The Face of China by Emily Georgiana Kemp

The capital of Shantung is a large city, containing a population of about 150,000 inhabitants. Tsinan is a city of real beauty, owing to the fact that there are bubbling streams in all parts of it, so that the trees grow well. The water is singularly bright and sparkling, and looks attractive even in the dirtiest gutters. As it comes bubbling up in every direction there is a radiance about it which seems untarnishable. In the very centre of the town is a temple, standing on a terrace with fine carved balustrades round it, in front of which is a large pond full of this bubbling water, overhung by willows -- a typical Chinese picture. On the other side of the pond is a busy market, whence crowds soon collected round us to watch our sketching and photographing. They were quiet and polite, and it was quite unnecessary for the policeman to come and keep them at a distance. But then that manœuvre gave him the advantage of an excellent view for himself! Everywhere we found a Chinese crowd of spectators preferable to one composed of Europeans. The market interested us greatly, having every kind of ware for sale, from rags and silk scraps, out of which elegant shoes are made, to all sorts of weird medicines, of which the emblem was a life-sized, double-headed fowl, planted in the centre of the counter. Hard by the medicine stalls was an enclosed space, where a woman was telling a story to an interested crowd. The professional story-teller is quite an institution here, as elsewhere in the East, but it is rarely that a woman is seen in that capacity. In fact, women take but small part in the business life of the country, and men do all the selling in shops.

Not far from the market, but situated on the outskirts of the town, is the University, a recent institution (1902), and built mainly in European style; the professors' houses being of two stories and entirely un-Chinese. The entrance, however, is the usual native one with carved and painted woodwork decorations; facing it, and crossing a little bridge over an empty tank, was the guest-room, supposed to be purely Chinese, but full of European lapses, in the shape of lace curtains, wall-papers, European carpet, chairs, clock, electric bells, and, most striking of all, a centre candelabra for the electric light. There are lecture-rooms, libraries, museum, laboratory, and dining-rooms, and thirty-two baths with hot and cold water laid on; these are so popular that their use has had to be limited. Amongst the institutions may be named a fife and drum band, and the latest novelty is a brass band. The University is only open to the students of the province of Shantung, and naturally the standard of Western knowledge is still low; but there are professors of English, German, French, and Japanese, though the respective numbers of their classes are seven, five, five, two. At present Japanese is not so popular as it used to be. Indeed, in the Imperial College in Kaifeng the Educational Board has just cut out Japanese: whether this is an exceptional case I cannot say.

The English section includes a study of European history (Freeman's) and political economy, but other subjects, such as geography, are popular among students, to judge by their use of the small English library. Curiously enough, the most popular book both here and elsewhere is "Little Lord Fauntleroy. " Half the lectures are devoted to Western knowledge and half to the Chinese classics, and the course of study at present covers three years.

In connection with the scheme of education, and under the same jurisdiction, are normal schools, secondary and primary schools. One of the principal ones has an English headmaster, so that there will soon be a set of students prepared to profit much better by university training, and fitted to go to some European university later. There are no fewer than fifteen schools and colleges, with about two thousand five hundred students. Another interesting feature of the education question is the opening of a girls' school for the daughters and wives of the officials. It was built three years ago by two Chinese gentlemen, and they have an English teacher there. The school was formally opened by the Literary Chancellor, and on entering he saluted the girls deferentially, and gave them an admirable address. In the south of China many ladies learn reading in private, but in the north this is extremely rare, and so lately as 1902 there was not a single girls' school in the Empire, except the mission schools; now they are cropping up in all directions, and the Government is taking an active interest in all their concerns. Possibly it may be thought that it shows this in somewhat exaggerated fashion, for a recent order has been issued from the Education Department in Peking prohibiting the wearing of a long fringe of hair, or "bang" as our American friends call it, in any of the girls' schools throughout the Empire. This fashion had become rather general last year. It would have been of much more practical value if all scholars had been forbidden to paint, as this is one of the most time-wasting processes. At Tsinan the school hours have been obliged to be fixed late because the scholars require some hours for the morning toilette.

In the girls' schools they are now very anxious to learn English, music, and drawing; "accomplishments" are more valued than serious study. It is quite evident that there is no lack of ability to learn, though the girls are called "wooden-heads" sometimes in contempt. In the American Board School at Peking the girls gave an admirable rendering of Wagner's and Mendelssohn's music in part-singing. The piano is also very popular among the girls. Like the boys, they have astonishing memories, and think nothing of reciting a whole Gospel; it is even not ranked as a feat by the Chinese to know the whole of the Bible by heart.