“FOREIGN DEVILS”

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 55, 29 November 1926, Page 10

“FOREIGN DEVILS”

THE EUROPEAN THROUGH CHINESE EYES It is easv enough to get a European idea of the Chinese arid their ways, but the Chinese idea of the European is not readilv accessible. to the magazine "China’s Millions, the following is a translation of a Chinese gentleman’s letter to his famjlv “You cannot civilise these foreign devils. They will live for weeks arid months without touching a mouthful of rice but they eat the fle'sh of bullocks and sheep in enormous quantities. That is why they smell so badlv; they smell like the sheep themselves. Every day they take a bath to rid themselves of their disagreeable odours, but they do not succeed. Nor do they eat their meat cooked in small pieces/ It is carried into the room in large chunks, often half-raw, and thev cut and slash and tear it apart. It makes a civilised being, perfectly nervous. One fancies himself in the presence of sword-swallowers. They even sit at the same table with women, and the latter are*'served first, reversing the order of nature.”