[Illustration]
There is one sport in which the adult Chinaman shines. Each year in
the month of June the boatmen and fishermen hold a festival at which
the great feature is the dragon-boat races. The dragon-boat is about
ninety feet long and only wide enough to admit of two men with paddles
sitting side by side on each thwart. In this boat from sixty to eighty
men are seated, while in the centre stands a man with a drum or gong
before him on which he beats the time. A man stands at the stern with
a long steering paddle, and a boy sits in front with two lines in his
hands attached to a large dragon's head with which the bow is adorned,
and which moves from side to side as the lines are pulled. Two
contending boats paddle to the starting-buoy and at a signal they are
off. The frantic encouragement of the men beating time, the furious
but rhythmic splash of nearly two hundred paddles in the onrushing
boats, and the natural movement from side to side of the brightly
coloured dragons' heads, is one of the finest and most inspiriting
sights imaginable. Every muscle is strained, and no sport on earth
shows for the time a more tremendous effort of muscular energy.
Sometimes in the excitement of the race the boats collide, in which
event the race must be run again, for the mixture of paddles makes it
impossible to disentangle without a dead stop. But such a
_contretemps_ leads to no mischief or quarrelling. The accident is
treated good-humouredly all round, and it only means another race. On
the river at Canton literally thousands of boats make a line to see
the races paddled. There are no police and no stewards of the course,
but no boat ever attempts to break the line or cause any obstruction.
The Chinese delight in festivals and spectacular effects, in which
they give proof of organizing capacity. A very striking festival was
that in honour of a son of the god of war, held at Macao every tenth
year in the intercalary moon. It was a guild procession--watchmakers,
tailors, shoemakers, etc. Each guild had carried before it a great
triangular, richly embroidered banner, also an umbrella of honour.
Many had also a long piece of embroidery carried horizontally on
poles. There were ornamental chairs of the usual type, some with
offerings to the gods, some with wooden drums. Each guild had its
band; some string bands, some reeds and gongs, some Chinese viols and
mandolins, the latter being frequently played while held over the head
or resting on the back of the neck. Each guild marched two and two
behind the band, the members being dressed in mauve silk coats and
broad red or yellow sash tied round the waist with richly embroidered
ends down each leg. The watchmakers' guild all carried watches on the
right breast. Children, richly dressed in mediæval costume, were
mounted on caparisoned ponies, and some guilds had cars on which were
allegorical groups of children. In some cases, by an ingenious
arrangement of an iron frame, a child held a sword at length which,
apparently, pierced another child through back and breast. The variety
of these groups was very great. From time to time the procession
stopped, and then the children were taken down for a rest, the iron
frames being disconnected from their easily detachable sockets. In the
meantime each group was attended by men who held umbrellas over the
children to protect them from the sun.
Each guild had its attendant coolies carrying stools, and when the
procession stopped the members at once sat down, starting up at once
on the sound of a gong that regulated the halting and starting, when
the stools were taken up by the coolies.
[Illustration: A TEMPLE.]
The procession finished with a dragon carried by twenty-six men. It
was a hundred and forty feet long, the back of green and silver
scales, the sides being stripes of red, green, pink, and yellow silk.
This dragon was preceded by a man, who danced before it with a large
ball representing the moon. At this the dragon made dashes from one
side of the street to the other, but was staved off by another, who
carried a ball surrounded by gilt rays. This probably represented the
sun saving the moon from being swallowed by the dragon, as is supposed
to take place in an eclipse. The dragon went along the street with
sinuous rushes from side to side. Where there was room it wound round
and round, but uncoiled on the touch upon its tail of the gilt ball
with the golden rays. The procession took an hour and a half to pass a
given point. The most perfect order prevailed, the crowd keeping a
clear space. At the finish each guild went to its own district, and
the decorations were carefully stowed away for future use.
[Illustration]
Such a festival is, of course, a local holiday; but the only legal
Chinese holidays are at the New Year, when all business is suspended.
The viceroy puts his seal away; the governor and the magistrate follow
suit; the merchant closes his place of business and squares his books,
while his employees take the opportunity to revisit their homes in
the country. The shopkeeper generally has a feast for all his people,
at the conclusion of which he makes a speech, wishing each and all a
"Happy New Year," in certain cases adding, "and I hope that you, and
you," mentioning the names, "will obtain good situations." This is a
delicate intimation to the persons named that their services are
dispensed with. In ordinary Chinese business affairs all accounts are
closed and balanced and all debts paid at the New Year.
