Title: Personal Reminiscences of Thirty Years’ Residence in the Model Settlement Shanghai, 1870-1900

Author: Charles M. Dyce

Year published: 1906

Interesting quotes:

“When it became known to my relations and friends in the early sixties, that I had an appointement in a big China house of business in London, I was warmly congratulated by them all.  They said that I was a very lucky lad, and that my fortune was as good as made.”
pg. 3 chapter 1

Is this still true today?  Do friends and relatives congratulate you on going to China to work or study?  Or do they tell you not to go too far away??

“At this period, the foreign, i.e. the non-Chinese population, of the settlement was, compared to what it is now, quite small.  The census of 1870, taken 30th June, gives a total of 1666, of which 894 were British…”
-pg. 31 chapter 3

Good grief, so few people.  There definitely was no need for THAT’S SHANGHAI back then!!

“Shanghai was a splendid place of residence for a young man who loved sport; and in no department is this saying so justified as in that of shooting game.  For, not only was the game extraordinarily abundant, but it was close at hand, and easy to reach by means of the network of creeks all over the country.”
pg. 111 chapter 9

Wow.  There was hunting back then.  When was the last time you saw any animals in the wild?  Perhaps the foreigner is the one to blame for the lack of animals today!

“In spite of the cheapness of all articles of food, the monthly bill mounted up to a big figure, and housekeeping in Shanghai was certainly dearer than in England.  Against this, however, we lived in much greater luxury than any family could do in England at the same cost; in fact, a family living on the same scale in London would have to pay a great deal more.”
pg. 204 chapter 14

So back in the day it was cheaper to live in China.  I wonder if that is also true today?

Book found here.

Title: Sketches in and Around Shanghai, Etc

Author: John D. Clark

Year published: 1894

Interesting quotes:

“A visit to Shanghai City is a very great interest to a foreigner when he has a Chinese friend with him who knows everything about the place, and although most foreigners here have been in it once or twice, there are very few who can say that they have seen everything in it that is acutally worth seeing, for many a one may only take a listless walk through some of its streets, pick up a few curios at the stalls, and getting disgusted with the whole place, leave it as soon as he can possibly find his way out, which is rather difficult to do sometimes, and vow that he will never go with its walls again.”
pg. 11 chapter 2

Good grief, why do you even come to Shanghai with that kind of attitude?  I can just see this guy in the OLD TOWN totally lost, with a guide book, cursing the old Chinese people looking at him.  FUNNY!

“…our object being to give a few specimens of what are to be seen in the Foreign Settlements here; and as they are the English signboards put up over Chinese shops, the letters painted by Chinese, it is not surprising that some of them are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Foreigners in Shanghai even have some curious signboards, as, for instance, one, which has certainly the name of a foreigner on it, to be seen in Rue du Consulat, French Concession.  Of course at all the Chinese shops, there are the usual oblong tablets with Chinese inscriptions, but we must leave them out of consideration, as we can’t read Chinese and don’t want to.”
pg. 80 chapter Anglo-Chinese Signboards

My how times have changed.  Since Chinesepod and the push to learn Chinese, there are no more foreigners like this guy, right?  Or maybe there are…

“Another queer signboard is to be seen just after passing the small bridge at the top of the Rue du Consulat.  The proprietor of the business is evidently not well up in English.  On a board placed over a small dirty creek ditch, appears in large letters:
KUNG WOO HUH KEE
YUNG HON
SHEEI AND LAMB
“Sheei” is intended for “Sheep.”  It does not mean that Mr. Kee is either a sheep or a lamb, but simply that he sells these meek creatures.  The signboard is painted on both sides; on the reverse side he spells Sheep thus: “Shee.”
pg. 88 chapter Anglo-Chinese Signboards

Over a hundred years ago, the funny signs in English were there.  Amazing!

“The Chinese policeman are paid about ten dollars a month and they consider their occupation a splendid one.”
pg. 89 chapter The Chinese Policeman

I wonder how this has changed?!  Anybody know a modern day policeman’s salary?

