[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Having very recently returned from two years' residence in the interior of Shantung Province, North China, I was especially interested in the Chinese references contained in Mr. V. B. Metta's article, " The Egotism of the West," in your issue of January 14th. I cannot, however, share his opinions, as illustrated by the following quotations :— 1. " Nationalism . . . does not exist in the East. The Chinese . . . were never proud of themselves as ' nations.' " The former sentence sounds indeed strange to one who, together with thousands of other foreign residents hi the interior of China, was compelled by the pressure of the Nationalist movement to withdraw from his home and his work. But altogether apart from recent developments, the foundation of traditional Chinese political thought was the conception of their own " Middle Kingdom," the sole repository of all that was cultured and humane under heaven, surrounded by an outlying fringe of worthless barbarians. I suggest that this is an instance of national "group-egotism," for a parallel to which one must turn to Imperial Rome or to pre-prophetic Israel.
2. " The Chinese . . . never spoke contemptuously of Europeans or Americans because they were Europeans or Americans."
Has your contributor never heard of the once universally used epithet, " Foreign Devil," now less common and becoming replaced by " Foreign Dog," " Big Nose," and " Old Hairy One," which are less opprobrious but retain some measure of contempt ? The official attitude in 1900 was well expressed by the Imperial Tutor in Peking, who so loathed the foreigner and all his works that he refused ever to set foot on the excel- lent road which ran past his compound ; it is only fair, how- ever, to remember that he intended to pay Westerners the honour of lining his sedan-chair with their skins.
It is perhaps remarkable that so many Chinese are able to have really happy relations with ourselves : a very candid friend will confess that the physical presence of a foreigner is acutely distasteful, owing to the odour of butter, the eating of which is considered disgusting.
3. " Orientals never despised any people for the colour of their skins."
This is an over-statement, as applied to the Chinese. It is probably true that there is less colour-prejudice in China than in the West, but quite untrue that there is none. I believe that many Chinese feel an antipathy towards the black races.
In writing about this great people I would never forget some of my friends of Chinese race, men who have combined the best of both Eastern and Western tradition, and whom I regard as the apostles of a new and happier era in race-relation-
ships. But I can no more regard them as typical of their country than I can those Westerners referred to by Mr. Metta, who " look with contempt on the Chinese because they are
Asiatics."—I am, Sir, &c., RONALD F. ADGIE
(Late of the Shantung Christian University, Tsinan).
Wyntondley, Spring Road, Headingley, Leeds.
Previous page
