THE FLOWER BOATS OF CHINA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 6

THE FLOWER BOATS OF CHINA.

A CLANCE BEHIND THE CURTAIN. (By S. Kingsbott toe tub Domkion.) "Fire I Death amidst the flower boats on the Pearl River 1" A recent cablegram to this effect is picturesque and suggestive in itself, but to those who know their Canton, every line is a summary of an inferno beyond description. The flower boats of China are one of those colour patches of the antique which have existed for centuries, and through the centuries have added on to themselves mystery and a certain fascination. Their shadows and reflections appear on the pages of a thousand books on China, yet no Western artist or writer can wholly enlbody the reality. It is easy to convey the grotesque, to transfer the picturesque, but there is still something mocking and elusive; and again there is indefinable custom with roots immovable in dead years, roots which may rot and minglo with decay yet never can be quite extracted, nor their meanings understood. Genesis of the Flower Boat. . In forgotten time—when the Pearl River was loss sluggish, less grey. with mud and human sewerago, when Canton was first establishing itself by inevitable laws as the commerce valve of South China, and an old census would have totalled in thousands rather than in millions—lies the genesis of the Canton flower boat. We are baffled today to find,its pattern, the quaint original upon which it was modelled, just as we are dense with ignorance in the search for the queer anoestor of the Chinese town or city. A little we may learn, from deduction, however. The sea and the river already probably held the first types of junks and sampans, and then, as now, men and women passed their days from sunrise to sunset upon the waters, and in the last shadows were confided to the keeping of the waters—for such, recreation and sensuality must lie upon the river, and thus evolved tho first flower boat and grew and multiplied until in "stratas" it served for the rich upon the land and for the poor upon the tide. PosBibly here was fostered Chinese music and Chinese singing, and here crude artists fashioned adornment. Here, too, we may yet note the poor exterior and the riches within, as' yon may walk from the narrow, dirty lane in Canton through an ancient door and find within wealth of colouring and a treasure house unique in a score of ways. One might almost claim that Time encrusts exteriors in China, but men defy age by zealous care of tho interiors—otherwise there seems no solution to the contrast puzzle. How rich in romanco are the flower-boat fleets wo can only surmise. Was it not from a. Canton flower craft that the late Empress Dowager is supposed by many chroniclers to have climbed to tho throno of China, from slavo to Empress? And in the yesterdays, as in the to-days, typhoons shattered and fires ravaged, and the great Pearl River swept the debris with rough tenderness away. You could seo them in rows on the Pearl River, squat barges with square sides. All day motionless and dark against tho moving world, and at night coloured by gay lanterns and laden with song and music, and inside the flower girls waiting upon the guests. Every analysis strikes the beginning of a root which is buried so deep that no Sven Hcdin can uncover its resting. On this boat the Viceroy entertained tho King's brother and the Princess Patricia, and on that gaiety covered rags and temporary enjoyment made a break in continuing tho monotony of river life. They aro tho float- | ing restaurants, the musical halls, and much beside. Dingy on tho outside and scum washed on tho sides, they aro amazing across tho threshold, bright with lights, rich in gilt and carving and mirrors, soft with tapestry and velvet, stately with tho beautiful mackwood chairs, and these last adorned with costly marble whoso natural graining reproduces effects of mountain or river with bold impressionist likeness. The Flowor Girls. | Tho flower girls are in the main slavespretty Chinese, purchased by a monopolist and used to attract to the flower craft ho owns. Thoy aro bright and witty, trained carefully in amusing stories and in pleasant chattorings, and richly drosscd. Tho Mandarins, or officials, exact heavy taxes from tho girls in tho form of licenses, and tho oxistonco of tho flower girl has often inoro thorns than of roses in life, although tho comparative splendour of their existenco may bo preferred to tho ox-liko labour of their follows on shore, or to tho heavy, strenuous, oar-pulling monotony of thoir sisters afloat. Often a rich patron takes a fancy to somo girl and buys her—perhaps for a 1000 dollars —and again somo of the flower boats and the girls thereon aro owned by officials or by wealthy merchants, who give costly entertainments to their friends. The cablo tells us shnfr the firo fiend took his snerifico from many such. So narrow is tho river, so immenso tho floating population, aud so closely moorod tho flower craft, that flames lean from.

