Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 207, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1920 — THE PARIS OF CHINA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PARIS OF CHINA

(Prepared by the National Geographic Society, Washington. D. C.) CANTON is the Paris and Bunker Hill of China. The Chinese say that he who has not lived in Canton knows not luxury. Equally true is it that the American of lowliest estate who has not seen Canton knows not poverty. In contrast to ancient temples, and palatial homes surrounded with park-like gardens, are the beggars at their* gates, covered with sores and whining for a pittance; the leaden-eyed porters, straining under their burden of humanity or baggage; women haggling for a pigeon-egg-sized lump of bean curd, half a dozen peanuts; a dozen roasted beans, or a strip of meat the size of a rasher of bacon as a special luxury for the family dinner. A five and ten-cent store would be a Tiffany’s for many well-to-do Canton families. The cent, now a sort of war tax annoyance to us, would have to be subdivided for the Chinaman. His smallest coin, the cash, normally worth one-twentieth of an American cent, was too large in some places, and bamboo tokens are recognized by tradesmen as worth half a cash. Yet there is luxury, expressed not only in homes, commerce, and business structures, but in products which make Canton the art center of China. Its lacquer and sandalwood articles are unique, its ivory carving unsurpassed, its pottery, gem setting, and fans, from the palm leaves we buy for a few pennies to the ivory-handled feather ones the tourist bargains for at $25 or $35, are world famous. Revolutionary Center of China. Patriotically Canton has several points of contact with the American. Most likely the firecrackers which disturbed gut early-morning slumbers on the Fourth of July came from there, as well as the fan we carried to the community demonstration later. Canton was the birthplace of the revolution in 1911 that ended the Manchu dynasty, and has been the storm center of other revolutionary activities since. Except ’ for a few newer' streets, it still is true that Canton is a “city of a million without a wheel or a beast of burden.” Strangely ancient in some respects,’ danton long has practiced some of the expedients which are being urged as experiments in western lands. ■ So far as her business district is concerned, the city is thoroughly “zoned.’* The shopper may find practically all the city has to offer in wood carving on One street, in silks and embroideries on another, in jewels and precious stones on another. During the coal shortage in our eastern states tn recent winters, efforts were made to do cooking at central kitchens and serve food “ready to eat” at homes In the neighborhood. Long has the fuel shortage been acute in Canton, driving the housewife to chaff, twigs, litter, for her cooking, and making cooking and vending on the streets a recourse of the poor rather than a fad with the rich. The Chinese “hot dog man" has a greater variety, but smaller portions, than our own, and he is not' to be recommended from the Standpoint of sanitation.

Fighting the Plague.

Human life inevitably becomes cheaper in the midst of congestion, suffering and poverty. Early efforts to fight the bubonic plague were gravely met with the argument that there were too many mouths to feed, anyway, in Canton, and the plague, like the typhoons, were providential for ' those who escaped. Humane science finally won the day, and the tin boxes on street corners! are not to be mistaken for trash receptaeles. They are for dead rats, Which are collected and burned. The tornadoes wreak peculiar havoc because of the peculiar dwelling place of some *125,000 of Canton’s inhabitants —on houseboats. These boat dwellers, the Tan-min, are social pariahs. Their Women formerly furnished the “singing girts” on the “flower boats,” floating haunts of the underworld, which were burned several years ago. Their men engage in the river traffic that is an essential feature of Canton’s commercial life. >

, The city is 70 miles up the Pearl river from the sea. Naming the kinds of junks that ,ply about Canton requires as much knowledge as picking the makes of automobiles that spin .along Riverside drive or Michigan avenue. The “slipper boats” are recognizable because of a striking resemblance to their European-given nickname; the “Canton sampans” are numerous ; the passenger junks are the Canton-Hongkong ferries, but the most curious of the many other kinds, perhaps, are the che-ting, operated by Chinamen stepping on a treadmill in the rear. These were invented by an European who sensed that man power is the cheapest and most plentiful to be had in China — land where labor-utilizing rather than labor-saving devices pique the inventor. The gutters are in the middle of the street, in Canton. The divers down by the water front go in feet first. The Canton bon-bon is pit-tan, eggs preserved in rice hulls, ashes and lime, if a man has a beautiful yard or garden, he hides it by a high wall; but once the visitor breaks through this privacy. In company with a trusted guide, he may find himself not only on the premises but conducted through an exclusive home as if it were r public building, and the household mean* bers go serenely about their own affairs while they, too, are described and explained by the cordial friend. Here is a hint of the origin of the-China-town tours in our great citiea

Temple* and Legends.

If the struggle for existence suggests materialism, one need only visit the temples in Canton, to glimpse the delicate, subtle, and daring imagination of the seemingly literal, cautious Chinaman. The “Flowery Pagoda,” with the copper pillar topped by a golden ball, is where a famed Indian missionary once spent a night, and so fragrant was his presence that the tower still is free from mosquitoes. To the “Five Fairies Temple” once came five genii, wearing coats of different colors and riding goats of different colors. Each fairy brought a stalk of grain, which was given to the people with the benediction “Dwell here in perpetual peace, and never know famine.” The fairies departed, but their steeds turned to stone, and re* main to this day in the temple. A more mechanical curiosity is the tower where time is measured by water dripping from four copper vessels, arranged at different levels. „ The hills about are famed no less for their legends than for the terraces Where the ginger root is grown that is preserved by the Cantonese. One beak is crowned by a rock that sways when spoken to in angry tones; there is a stream where some Oriental Enoch drank a potion of iris leaves and, becoming immortal, war wafted away to heaven. There is a chamber of commerce at Canton, but the characteristic industrial bodies are the guilds, 72 in number, iron bound, self-perpetuating organizations, of great power both economically and politically. The Chinese merchant and artisan is an apt example of the tremendous forces of Inertia, or precedent, if you like, in Chinese life. He carves, brews, or sells gold foil, not only because his father or grandfather did, but because his remote ancestors, when Columbus sailed westward or Marco Polo toured east; did that very thing in just that way.

Quality, not variety, is the merit he seeks, and the guilds define the exact sphere of their members minutely. There is the Guild of Dealers in Cloth Interwoven with Metal Threads of Various Colors, the Guild of Dealers in Kerosene Lamps, the Guild of Dealers in Hand-Reeled Silk, and the Guild of Dealers in Liquor Brewed from Rice. . ; The honesty of the Chinese merchant Is proverbial. In Canton lived {Hon Qua, a millionaire, who furnished a conspicuous example of this quality. When a' firm which owed large sums to foreigners became bankrupt, Hon • Qua headed a list of Canton business men who made good the debt, on the ground that Chinese credit must not

Temple of the Five Hundred Gods, Canton.