In Hong Kong the cessation from business lasts for ten days. At this
time booths are erected on either side of several streets in the
Chinese quarter, on which are displayed everything that appeals to the
fancy of the crowds with which the streets are thronged day and night.
There is an enormous sale of a white bell-shaped flower, something
like a large erica, known as the New Year flower; goldfish in glass
globes are a favourite purchase, and on the stalls rigged up under
cover are thousands of articles to suit the fancy of all classes. The
heterogeneous stocks-in-trade are evidently got together by roving
pedlars or collectors, who find their annual harvest at New Year. Here
may be purchased everything, from a piece of bronze or porcelain to a
small clay figure, of which a dozen may be bought for a couple of
cents. Sometimes an article of real value may be picked up by a seeker
after second-hand chances, while eager children spend their cents in
smaller investments; but the annual bazaar has one peculiarity that
speaks well for the masses of the Chinese people. In all the thousands
of articles and pictures exhibited for sale there is not to be seen
the slightest indication of even a suspicion of immodesty.
Over every door is now found a small ornament of peacock's feathers,
that being a lucky emblem. The social ceremonies are many and
elaborate. New Year visits of congratulation are paid; the family
graves are visited, and due honours paid to the dead; and presents are
offered and accepted. During the holidays immense quantities of
fire-crackers are exploded, a string costing many dollars being
sometimes hung from an upper balcony, the explosion of the crackers,
with loud sounding bombs at intervals, lasting for several minutes,
and filling the street with apparently the sharp crackle of musketry
and the boom of heavy guns. At the end of the festival the streets are
filled with the vermilion paper that covered the exploded fireworks.
[Illustration]
Next to the New Year's fair, the most interesting study in Hong Kong
was the crowds who came down from Canton and the outlying districts of
Kwangtung province for the annual race-meeting--a European institution
that flourishes at every coast port in China, the horses being hardy
little Mongolian ponies, and the sport excellent. During the three
days' racing it was the custom practically to allow a Saturnalia, and
the police closed their eyes to offences against the gambling laws,
only pouncing upon faked pu-chee boxes, loaded dice, or other unfair
instruments of gambling. On the race-course these gamblers plied their
trade between the races, and afforded an opportunity of seeing the
most diverse and curious games of chance and skill. One game I do not
remember to have seen elsewhere. Round a flat stone was drawn a circle
with a diameter of about five feet, divided into spaces radiating from
centre to circumference. On the stone the proprietor placed a heap of
copper coin. The players placed their stakes in any division chosen;
then the proprietor placed a weight on his head, from which he jerked
it at a distance of about twelve feet. If the weight hit the heap of
coin he took the stakes, but if it fell on one of the divisions, the
player who staked on that division took the heap of coin on the stone.
Again, on a board was painted a number of Chinese characters, on any
one of which the players placed their stakes. The proprietor then
handed a bag to a player, who took out a handful of disks, like
draughtsmen, on each of which was a character. The handful was placed
on the table and sorted, each character being placed on the
corresponding character on the board. The player received as many
times his stakes as there were characters drawn corresponding to that
on which he had placed his money. If no corresponding character was
drawn, then he lost.
In pursuance of a determined effort to stop the ravages of plague, the
custom of winking at what were undoubtedly irregularities was
abandoned, so as to check the influx of the many thousands of
"sporting" vermin to Hong Kong at race time, and once stopped the
custom could not be permitted to again establish itself.
It must not be assumed that all the interests of Hong Kong are
exhausted by a cursory or even a lengthened examination of its streets
and outdoor amusements. Hong Kong boasts of excellent schools, the
Queen's College and St. Joseph's Schools being the largest. There is
an excellent boarding-school for the sons and daughters of Chinese
gentlemen, where the utmost care is exercised in the supervision of
the pupils; a medical college exists in which the entire course of
medical education can be taken; and it is now proposed to establish a
university that may yet be the centre of higher education for Chinese
students.
The charities of China are not sufficiently realized; but while there
is no general organization of charitable societies, as in European
countries, individual charity is widespread. The poor receive gifts
of clothing in winter; in times of famine or of scarcity rice is often
distributed free, or sold under cost price, or coffins are supplied to
the poor. In Hong Kong the Chinese community have built a well
equipped hospital for general patients, and also a plague hospital for
the reception of the victims of this scourge that has annually visited
the city for the past fifteen years.
There is also in connection with the "Tung Wa" hospital an institution
called the Pow-li-un-kok, where orphan children are taken, as are also
received the children who from time to time are rescued by the police
from harpies who are carrying them through Hong Kong for the purpose
of selling them as domestic slaves. These children are brought up, and
the boys placed in situations where they can earn their living, while
arrangements are made for the marriage of the girls when they reach a
marriageable age. Chinese frequently take girls from the institution
as wives. It is also used as a rescue home for fallen and friendless
girls for whom also husbands are often found.
