1 Ah Ee
2 Ow Erh
3 Tsz San
4 Peu Su
5 Peh Wu
6 Glow Liu
7 Ya Pah
8 Chow Chiu
The writer in the Antiquity chapter of a former book adopted the
Biblical account of the creation, that the original Chinese (Chou
clan’s ancestors) spread through Turkestan, along the Tarim valley, to
their first known home in Shensi province. Doctor Stein has found on
the site of the ruined temple of Hangayi Tuti at Khoten, in Chinese
Turkestan, birchbark and other manuscript in an unknown language. These
point the way to a further search. The Asiatic Society, of Bengal,
Calcutta, has acquired from a Montenegrin gentleman, who traveled in
Turkestan, five leaves of brownish yellow manuscripts eight by six
inches, in an unknown language, which wait to reveal possible wonders
of China’s prehistoric story. The pages show that they were one part
of an extensive work now lost in the sands and camp ashes of central
Asia. There is room for emulation by America, Britain and China of
Russia’s archeological research in Chinese Turkestan, for the world
wants to know more of ancient China, now that the New China has
become important. The professors of the American colleges in China
are sufficiently learned to make a beginning in preserving China’s
antiquities, which are now in great danger of being lost forever. The
rage, as far as the Chinese themselves are concerned, is altogether for
the new and utilitarian. The modernized Chinese have already forgotten
their conservative Hanlin Academy.
XX
LIFE OF FOREIGNERS IN CHINA
I know of no place where music, lanterns, romantic mountain scenery,
seascapes far below and delightful society in an alien setting combine
more pleasantly than at the Peak Club, Hongkong. Above the passing
clouds which now and then whirl around as in Rubens’ pictures, over the
purple Pacific Ocean which foams around hilly islands, over the high
hills as you ascend from the royal colony of Victoria, on a terrace,
they have graded a velvet lawn. Here the military and naval bands are
brought for a promenade concert in the soft night of the fragrant
Orient, beneath Bowring’s “wide Cathayan tree”. The band of the Royal
Welsh Fusiliers, from Mt. Austin barracks, plays the stirring Welsh
national march, _The Men of Harlech_. The men sing the chorus:
“See! the bonfire light before ye,
How its fiery tongues do call ye,
Come as one to death or glory,
Heroes of the fight.
“Lest by fire they kill and plunder,
Harlech! Harlech! make them wonder
At thy power that none can sunder;
Freedom thou wilt give.”
Flowering plants in large colored Chinese kongs are set out everywhere.
The stars and moon shine. The pictured lanterns gently swing, and the
horn lanterns of Ningpo are opal soft. The light flashes from swords,
uniforms and jewels. The blue-gowned Oriental servants noiselessly pass
refreshments. Not a Chinese house is in view, though half a million
Chinese live hidden in the foothills. On the hundred peaks of Hongkong
Island, the lights of a hundred palaces and villas of the merchant
princes shine out. Down the winding cement paths, chairs bearing
lanterns and carrying guests are borne with their rhythmic swing.
Every lady and every man present has come from far, and knows much
of life and geography. The conversation tires not, for there is
something of great interest to tell. Kitchener’s brother (Kitchener
himself would not come--he never moves in “society”); General Wood,
of the United States Army; Commander Greeley, United States Navy, of
North Polar fame; Admiral Scott, of the British Navy, who invented
the large gun “dotter” that made the heavy marksmanship possible,
and whose 4.7 gun saved Ladysmith; Nathan, the hero governor of the
typhoon and _Hankow_ holocaust; the governor of the Philippines at
the far stretched-out line of America’s new fame and empire; Kipling
himself full of his colored phrases; authors of books on China, many
of whom live in Hongkong; German, French and Russian commanders, whose
impetuous ambition has made many moves that have nearly started world
wars; ordnance and commissariat colonels, who, without a hitch, have
provisioned famous international military relief expeditions; prince
and pauper explorers who are one in the camaraderie of adventure for
science; curio collectors who are raking the world to enrich western
museums with enravishing art; Ponting, the photographer who went with
the intrepid Commander Scott to the South Pole; seven-year indentured
“griffins” who are second sons of noble houses and whose inheritance
of style is a millstone around the necks of their impoverished
incomes; subalterns who are chafing at the bit to be let make a mark
like Kitchener; visiting lieutenants from Manila who would emulate
Funston in the Philippines; Japanese doctors who have beat the world in
discovering Bacillariaceæ; Parsees who have founded universities and
have, therefore, dined with “my friend, the king”; the merchant princes
and the missionary apostles of China, whose knowledge would fill books;
women of grace, beauty and learning, nibbling at sweet cinnamon,
musk and lotus; international spies of both sexes from the notorious
Brussels headquarters; all move over the quiet grass, listening to the
haunting strains of the bewitching music, which makes the heathen hills
unalien under the swinging lanterns and the white-riding moon.
