LIFE IN SHANGHAI

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 974, 14 January 1882, Page 2

LIFE IN SHANGHAI

The" Yagabond,"who is contributing- ' an iuterostme; serios of articles on China ; to the" Australasian," thus describes the ' scene on the Bubbling Wells road, a kind of Rotten Row in tho suburbs of Shang-. hai:—" Prom live to seven o'clock in the summer evenings this road is one of the sights of the world, Hundreds of vehicles pass up and down. Broughams, barouohes, phaetons, dogcarts, buggies, children in miniature pony carriages—ronmding one of the Bois—other their first lessons in equitation, in the orthodox English fashion.' the majority are driving, and thew are : no ladies on horseback. Lawn tennis is almost too much exertion in the East for the fair sox. They prefer at five o'obck . to put on their warpaint—figuratively speaking—and 101 l back in a brougham and pair, admired also, of course,'by all, and all especial objects of interests to the Chinese womeu, who we-taking, their evening drive on the road. Numbers _ of. open carriages are filled with singing girls and their amahs-female servants''who. act ns duennas. These girls, of whom one hoars so much, are painted and enamelled, their hair plastered down, and j every endeavour apparently exerted to ,J| givo their faces a flat and expressionless - appearance. And I, must confess that, from our point of view, their efforts j are rewarded with success. 'But.this is a Chinaman's tvpo of beauty—tho flat-faced woman familiar to us on porcelain-ware •and pictures.* The more : insane-looking these girls (some of whom would other.wise be really pretty) make themselves appear tlie greater, their beauty, Their I dress seems simple enough,'; A Chinaman witli only two visible garments always of tho same sack-like pattern has not much chance of putting on style, but their uncovered heads are often, adorned with strings of pearl of great'prico. -The young Chinese who come to spend their money in Shanghai as a regular Paris of amusoment and dissipation, go mad about these girls, and lavish as vast sums on , thorn as the goldeu youth of the French capital did on Nana ard her friends of the theatres. So a singiug girl often accumulates a largo fortuno, and ends her days in the odour of respectability ami sauctity. But to achieve this she must bo absurdly ugly, and havo a voice like a screech-owl, There are many other Chinese woinon driving about, often family, groups, and in theso tho children have an eager, inquiring look which it is delightful to see, as an evidence of a joiut human nature with these strango people."