Today’s installment concludes China Awakens 1905,
the name of our combined selection from Wu Ting Fang, Adachi Kinnosuke, and A Chinese Cambridge Man. The concluding installment is by A Chinese Cambridge Man.
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Previously in China Awakens 1905.
Time: 1905
Place: China
Public domain image from Wikipedia.
Another sign of the times is the desire for cooperation. Hitherto, limited companies and syndicates have been most scarce. Everybody believed in conducting his own business, and with his own capital. But now we realize the impossibility of creating modern industry without extensive trust, and every new enterprise is being undertaken by a company. This development, however, is only in its infancy and awaits improvement.
No less important is the change of national customs and habits. The anti-foot-binding movement has been successful beyond expectation. Hardly five years have passed since this movement became general, and already thousands, even tens of thousands, are liberated from this abominable custom. Without the slightest exaggeration it may be said that children now under ten years are entirely free from this torture. The progress of the anti-opium movement is less rapid, but it is going on steadily. It is hoped, nay, it is certain, that before long the higher classes will be free from this filthy habit; but to get it out of sight altogether is another matter. The cause of this vice among the higher classes is different from that among the lower. The former smoked opium because they had nothing better to do; the latter did it because they wanted something to make them insensible to their misery. As soon as the former have regular occupations, they are bound to let this idle habit go; but the latter, whose position cannot be improved for years to come, will find it difficult to break off. Even if they are compelled to abstain from this vice, another habit equally bad will surely take its place. In this respect, opium smoking is exactly like drinking in this country. Public opinion can easily prevent the successor to the Earl of Chatham from getting through half a dozen bottles of champagne in one night, but it cannot keep a workman away from his habitual public-house.
All these things certainly make a pleasant picture; but I am no optimist. While society shows unmistakable symptoms of progress, the miseries of the general public caused by mal administration are unspeakable. We are now suffering from the worst possible financial crisis. The madness of a few Manchus made us pay sixty-five millions sterling, together with six millions sterling interest, to be paid yearly. The central Government has no other financial policy than to demand the money from the Viceroys or the Provincial Governors, and the latter in their turn demand it from the people by increasing the taxation (direct or indirect). When they fail in this resource, they start coining base copper coins from their own mint — trying to call a penny a sixpence and imagining themselves richer. The result of this is an utter confusion of the currency, which has been a complicated question for a long time. The price of food, especially rice, has doubled in the course of the last decade. The population has increased far out of proportion to industry. The sudden extension of the use of steamers in the navigable rivers, and the opening of the railways, have thrown quite a considerable number of men out of work. In a word, there is no work, and thousands of men are unable to earn a living in spite of their endurance and diligence.
The Government is always short-sighted, always without any definite policy, and always crowded with men who are seeking after their own interest and making the situation worse by their presence. They talk of encouraging commerce, but put fresh obstacles in its way daily. They issued a code of commercial laws, but violated them themselves immediately after the publication. They created new industries (such as the factories at Wu-Chang) and new official posts which cost millions and brought no profit to anybody. They put an official at the head of a private enterprise which had every prospect of success, so that the well-deserved distrust might drive away the capitalists. In short, the thousand and one follies and crimes committed by the Government render the lives of the lower classes (the workmen, peasants, and artisans) miserable beyond description.
It always astonishes me that while the Press in Europe daily exposes the rottenness of the existing Chinese Government, it does its best to uphold it. Whenever there is a slight movement against the Government, be it anti-dynastic or revolutionary, intervention is at once talked of, as if the great struggle for the freedom of four hundred million souls were nothing more than a football match which cannot go on without a referee. How can your sympathies be sincere when you wish to keep us under the yoke of a political institution which you so much despise? Have not Western nations done enough of wrong, and is it not unwise to add to them the most cruel and most unpardonable of all wrongs — the preventing of the people from getting their liberty? If Western nations do really want to bridge the already too wide gulf that separates us, let them leave us alone and see whether evolution will not be stronger than conservatism, and whether the natural sequence of such a gigantic renaissance will not follow its course as it has done in the history of every civilized nation.
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This ends our selections on China Awakens 1905 by three of the most important authorities on this topic:
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