THE YOUNG IDEA IN CHINA

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 21, 16 April 1927, Page 5

THE YOUNG IDEA IN CHINA

The lot of a young - Chinese mother is hardly an enviable one. There is not one event in her child’s life which is not surrounded by numerous superstitions. Our mild examples of spilt salt, new moon and ladders are nothing compared to the Chinese idea of superstition. The fourth day of any month is unlucky in China, since the word “death”

is almost synonymous with this numeral. In consequence, a child born on such a date is considered doomed from the start and friends show great sympathy to the hapless mother. A Chinese child assumes importance when it is four months old. Them it is given its first name and a great festival takes place, attended by crowds of guests. The wretched infant is brought out, swathed in innumerable wrappings, and the anxious parents await the judgment of the assembly which in most cases is anything but kind. The poor mother trembles for fear lest a guest in the crowd should possess an evil eye and cast it over the child. But the ceremony is one of utmost social importance and woe betide the parents who venture to avoid it! The Chinese hold that children possess no souls until they are five months old. Therefore at this time another festival is given and the real life-name is bestowed on the baby. There is a curious detail about this second feast, for on this occasion the child is expected to have acquired sufficient intelligence to predestine its own future. After the guests have had their ample share of the feast, the newly named baby is brought forward once again and a huge tray, filled with miscellaneous articles, is put within its reach. Naturally enough, the baby grabs something or other from the tray and symbolism is attached to the article it seizes. A small box of ivory means early death; a crooked spoon, unhappy marriage for the girl; a broken pen, commercial failure for the boy. But if the spoon is not crooked and the pen not broken, then both marriage and commercial venture will prove successful. It is easy to imagine the frenzied state of the poor mother, as she watches the podgy baby fingers move in and out among the things piled high on the tray.