improve our foreign
relations any. The Bolsheviki aren't the only ones that shoot up
villages and take the loot--so far the Americans haven't done it.
PEKING, July 8.
This morning the papers here reported the denial of Japan that she had
made a secret treaty with Germany. The opinion here seems to be that
they did not, but merely that preliminaries had begun with reference to
such a treaty. We heard at dinner the other day from responsible
American officials here that, after America had completed the last of
the arrangements for China to go into the war, the Japanese arranged to
get a concession from Russia for the delivery on the part of the
Japanese of China into the war on the side of the Allies.
Well, the Japanese are still at it with the cat out of the bag. It looks
now as if they are getting ready to break up the present government in
Japan. This is interpreted to mean that that breakup will be made to
look as if it were in disapproval of the present mistakes in diplomacy
and of the price of rice; and then they can put in a worse one there and
the world will not know the difference, but will be made to think that
Japan is reforming. Speaking of constitutionality in Japan, I ceased to
worry about that as soon as I learned the older statesmen never troubled
at all about who was elected, but just let the elections go through, as
their business was so assured in other ways that the elections made no
difference anyway, and that the same principle worked equally well in
the matter of passing bills. No bill can ever come up without the
approval of the powers that be and they know how it is coming out in
spite of all discussions. No wonder change comes slowly and maybe it
will have to come all at once in the form of a revolution if it comes in
reality. It is now reported that Tsai, the Chancellor of the University
here, has said he will come back on condition that the students do not
move in future in any political matter without his consent, and I am not
able to guess whether that is a concession or a clever way of seeming to
agree with both sides at once. The announcement of Tsai's return means
that things will soon be back in normal shape and ready for another
upheaval.
We seem to be utterly stumped by the house situation. All the members of
the Rockefeller Foundation get nice new houses built for them, and the
houses are nice new Chinese ones but free from the poor qualities of
those to be rented here. All the houses in Peking are built like our
woodsheds, directly on the ground, raised a few inches from actual
contact with the earth by a stone floor. The courts fill with water when
the rains are hard and then they are moist for days, maybe weeks, and
about two feet of wet seeps up the side of the walls. Yesterday we
called on one of our Chinese friends here, and the whole place was in
that state, but he did not seem to notice it. If he wants baths in the
house it doubles the cost he pays the water wagon, and then after all
the trouble of heating and carrying the water there is no way to dispose
of the waste, except to get a man to come and carry it away in buckets.
You would have endless occupation here just looking on to see how this
bee colony can find so many ways of making life hard for itself. A
gentleman at the Foundation has just been telling us how the coolies
steal every little piece of metal, leftovers or screwed on, that they
can get at. The privation of life sets up an entirely new set of
standards for morals. No one, it appears, can be convicted for stealing
food in China.
PEKING, July 8.
The Rockefeller buildings are lovely samples of what money can do. In
the midst of this worn and weak city they stand out like illuminating
monuments of the splendor of the past in proper combination with the
modern idea. They are in the finest old style of Chinese architecture;
green roofs instead of yellow, with three stories instead of one. One
wonders how long it will take China to catch up and know what they are
doing. It is said the Chinese are not at all inclined to go to their
hospital for fear of the ultra foreign methods which they do not yet
understand. On the other hand, there is no disposition on the part of
the Institution to meet them half way as the missionaries have always
done. There are a number of Chinese among the doctors and they have now
opened all the work to the women. There is a great need for women
doctors now in China, but evidently it will take a generation yet before
this work will begin to be understood and will take its natural place in
Chinese affairs. It is rather amusing that this splendid set of
buildings quite surrounds and overshadows the biggest Japanese hospital
and school that is in Peking, and they say the fact has quite humiliated
the Japanese. At present the buildings are nearing completion, but all
the old rubbishy structures of former times will have to be pulled down
before these new ones can be seen in all their beauty. Among other
things, they have built thirty-five houses also in Chinese style but
with all the modern comforts, in which to house their faculty, and in
addition to those there are a good many buildings which were taken over
from the old medical missionary College, besides, perhaps, some that
will be left from the palace of the Prince whose property they bought.