“There is not nation on the earth that loves so much to hear themselves talk as the Chinese.  They make night hideous by their talking, and in summer, when we are forced to keep open our windows, their voices frequently awaken one from sweet dreams, leaving one in doubt whether there is a heavy thunderstorm passing over head, or whether four-score-and-five affectionate mothers-in-law are arguing the point…Hawkers, also, in the small hours of the morn, contribute their share to multiply our execrations, by the manner in which they praise up their goods.”
pg. 102 chapter Chinese Noises

That was happening over a 100 years ago too?  In our neighborhood in Shanghai this was literally the exact same situation.  You can hear our experience here.

Book found here.

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.

Title: A Peep at China in Mr. Dunn’s Chinese Collection; with Miscellaneous Notices Relating to the Institutions and Customs of the Chinese, and the Commercial Intercourse with Them.

Author: By E.C. Wines.

Printed for Nathan Dunn

Year Published: 1839

“We will close this very imperfect notice of the Chinese criminal law, with the following testimony of an able writer in the Edinburgh Review. He says: “The most remarkable thing in this code is its great reasonableness, clearness, and consistency; the business-like brevity and directness of the various provisions, and the plainess and moderation of the language in which they are expressed. It is a clear, concise, and distinct series of enactments, savouring throughout of practical judgement and European good sense. When we turn from the ravings of the Zendavesta, or the Puranas, to the tone of sense and of business of this Chinese collection, we seem to be passing from darkness to light, from the drivellings of dotage to the exercise of an improved understanding: and, redundant and minute as these laws are in many particulars, we scarecely know any European code that is at once so copious and so consistent, or that is nearly so free from intricacy, bigotry and fiction.”

page 89-90

Wow.  That is quite a description of Chinese law.  I wonder if today’s Chinese law is as good as it was back then!?!

“The population of China has been variously estimated. Lord Macartney states the number of inhabitants at 333,000,000; Dr. Morrison’s son at 360,000,000. It is well known that the learned doctor’s own estimate was only 150,000,000, but he stated to Mr. Dunn, two years before his death, that he was then convinced that the highest number ever given did not exceed the true one. Wherever the truth may lie, it is certain that every part of the Empire teems with life.”

page 94

I love that.  Every part of this empire is teeming with life.  True.  So true.

“…when Rome was still an infant, and the Grecian philosophy among the things to be, China had produced a sage, second only, in the long catalogue of heathen philosophers, to the illustrious and pure minded Socrates.”

page 97

This puts China and her history in perspective with the rest of the west.  Wow!

The book can be found here.

Title: The Booklover and His Books

Author: Harry Lyman Koopman

Year Published: 1917

Chapter: The Chinese Book

“Yet they are anatomically far more different than the man and the fish. In much the same way we may be led to suppose that a Chinese book and an occidental paper-bound book are much the same thing in origin as they are to the eye. But here too the likeness is only apparent. One book form has descended from a block of wood and the other from a fold of silk.”

page 87

The essential differences of our two cultures.  Chop down a tree and make a book.  OR, feed worms, harvest those worms and then extract silk, make into a fold silk.  I’d rather the first one!

“The Chinese book is such a triumph of simplicity, cheapness, lightness and durability that it deserves a more careful study at the hands of our book producers than it has yet received.”

page 87

What are you saying?  My school textbooks lasted a long time!  They never wore out!  Ha Ha Ha

