Then some compliments are made him in return. Then he- is thoroughly beaten by the whole family. That the child will die is inevitable, while to say that he will be rich or a high official may be a lie. Yet the lie is rewarded, whereas the statement of the inevitable gains a beating. In the boat on the river a woman is wailing for her dead mother.
Every woman is born with the instincts of a mother and daughter.
There is no such thing as wifely instincts. Wifely instincts come through the force of circumstances, and are simply the combination of the instincts of mother and daughter. The sight of women's short sleeves at once makes them think of bare arms, of the naked body, the genitals, copulation, promiscuity, and bastards. This is the sole respect in which the Chinese have a lively imagination. II from John Gittings, ed.