Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/171

 up on poetry, starvation, dreams, suffering. No wonder all Chinamen are fatalists.

"A Chinaman," said Hung Long Tom, "is never straightforward in his manner. He tries to hide the real motive for his visit and gets to the point in a devious roundabout way. But he is trustworthy in his dealings with men. An oral contract with him is binding. He never tries to escape from it because it is not in written form. You see so long have I been away from China, I can view my countrymen in a detached way, almost through western eyes. Much has the Chinaman learned on his long trek through history. He knows that it is well to keep one's face blank and expressionless so that no man may fathom what is in one's thoughts. He hides a shrewd mind behind liquid eyes. Often his manner is almost infantile. You must infer most of his meanings for he will not explain them to you. Only those with keen imagination ever grow to understand a Chinaman. Pomp and ceremony are attractive to him. He is a discerning observer, a lover of poetry and old classics.