As A Chinaman Saw Us: Passages from His Letters to a Friend at Home
General
As A Chinaman Saw Us: Passages from His Letters to a Friend at Home
United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs
Chun Ti Chu especially, at one time president of the Sam Yuz, should be
in China. I met this brilliant man some years ago in San Francisco.
After dinner he took me to a place and showed me a placard which was a
reward of $300 for his head. He had obtained the enmity of criminal
Chinamen on the Pacific coast, but when I last heard of him he was still
alive. There are many criminals here who do not dare to return to China,
who left their country for their country's good. These are the cause of
much trouble here, and bring discredit upon the better class of our
people. Our people in America are loyal to the Government. It was
interesting to see at one time a proclamation from the Emperor brought
over by Chew Shu Sum and posted in the streets of an American city: "By
order of his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of China." The President, the
mayor of San Francisco, was not thought of; China was revered, and is
to-day holding her government over the Chinese in every American city
where they have a stronghold. So much for the loyalty of our people.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICANS
Thomas J. Geary, the former congressman, is an avowed enemy of the
Chinese and the author of the famous Geary bill, but I condone all he
has said against us for one profound utterance made in a published
address or article, in which he said: "As to the missionaries (in
China), it wouldn't be a national loss if they were required to return
home. If the American missionary would only look about him in the large
cities of the Union he would find enough of misery, enough of suffering,
enough people falling away from the Christian churches, enough of
darkness, enough of vice in all its conditions and all its grades, to
furnish him work for years to come." This is a sentiment Americans may
well think of; but there are "none so blind as those who will not see."
There will always be women and men willing to spend their time in
picturesque China at the expense of foreign missions. China has never
attempted to convert the Americans to her religion, believing she has
all she can do to keep her people within bounds at home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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