“The standard book is printed from engraved wood blocks, each of which is engraved on the side of the board, not on the end like our wood blocks, and for economy is engraved on both sides. Each of these surfaces prints one sheet of paper, making two pages. The paper, being unsized, is printed on only one side, and the fold is not at the back, as in our books, but at the front. The running headline, as we should call it, with the page number, is printed in a central column, which is folded through when the book is bound, coming half on one page and half on the other. There is always printed in this column a fan-shaped device, called the fish’s tail, whose notch indicates where the fold is to come. It may be remarked in passing that the Chinese book begins on what to us the last page, and the lines read from top to bottom and follow one another from right to left. Each page has a double ruled line at the top and bottom and the inner edge. The top and bottom lines and the fish’s tail, being printed across the front fold, show as black lines banding the front edge when the book is bound. The bottom line is taken by the binder as his guide in arranging the sheets, this line always appearing true on the front edge and the others blurred….A piece of silk is pasted over the upper and lower corners of the back. Covers, consisting of two sheets of colored paper folded in front like the pages, are placed at front and back, but not covering the back edge, or there is an outer sheet of colored paper with inside lining paper and a leaf of heavy paper between for stiffening. Silk cord is sewn through the holes and neatly tied, and the book is done, light in the hand and lying open well, inexpensive and capable with proper treatment of lasting for centuries.”

page 89

and thus you have a Chinese book!

Interesting Links:

Research into Chinese books and even ancient bamboo “books”.

Paper and book making website

This link is comparing Chinese and Japanese books.

Blog about Bookbinding

This article is about Chinese bookbinding

The book can be found here.

Title: Intimate China: The Chinese as I have Seen Them

Author: Mrs. Archibald Little

Year Published: 1899

“The streets, although wide for a Chinese city, are very narrow in comparison with English streets, being only eight feet at the widest, and extraordinarily crowded.  Passing through them is a continual pushing through a crowd of foot-passengers; of sedan-chairs, carried by coolies, with sometimes one or two men running before to clear the way, and if it be necessary beat back the crowd; of mules, donkeys or ponies with loads; and of numbers of carrying coolies, a bamboo across their shoulders, and from either end a basket hanging by strings.  Everything that can be done in the streets is done in them: peddlars go by with great quantities of goods for sale; men are mending broken china with little rivets after a fashion in which the Chinese are great experts; here is a barber shaving a man’s head, there are two women menders, on little stools very neatly dressed, pursuing their avocation; here is a man working at an embroidery-frame, there a cobbler mending shoes; here some pigs, there some chickens; here a baby in a hen-coop, there a pussy-cat tied to a shop counter; and in the evenings street preachers, in the afternoons vast crowds pouring out from theatres.”

page 80

This is one of the best descriptions of Chinese streets I’ve read.

“One of the most fatiguing things about Chinese life is the presents.  Whatever you do, you ought to take or send a present.  Every lady who goes out to dinner takes a present to the hostess…the most curious present I have received at a dinner party was a white cat, that could hardly see out of its eyes.  The general present seems to be sponge-cakes or fruit.”

page 82

Advice for expats circa 1899.  Love it!

“A man quaintly said to me, ‘Whenever I want to know what men really are, I consider what they have made of their women.’  We may also learn something by considering what men say they admire in women.  And for this purpose a few extracts from the Peking Gazette, the oldest newspaper in the world…

May 2nd, 1891.  The Viceroy at Canton submits an application which he has received from the elders and gentry of the district of Shun-teh, asking permission to erect a memorial arch to an old lady who has seen seven generations of her family, and is at present living under the same roof with four generations of her descendants.  The lady, whose maiden name was Lin, is the mother of the distinguished General Fang Yao, and is in her eighty-second year.  She has six sons, forty grandsons, one hundred and twenty-one great-grandsons, and two great-great-grandsons.  Her life has been one of singular purity and simplicity, fully entitling her to honour bestowed by law upon aged people of distinction.”

page 164-165

I’m speechless.

The Book can be found here.

