Child Life in China

by Mary isabella Bryson

Copyright 1900

“For when we first go into a Chinese city many of the boys and girls will run away and hide themselves, afraid lest we should catch them and do some dreadful thing to them.  Some of them will run after us, calling Yang-kwei-tsz, which means something like ‘ foreign evil spirit,’ and other bad names, and a few will pick up stones and throw them at us, trying thus to drive us away.  But why are they angry when they see us coming into their cities ?’ you will ask, ‘ and why are they afraid of us ?’  Principally because we are not Chinamen, and have come from another country.  The Chinese very much dislike people of other countries coming and trading, or having any other dealings with them, and most of them would be very glad if we were all driven out of China to-morrow.  Englishmen and other foreigners would not have got into the country at all if it had not been for a great war which we had with them.  England was victorious, and so she obliged China to open several of her ports to trade with foreigners, and to allow them to live there.  And ever since, all that our nation or any other has gained from China has always been at the point of the sword, or because they were afraid of us.  So it is only natural that they are not very pleased to see us walking about the streets of their cities.

We try to win their friendship in many ways.  Having learnt their language, we are soon able to say a few kind words to the children, and then we often give them some little English pictures, which delight them very much.  What a number of questions they always have to ask us!   ‘Is there a sun and a moon in your country ?’ they inquire.  ‘ Are there hills and trees ? ‘ ‘ Why do you not have black eyes like ours ?  Have they faded out ?’ ‘  Can you see with them several feet down into the earth, and know where gold and silver is lying ?’   ‘Why do Englishwomen have such large feet, just like men, instead of “golden lilies” three inches long?’  ‘Why do you wear your hair in such a strange fashion, instead of having it glued down on wire shapes ? ‘  ‘ Why do foreign ladies wear coverings over their heads when they go out of doors ? It is just like the men!’  These and very many more questions are constantly asked and answered.”

What a difference 100 years make.  Even in Shanghai there were a few times when school students would flood you and not let you get away.  Crazy.

Book found here.

1.  Twitter @MandMX

Connect with us on twitter so you can see our tweets about everything China and get updates when our new comics are posted.

2.  Squidoo pages

We have a couple squidoo pages that are pretty cool.  We have three now.  Comics, Shanghainese podcast, Old China Books.

3.  MySpace

I’m not on this one too much but it’s there for those who like MySpace.

4.  Tumblr page

This is another great way to connect with my TUMBLR friends.

5.  Facebook Fan Page

This is the best way to connect with MandMx.com. We post our cartoon links there and the occasional comment.  This is also a great way to ask questions about a cartoon that you don’t understand.  Perhaps readers who see your questions can also answer the questions!

6.  You Tube

This is our site on YouTube where you can see all our videos of our little boy studying Chinese.

7.  YouKu

The Chinese version of YouTube.  This has all our videos of our little boy studying Chinese where all of Mainland Chinese can see them.

8.  Google Reader

This is all the stuff that both M and Mx are reading.  You can subscribe through Google and keep up to date with all the stuff we’re reading about China.

Things Chinese: Being Notes on Various Subjects connected with China

By James Dyer Ball

Year Published: 1893

“In the South of China, rice is the principal vegetable food, but instead of vegetables being an adjunct to the meat, as with us, the meat is taken as a tasty article with the rice, which is the staple article of diet. Either dried, salt, or fresh vegetables are eaten at nearly every meal.

The Chinese, like the French, have nominally two meals, one about 8 or 10 o’clock in the morning, and the other at 5 or 6 in the evening or thereabouts. With the poorer classes these consist of a number of bowls of rice—cooked till so dry that each grain is separate—a little pork or fish, salt or fresh, and some fried vegetables. Everything of meat kind is chopped up fine, as the Chinese would think it barbarous to cut up anything at the table, and also to enable the chop-sticks to pick it up readily. A drink of tea from the rice-bowl finishes the frugal meal. The dinner is the same as the breakfast. This then is the ordinary everyday food of millions in the South of China, and costs only about a couple of dollars a month. The more a man has, the more he expends on his food, both as regards quality and quantity, and, as a consequence, he has a more varied fare. Though nominally only taking two set meals a day, nearly everyone takes a snack about the middle of the day, it may be only a few cakes, as the Chinese clerks in the Government offices in Hongkong indulge in; it may be a bowl of fish congee, or some other tasty soup or dish from the numerous restaurants, or from some of the many refreshment stalls, stationary and peripatetic.