Two fine old lions are an addition from the Prince, but no foreign
family would stand the inconveniences and discomforts of the ancient
Prince, in spite of all his wives.
PEKING, July 11.
They have the best melons here you ever saw. Their watermelons, which
are sold on the street in such quantities as to put even the southern
negroes to shame, are just like yellow ice cream in color, but they
aren't as juicy as ours. Their musk melons aren't spicy like the ones at
home at all, but are shaped like pears, only bigger and have an acid
taste; in fact they are more like a cucumber with a little acid pep in
them, only the seeds are all in the center like our melons. When you get
macaroons and little cakes here in straight Chinese houses you realize
that neither we nor the Europeans were the first to begin eating. They
either boil or steam their bread--they eat wheat instead of rice in this
part of the country--or fry it, and I have no doubt that doughnuts were
brought home to grandma by some old seafaring captain. These things are
all the stranger because, except for sponge cake, no such things are
indigenous to Japan. So when you first get here you can hardly resist
the impression that these things have been brought to China from America
or Europe. Read a book called "Two Heroes of Cathay," by Luella Miner,
and see how our country has treated some of these people in the past,
and then you see them so fond of America and of Americans and you
realize that in some ways they are ahead of us in what used to be known
as Christianity before the war. I guess we wrote you from Hangchow about
seeing the monument and shrine to two Chinese officials who were torn in
pieces at the time of the Boxer rebellion because they changed a
telegram to the provincial officers "Kill all foreigners" to read
"Protect all foreigners." The shrine is kept up, of course, by the
Chinese, and very few foreigners in China even know of the incident.
Their art is really childlike and all the new kinds of artists in
America who think being queer is being primitive ought to come over here
and study the Chinese in their native abodes. A great love of bright
colors and a wonderful knowledge of how to combine them, a comparatively
few patterns used over and over in all kinds of ways, and a preference
for designs that illustrate some story or idea or that appeal to their
sense of the funny--it's a good deal more childlike than what passes in
Greenwich Village for the childlike in art.
Y.M.C.A., PEKING, July 17.
A young Korean arrived here in the evening and he was met here on our
porch by a Chinese citizen who is also Korean. The newly arrived could
speak very little English and by means of a triangle we were able to
arrive at his story. It seems there is quite a leakage of Korean
students over the Chinese border all the time. To become a Chinese
student requires six years of residence, or else it was three; anyway
enough to postpone the idea of going to America to study till rather
late in case one wants to resort to that way of escape from Japanese
oppression. The elder and the one who has become a Chinese citizen
seemed a good deal excited; I fancy they are dramatic by nature, and
made many gestures. He urged on me the importance of our going to Korea
and he is going to bring us some pictures to look at. Well, it all set
me thinking, and so I have been reading the Korean guide book and
reflecting on the wonderful climate there and wondering if we can get a
reasonable place to stay. My first discovery of the real seriousness of
the Korean situation came across me in Japan early in March, when we had
a holiday on account of the funeral of the Korean prince, for the reason
that after the funeral and gradually in connection with it the _Japanese
Advertiser_ said it was rumored that the old Korean prince had committed
suicide. Doubtless you may know the story there, and then again you may
not. However, the facts have leaked one way and another and now it is
known that the old man did commit suicide in order to prevent the
marriage of the young prince, who has been brought up in Japan, to the
Japanese princess. By etiquette his death, taking place three days or so
before the date set for the wedding, prevented the marriage from taking
place for two years, and it is hoped by the Koreans that before two
years they could weaken the Japanese grip on Korea. We all know they
have made a beginning since last March and the suicide did something to
help that along. Now that Japan is advertising political reforms in
Korea she would probably count on that reputation again to cover her
real activities and intentions with the world at large for some time to
come. The Japanese are like the Italian Padrones or other skillful newly
rich; they have learned the western efficiency and in that they are at
least a generation ahead of their neighbors. New knowledge to take
advantage of the old experience which she has moved away from and
understands so well, to make that experience contribute all it has
towards building up and strengthening the new riches of herself. The
excuse is the one of the short and easy road to success though in the
long run it is destructive in its bearings. But a certain physical
efficiency is what Japan surely has and she has made that go a little
further than it really can go. It is just one more evidence of the
failure of the Peace Conference to comprehend the excuses that Wilson is
making for the concessions he has granted to the practical needs, as he
calls them. We are now getting the first echoes from his speeches here.
