THE NEW CHINA

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1930, Page 8

THE NEW CHINA

RESULTS OF REVOLUTION. UPHEAVAL OF CENTURIES. Such contrasts of happiness and misery, splendour and squalor—contrasts, too, of callousness and deep affectiongive to Chinese life a light and shade startling in crudity, supreme in effect (writes a correspondent to the London "Times”) The Chinese are aware ol these contrasts. “The more dirty and more ragged are ‘ the bearers, the more splendid appears the chair and the master seated within its curtains,” was the opinion of ope who lovqd ceremony. But it is in the strange blending of blast and West, in modernity and medievalism, that foreigners find tlm greatest incongruity. Every one knows that at the Revolution pigtails were cut off; they have heard that officials exchanged the peacock’s feather for the top hat; but they feel no, certainty that the Revolution has gone deeper in tjm religion, in the thoughts of the Chinese people. THE ONE MAN. The Chinese had a system of government “which "in capable hands worked well, which rested on a central authority of iriimerise prestige, but wisely ;eft much to local discretion. The people paid theif taxes and ‘tilled their fieldsj'while the’power of the Emperor stood between them 'arid the barbarians betweeri 1 therii arid Cod. The patriarchat power of the family was the foundation of the State. The broxd tolerance of the cultured subscribed to no creed, the wide ignorance of the mass believed all creeds, so that any form of religion was tolerated that was not subversive. The rather conventional code of Confucius arid the caustic huniour of Mencius supplied the ideal of “U/hun Tzu,” the Superior Man, superior not by birth but by personal culture.

The avowed aim of Sun Yat-sen was not to destroy this aged culture or to undermine fariiilyllfe, blit to preserve them as the' foundation of ■ the modern State. He sought’only to destroy the Imperial and to ‘set in its place the idea of the Nation. But a people which for so lririg had boived down beforethe presence of One Man could'not easily piifc in his plafce an abstraction! Tlielr imaginations fraved for brie man. And; ! they were ’given for 'their idol—the linage of the dealt! iconoclast Sun Yat-sen. A shrine,, which in conception and scope is akin to the tombs of the Pharaohs, has been dedicated: his portrait and. his last will are the most revered emblems of China; his authority is more supreme than that of the Emperors, whose actions and words were checked by the Imperial censors. The people still, pay their taxes, and till their fields, while the power of the family maintainis its 'sway. Temples hold thejr services, and in tile spring sacrifices are yet made at the ancestral graves. But there' are unattended graveyards; whose walls are broken down, and perhaps their tomhs robbed. In whole districts temples have been forcibly converted into schools, hospitals, or barracks. The priests, of other temples, formerly fed by Royal bounty, have been forced by dire distress into abandoning the Cassock aind earning a livelihood as soldiers or labourers, rickshaw-pullers and beggars. A father can no longer hale an unfilial son Before the magistrate for domestic disobedience, arid sons now not infrequently choose their own brides. A score of years Ago early marriages were almost universal in China, as in all agricultural larids where the labour of the family was needed for the fields. Now a. son may leave his home to earn his living of to study abroad, hnd economic riecessity may make him tevert to an earlier tradition of Chinese society wheri the marriage of a man was 30 qnd 20 for a maid. In the enforcing of the ’law, however, the head of a family 1 iriay still be held responsible. The Revolution decreed, with greater success'than had the Manchus, that women’s feet should no longer be bound. Tile custom was barbarous and inflicted great suffering. But many old people clung to their prejudices. To such a one came two lesser officials who warned him that the ■feet of his wife arid secondary wife must be unbound. Bowing the officials Ceremoniously on their way, the owner of the house returned to his womenfolk, and did nothing. A month later the officials returned. The old householder explained that the women’s feet remained bound because the unbinding process must be accomplished slowly. The officials went on their way again, but the old man Was forced to go with them. On arrival at the Yamen, the admiriisfrative buildings, he vfas' told:; “You admire bound feet, we will bind ; yqur feet,” and presently:— “You like to watch people walking on bound feet, von will try it for yourself.’’ Between pain find mortification at. the jeers of his tormentors the old man became unite ill, and returned broken to the law. ;

PIGTAILS AND PIPES. While the Revolution has for the most part eradicated hound feet and pigtails in the rising generation, it has a hard struggle in its attempt to istatrm out opium, gambling, and the keeping of concubines. In many districts laws against, the cultivation of the poppy are rigorously enforced, police supervision is at time strict, unlicensed smokers are prosocuted ,and public burnings of opium and opium pipes take place. Most peole take to opium because they

have some, physical pain or are overworked. The.r.,opium . temporarily soothes the body and-makes the mind clear, and active. If it. is persisted in, however, . the physical and mental reactions become increasingly severe.

The evils of opium and of drink are soinetimes "compared. 1 The Chinese past-niasters, in the,.art of living, are not teetotallers.. At bachelor dinnerparties games of forfeits are played, and the loser drinks a qup of wine. Faces get flushed, speech may be confused, but the loser of many forfeits, is sent quietly liomp to. bed. The Chinese have not taken greatly to foreign wines or spirits, with the exception of brandy of which they are sometimes rather fond. Their Own wines are .made from rice or kao-liang (giant millet) ; they are usually apd. taken during pieals, but before the serving of rice.