Some of the hard-toiling labourers, when there is a constant demand on physical strength or muscle, take a number of meals to prime them up for their work, such for instance as some of the boatmen on the rivers in the South of China, who work from daylight to sunset, and to whom five meals a day are allowed, when in work.

Chinese food, like French, does not consist of roasts, but of a multitude of made-up dishes. Peanut oil and soy are added to them, and soups and broths are much taken.

The Chinese, as far as their own food is concerned, are ‘born cooks. Among the lower classes almost any man can turn his hand to preparing the simple dishes, and in workmens’ messes it is the youngest hand (the apprentice) who has the drudgery of the cooking to do.”

Is it true that today all Chinese are born cooks?

Do you think that the Chinese are like the French?

The book can be found here.

English Life in China
by Sir Henry Knollys
Copyright 1885

“As we enter the Yellow Sea, the hitherto blue water assumes the colour and consistency of pea-soup; we steam a short distance up the Yang-tsze-Kiang River, the mere pronunciation of which brings on a sore throat, and arriving at its confluent the Hwangpoo, are transferred to a tug to enable us to cross the rapidly silting-up Woosung bar, which subsequently assumed importance as a tactical obstacle to French operations. We paddle through slime, amidst darkness and bitter cold, for about ten miles to Shanghai.  Here some dozen brilliant meteors, the last efforts of that electric light which here, as elsewhere, succeeded in enriching the directors and impoverishing the shareholders, reveal some large English buildings standing out in weird distinctness through the surrounding darkness, and the scene is rendered still more striking by the sudden influx of swarms of hideous chattering Chinese coolies springing on board from the adjacent wharf, like a flock of sheep through a gap.”

I love the descriptive words of the rivers: blue water, pea-soup, slime  and rapidly silting.

The book can be found here.

Check out a more modern book that looks great. Put together by another Husband/Wife team Chinese/Western team. They both teach at a school in the midwest.

I found this book the other day and really look forward to reading it.  The basic story is about an American woman from Chattanooga Tennessee who fell in love and married a Chinese man in the 1930s.

She went to live with him in Tianjin and the book contains her stories and her many long letters home to her family.  One of the letters talks about her travel plans from Vancouver to Shanghai.  While on board the boat she felt sick and decided to change her plans and sent cables to alert her husband.  But by the time they arrived first in Japan she felt fine and then wanted to take a boat from Japan to Tianjin which was her original plan.  There was a huge mix up of cables and waiting times and all those things that we modern people don’t worry about anymore right?  I mean with mobile phones today we never have a problem meeting with friends… right?

This American woman named Grace lived in China during the Japanese occupation, the fall of the Nationalists and up to the Cultural Revolution.

Here’s a quote from a letter she wrote in January of 1950 which explains her process of writing a letter which is fascinating to read nowadays since people don’t write letters anymore!

“I know I’ve been very bad about writing.  I am lazy sill and prefer thinking my letters in my head after I go to bed rather than getting them down on paper and mailing them.  Sometimes one doesn’t write because there not much to write about and sometimes there too much.  Mine is the latter difficulty.  To pick just enough to put into a letter out of all the upheavals and interesting events we have been experiencing is not easy and I can’t sit down and write only ordinary family events.”

This looks to be a great book that I can’t wait to read!  This is also a great gift for that someone who is about to go to China or is thinking about it!

There are so many links out there talking about this book:
Publisher’s Weekly
Blue Rectangle has a book review along with a video!
Over at SPEAKING OF CHINA they have a list of books that are about Chinese men and their Western Wives. This book doesn’t appear on the list but it is included in a comment!

There’s a podcast out there for all you Sinophiles if you haven’t seen it yet.  The Chinese History Podcast by Lazlo Montgomery is a jewel of a podcast in the caverns of iTunes and the interwebs.  If you haven’t heard of it or if you haven’t gone over to his site we would highly recommend it.  Even MX likes his podcast and she can learn two things: history of her own country (not that she doesn’t know it but it’s 5,000 years, you can’t know it all!) and she can practice her English comprehension.  Mr. Montgomery clearly enjoys doing the show and loves imparting knowledge to all of his fans worldwide.

MandMx:  How did you get started podcasting?  Why not a blog (writing) or a book (more writing)?  What was the inspiration?

My 7 favorite Chinese History Podcast shows.

1.  Four Great Inventions

2.  Li Ka Shing – wealthiest Chinese in the world

Our own History posts from MandMx.com