[Illustration]
These are but brief sketches of phases of Chinese life as it presents
itself to one who has had no opportunity for the study of cause and
effect that would require long years of careful observation. We know
but little of the real China. The average European, if he thinks of
China at all, sets her down as a nation just emerging from barbarism,
untruthful, deceitful, and having more than her share of original sin.
On the other hand, the Chinese who have come in contact with foreign
Powers regard them as bullies, who have by their destructive prowess
forced themselves upon the Middle Kingdom and deprived the Emperor and
his government of their sovereignty over the various concessions at
the treaty ports. No definite complaint has been formulated on this
matter so far; but it must not be assumed that there is no feeling of
irritation on the subject in the minds of many of the educated
Chinese. The phenomenal successes of Japan in war, and the rapidity
with which she has compelled her acceptance on terms of equality by
foreign nations, has set the Chinese a-thinking, and we know not how
soon the demand for reconsideration of foreign relations may become
inconveniently pressing.
The death of the late Dowager-Empress and of the young Emperor, whose
sudden and mysterious death was the crowning tragedy of years of
sorrow and restraint, has placed upon the Imperial throne an infant
whose father (the Regent) is a prince of enlightened and progressive
views. Already great changes have been made, and greater still are
projected. The isolation of centuries is being modified, and in nearly
three thousand schools in China the English language is being taught,
and Western methods of instruction are being introduced. Many internal
reforms are being considered, and the principle of the training to
arms of all young men has been decided upon. If we take even one-tenth
of the population as being liable to military training, it would give
a crop of recruits of forty millions! It remains to be seen if such an
evidence of power will set in motion the military instinct, or if a
different system of education may not result in a demand for drastic
changes in the whole system and constitution of government. There is
in the Southern Provinces a strong leaven of opinion formed by
students who have been trained in the colleges of the United States.
Their aspirations are mainly on Republican lines; but I do not find
that this solution commends itself to the people of the Northern
Provinces.
[Illustration]
The establishment of local councils has been decided upon, the
inevitable result of which will be the lessening of the autocratic
power of provincial officials. Whether the change will result in the
increase of efficiency or the decrease of corruption time alone will
tell; but we may rest assured that however loudly reformers may demand
changes of system and custom, the present generation will be very slow
to move. When the Chinese people do move the advance will be probably
steady, and will certainly be maintained. Should a military instinct
be evolved, an alliance with Japan might at a future period form the
strongest combination in the world, and when that time arrives the
present system of extra-territoriality of the concessions, so
convenient for foreigners, will go by the board.
At present, however, China offers in her markets an object for the
keen competition of the manufacturing nations of the world, in which
the British manufacturer bids fair to be beaten, especially by our
friends in Germany, whose watchword in commerce, as in everything
besides, is "thorough."
The awakening of China means her entrance into strong competition for
her full share of the trade of the world. With her great commercial
capacity and enormous productive power she will be able to a large
extent to supply her own wants, and will certainly reach out to
distant foreign markets. Exploration discloses the fact that in bygone
ages Chinese influence has reached to the uttermost parts of the
globe. It is to be found in the ornaments of the now extinct Bæthucs
of Newfoundland, and in the buried pottery of the Incas of Peru, while
in Ireland a number of Chinese porcelain seals have been discovered at
different times and in some cases at great depths, the period, judging
from the characters engraved upon them, being about the ninth century
A.D. It may be that with the increase of commercial activity, wages
will rise to such an extent as to bring the cost of production in
China to the level of that of other nations; if not, then the future
competition may produce results for the wage-earners of Liverpool,
Birmingham, and Manchester evoking bitter regret that the policy of
coaxing, worrying, bullying, and battering the Far Eastern giant into
the path of commercial energy has been so successful. Given machinery,
cheap labour, unsurpassed mineral deposits, and educated determination
to use them, and China will prove a competitor before whom all but the
strongest may quail.
The only competition for which she will never enter is a competition
in idleness. Every man works to the full extent of his capacity, and
the virile vigour of the nation is intact.
With the coming change in her educational system that will strike off
the fetters of competitive memorizing and substitute rational
reflection, China must be a potent factor in the affairs of the world.
When that time comes let us hope that the relations between China and
the British Empire will be the outcome of mutual confidence and
goodwill.
_Printed by the Menpes Printing Co., Ltd., Watford._
[Illustration]
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Transcriber's note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.