wood to wood almost as a horse runs. Before wo despise, it would bo well if we recognised that our own sins are in somo rospeots as grotesque, though more common and familiar, as those of tho gaudy fleets of tho City or Rams, and if wo could read tho history of some of these flower girls—tho voluntary sacrifico to savo tho lives of lovod ones, starving or feeble—perchance, wo might fool a roal sorrow for tho tragedy indescribable ti the groat sower miscalled "Tho Pearl." Looking back through a few months tho writer recalls his visit to a flower boat in Inland China—on tho banks of Wuchow, at tho head of tho pirate-hauntod West River, which separates from tho Poarl River af Canton and slides away into raw Asia. Wuchow is like nothing so much as a great brown encrusted beetle, with innumorablo long legs, which is always struggling to lift itself out of damp mud and never succeeding. Its flowor boatß are replicas of their sisters of Canton, or rather or that early original, square, drab, squashing lazily on tho tide. When you have boon Bleeping with a loaded rovolver under your pillow, and dreaming dreams of tho stranpo true happenings of tho West River, tho idea of visiting, a flower boat appeals, especially as a flowor ooat may be a highly respectable plaoo to tho foreigner, Wo stepped on board ono of the square drab* and found a blazo of lamps and tho usual rich gilt work —a glorious nover-to-bo-forgotton change from the pervading primitive "power" of outside Wuchow.

A Ghineso Orchestra. Thero was a fat Chinaman in waiting, wh» gravely rooeivod from tho captain three slips with Chinese hieroglyphics representing the names of throe flower girls—for tho flowor girls of Wuchow have many engagements per night, and must work hard to pay the very heavy tax squeezed by tho No. 1 Taotai or Prefect, as tho case may bo. And presently tho girls came in, dressed in the curious seemly costumo which appears appropriate and graceful: embroidered trousers and pretty over robe with neat Chineso shoes — only tho very high class Chinese can afford tho lily feet. Tho most picturesque portion of tho dress was tho headgear—a triumph of simplicity and almond oil, stroked back and rolled into a knot like a closed fist, and ornamented with gold pins, perhaps with flowers. It was curious to watch tho girls pull out their little hand-mirrors and retoilot themselves, a touch of powdor here, and a brilliant rouge an their lower lips. Ono of the visitors had fair hair, and he blushed furiously at tho evident curiosity and amusement ilhown by tho threo singing girls. Presently the Chinos© orchestra came in. Of all tho weirdities, a Chineso orchestra is supromo, supreme from tho quaint old fiddle and tho marvellous flute to tho imitation kettle-drum, and tho' noise evoked _ would educate many musicians? Accompanied by tho orchestra tho girls sang solos. _ Chineso singing is in« variably falsetto, high-pitched, querulous, like a thing in pain-r-1 frankly admit I hav« no oar for music, but it is still true that th« men vocalists have exactly tho same high falsetto.' If _ono wished for an appropriate term, "crooning" would probably apply. Imagine the high-pitched notes without expression, mingling with tho noise of the orchestra, and confined in tho thick, heavy air of the flowor boat, and you will ' understand that tho effect was almost a kind of hypnosis, a wondering langour, touched occasionally by tho sob of tide on wooden side. By way of variety wo picked out tho fluto player mado him soloiso." It was something quite new for him to make melody on his own account, and his friends wore oonvulsed. Ho ran up gaily on a high note and camo down in a heap as bis sense of humour overcamo him, or ho started in oh a low note and jgigglod up the scalo as never Chinese flute giggled before, and, finally, being fat, he lay down his flute and grinnoa in creasos—hereafter wo preferred tho combined effect. The Chinese feminine, however, has a temper, and not to be preferred to a low-class flute coolie mado tho threo singora angry. They pulled out their littlo mirrors and dabbed rouge on rouge, but sing they wpuld not, oven for tho captain Irish onJearment of "Arrahl Allanahl"

Stories and Supper. ' Fortunately at. this stage wo /wore found' 6y tho Imperial Maritime Customs—tho many nationalities of Sir Eobert Hart's creation. For an hour wo yarned with these men— ranging from a Russian Pole to a young Australian—and the stories which passed that night would mako good reading and have the merit of truth; of a piracy, of a quack doctor, of opium smuggling, of H who ended liquor with a gun-shot, of Chinese tortures, of flood and fire, and of other things. Lastly they drifted out into river boate and wo turned back to suppor. It was a Chinese supper which cost many dollars—pigeons' oggs, and soup of birds' nests, chopped.chicken, and minced pork, etc, coloured sweetmeats, Chinese tea —throughout it gurgled and wailed the orchestra, and occasionally an nppeascd damsol, having picked out Chinese delicacies with chopsticks, broke into the falsetto. Somewhere about 1 o.m. _wo scrambled into a small sampan and went into darkness in search of our little steamer. The memory of that supper is still vivid: one remembers less gladly the life history or one of those three girls, but there aro things and things and other things which only happon in real life, and over sadness it is well to' linger but a short while.