Title: Rambles Round Shanghai

Author: William R. Kahler

Year published: 1905

Interesting quotes:

“It seems strange that according to a number of religious beliefs, woman is either blamed or is threatened with something that the man escapes, the object being apparently to keep her down, while the Scriptural injunction commands a woman to obey her husband, thus making her the subordinate instead of the help-meet of the man.  A [Chinese] does not want girls in his family; the Jews expressed more joy on the birth of a son than they did on the birth of a daughter.  It may be that as the ancients had frequently to fight for their lives, the women were not of much use for such purposes; hence the high appreciation males were held in, but this does not hold good in all countries; witness Alaska, parts of Central Asia and some of the African tribes.  Among these, a woman is somebody; she is the superior, not the inferior of man.  We do not profess to accept this state of affairs, but we consider that the woman is at least equal to the man in many respects.”
pg. 17 chapter Chay So

Over a hundred years ago there were men who had this attitude about women.  Do you believe it?

“There are however, too many foreign devils in the air as we pass through, and this makes us feel like spanking some of the youngsters.  A foreigner at Canton once said that the expression was a term of endearment; he ought to have known better; nobody with any common sense would believe such nonsense..  It is probable the children do not know any other name for us, but it is evident they must have been taught by their elders to so designate us.  The grown-up people know better, for if taken to task for using the expression they immediately call us “foreign teacher” that is gentleman.”
pg. 134 chapter The Se Tah Hu

I always love it when my students call me LAO SHI 老师 while at the university.  It made me feel important!

The book can be found here.

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