The heart of a continent : vol.1 / Page 50 (Color Image)

0050	The heart of a continent : vol.1

recall a plate of stewed young celery. He may differ from us
as to the means of doing it, but it is evident that the Celestial
has a very good idea of the way to look after the inner man.
I cannot say, however, that I can bestow much praise on his
liquor department. Warmed spirit distilled from rice is not
good, and taken as incessantly as a Chinese expects you to
take it, and as most Chinamen do take it, it is apt to make
you decidedly heavy, if not more, and sick as well. But the
point in which the Chinese most excel in these social gather-
ings is in their duties as hosts. They are perfect hosts, full
of attention to their guests, of cheery bonhomie, and of con-
versation. There is elaborate politeness, and a good deal of
etiquette is observed, but no stiffness is apparent; every one
is cheery, and every one talks incessantly. It was a revelation,
indeed, to us to find what good fellows these Chinamen could
be amongst themselves. Seeing only the lower classes, the
mule-men, the loafers of the streets, and the frequenters of
the inns, one is apt to form a very unfavourable impression
of the Chinese, and to regard them as a rude, coarse, and un-
mannerly race, who hate strangers, and take little trouble to
disguise their feelings. But when one can see the Chinese
gentlemen at home, one modifies this impression very con-
siderably; 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. China-
men have little regard for strangers, but I think they have
for one another. Then, again, their cheeriness amongst them-
selves is a trait which one likes. The general impression
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

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

OCR Text

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

OCR Text

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books