When you lift your glass to say “_prosit_”, “here’s how”, “_à bon
santé_”, or “here’s to you, old man”, with no national reservations,
and a feeling that all traveled men are brothers; and some fraternally
wider day possibly you will not shiver when John Celestial, Friend
Nippon, and Aryan Bengal are admitted to the delightful company
gathered under the whispering bamboos and floating sandal scent of the
Peak Club of Hongkong.
It is the same interesting story on ladies’ night at the Bund Club of
Canton; the Jockey Club of Shanghai; the Hankau Club; the Tientsin
Club; the delightful conversazioni at Sir Francis Aglen’s on Customs
Street, Peking, when the National Customs Band plays; the Gouverneur’s
“Palais” at Saigon and Hué; the International Club at Harbin;
Government House at Wei-Hai-Wei; or the consulate at Chifu. It whets
the imagination to be dancing within sight of the stacked rifles at
the front, and you reverse Tennyson and say in Locksley Hall: “Better
one night in Cathay than a cycle of Park Lane” (or Fifth Avenue)! You
recite the thrilling incidents, such as the ball which Wellington
attended on the eve before Waterloo, etc.! Certainly the foreigner in
recent years has never known when he would be called upon at Hongkong,
Canton, Hankau, Shanghai, Tientsin, Amoy, Macao, Fuchau, etc., to rush
out, in either his dress or his business suit, or possibly his night
pajamas, with his gun, to defend property, some kind of government,
and the white man’s rights and habits of trade and international
civilization. Not only white men have suffered and borne, but the
foreign heroines of diplomacy, missions and trade of Wuchang, Hankau,
Canton, Peking, Tientsin, Chingtu, Chungking, Amoy, Fuchau, etc., are
numbered in hundreds.
The foreigner in China enters upon his sporting and social enjoyment
keenly, because his sufferings from climate, alienation and danger
are also keen. Taking his life altogether, he deserves more than he
receives as a reward for his work, and he and his wife are unusually
interesting people to meet, as I know from three years’ life in their
honored midst.
The human beasts of burden--the rickshaw coolies of Hongkong, Shanghai,
and the treaty ports--are directed by little of their own language.
Only a few of the mercantile men on station learn the language.
The foreign tourist generally learns two words, “kwai se” (go) and
“man-man” (stop-stop), and the coolies, like beasts, therefore depend
for directions as they race along in the heat, on a tap on the left
or right shaft to indicate which street the “fare” desires to turn
up. Hongkong proposes to have printed on a large bill-board at every
chair and rickshaw stand a list of fares. Hongkong and Shanghai have
become great tourist centers, whole shiploads landing there from New
York and San Francisco, and the tourist’s generosity or lack of local
information permits him to pay so large a fare that the expenses of the
resident are raised beyond endurance. The example of Hongkong might
well be copied at every tourist center over the world. “A fair price,
but not a foolish price” is the watchword in these new days of economy
and efficiency, because world-waste can be tolerated no longer.
The regiments which from time to time come to garrison Hongkong
reveal many interesting traits in their customs and uniform. The
Royal Welsh Fusiliers, fresh from the Boer War, wore three silk
ribbons down their backs. They are the only British regiment which is
permitted thus to mourn the deprivation of the old “pig tail” of the
bewigged regiments of the Georges, which custom they were the last
regiment to discontinue. The Lincolnshires wear a band of green to
show that they are foresters recruited in Robin Hood’s country. The
Inneskilling Fusiliers and the Somersets at Tientsin retain their
traditional territorial peculiarities. The Cameronians are the only
British regiment which is allowed to bear arms into church service,
as a reminder of the old strenuous days of surprise when the clans
might leap like a wolf from behind even the pulpit. There are so many
branches of the historic British service in Hongkong’s, Tientsin’s,
etc., garrison life that American tourists are delightfully entertained
and instructed in tradition that is far from uninteresting. The British
have found that to recruit and fight a man as a number is not a
success, as compared with the picturesque traditions in a territorial
army of uniform, customs, names, fetish, romance, glory, flags,
distinctive rights, etc. In other words, they humor Tommy Atkins as a
boy, and he fights for them like a man, every time it is necessary.
