Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/325

Rh games of chance, which gratify the almost universal love of gambling, to games comparable only to chess in the demands they make upon the skill of the exponent. Elephant kee, as it is called, is, in fact, very similar to the great scientitic game played by Western nations, in that the checkmating of the king, or commander, decides the issue. The Chinese game is based on military tactics, and, for the reason that women are not supposed to go to war, there is no queen. For hundreds of years this has been a favourite pastime of the educated classes, and its origin is lost in antiquity.  

In the South of China theatrical performances are prefaced by some spectacular representations of propitious and happy omens. These preludes consist of shows representing the Eight Genii paying respect to the Queen of Heaven and wishing her eternal years, the presentation of a son and heir by a fairy, and the personification of official success and advancement. The plays-in-chief are generally adapted from historical events, the performance of which may extend over several days and nights. But in the northern part of China short historical acts, each quite unconnected with the other, are preferred, and the plays commence without any of the preliminaries of the south. Plays are usually selected pointing the moral that the wicked are punished and the virtuous rewarded. On the stage no serious effort is made to produce scenic effects, everything being left to the suggestive actions of the players and the imagination of the audience. For example, two tables, one piled on the top of the other, with the written Chinese characters for a "rampart" on the side may be all that represents a rampart. In the same manner, a chair put sideways, or a divided curtain held up by attendants, will be employed to represent respectively a river bank or a city gate. Again, an actor taking a whip in his hand and going through the movements associated with riding is to be taken as being on horseback, and so, too, when he goes through the action of closing and bolting a door, the door must be considered to have been closed and bolted, though, in fact, no door is visible. Although the stagery is primitive, the acting is most realistic to those who are in a position to understand and appreciate it. The chief and sole aim of an actor is to perfect himself in the role he takes without any adventitious aid from scenery. Although there are actresses in China, they do not as a rule act with men, as it is not considered to be decent by the better class of Chinese for them to do so. Consequently, female characters have in most companies to be undertaken by men. Each actor makes a special study of some particular character, whether it be that of an old man, a youth, a clown, a fighter, a literati, or a female, and does not take any other part. A good actor may command a big salary — some of them get as much as $10,000 a year — but their social status is not high.  

The wearing of the towchang, or queue, by the Chinese is, contrary to popular belief, a custom of comparatively recent origin, and the story of its introduction is one of the most interesting in the history of the nation. A little less than three hundred years ago, the struggle between the Mings and the Manchus ended in the conquest of China by the Tartars. One of the ministers of the fallen dynasty, desirous of seeing the Mings re-established, ingratiated himself with the conquerors, and urged them to humiliate the Chinese by enforcing upon them the wearing of the queue and of certain forms of dress, in token of their subjugation. The minister was actuated by the hope that the Chinese, exasperated beyond endurance, would make a last supreme effort to throw off the Tartar yoke, but, wearied with thirty years of bloodshed, and broken in spirit by the horrors attendant on the war, they submitted quietly to the indignity rather than prolong a futile struggle. Disappointed at this unexpected failure of his scheme, the minister put an end to his life, and the wearing of the queue has in course of time come to be regarded as a badge, honourable rather than servile, of loyalty to the reigning house.

The wearing of the towchang, enforced originally under pain of heavy penalties, has long ceased to be compulsory, and to-day, owing to the influence of Western ideas, large numbers of Chinese have discarded the appendage, and have adopted European dress. In official circles, however, the queue has still its loyal significance. Quite recently