The Portland daily press., 1880-06-24
Chinese Grotesqueness.
physician and Patient.l

Undoubtedly the first and most lasting i'm
preston which China and the Chinese convey
to the mind of the foreigner is that Of gro
tesqueness. All instinctively realize the truth
of this, yet few know the reason of it. To
Europeans China appears grotesque simply
and solely because the customs and manners
of the people are so opposite to our own So
cially, no less than physically. they are our
antipodes. Their habits are as opposite to ours
as the direction of their bodies. In getting on
horse the Chinese mount on the right side.
The left hand seat at the table is the seat of
honor, and to retain your hat during call is
esteemed mark of respect. Visiting cards
are painted bright vermilion color, and are
not unfrequently three feet long. A married
woman, while young and pretty, is slave
but when she becomes old and withered is fire.
quently the most powerful and respected per-
son in the family.
When Chinaman furnishes his house, in
stead of buying rosewood piano or carved
he invests in a handsome camphor-wood coffin,
which he carefully keeps in the best place in
his house. No wonder, with such an object
perpetually reminding him of his latter end,
that we find the average Chinaman a somber
and somewhat melancholy parsonage. ;
Their in door social life, strange as it ap-
pears to US, is, if possible, less remarkable than
their outdoor industrial habits. Their mill
tary customs and costume are especially pecu.
liar. Their soldiers, instead of casing them
selves in helmet. cuirass and gamashes, wear
quilted pettlcoats, satin boots, and bead neck
laces, carry comparatively harmless weapons,
and rush to night attack with lanterns in
their hands, being apparently more afraid of
the dark than of the attack of the enemy.
Ladies ride about in wheelbarrows, while cows
1u.xv rv,p rInrrn nv, tt.n 81
great wall, between Pekin and the Nankow
pass. sketched a characteristic group, which
consisted of stout, intelligent-looking cody,
wheeling barrow that contained buxom
young woman, whose feet dangled from one
side of the wheel, while large, and not over
SavOry smelling pig SnOred cOmpOSedly on the
other. ,
Cinnamon of every class and grade, as is
we'll known, are passionately fond of fire.
works, but prefer to exhibit them in the day.
time. While in Europe the feet of culprits
are put in the stocks, among these strange peo-
pie the stocks are hung around the neck.
China has long been famous for it's canals
and its wonderful system of inland navigation.
The means adopted for land locomotion are,
however, scarcely less peculiar than those in
vogue on the water; for while their boats are
almost universally drawn by men, their carri-
ages and carts are in favorable weather as IL
variably propelled by sails.
In China the family name comes first, and
the christian, or given name, afterward
Their mourning color is white, instead of
black as with us, and they mourn their pa
rents three years. They resemble us in one
thing, however, though they differ slightly in
their method of showing it; they are fond of
good living, and indeed, are great epicures in
their way. A Chinaman will not drink drop
of milk, but he will devour birds nests, snails,
and the fins of sharks with the keenest RELISH
Instead, however, of indulging in the discor-
dant clatter of knives and forks so character
istic of an English dinner they toss their meat
into their mouths to a tune, every man keep
ing time with his chop-sticks The time, how
ever, is not generally either musical or provo
cative of appetite, and a Chinese dinner is
usually a very tame affair.