Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-20
THE CHINESE PUZZLE.
The Forecast of a Chinese Merchant
Resident in Boston.

Resident in Boston.
Mr.. Klung Wun of Boston, one of the
principal Chinese merchants in the United
States. and one of the officers of the
wealthy Chinese companies in San Fran
cisco. has this to say of the present situa-
ton in China and its probable outcome:
1.-The papers of the United States are
wrong when in editorials they say of
China, The end has come God would
be merciful If it were the end. The Chris
tan nations have entered into the field and
must reap the harvest The Chinese DEM
agogues have melted the people, who in
turn have followed them. The leaders will
die on battlefelds and in the execution
places. The people who must bear the
brunt will suffer more than in the TAPPING
rebellion, the Mohammedan rebellion or the
great famine ending in 1878. l believe that
foreign machine guns, their fighting
against each other already begun and the
famine resultant upon war will slay them
continually. 1t is not unwise to place the
minimum at five million lives. One for
eigner for every twenty Chinese will be
killed.
1.-The Chinese mind and the Christian
mind are two different things. The Chris
tfan mind loves the new-loves the country
Is impatient, Is unvenerating. is accurate
and unbelieving. The Chinese mind loves
the old, does not care what is the dynasty,
is patient, is proud and satisfied with the
fathers, judges by circumstances not rules,
and knows of the gods and the little gods
The two can never understand each
other. Education in Europe has never
made one of our Chinese young men IIu-
ropean in character; Christian conversion
never makes them American in character.
The old does not change under the two
your greatest influences. The iron rule by
the military method will permit the in
coming of civilized technical knowledge, of
manufactures and arts. and then the day
will come in the next generation when they
heir NOV how ,ri,
them against you
China will be still China if the nations
are wise and just and her own people will
rule her. The people are all willing to
know the new things, but wish to retain
the old. 1t is not the things of the for
eigners they hate; it is the foreigner him
self who runs railways through their
fathers graves, who does not respect the
and wears dress suit, frock coat and silk
hat himself; who hurries himself and hur-
ries them; who is contemptuous to them
because they do not know things he does
when their scholars know much more that
he does not. The people believe in Ii Hung
Changes great light, the literary people
follow kwonS-yuuy and the reformers and
they know the emperor would give them
good things.
Let the nations obtain part control Of
north China, the viceroys and yamen will
govern the middle kingdom and south.
then make a new dynasty, or put a new
man at the head He must be a soldier
a diplomat statesman and a scholar in
European and Chinese. He must be the
greatest man in all China. The yamen
must be kept up everywhere by Chinese
officers. That much is good and can be
done.
Now money must be had for new ships
new forts. schools. new railways and
all that. There must not be increased di-
rect tax, rather less The people will do
anything for a system which will make
taxes less, the bikes safer, the robbers
fewer and food more plentiful. The va
men robS the people and robs the emperor
now. Their robberies will make up the
money with a tax on commerce. Then,
this must not come at first. the incoming
and grabbing of foreign companies, for
they will destroy Chinese factories and
trade. They take money away from China
''kwong-yowe is in Singapore. He is a
good man and a great man. If he is a SOL
der as strong as Ii Hung Chang he is the
best man to rule. The Manchu people will
follow the princes, and the ruffians and
soldiers. as we'll as hundreds of thousands
of others will follow them. These must be
conquered and scattered without arms for
they would go to the west and return very
strong, and maybe fight each other as well
as foreigners. However 1t is We will suf-
fer commercially in the United States
many millions of dollars, China will lose
many million people, and the largest armies
ed There is no other way. But it will
not end China, for even If one hundred
millions were killed the race is too strong
and too great-you do not know how great
II Will rise like the soWn dragons teeth.
There should be wisdom and the dra CONS
teeth sown be as few as possible, or fifty
years will see awful things on this earth"