Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 55 (Color Image)

0055	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. i.] CHINESE GENTLEMEN. 31

race, who hate strangers, and take little trouble

to disguise their feelings. But when one can

see Chinese gentlemen at home, one modifies

this first impression very considerably ; and

personally, from this and other occasions on

which I afterwards had opportunities of meeting

Chinese gentlemen, I saw much to admire and

even to like in them.

I liked their never-failing politeness to one

another, which seemed to me too incessant

and sustained to be mere veneer, and to

indicate a real feeling of regard for one

another. Then, again, their cheeriness is a

trait which one likes. The general impres-

sion among Europeans is that Chinamen are

cold, hard creatures who have not a laugh in

them. As a matter of fact, they have plenty

of heartiness and joviality when they care to

indulge in it. I should say, too, that their

conversation is good ; it is certainly bright, and

it is natural and well sustained. In conversation

with Europeans they do not excel ; they are

lamentably ignorant of geography, for instance,

and they often annoy the stranger by asking

if his country is tributary to China. But in the

conversation carried on amongst themselves

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