This was shown when the swagger regiments of the Guards of London,
under Generals French, Paget and Roberts hit the Boer lines as hard
as the Royal Welsh, who are recruited from sturdy fearless miners.
Bret Harte’s “Caucasian showed that he was no more played out” on
those occasions than he was when he rushed El Caney and San Juan Hill
led by Roosevelt, Lawton, Chaffee and Wheeler. The Chinese of Peking
and Tientsin in 1900 had a chance to see the brilliant performance
of the American Fourteenth Infantry, Sixth Cavalry, and the marines
under Captain McCalla of the cruiser _Newark_, and recently the
fine Fifteenth Infantry, U. S. A., has renewed the very favorable
gentlemanly impression at Tientsin and along the railway line to Peking.
When the military weddings take place at St. John’s Cathedral,
Hongkong, and the cathedrals at Shanghai and Tientsin, it is customary
for the brother officers of the groom to unsheath their swords and make
an arch of steel over Mars and Venus as they make their exit from the
church. This old custom is not often seen elsewhere than in India and
China, and would be a pretty one to adopt for military weddings the
world over. The Germans particularly would take to it with zest; in
fact, they have just adopted it in their “kirche” at Tsingtau, North
China, and the Americans may adopt it in the smart military life of
Manila.
Important newspapers published in English are the _Times_, at Tientsin;
the _Mail_, _Telegraph_, _Press_ and _Post_, of Hongkong; the _Herald_,
_News_, _Mercury_, _Press_, _Far Eastern Review_ and _Times_, of
Shanghai; the _Post_, of Hankau; the _Gazette_ and _Times_, of Amoy,
and the _Echo_, of Fuchau. The _Times_ and the _Cable News_, of Manila;
the _Free Press_ and _Echo_, of Singapore; and the _Englishman_, of
Calcutta, may be included, together with the _Chronicle_, of Japan,
because they circulate in China ports, “nothing that is Oriental
being alien” to their fascinating news columns. Their editorials are
illuminating, and often exhibit in their cultured English positive
genius. They are an authoritative source of information on the
absorbing theme of golden Cathay, and the interest of the brave
Occidental pioneer in her awakening.
Water polo, swimming, launch, golf, cricket, tennis, yacht, dramatic,
polo, etc., clubs are established at nearly all the treaty ports, and
inter-Hong, inter-service, international and inter-regimental contests
are constantly going on to take the edge off ennui in the long day
of Oriental exile in a seven-year indenture. For those inclined to
literature, science and ethnology, there are notable library and
Asiatic associations, and some of them superintend an indispensable
press. Royalty visits Hongkong frequently and encourages every phase of
life in the premier colony. On the occasion of the Duke of Connaught’s
last visit with his family they received the military at the landing
pier and the populace at the City Hall; unveiled statues to the late
King Edward and King George; lunched with the governor and council;
attended a meeting of the Scottish Rite Masons, lunched with the mess
of the Indian frontier regiment camped out on the foothills of China;
attended a Chinese theater; ate at a Chinese restaurant; attended a
daylight try-out of the racing ponies, Indian-breds and Walers at the
Wong-Nei-Chong Jockey Club; and went with “Hoi-Polloi” on a week-end
trip on the steamer _Fat Shan_ to see Canton’s sights, and “tiffin”,
as does the whole world of globe-trotters, on the third veranda of the
five-storied pagoda. German royalty is just as active at Tsingtau,
French nobility at Saigon and Haiphong, Portugese nobility at lovely
Macao, and the cosmopolitan world at the “Paris of the East”,
Shanghai. Of Macao, the famous poet, Sir John Bowring, wrote:
“Gem of the Orient earth and open sea,
Macao! that in thy lap and on thy breast
Hast gathered beauties all the loveliest,
Which the sun smiles on in his majesty.
The very clouds that top each mountain crest,
Seem to repose there, lingering lovingly.
How full of grace the green Cathayan tree
Bends to the breeze--and now thy sands are pressed
With gentle waves which ever and anon
Break their awakened furies on thy shore.
Were these the scenes that Camoens looked upon,
Whose lyre, though known to fame, knew misery more?”
