Graham guardian., 1916-07-07
Mr.. JOHN CHINAMAN
His Faults and His Virtues
Described by Mrs.
Harley Martin

we are upI W HdNc elioheOuS
ideas about the Chinaman because
of what we see of him in our own
country. 1t is a lower class China
man who comes over here and does
laundry work and seems to have no
ambition save to make enough
money to return home and live on
afterwards. The John Chinaman of
whom | shall tell you, is an entirely
different person, as you will see. In
deed, ] have heard the statement
made by men who have lived in the
far east, that the Chinaman has the
best mind in the Orient, not even
excepting the Japanese
There are many things to be said
for and against John Chinaman. |
believe will mention some of his
short cOmings first ard leave his
better qualities and achievements
last, 50 they will remain in your
memory. Is that not best, to write
our brother s faults in the sand and
to carve his virtues on the tablets of
our hearts?
Now, Of course. we women won [
ever feel right toward John China
man as long as he has his poor
wife's feet bound, making her a
cripple; or as long as he disIikes his
baby daughters and throws them
out to perish. And we never liked
his pig-taii, though thank goodness,
he can now cut it off. Neither do
we like his eating old birds nests
and rat tails, and we think his chop
suey would be less obnoxious if he
would use modern si!verWar 10
stead Of chop sticks. We wish he
didn't cultivate that deadly poppy
! which has done so much harm in
the form of opium. 1t takes lot
Of Christian grace to forgive him
the massacring of our good Christian
missionaries during the Boxer Up.
rising. 1t is sad to think of his
killing good men and women who
had never done him any harm but
were sacrificing their lives to help
him. Then we look with disap-
proval upon the Chinaman's lack of
progress and his remaining behind
the times, but he seems now to have
suddenly waken up and in remark.
ably short time to have done away
with the oldest dynasty in the world
and to have cut loose from old
customs and established Il republic;
cut off his pig tail and doing awav
with his idols.
This is very remarkable, as the
Chinese Empire was the oldest tempire
existing on the face of the earth,
and has. until recently, formed a
separate world, as it we're, from the
rest of mankind, with a history dis
tinctIy its own and not connected
with that of other nations. While
great empires have successfully
risen and fallen in other parts of the
world, China has remained the same
for at least five thousand years,
surviving eli the great nations of
Western Asia, Northern Africa and
Europe. China furnishes an example
of permanence among nations. Com.
pared to Christian nations, it has
been remarkably peaceful, Its
civilization appears to have existed
without change from time i'm
memorial, and may nave existed
before that of the Nile valley.
Porcelain vessels. having Chinese
notices upon them, have been dis
covered in the ancient Egyptian
tombs exactly resembling those
made in China today.
The Great Wall on the northern
frontier, is the most stupendous
work of defense ever erected by
human hands. 1t was completed
about B. C. 2l5 and is now mostly
in ruins. Next to the Great Pyramids
of Egypt, the Great Wall Of China
is tie most ancient monument L, of
human labor still remaining. 1t is
fifteen hundred miles long, twenty
feet high, twenty-five feet thick at
base narrowing to fifteen feet at
top.
All China was intersected by
canals at very early period when
none existed in Europe. The Great
Canal, like the Great Wall, is un.
rivaled by any other remaining
work of its kind.
The manufacture of silk was un-
derstood in the most remote antiqu-
ity. They were acquainted with the
circulation of blood many ages be.
fore Harvey's discovery. They in
ocuIated for the smallpox in the
ninth century and invented printing
about the same time, also the COM
pass and gunpowder. When Europ-
cans entered China they were as
much surprised at the great libraries
of the Chinese as at their artillery.
The real power of the Chinese is
is the literary class. The poorest
mans son can reach the highest
positions which is very different
from the Caste system of India. 1t
is not an aristocracy of rank or birth
like that of England, nor an aristoc-
racy of wealth like the United
SLnL... -. ....l;Ln... n .inI onrnn.. Ill,