China and the Chinese. By H. A. Giles, LL.D. (Macmillan
and Co. 6s. net.)—Professor Giles has given us in this volume the lectures which he delivered to inaugurate the foundation of a Professorship of Chinese in Columbia University, New York. The first lecture is on the "Chinese Language," and is a very lucid exposition of a difficult subject. One has to discard one's con- ceptions of language before one can begin to see what Chinese really is. Lecture II., under the title of "A Chinese Library," gives an account of Chinese literature, taking as its text, so to speak, the library which is attached to the Chinese Professorship at Cambridge. But it is mliii. and VI. that the average reader will find his chief surprises. Professor Giles evidently has formed much higher opinion of the Chinese people than is commonly held. One's only wonder is that with all their admirable qualities they do not contrive to make a better figure in the world. But it certainly must be conceded that Professor Giles has an excellent right to speak, and that sometimes at least he makes out a case for his clients which it would be difficult to break down. It is frequently said, for instance, that there is much female infanticide in the country. How, then, does it come to pass that every Chinaman finds a wife at the age of eighteen, and that the wealthier class have no difficulty in find- ing more wives than one ? We are informed that the Chinese deliberately "humbug" us in this matter. They think it a dis- tinction to be magnificently criminal, and are les f anfarons de vices qu'as n'ent pas. Mrs. Bird-Bishop relates that eleven Bible- women told her that they had murdered five girl-babies each. "Just what I should have expected," says Professor Giles, but not one of them had murdered even one. One curious thing makes us realise the huge population of the country. If the whole people were to defile before a spectator, the procession would never come to an end. "Before the last man of those living to-day had gone by, another and a new generation would have grown up." There is an excellent sample of Chinese humour in the story of the guest who, invited to an entertain- ment where a stingy host provided very small cups, astonished the company by bursting into tears, and explained that he was thinking of an ancestor who had met his death by inadvertently swallowing such a cup.
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