In a former book, _The Chinese_, I have referred to the high cost of
living at Hongkong, Shanghai, etc., as far as rent is concerned. This
is because a navy and army have to be maintained. It is well known
that Hongkong contributes to the British Budget more pro rata than
any part of the long red line of British empire. The man who goes to
the hot damp East to advance the cause of imperialism, and who reads
Kipling and Gilbert Parker, pays high for it in money as well as
health, and he deserves more than he receives. Land values are twice
what they are in the suburban cities of New York, such as Brooklyn and
Jersey City, and twice what they are in the outlying wards of London.
Yaumati is a section of Hongkong’s colony on the China mainland, and
values there are not so high as on hilly Hongkong Island. Yet a plot
of land 150 by 140 feet, recently sold in Yaumati for $8,700 gold. No
American or European should be sent to the treaty ports of the Far East
to support any cause, diplomatic, military, commercial, scientific,
academic, religious, or international customs, who is not given twice
the emolument that he would receive at home. Yet the mission leaders
in particular generously accept far less than they would receive as
workers in America.
The foreigner has a larger list of supplies to pick from than was the
case before modern roads were opened and the Chinese were taught to
farm for the foreigner’s table. Ice houses, ice machinery, inspected
markets, and water tanks for fish all have aided. Not so long ago we
in the Far East were benzoate of soda and salicylic acid fiends, the
men Doctor Wiley bemoaned; that is to say, our gun was a can-opener,
and our game was tinned foods. We could go out into the jungle of
Queens Road or the praya, Hongkong; Nanking Road, Shanghai; Kaiser
Road, or the Chien Men Fair, Peking; or the bunds at Tientsin, Canton
or Hankau, on our way home from office, and with our weapon bring down
the foods of Europe, America and Australia, running, of course, not
a little risk of ptomaine poisoning, positively ruining our stomachs
forever, and becoming a permanent dyspeptic charge upon the nerves of
the long-suffering community! Now things are better. Here is a list
of fresh foods procurable in the larger ports. In the plague, typhoid
or cholera season, some eschew fresh vegetables, and again, when
they recall that the farmer is the town scavenger, some eschew fresh
vegetables at all seasons! I quote the prices in gold, and give the
Chinese word your lordly cook calls out to the obsequious stallsman,
so that the stranger may gain an idea that Chinese does not sound
unmusical:
MEAT
Beef sirloin, Mei Lung Pa, 10 cents a pound.
Beef steak, Ngan Yuk Pa, 10 cents a pound.
Mutton chop, Yeung Pai Kwat, 12 cents a pound.
Pork chops, Chi Pai Kwat, 10 cents a pound.
Chicken, Chu Yau, 8 cents a pound.
Duck, Ap, 15 cents a pound.
Doves, Pan Kau, 7 cents each.
Geese, Ngoi, 13 cents a pound.
Turkeys, cock, Phor Kai Kung, 20 cents a pound.
FISH
Barbel, Ka Yu, 5 cents a pound.
Carp, Li Yu, 9 cents a pound.
Cod, Mun, 7 cents a pound.
Crabs, Hai, 9 cents a pound.
Cuttlefish, Muk, 6 cents a pound.
Eels, Conger, Hai Mann, 7 cents a pound.
Frogs, Tien Kai, 20 cents a pound.
Garoupa, Sek Pan, 28 cents a pound.
Halibut, Cheung Kwan Kup, 12 cents a pound.
Lobster, Lung Ha, 18 cents a pound.
Mackerel, Chi, 16 cents a pound.
Mullet, Chai, 10 cents a pound.
Parrotfish, Kai Kung, 8 cents a pound.
Pomfret, white, Pak Chong, 13 cents a pound.
Salmon, Ma Yau Yu, 16 cents a pound.
Shrimps, Ha, 12 cents a pound.
Soles, Tat Sa, 12 cents a pound.
South China is rich in fish, and I could quote scores more.
FRUIT
Almonds, Hung Yan, 9 cents a pound.
Apples, Chifu, Tin Chun Ping Khor, 7 cents a pound.
Bananas, fragrant Canton, San Shing Heung Chiu, 1½ cents a pound.
Carambola, Yeung Tuo, 4 cents a pound.
Cocoanuts, Yeh Tsz, 5 cents each.
Lemons, Ning Moong, 4 cents a pound.
Lichees, Lai Chi, 5 cents a pound (called “Chinese nuts”).
Lily roots, Lin Ngan, 3 cents a pound.
Limes from Saigon, Sai Kung Ning Moong, 3 cents a pound.
Pears, Canton, Sa Li, 4 cents a pound.
Peanuts, Fa Sang, 5 cents a pound.