When I reflect on the changed aspect of our minds and on the facts that
we have become accustomed to gradually since coming here I realize we
have much to explain to you which now seems a matter of course over
here. We discovered from reading an old back number somewhere that an
American traveler had been given the order of the Royal Treasure in
Japan when he was there. This order is said to be bestowed on the
Japanese alone. Before he received it he had made a public speech to the
effect that as China was down and out and needed some protector it was
natural that Japan should be that, as by all historical reasons she was
fitted to be. It appears to be true that the Militarists here who are
causing the trouble for China and who are able to hold the government on
account of foreign support have that idea so far as the "natural" goes.
The great man of China to-day is Hsu, commonly known as Little Hsu,
which is a good nickname in English, Little Shoe. He has never been in
the western hemisphere and he thinks it is better for China to give a
part of her territory to the Japanese who will help them, than to hope
for anything from the other foreigners, who only want to exploit them,
and if once China can get a stable government with the aid of the
Japanese militarists, then after that she can build herself into a
nation. Meantime Little Shoe has gained by a sad fluke in the
legislature the appointment of Military Dictator of Mongolia, and this
means he is given full power to use his army for agricultural and any
other enterprises he may choose. It means, in short, that he is absolute
dictator of all Mongolia which is retained by China and which is
bordered by Eastern Inner Mongolia which Japan controls under the
twenty-one Demands by a ninety-nine-year lease under the same absolute
conditions. These last few days since that act was consummated, nothing
is happening so far as the public knows, and according to friends the
government can go on indefinitely here with no cabinet and no
responsibility to react to the public demands. The bulk of the nation is
against this state of affairs, but with the support of foreigners and
the lack of organization there is nothing to do but stand it and see the
nation sold out to Japan and other grabbers. If you can get at
_Millard's Review_, look at it and read especially the recent act of the
Foreign Council which licensed the press--I mean they passed an Act to
do so. Fortunately the Act is not legal and will not be ratified by the
Chinese Council at Shanghai.
To this house come the officers of the Y. M.C.A. who are on the way home
from Siberia and other places. The stories one hears here are full of
horror and always the same. Our men are too few to accomplish anything
and the whole affair is not any of our business anyway. Anyway the
Canadians have a sense of virtue in getting out of it and going home,
and well they may, say I. The Japanese have had 70,000 there at least
and they may have shipped many more than that, for they have such a
command of the railroads that there is no way of keeping track of them.
I believe the conviction is they are taking in men according to their
own judgment of the case all the time. Everybody agrees that the
Japanese soldiers are hated by all the others and have generally proved
themselves disagreeable, the Chinese being thoroughly liked.
Meantime the dissatisfaction in Japan over rice in particular and food
in general is quite evidently becoming more and more acute. And it is
interesting to read the interviews with Count Ishii which all end up in
the same way, that the fear of bomb-throwers in the United States is
becoming a very serious alarm among all. The Anti-American agitation was
hard for us to understand while we were there, but its meaning is less
obscure now. Will it be effective? Is another world war already
preparing? It is said here that the students were very successful during
the strike in converting soldiers to their ideas. The boys at the High
Normal said they were disappointed when they were let out of jail at the
University because they had not converted more than half the soldiers.
The guards around those boys were changed every four hours.
It is raining most of the time and it is typical of the Chinese
character that my teacher did not come because of the rain. You have to
remember he never takes a 'ricksha, though he might have looked at it
that it was better to pay a man than to lose the lesson. The mud in the
roads here is much like the old days on Long Island before the gravel
was put there, only it is softer and more slippery here, and the water
stands.
PEKING, July 17.