The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844Hunter, William C.
History
The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844
Hunter, William C.
Guangzhou (China) -- Commerce; Guangzhou (China) -- Description and travel
Although by the Chinese all foreigners were called 'Fan Kwaes,'
or 'Foreign Devils,' still a distinction of the drollest and most
characteristic kind was made between them. The English became
'Red-haired devils;' the Parsees, from the custom of shaving their
heads, were 'White-head devils;' Moormen were simply 'molo devils.'
The Dutch became 'Ho-lan,' the French 'Fat-lan-sy,' and the Americans
'Flowery-flag devils.' The Swedes were 'Suy' and the Danes 'Yellow-flag
devils.' The Portuguese have never ceased to be 'Se-yang kwae,' thus
retaining the name first applied to them on their arrival from the
'Western Ocean' (which the words signify), while their descendants,
natives of Macao, are 'Omun kwae,' or 'Macao devils' from the Chinese
name of the town.
In the Canton book-shops near the Factories was sold a small pamphlet,
called 'Devils' Talk.' On the cover was a drawing of a foreigner in
the dress of the middle of the last century--three-cornered hat, coat
with wide skirts, breeches, and long stockings, shoes with buckles,
lace sleeves, and in his hand a cane. I have now one of these pamphlets
before me. It commences thus, 'Yun,' and under it is its 'barbarian'
definition, expressed in another Chinese word whose _sound_ is 'man.'
After many examples of this kind come words of two syllables--thus,
'kum-yat' with their foreign meaning expressed by two other Chinese
characters pronounced 'to-teay' to-day--and so on to sentences, for
which the construction of the language is peculiarly adapted. This
pamphlet, costing a penny or two, was continually in the hands of
servants, coolies, and shopkeepers. The author was a Chinaman, whose
ingenuity should immortalise him. I have often wondered who the man was
who first reduced the 'outlandish tongue' to a current language. Red
candles should be burnt on altars erected to his memory, and oblations
of tea poured out before his image, placed among the wooden gods which
in temples surround the shrine of a deified man of letters.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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