The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-07-17

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. d. ca
LIGHTING, which has swept pretty
X much over China, has lately
4 turned south to the province of
Kwangtung. This is China's
southernmost province, of which Can
ton is the capital 1t is motherland
to majority of the 10000 Chinese
now resident in the United States.
Canton was the first Chinese seaport
to come in contact with the outside
world. Her people in the earliest
times became sailors, traders and ad-
this southern city should have started
that Chinese exodus which has popu-
lated the shores of the Pacific.
From this same region some $1,000
Chinese have gone to the Philippines,
about $4,000 to Hawaii, and more than
million each to Java, Siam, Formosa
and Singapore. For most of these
emigrants Canton was port of depar-
ture on their great adventure, and
most of them came from the surround
ing district.
Arabs traded extensively by sea
with Canton in the Middle ages. Portu-
guese traders arrived at the mouth of
the river during the first quarter of
the Sixteenth century, bringing car
go of pepper. English ships and
traders did not come upon the scene
till more than a hundred years later,
but from that time until after the
the only Chinese port permitting for
eign trade. 1t is said that the Man
chu dynasty favored this arrangement
since Canton was the farthest great
seaport from their capital.
Thus, for more than 300 years Can
ton alone of Chinese cities came in
couch with western lands Her peO-
pie grew accustomed to foreigners and
their methods and were the first to
emigrate in large numbers.
Chinese emigration to America be-
gan with the discovery of gold in
California in 1S4S and Chinese labor
was in further demand on the trans
continental railroads BY 1880 there
were 105, 465 Chinese in the United
States. Then came the first of the
exclusion measures in 1882. Since
that time Americas Chinese popula-
ton has decreased some 40 per cent
More than half of American Chinese
live on the Pacific coast. In all the
United States there are fewer than
5000 chinese women.
Canton's Dialect.
Coming from the neighborhood of
Canton, American Chinese largely use
the Canton dialect, which so differs
from the spoken language of the rest
of China as to be totally unintelligible
20 native of Peiping (Peking). Can
tonese speech has a range of eight
tones while in Picking but four tones
are used Written symbols are, how
ever, the same and can be readily COM
same musical score can be played in
Italy and Russia. The American So
journer in China. who, as rule learns
the Peiping or Mandarin dialect. finds
upon his return to the United States
that he cannot converse with the Can
tonese laundryman or restaurant
waiter, but if he has learned to write
Chinese characters communication can
be carried on in this medium.
The waters Of the Pearl river off
many western nations in the past.
The first American ship arriving
there, the Empress of China. from
New York in 1854, was greeted by
traders from Holland, Portugal and
England who already had an estab-
lished trade with the Cantonese.
In late years the Pearl river his
been silted up, condition which
American engineers plan to remedy.
But even without large ships, Canton
now ranks with the great inland ports
Of the East. Travellers approaching
The city by boat are bewildered by the
shipping in the harbor. Thousands of
sampans. junks and other small river
craft nearly obliterate the surface Of
the water while the wharves bristle
with activity.
The boats in the channel move here
and there with small, short-haul car
goes, but along the sea wall bordering
the Bund, other email craft are tied
ten deep, floating at high tide and
settling in the mud at low.
1t is estimated that about quarter
Of million Cantonese are housed in
the boats on the Pearl and in the
canals through the city. Some boats
accommodate three to four families
as well as their fiocks Of chickens,
geese and pigs. Talkative parrots are