The Washington times., 1901-09-22
FOREIGN DEVILS IN CHINA.
Cigarette Pictures and Theatrical
PosteEs Increase Native Contempt.

AS l have gone down these thirty years
of life in China the words Foreign Dew
lis" Chinese Hevils'' have seemed to re-
main with me as something deep down
in the undercurrent of my life that every
now and again insisted on making them
selves heard / have come to believe that
we foreigners in China, as class, think
too much about the Chinese Devil part
of the subject and not enough OF the 9TH
er side.
Do we foreigners realize what we have
done and are doing to make Shanghai
the sink of iniquity that 1t Is? We scat
ter broadcast over these settlements, and
from here into the country at large, such
pictures and advertisements as should
make us all ashamed. The worst ones
are all of foreign women and as We sent
them out, we say to these heathen chi
nese. who have far more Christian IDEAS
in this respect than, We have. that we
care not what the world thinks of our
women.
We put her forth into the glare of the
worlds broad sunlight, We set her up
before millions of curious eyes. and say,
Here Is our foreign woman dressed up
undressed. it is all the same to us. Look
at her. Think of her as you will.
We are so anxious to have you buy
our cigarettes and come to our thea
tres and circuses that we are willing
to expose our women in any way
you like best. We SO want to have
you buy our wares that We will
ingly surrender all our ideas of propriety.
In exchange for your gold We will give
our goods and throw in our social purity
at no extra charge" We post all over
this settlement ii life-sized picture of an
american girl smoking a cigarette hoping
20 get the Chinese girl, l suppose. to FOL
low her example. We scatter picture
cards By millions. even begging shop
keepers to give them away when they sell
their goods. if only we may bring to the
notice of few more thousands of these
heather Chinese how anxious We are to
have them buy or cigars and how lightly
we value the honor of our foreign women.
About ten years ago when the large Gig
arctic advertisement pictures began to be
SO plentiful in Shanghai l was going fre-
quently tc the home of one OF our Christ
ians to teach his wife. to read. To my sor-
row l found one day two of these hung
up in their guestroom. l told them at
once how very sorry I was to see them
there. The old mother in the family, ter-
self Christian, said why. my son has
just bought them. He Thought they were
very ornamental" Said !: If that clus-
ter of women were Chinese women and
dressed, or, rather. undressed. in that
fashion, would you have Them in your
room for one monent?" She seemed hor
rified at the idea WELL" said 1, II am
a foreign woman and they are foreign
women, and l am ashamed to look at
them" On my next visit they had disap-
peared and, onimy remarkins upon it, the
mother said: sAs soon as L told my son
what you said he decided that they must
go at once"
In another home of our Christians
found two large (nearly life-size). pic
lures of similar nature. One of them
was of foreign woman in a neat, tight
fitting street costume; the other of
woman dressed for the ball. 1 turned to
the latter and said: II am exceedingly
sorry to see this in your home" The
wife, pointing to the other asked: do
you think 1t any worse than that?" Her
manner implied a contempt for any wom-
an who would appear in either way, she
seeming to consider one just as bad as
the other. This was the severest COM
ment ever heard on our wearing tightly
fitting garments, though one other of our
Christian women said to me later: You
foreign women seem to dress so as to ex-
pose your person as much as possible. We
Chinese women prefer to dress so as to
conceal them" She freely admitted that
these pictures were none of her choosing,
but that her husband thought they adorn-
ed the home. Her quiet sarcasm was rath-
er difficult to bear. This conversation
was evidently reported to the husband,
for these two pictures also disappeared
from that home.
How does all this make US appear in
the eyes of the Chinese? j don't wonder
they call US foreign devils. / think it is
a very appropriate form of address. For
eign men take their wives and daughters
TO dinner at the hotels and private resi-
dences in Shanghai clad in such a man
ner as makes the Chinese servants at first
ashamed to wait upon them.
Sir Robert Hart never wrote truer
thing than he wrote recently about the
sensitiveness of the Chinese nature. They
are superior TO US in this trait and we sin
against it beyond telling. Some of the
Chinese think very slightingly of us for
eigners and we certainly deserve no bet
ter at their hands.-North China Herald.