New-York tribune., 1900-08-16
D CHINESE DIVERSITTES.

Lond WOlseley recently. speaking in his char
acteristcally pessmstic tone of the magnitude
Of the task which the Powers have on hand in
China, and, indeed, of the menace which China
might become to all the rest Of the world spoke
of the Chinese Empire as containing a homo
geneous nation of about four hundred million
people, all with the same language, customs
and laws 1t Is true. as we have hitherto
observed that solidarity and unity quite un-
precedented in Chinese history have Oeen devel-
oped in the present troubles Yet the facts Of
the case are by no means such as might be in
ferred from Lord Wolseley's statement. 1t is
perfectly well known that in the Chinese EN-
pire there are two major races, differing widely
from each other IN many important characteris-
tics. and hitherto antagonistic to each other,
and that in the western provinces several minor
yet still numerous and important races are to be
found. 1t is no less true that the languages OF
the Empire are several. distinguished by radical
differences
The two great races are, of course. the Chi
nese and the Tartars, which are at least as diff
ferent from each other as, let us say, the
French and Irish But each of these is sub
divided into several tribes and there are others
entirely apart from both. In Northeastern Man
churia we find the Tunguses a distinct race
and in the extreme south the Shans, Burmese
and Samese. The Tibetans form another ele-
ment while III Turkestan we find several more
with religion and customs as different from
those Of the Chinese as those of England are
from those Of Russia. The Empire is, indeed a
composite one, which has been so long held to-
gcther largely by granting to each of its men,
bers the largest possible degree Of elf-govern-
ment
The diversity of races suggests the diversity
Of Nv tho oId
nese, which is now practically dead language.
we find the modern Chinese used generally in
the north. central and western provinces of the
Middle Kingdom. the most important of ALL
But when reach the south we find in Kwang-
Tung some fifteen millions who speak Canton
ese and five millions more who use only the
Hakka dialects: and any of these twenty mill
ions transported to Peking would be as unable
to understand to make himself understood
as would q "Bowery Boy in Paris Again
there are the Min dialects. spoken in Foo KEN.
Che Kang and elsewhere. These are three in
number one of them being used by ten mill
ions and the others by five millions each
Finally, there the Wu dialects three in
number with three more variant branches OF
these Wen-Chow claims one with one million
users, NiBgPO another with twenty-five mill
ions. and Shanghai and Soo-C Chow the third
with eighteen millions Here. then. we have at
least eighty four million people in China proper
not 10 mention Mongolia, Turkestan Tibet and
other regions who do not use the true Chinese
language.
The fact is that such cities as Canton, Foo
chow and Ning-Po as distinct from each
other in language as Paris. London and Berlin
and natives of any one would feel like and no
regarded foreigners in any other This fact
might not. of course necessarily prevent their
all combining to resist conquest by the Western
Powers For Mt least they all belong to the
great Mongolian race, and have certain com
mon characteristics and customs. But at times
they have warred among themselves and their
diversties of tribe and tongue may vet he
counted upon potent factor in the final dis
position OF the Empire.