Persimmons, Hung Chie, 10 cents a pound.
Pineapples, Sheung Poon Ti Pau Lau, 5 cents each.
Plantains, Tai Chen, 1 cent each.
Plums, Swatow, Hung Lai, 5 cents a pound.
Pumelo, Siam, Chim Lo Yau (grapefruit), 5 cents each.
Walnuts, Hop Tuo, 6 cents a pound.
Watermelon, Sai Kwa, 1½ cents a pound.
VEGETABLES
Beans, sprouted, Ah Choi, 2 cents a pound.
Beets, Hung Choi, 1 cent each.
Brinjal, Ching Yuen, 2 cents a pound.
Cabbage, Kai Choy, 2 cents a pound.
Carrots, Kam Shun, 3 cents a pound.
Chilies, Red Hung Fa, 3 cents a pound.
Cucumbers, Ching Kwa, 1 cent each.
Garlic, Suen Tau, 3 cents a pound.
Ginger, young, Sun Tsz Keung, 3 cents a pound.
Corn, Suk Mai, 2 cents each.
Lettuce, Yeung San Choi, ½ cent each.
Onions, Sang Chung, 2 cents a pound.
Papaw, Tai Man, 5 cents each.
Potato, sweet, Fan Shu, 1½ cents a pound.
Spinach, Yin Choi, 2 cents a pound.
Tomatoes, Kan Ker, 3 cents a pound.
Vegetable marrow, Chit Kwa, 1 cent a pound.
Water cress, Sai Yeung Choi, 5 cents a pound.
The table is justly famous at the following, among other hotels and
clubs, and the wines are as cheap as in Europe, because no duty is
charged at Hongkong, and only five per cent. in China. In Japan,
however, and in French China there is a heavy duty on foreign liquor.
The Grand Hotel and the club, at Yokohama; the club, Kobe; Wagon Lits
and club, Peking; Imperial Hotel and club, Tientsin; Astor House and
club, Shanghai; Peak, Grand, Craigieburn, Hongkong and Astor Hotels and
club, at Hongkong; Victoria Hotel and club, Canton; Boa Vista, Hing
Kee and club, at Macao. When you go there, next time, tourist, ask
for broiled samli or Sek Pan at Macao; toasted rice birds or Ap ducks
at Shanghai; Mongolian mutton at Peking; roasted imperial pheasant at
Tientsin; preserved comquats in ginger syrup, Hungyan almonds, and Sai
Kwa watermelons at Canton; Hung Lai plums at Swatow; Tin Chun Khor
apples at Chifu; fresh lichees or Phor Kai turkey at Hongkong, and ruby
red persimmons at Yokohama. It is not well to be a gourmand always, but
it is well to be an epicure on eminent occasions, so as to remember
them forever, from fear that, as in Senator Ingalls’ poem, “Opportunity
knocks but once.”
XXI
FOREIGN CITIES OF CHINA
At all the great treaty port cities and colonies, such as Hongkong,
Shanghai, Canton, Macao, Tientsin, etc., the stranger is accosted by
crowds of rickshaw coolies, venders, fortune-tellers, flower sellers,
etc., urging his patronage. Efforts are being made to limit this noise,
which is at present like the reception that a football hero gets when
he wins a game. The Chinese think we like the attention, because so
many of us smile, and if one looks cross, a native wit will call out:
“Don’t ask Honorable Sad-Face to ride; he has just lost his white
mother-in-law, and must demurely walk behind her ghost.”
The first motor-car used in China was brought to Hongkong by an
American dentist in 1900. It was a storage electric vehicle, as the
authorities prohibited for a while the use of gasoline on account of
the fire risk. Gasoline cars and launches are now used throughout
the treaty ports, but kerosene engines are preferred in motor-boats.
Kerosene can be procured anywhere in China, but gasoline is procurable
only within a limited area.
As a foreign steamer enters a port, a fleet of sanpans throw out hooks
and grapple with the ship. This picturesque nuisance the authorities
are trying to stop, on account of the danger to life which is involved.
The hotel runners, gamblers, and venders desire to be over the rail
before any passengers leave. The health authorities desire to stop the
irrepressible boarders as much as the harbor masters do. The boarders
shout out to their countrymen: “You there! Throw over a fastened rope;
we want to kotow to you on board, and leave you some of our money in a
little game.” Over the rope goes, despite the frantic mate, who is a
white man, and like ants, the agile Chinese clamber up the sides of the
big trans-Pacific or Suez liner.