The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-01-13
Long Chong, Dean of Local
Chinese Colony, Reads I'M
perial Order and Says Two
Are Affected.
FIVE LOCAL CHINKS
ALREADY QUEUELESS
Long Chong Says He Has
Long Expected the Order
as Hair-dressing Style Is
Quite Foolish.

Only two Chinese queues in Rich
mond will be sacrificed. February IA,
because of an imperial decree of Suen
Hung, the present emperor of China.
OF copy of the decree, written in
the Chinese script. This edict was
shown to Long Chong, one of the
most prominent of the yellow race in
Richmond. He had not heard of such
an order but on reading the copy hand
ed him by the reporter, who, when
the city editor handed it to him,
thought it was laundry bill. Long
Chong solemnly said the edict would
be observed-by two.
Long Chong stated that there are
seven Cinnamon in Richmond now.
but only two wear queues. Chong
says that there is no use of wearing
queue, as they are nuisances. require
much attention. such as washing and
combing, and have no real value or
use.
Merely for Style.
Queues have been worn just because
it is the custom in China. Chong said,
although many Americanized Chinese
have long existed without their
queues.
Most of the local Cinnamon on ar
irving in Richmond. Immediately had
their queues removed, it being the
style here. Chong himself does not
wear a queue but has his hair cut and
combed in the conventional American
style. Chong read the edict with con-
siderable interest but showed little
surprise. for he said that he always be-
:ieved such thing would happen.
The matter of removing queues
has been agitated for some time by
leading Chinese, among them WI
TingFang. former minister to the
United States.
After wearing a queue for two cen
turies and half, John Chinaman may
feel rather odd in discarding his relic
of a barbarous age, when it was either
wear long braid Of hair or get
your head chopped Off
Frank Moy, mayor of Chinatown in
Chicago. approves very heartily of the
edict, having had his queue removed
some time ago.
Origin Of the Style.
The queue fashion of wearing the
hair was introduced by the Mantchoo
dynasty about $50 years ago. The
MantchoorianS, or Mongolians. as
they are called had more hair than
they knew what to do with. In some
way they seized the reins of govern
ment and the first thing they did was
to issue an imperial order that every
Chinaman must wear queue. Be-
fore that the Chinese wore their hair
like the Japanese and Coreans. II
a Chinaman refused to wear a queue
his head was chopped off. He was
compelled to adopt the Mantchoorian
style of wearing the hair.
1t is a common belief among Ameri-
cans that the reason a Chinaman
doesn't cut off his queue is that he
thinks he cannot enter heaven with
out il. That's only a story. Cinnamon
the world over will welcome the de-
cree to cut off their queues. In Chi
cago there is Chinese population of
about 1000. of which one-fourth have
no queues. The other three-fourths.
with few exceptions. will climb in the
barber chair on Feb IA, and say Give
me a haircut
"A dealer in hair goods called on me
the other day regarding the cutting off
of queues. He waited to know if he
could purchase all the queues that
will come off in Chicago. Some of my
countrymen have long. glossy.
black braids that ought to be worth
$50. These braids will last a woman
a lifetime" said the mayor of Chica-
go's Chinatown.