University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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42 Tl-Ili LINGUIST power of the family is still paramount, and until the people can learnlto transcend its limits and look to the welfaregof all, they cannot hopte to enjoy such advantages as we take for granted. 'Another serious bar to social' unity and' cooperation is the still prevailing system of class distinctions. This system has not become as fixed and rigid as the caste system in India, nevertheless society is pretty clearly divided into three distinct classes-- upper, to which belong the teachers and officialsg middle, to which belong the mer- chants andthe artisans 5 and tlielower. or coolie class. While theoreti- cally it is quite possible to rise from a lower to a higher class, practi- cally there are many grave, almost unsurmountable, difficulties in the wav. Between these classes there is not a great deal of intercourse, and less cooperation. It is not surprising that the lack of national unity is felt every- where- in the language, in the monetary system in inter-provincial relationships. The dialect of one community is almost unintelligible in another only a hundred miles awayn Money good in this province is discounted in the next. One section may be at war with another, and the rest of the country neither know nor care about it. Thus we see China today. divided and hampered by almost uncon- querable prejudices. The Chinese have always been great wall builders. and today walls, literal and figurative, confront us on every hand. There are walls around houses, schools, temples 3 walls around the parks and walls around the cities, each excluding the rest of man- kind from the one little unit around which it is built. At one time the nation attempted to build a wall which would shut out its trouble- some neighbors. But even as the Great Wall, that colossal monument to Chinese industry, skill and engineering. has proven futile and fallen short of its purpose, so we may hope to see the various walls which separate each from his neighbor prove useless and ineffective. Until that happens it will be impossible for China to become a strong and united' nation,and to take its place among the nations of the world. The task of breaking down these hampering walls is indeed a great adventure. It will be a long, slow process which will demand patience, perseverance and wisdomg the customs and superstitious of three or four thousand years cannot be eradicated in a generation. But those who can love men, and believe in God. can have their part in this great adventure, and they, in time, will be privileged to see it succeed. l R. F. lung , J er: I X Qi X ' Z z' 'J at ' 4. s ff W- . . g ,. W fig! .1 :Lv , , Q yr 4' K

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LOOKING BACKWARD AND DIVIDED 41 matters. whether it be the punishmont of the guilty or the selection of a wife for one of the members of the clan. Under him come the various members of the family, each in his proper rank-grandfa- thers over fathers, fathers over sons, older brothers over younger. To the average western mind, accustomed to thinking in terms of nations, or to the more modern Christian thinker whose field is the world, 'this reverence and slavelike obedienceto one's'1elders is almost incomprehensible. The system inevitably leaves the older and more Conservative element of the nation in control, while the younger and the more progressive element must submit, or else spurn that which iS surrounded by the holiest of sanctions. And thus the whole trend of thought becomesbackward insteadrof forward. Within the family there is the liveliest spiritofcooperation. What affects one member affects all, whether good or ill. One man's Success is the clan's forruneg his trouble is their concern. The man who through industry or good luck is able to attain to some degree of prosperity shares it with all his familyg the poorer and less fortunate can expect a measure of relief at his hands. -Thus it often happens that the proprietor of a store or the manager of a concern must employ members of his family only, instead of those who may recommend themselves to him by their diligence and industry. This of course has its advantages and its disadvantages. It tends to level fortune and to alleviate suffering and poverty, both of which are greatly needed in China. On the other hand it curbs the ambition Of many superior men, and encourages laziness on the part of the less energetic. But perhaps the greatest disadvantage of this system IS the resulting division of society into small units between which there is but little cooperation. In a normal community as we know it In the West many enterprises are undertaken by the community as a whole. The building of schools and hospitals, the paving and upkeep of the streets, the lighting system and the water supply, are all generally under public management. NVe have learned that, looked at from a religious, altruistis, or purely selfish point of view, the age old question, Am I my brother's keeper, must still be answered affirmatively. One cannot have life abundantly unless his neighbor also enjoys advantages like his own. But not so in China. Each family cares for its own members, but there its responsibilities end. Those who are not fortunate enough to be protected by a large and Wealthy clan must do the bestutliey can This lack of cooperation, this indifference to one's,,neighbor's condition, is felt in countless Common, everyday ways, and prevents real progress. As a rule the Streets are poor and dirtyg the lighting system, it it can be called Such, of the lowest order, except for wells and numerous ponds there is no water supply system, and nw drainageg the schools are quite in1flequ1te, or wholly lackingg there is no community attention Po general sanitary or other needs. In recent years, due.to the invasion of weste-rn ideas, education and religion, a freer spirit is beginning to develop and manv younger Chinese arebreaking, away from the ancient customs, looking 'beyond the boundary of'the family, of the communityip and' the- nation as ta' whole. But the

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THE OLD INDUSTRIAL ORDER AND Tl-IE NEW 43 THE OLD INDUSTRIAL ORDER AND THE NEW A walk down an ordinary Chinese street gives one a fascinating glimpse of what the industrial life of Mediaeval Europe must have been. Here a tradesman is beating various metals into pots and pansg next door a man is making wooden pails, tubs and other vessels. The silversmith, tinsmith, tailor, cobbler and many other craftsmen in their shops, full width opening on the street, may be seen at work. In addition to their few simple tools one may often see in the same room the cook-- ing stove, the table where the family eats, and even the beds for the 'prentiees behind the counter over which the goods they make are sold. With all their simple equipment they often produce wondrously line wares. As one passes other houses one can hear the crude wooden machinery as it spins the silk or cotton thread, and the clack of the no less rude looms. Nanking is a city world famed for its silk goods, hut one would search in vain for any silk factories. In winter the cloth IS made in the homes where in springthe silkworm is fed on the mulberry leaves stripped from the tree in the back yard. Elsewhere the art of basket making, crockery making, or of some other industry, has been handed down from father to son since a thousand years before the first 'prentice learned his trade in English or Flemish shops. Would that a faithful picture could stop with this picture of primitive home manufacture, that one could tell of a people abundant- ly provided with the necessities of life by the labor of their own hands! The opposite is the case. Population has ever increased, but produc- tion has remained practically at a stantlstillg machinery has never been developed, and workmen have been abundant. The result is that the Qheapest commodity in China is man himself. Here there are mil- llons of people always 011 the verge of starvation. The slightest shift In the nice balance of food production and consumption will precipitate hundred of thousands over the verge, and famine results, as the past few years, bear terrible testimony. In the shops of the tradesmen the hours are long and working conditions frightfully poor. No sadder Sight awaits the eyes of those that come to China than that of man turned into a hopeless beast of burden. Here are a half dozen men hitched to a wagon, bareheaded, stripped to the waist, straining up hill with their terrible load, therea woman staggers by, bowed under a huge burden of fuel, building material or fertilizer. Men wheel huge barrows laden with merchandise, reeling and gasping under theirload. These are not just occasional sights, but are ever before our eyes as We have travelled through city after city. Off the few railways and main waterways all kinds of transporlationis largely by man-power, Whether it be pulling a boat upstream, hauling a cart along the road, Carrying people in chairs, or pulling them in rickshas. Human labor is the cheapest and most abundant article in China, and therefore for the world's markets the most valuable. Now that distances are less' significant Chinese labor is a- great gold' mineg here IS an exhaustless supply of exploitable labor, used to working- under unsanitary conditions, ordinarily too ignorant to organize, effectually driven by the danger of starvation to take what wages can be gotten,