Title: The Story of the Church in China

Author: Arthur Romeyn Gray, Arthur M. Sherman

Publisher: Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society

Published: 1913

Chapter 3 Changing Attitude Towards Foreigners 1881-1884

“There was also a universal desire springing up in places like Wuchang, Hankow and Shanghai to learn the English language.  The alert Chinese in these places saw the opportunities a knowledge of English would bring for business with the English and American merchants resident in the foreign concessions in the port cities.  The Mission was wise enough to see and use the opportunity of making the teaching of English language in St. John’s College and Boone School a point of contact with the Chinese they wanted to reach.  Accordingly, a department of English was added to St. John’s.  This was an important step to take.  It has always been a debated question in Mission circles whether the introduction of English in the schools is a wise thing or not.  There were many things to be said on both sides of the question.  The principal objection to its use was that it attracted boys to the Mission simply for the sake of getting a language enabling them to secure good positions in the business world and that the schools would fail to supply native Christian workers as they would all be diverted to money getting.  There was this real danger and again and again missionaries have been greatly disappointed in having some promising young candidate for the ministry go off to take position with larger pay in post office, government or commercial employ because of his knowledge of English.  But, on the other hand, it brought a large number of young men to the Mission institutions, many of whom became converted and some of whom gave up cherished prospects of a business career in order to serve the Church they had come to love, although they had entered the school purposely to fit themselves for a commercial life.  Then again the teaching of English opened up such a wider reaching knowledge of the Western world to the student and especially gave the candidate in theology and medicine the access to so many valuable books that most of the Missions gradually have come to the point of having English taught in their higher schools, colleges and professional schools.”

Fascinating that even back in the 80’s (1880s) there was a desire to study English.  Interesting that the church and mission societies back then had a debate whether to teach them English or not and for the reason that some might go and do business!  NO!

Book found here.

Must the Chinese go?:  An examination of the Chinese question
By Mrs. S. L. Baldwin
Published: 1890

Two intelligent wealthy business-men of the State of New York, the one a Republican and the other a Democrat talking with me on the Chinese question, asked, “Why do you not send us decent immigrants?”  In reply, I put the following questions and received in substance the same replies from both gentlemen:
“Did you ever see a drunken Chinese?”
“No.”
“Did you ever see a noisy, boisterous one on the streets?”
“No.”
“Did you ever see one disturbing others, or lounging at saloons, or gossiping?”
“Never.”
“Did you ever see one on the street who did not seem to have some object in view, and to be going right toward it?”
“I must confess I never have.”
“Has a Chinese tramp ever come to your door?
“Never.”
“Do you hear of them committing murder, burglaries or other crimes against our laws?”
“No.”
“Will you be so kind as to inform me of any other immigrant class in regard to which you can reply in the negative as above and also what you regard as a decent immigrant?”

Both gentlemen honestly and frankly admitted that this was an entirely new view of the question.  Both state that they had formed their opinions from “newspaper statements,” and yet these same intelligent men read their newspapers with brain alert on every other subject than this, on which they were ready to accept the most libelous statements against a friendly nation, whose representatives were, by their own personal observation, the most inoffensive, law-abiding people of our land.  But how fearful is the responsibility of our press, which, so far from being, as it should be, the educator and conservator of the morals of the people, a mighty lever to lift them up to the nobility of true patriotism, is today in a large degree, only the tool of evil men, sacrificing right, justice and even humanity for votes!”

Apparently back then the newspapers of America were held to a much higher standard!

The story of the church in China

By Arthur Romeyn Gray, Arthur M. Sherman

Published 1913

Part 1: The Beginnings in Shanghai

“…it was a whole-hearted send-off, and with tears many and fears many and endless God-be-with-yous ringing in their ears, the little company sailed on December 14th in the good ship “Horatio.”

It was a long journey but a restful one. Several letters were sent back by means of such vessels as were passed at sea, (that being the custom of those days when a ship was not afraid of losing a couple of hours by stopping in midocean,) and these told of some seasickness and much study of the Chinese language. One wonders which was the worst for the beginners. At length on the 24th of April Hong Kong was reached, and after a short stay there the party proceeded to Shanghai…

I will never complain about a long plane flight to China again.  This is truly a slow boat to China.  No wonder where this saying comes from!