Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-26
CHINESE PROGRESS

II ORCED back upon its own resources
IT by the absolute and unconditional
refusal of occidental civilization to
mingle with it or cooperate with it.
the Chinese nation of late years has
been making advances and achieving
results, a detailed account Of which is
highly astonishing to any Causasian
who still speaks contemptuously of the
heathen Chinee, or cherishes the de-
lusion the intense conservatism Of
China which is at last giving way in
all directions, had aught in common
with degeneration.
wei CHING w. Yen, second secretary
of the Imperial Chinese legation. in q
pamphlet printed by the American As
soclatlon for International Cancellation.
points out that in recent years a revo-
luton has taken place in the Chinese
world of thought China has a Utera-
ture of Its own that is equal in extent
and quality to that of Greece or of
Rome. But this wealthy mine of Chinese
literature has been enriched in
fashion little dreamed of by the white
man who talks carelessly of the beathep
Chinee.
Ihe best works Of the west have been
translated into Chinese, and have prac-
tieally become part of the literature of
China. Thus a condition not gratifying
to our national pride and racial bump-
tiousness has been brought about
While the average American citizen Is
in the darkest ignorance of Chinese
literature, many intelligent Chinese are
familiar with the works of John Stuart
Mill Huxley, Spencer, Darwin. Henry
George and other economic, phiIosophic
and scholarly western writer's.
The doctrine of the survival of +be
fittest is on the lips of every thinking
Chinese, and its grim significance is
not lost on a nation that seems to he
the center of the struggle in the Far
East. Western knowledge is being ab-
sorbed by Chinese students In China.
and abroad at a rapid rate. and the
mental power of large part of four
hundred millions of people, formerly
concentrated on the Confucian classics
is being turned in new direction-tbe
study of the civilization of the west.
Socially, an agricultural people is be-
ing transformed into a manufacturing
and industrial nation, and the trans
formation is taking place speedily.
New desires have given birth to new
wants. The railway and the steamship
must take the place of the mule cart.
the sedan chair and the house boat.
Gas and electricity are supplanting the
paper lantern and the oil lamp.
The roar of the loom dins in the ears
of the factory girl, who has been used
to the hand-weaving machine. The
smoke of factories and arsenals soils
the blue of Chinese skies and threatens
to make hideous the exterior form az
nature in various parts of China, even
as it has in various parts of the west
The foreign trade of Shanghai is al
ready greater than that of Boston, ana
Hongkong is one of the greatest sea
ports in the world.
Nay more, we are told by Mr. Yen.
"the people Of China are gradually com.
ing to their own and with the elaborate
preparations now being made for a con-
stitutional government, it is only a
question of a few years when q Chinese
parliament will be an established fact
and another member of the human
family will be added to the ranks OF
those that enjoy a liberal and pro-
gressive form of government"
AND, THEN2