Original
Share Embed Flag
Download ePaper

Original

Original Original

100yixueyuan.sdu.edu.cn
from 100yixueyuan.sdu.edu.cn More from this publisher
30.07.2015 Views

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE YEARbuild and can never hope to be productive in a financialsense.) The deadly automobile (to the registered numberof more than an hundred) now honks its swift and relentlessway through the wide streets and even in the narrow andoften crooked alleys of Peking. Many Chinese cities haveadopted electric lighting, though in some instances thecurrent is so weak that not infrequently a diffused dimnessis the most conspicuous feature. Even then it is an improvement on the old Cimmerian midnight.n The .. , Occidental conception of what con-City Improve-... . . .ment stitutes convenience 111 the matter of ingressto and egress from Chinese cities, has at laststruck inward upon the Chinese themselves. Many citywalls have been wholly or in part levelled, as in Tientsin.Canton, Shanghai, Ilangchow, &c. "Convenience gates"have also been opened, particularly in Peking, where one citylies enclosed in another like a nest of lacquered boxes.Parks and pleasure grounds have made their appearance, especially in Peking, where wide boulevards are nowlinedwith rows of trees and pretty flower-beds. Manymuseums have been opened, and the exposition idea invarious kinds of products has been generally adopted.Statues of men of note are beginning to climb upon loftypedestalsto be seen of men a nesv enterprise in China.The species of locust tree introduced by the Germans atTsingtau, has made that port a forestry exhibit. Theenergetic activities in similar lines of the University of Nanking, has attracted the attention and won the favour of theCentral Government, as well as that of the provinces. Thatthe ancient Spring Festival should be now also celebrated asan "Arbor Day" by official command, shows (in case theorder is obeyed; what great possibilities lie just before China.A reduction in telegraphic rates throughout China, isa welcome sign of progress. So is the general and growinguse of the telephone, which even to the Chinese has becomeindispensable. The Chinese postal system which in 1914handled more than 692 million articles (as compared with113 million in 1906) is of increasing importance in thepolitical, commercial, and social life of China, audits futureseems certain to be even greater in proportion.

"""TWO DECADES OF CHANGES IN CHINA 5^Currencycurrency reform we see no signs, for theChinese Government still sits "shivering onthe brink, arid fears to launch away," although it is nowfourteen years since in the British treaty of 1902 thisadvance step was definitely promised. We are thereforeobliged to content ourselves with the finely engraved notes ofthe various Government Banks," displaying busts of wise oldChinese, vistas of water, city, pagoda, railway, steamer, citywall,and ornamental portal, but each bill bearing a viciouslittle word in English and in Chinese which is the name ofthe town, or city, province where this token of value is expected to circulate. This makes each bill an article ofcommerce, and is useful to perpetuate "exchange," by whichmeans immense sums are extracted from everybody reciprocally, the bankers enriching themselves by the process oftaking dollars out of one bag and putting them intoanother !News^ ne ^ ^ie most fai - reac hi n au<^ g>asignificanterschanges in the modern China is the all-pervasive newspaper, sold in the streets and on trains as in theWest. More than a year ago it was reported that in twentycities there were about three hundred and thirty Chineseand Japanese journals, and forty-four foreign ones. Manyof these are outspoken in their editorials whenever it is safeto be so, but under existing conditions caution is necessaryfor many newspaper offices have been closed with little orno warning. In this connection is to be mentioned theuniversal new TChinese language supplementing the formerinadequate speech with a wilderness of new terms for newideas. This has quite revolutionized current literatureand greatly altered the spoken language also. Thesechanges and innovations go on apace, and will inevitablydo so indefinitely;r-^ieTh N Wo-g rea test of all China s discoveriesman within the past twenty years is undoubtedlythe New Chinese Woman. Of her much morewill be heard in the near future. It may safely be remarkedthat she appears in very little danger of fulfilling the Confucian ideal of becoming in the domestic establishment (orelsewhere) a shadow and an echo !

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE YEARbuild and can never hope to be productive in a financialsense.) The deadly automobile (to the registered numberof more than an hundred) now honks its swift and relentlessway through the wide streets and even in the narrow andoften crooked alleys of Peking. Many Chinese cities haveadopted electric lighting, though in some instances thecurrent is so weak that not infrequently a diffused dimnessis the most conspicuous feature. Even then it is an improvement on the old Cimmerian midnight.n The .. , Occidental conception of what con-City Improve-... . . .ment stitutes convenience 111 the matter of ingressto and egress from Chinese cities, has at laststruck inward upon the Chinese themselves. Many citywalls have been wholly or in part levelled, as in Tientsin.Canton, Shanghai, Ilangchow, &c. "Convenience gates"have also been opened, particularly in Peking, where one citylies enclosed in another like a nest of lacquered boxes.Parks and pleasure grounds have made their appearance, especially in Peking, where wide boulevards are nowlinedwith rows of trees and pretty flower-beds. Manymuseums have been opened, and the exposition idea invarious kinds of products has been generally adopted.Statues of men of note are beginning to climb upon loftypedestalsto be seen of men a nesv enterprise in China.The species of locust tree introduced by the Germans atTsingtau, has made that port a forestry exhibit. Theenergetic activities in similar lines of the University of Nanking, has attracted the attention and won the favour of theCentral Government, as well as that of the provinces. Thatthe ancient Spring Festival should be now also celebrated asan "Arbor Day" by official command, shows (in case theorder is obeyed; what great possibilities lie just before China.A reduction in telegraphic rates throughout China, isa welcome sign of progress. So is the general and growinguse of the telephone, which even to the Chinese has becomeindispensable. The Chinese postal system which in 1914handled more than 692 million articles (as compared with113 million in 1906) is of increasing importance in thepolitical, commercial, and social life of China, audits futureseems certain to be even greater in proportion.

logo

products

Resources

Company

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings
Imprint
Change language
Made with love in Switzerland
© 2024 Yumpu.com all rights reserved

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!