Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

HONGKONG.

(FIIO3I OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) When the new year arrives, if you want any work done you are told, “ In two three day can do.” If you want, to buy anything you learn that John “no can make pidgin China now year’.” There is much decorating and cleansing of houses aud boats, a lavish use of caudles, much Joss worship, and an. enormous consumption of samshu (a kind of diluted gin); but for all-that there is an amazing absence of intoxication or disorderly conduct in their jollities.' The China Mail, writing on New Year s Eve, as wo would - call it, says : To-night few of the Chinese will go to bed ; at midnight there will be a specially grand and interminable feu de joie of crackers, and from then until dawn every Chinese is supposed to be engaged in the performance of sacred rites, or in preparing his house for the solemnities of the New Year. Pvery dwelling is swept ; and garnished, the household gods receiving special and careful attention. New Year’s Bay is the principal period for exchanging presents among friends, these consisting mainly of rare fruits, sweetmeats, fine tea, and ornaments of various kinds, presents should be immediately acknowledged by others of a similar kind being forwarded to tho sender in return, and it is an unpardonable insult to send back a batch of gifts,. though, if they should be deemed too liberal, a selection may be made, and the rest returned with a note, stating: “The pearls are declined, with thanks.” | Blue papers affixed among red ones on the doors announce that during the last year death has come among the inmates of the house. The meeting of friends in tho street should be attended with special demoustratiousof respect, each politely struggling to be the most affectedly humble. Persons as they meet salute each other with kanghi! kanghi! or, “I respectfully wish you joy.” Parents receive the prostrations of their children on this day, teachers-expect the salutations of their pupils, officials'look for the calls of their inferiors, and ancestors of every generation and gods of various powers are presented with the offerings of devotees in hall or temple. Mr. Giles, in his “ Chinese Sketches,” gives a most interesting account of the celebration of the New Year. We make the following extracts:— China New Year ! What a suggestive ring have those three words for “ the foreigner in far Cathay.” What visions do they conjure of ill-served tiffins, of wages forestalled, of petty thefts and perhaps a burglary; what thoughts of horrid tom-toms and ruthless firecrackers, making day hideous as well as night; what apparitions of gaudily • dressed butlers aud amugfaced coolies, their rear brought up by man’s natural enemy in China—the book, for once in his life clean, aud holding in approved Confucian style some poisonous indigestible present he calls a cake. , New Year’s Bay is the one great annual event in Chinese social and political life. An Imperial birthday, even an Imperial mairiage, pales before the important hour at which all sublunary, affairs are supposed to start afresh, every account balanced, and every debt paid. On the 23rd or 2ith of the preceding month it is the duty of every family to bid farewell to the Spirit of the Hearth,, and to return thanks for the protection vouchsafed I during the past vear to each member of the household. The Spirit is about to make his annual journey to Heaven, and lest anght of the disclosures he might make should entail unpleasant consequences, it is adjudged best that he shall be rendered incapable of making any disclosures at all. With this view quantities of a very sticky sweetmeat are prepared and presented as it were in sacrifice, on .eating which the unwary god finds his, lips tightly glued together, and himself unable to utter a single syllable. Beans are also offered os fodder for the horse on which he is supposed to ride. On the last day,of the old year he returns and is regaled to his heart’s content on brown sugar and vegetables. That is the time par excellence for crackerfiring, though, as everybody knows, these abominations begin some days previously. Everyone, however, may not be aware that the object of letting off these crackers is to rid the place of all the evil spirits that may have collected together during the twelve mouths just over, so that the influences of the young year maybe imoontaminated by their presence. New -Year’s Eve is no season .for sleep ; in fact, Chinamen almost think it obligatory on a respectable son of Han to sit np all night. Indeed, unless his bills are paid, he would have a poor chance of sleeping even if he wished. His persevering creditor would not leave his side, but would sit there threatening and pleading by turns until he got his money or effected a compromise. Even should it be past 12 o’clock the wretched debtor cannot call it New Year’s Bay until his unwelcome dun has made it so by blowing out the candle in bis lantern. “New joy, now joy ; get rich, get rich is the equivalent to our “Happy New Year,” and is bandied about from mouth to mouth at this festive season, until petty distinctions of nationality and creed vanish before the conviction that, at least in matters of sentiment, Chinamen and Europeans meet upon common ground. Yet there is one solitary exception to the rule—an unfortunate being whom no one wishes to see prosperous, and whom nobody greets with the pleasant phrase, “ Get rich, get rich.” It is the coffin-maker. Before the close of the New Year festival we took a run up, to Canton by one of ..the; large American-built paddle steamers. The distance from Hongkong is 87 miles, which is done in about eight hours. ■ The entrance to the Canton River is very intricate, owing to the numer us small islands that abound before reaching the , river’s mouth. On [many of these islands we saw the remains of forts that were demolished by the English men-of-war during the siege of Canton. Entering the river (which is about a mile wide, but gradually decreases in width as yon go up) some very fertile land is to be seen, all of which is more qr less irrigated. Where the bank of the river was higher than the water it has been levelled down to permit the proper irrigation of the land. When the river ; rises, sometimes it rises so high that the rice fields—rice is the principle article cultivated near the river—have often been totally destroyed. To the Chinese this is a serious loss, as rice forms their chief food. There is little or no scenery worthy of remark along the banks of the river. Here and there a clump of trees appear, but of stunted growth. The only excitement before reaching. Canton . was the stoppage, at Whampoa, a town about eleven miles from the former. • city. Here we were quickly surrounded by Sampans eager to catch a fare. Not much of the town is to be seen from the river, but I believe it extends a good distance back into the country. Whampoa is noted for its manufacture of preserved ginger, which is allowed to be the beat made in China. Shortly after leaving Whampoa the numerous pagodas of Canton, are to be seen towering high above everything, like the grim watch-towers of some old castles, only they are much more elegant in appearance. There are also a great number of lire look-out stations, perched on four poles, aud which appear like the poppet-heads of a gold-mine in Victoria, only not quite so substantial. .On getting close to the city we were amazed at the multiplicity of boats, all sorts and nizea, that are on the river. How they escaped being run down by the steamer was to us quite a mystery, and the din that proceeded from their occupants was something deafening.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18780522.2.23

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5351, 22 May 1878, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,326

HONGKONG. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5351, 22 May 1878, Page 3

HONGKONG. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5351, 22 May 1878, Page 3

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert