ON THE WALLS OF SHANGHAI CITY

Junkft— Peeps into fiunily life — Great man's pursuivants— Silk-winding — ^Treea — Birds — Hoar frost resisting — Pigtailed pictures of propriety ....... 23

The tide is coming in fast and the north-east breeze is fresh. It is hardly possible to write for looking at the junks passing so fast up stream by the windows — each with five sails on five different masts. Here comes one with sails of ruddy brown, like a ripe chestnut in the sun. Here comes a steamer with a European flag: an ocean tramp! Many a weary mile has she coasted to get her freight, which she carries at charges that may or may not pay. Yet seen from this distance she looks swift and jaunty in among the heavy junks. The sun shines, the fresh breeze blows invitingly; it is hard to resist the temptation to take hat and gloves and go out. But pass on, brown sails! Pass on, red sails! I will not look at you. Yet — surely that is the smoke of a steamer in the far reach. Can it be — is it? It is! The home mail! But the two guns have not yet sent a thrill through all the Shanghai colony of Europeans: telling one of home and mother, home and child, home and wife; telling another of teas sold at a loss of 3d. in the pound, or silk not on demand. Even when the guns have sounded, the letters — the pleasant, chatty, hand-and-heart-pressing home letters-H:annot be delivered that very minute. There is still time to describe my last walk round the walls of that litde-known city the Shanghai Chinatown. Hitherto our walks have chiefly been confined to the grass-plats of the Bund, with its modey crowd, watching the boats go by. There goes another, distincdy recalling the old Venetian galleys in Tintoretto's pictures, and there swiftly rides up stream an old Viking barge. •* Freighted with Curses ! " I see it so called, and hung on the walls of the Academy. This with the eyes of the imagination, of course. In reality it is an honest Chinese junk returning lighdy laden.

The European colony of Shanghai rarely stirs beyond the foreign settlement; men who have been twenty years in China and do not speak a word of the language, as they boast, have never set foot in the Chinatown, which they verily believe to be the dirtiest in China. But it takes a great deal to be that. Anyhow, round its walls you get a five-mile walk — a short five miles probably — all flat, and with fresh country air as you pass to the country side of the city.

翻譯：

在上海城牆上

帆船——窺見家庭生活——大人物的隨從——繅絲——樹木——鳥類——抵禦霜寒——留著辮子的規矩人物

潮水迅速湧入，東北風清新怡人。看著窗外順流而上的帆船疾駛而過，我幾乎無法專心寫作——每艘帆船上都有五根桅杆，掛著五張帆。看，那艘帆船的帆呈紅棕色，像陽光下成熟的栗子。這邊來了一艘掛著歐洲旗幟的汽船：一艘遠洋貨船！她沿著海岸行駛了許多疲憊的里程才找到貨物，這些貨物運費是否能收回成本還不一定。然而，從這個距離看，她在沉重的帆船之間顯得輕盈而有活力。陽光明媚，清新的微風充滿誘惑；很難抵擋戴上帽子和手套出門的衝動。但棕色的帆船啊，請繼續前行！紅色的帆船啊，請繼續前行！我不會再看你們了。然而——那遠處的煙霧是不是一艘汽船冒出的？會是——是嗎？真的是！是從家鄉寄來的郵件！但兩聲炮響還未震撼整個上海的歐洲社區：告訴某些人家的母親、孩子和妻子的消息；告訴另一些人關於賣茶虧損了每磅3便士，或絲綢無人問津的消息。即使炮聲響起，那些令人愉快、聊天式的、充滿感情的家書——也不會立刻送達。此刻我還有時間描述我最近一次繞著那座鮮為人知的上海唐人街城牆散步的經歷。到目前為止，我們的散步主要集中在外灘的草地上，觀看人來人往的熱鬧人群，欣賞船隻駛過。又一艘船過去了，讓人不由得想起丁托列托（Tintoretto）畫中的威尼斯古老戰船，而另一艘古老的維京船正快速逆流而上。我看到它被稱為「滿載詛咒！」，並掛在學院的牆上。當然，這是我用想像力看到的。實際上，這只是一艘老實的中國帆船，輕載著貨物返航。

上海的歐洲人社區很少踏出外國居留地；有些人在中國待了二十年，卻不會說一句中文，甚至以此為傲，他們從未踏足過唐人街，並深信那是中國最骯髒的地方。但要做到這一點其實非常困難。無論如何，繞著它的城牆走一圈可以讓你走五英里——也許還不到五英里——一路平坦，當你走到城市外的鄉村一側時，還能呼吸到新鮮的鄉村空氣。

On the other you have the advantage of taking quiet peeps into Chinese interiors and Chinese street-life by turns, unjosded and at your ease. It is pleasant to watch a family of carpenters at work; the eldest boy, whenever the glue-pot requires warming, refreshing with bellows the fire burning on the floor in the midst of the shavings, the younger children playing about and admiring, and thinking they too will be carpenters some day. A litde girl holds up to us an extremely fine baby she is nursing. " Would not you like to have him.^" she asks. "Yes, throw him up," we reply. Then they all laugh delighted, the litde nurse herself almost overcome, what with laughter and the very big baby. In this room we see them washing the floor — we feel glad they do that sometimes — cooking, working, enjoying — ^that ideal of the Chinaman — *' elegant leisure." A few steps further on we look down upon a street just by an entrance gate. It is pleasant to watch the crowd in the narrow street, from so near yet from above, completely at our ease. Here is the entrance to a yamen ; the great man is evidendy about to sally forth. Several litde boys have been impressed into his service as pursuivants or outrunners. They are delighting in bright scarlet coats thrown over their dirty rags, in their conical, old-world caps, somewhat distantly related to college caps, yet with something of the jester's bells about them also. But what they are especially delighting in just now is the long tail-feathers of the Reeves pheasant : not quite two yards long, but getting on for it These they are brandishing about before sticking them in their caps to walk in procession. In one part of the walls the path has been encroached upon, not as so often in China for a rope-walk, but for a silk-walk. A boy with two small shuttles seizes hold of the light weight attached at one end of the silken cord, and with a few dexterous turns sets the whole cord, composed of several fibres, spinning. Then the next, then the next ; and so on till five silken threads are being spun by hand without the aid of machinery. At the other end there are weights hanging to keep them taut. But the other end is a long way off; and as we walk along it is hard to avoid brushing against the prettily-coloured silken threads. Here is a man winding them into skeins. He enters into conversation. It seems the soldiers make an honest penny by letting off some parts of the walls for silk - winding. They also let off the guardhouses !

ON THE WALLS OF SHANGHAI CITY 27

The general effect, looking down upon the city, presents one comical feature. Everyone, who can, has a tree, and some of the trees are fine. The Chinese differ from the English in that they devastate the country of trees, but carefully preserve them in their cities. We, on the other hand, have sadly treeless towns. But the comicality of the view lies in the fact that each of these Chinese trees serves a purpose ; for on each, high aloft, is a bird-cage. The houses that do not run to a tree have a tall bamboo, and tie on to it a bough or two— to make believe for the bird doubdess. Each of these cages can be run up and down with ease like a flag by their haulyards; and we met several of them being carried along, that their inmates might enjoy the air upon the walls. The latter evidendy appreciated the attention, for they were singing to their heart's content They were for the most part a kind of thrush, Hoa-mei^ or Flowery Eyebrows. Evidendy the one great joy of a Chinaman's life, the creature, with whose joys and sorrows he sympathises, is a song-bird. Chinamen love chrysanthemums, the hoar-frost-resisting flowers as they call them ; but their pets and their companions are birds. We passed by a woman gathering a sort of tiny yellow chrysanthemum, growing wild upon the walls^ with which to dress combs to decorate women's hair. Sometimes they have a stiffer arrangement in green berries. Everyone we met seemed as usual very chattily inclined; but some begged, and a few silly children called us by the Shanghai name for foreigner, a corruption of the Portugruese "ladrSLos" — i.^., robbers. We had not time to explore a picturesque temple nestled into a very quiet, remote comer of the walls. The sun was already sinking fast — a golden red ball — ^casting long, purple shadows over the surrounding plain; and so we hurried homewards, though much wishing to make the acquaintance of a little colony on an island in the Chinatown — an island only cut off from the rest of the world by open sewers or streams of filth, but built upon with such exquisite neatness that one longed to know who the people were. They had made a very tidy bridge for themselves with a cane fence across it, in that a cane door, and behind again another screen. Fences, walls, gates, and all were tidiness itself; and walking across the bridge were two Chinamen in sombre garments, pig -tailed pictures of propriety. But the mail! Now let us forget China and be in England once again, each in familiar intercourse with his or her own people !

翻譯：

在這裡，你可以輕鬆地窺見中國人的內部生活和街頭生活，既不被擁擠推搡，也能自在地觀察。看著一個木匠家庭在工作，令人感到愉快：當膠水罐需要加熱時，年長的男孩用風箱吹燃地板上木屑中的火，年幼的孩子們在旁邊玩耍、欣賞，並且想著有朝一日自己也會成為木匠。一個小女孩抱著一個非常健康的嬰兒向我們展示。「你們不想要他嗎？」她問道。「想，把他扔過來吧。」我們回答。然後他們都開心地笑了，小保姆自己幾乎也要被大笑和這個胖嬰兒逗得笑岔了氣。在這個房間裡，我們看到他們正在拖地——我們感到很高興他們有時候會這麼做——做飯、工作，享受著中國人心目中的理想狀態——「優雅的閒暇」。再往前走幾步，我們俯瞰到一條緊鄰大門的街道。從這麼近的距離又從上方看著這條狹窄街道上的人群，感覺十分愉快。這裡是一個衙門的入口；顯然有位大人物準備出行。幾個小男孩被徵召來充當他的隨從或先導。他們對穿上鮮紅色的外衣掩蓋他們骯髒的破布感到非常高興，戴上錐形的老式帽子，這些帽子有點像學院帽，但也帶有些小丑的鈴鐺。然而，他們現在最興奮的是那長達兩碼（約1.8米）的白冠長尾雉羽毛，他們正揮舞著這些羽毛，準備插在帽子上，以便在遊行中使用。

在城牆的某些地方，小徑被侵占了，不像中國其他地方那樣被用作製繩場，而是用來繅絲。一個男孩手持兩個小梭子，抓住絲線一端的輕重物，用幾個靈巧的轉動使整根由幾根纖維組成的絲線開始旋轉。接著是下一根，然後是下一根；如此反復，五根絲線在沒有機械輔助的情況下被手工繅織。在另一端，有些重物懸掛著以保持絲線的張力。但另一端距離很遠，我們走在路上，很難避免碰到那些顏色漂亮的絲線。這裡有個人在把它們繞成繞成紗線，他和我們交談起來。看來士兵們通過將部分城牆出租作為繅絲場所來賺取外快。他們甚至把衛兵室也出租了！

總體上看，俯瞰這座城市時，呈現出一個滑稽的景象。每個能種樹的人家都有一棵樹，有些樹非常好。中國人與英國人的不同之處在於，他們在鄉村中破壞樹木，但在城市中卻小心翼翼地保護它們。另一方面，我們的城鎮卻悲哀地缺乏樹木。但這個景象滑稽之處在於，每棵中國的樹都有一個用途；因為每棵樹的高處都掛著一個鳥籠。那些沒有樹的房子會立起一根高竹竿，在上面綁上幾根樹枝——無疑是為了讓鳥兒相信這就是樹。每個鳥籠都可以像旗幟一樣輕鬆升降；我們還看到一些人提著鳥籠走來走去，讓鳥兒能在城牆上享受新鮮空氣。顯然，鳥兒對這種關懷十分感激，因為牠們心滿意足地放聲歌唱。大部分鳥籠裡的鳥都是一種叫做「花眉」（Hoa-mei）或「花眉鳥」的畫眉鳥。顯然，飼養這些歌鳥是中國人生活中的一大樂趣，這些鳥兒的快樂與悲傷與他們息息相關。中國人喜愛菊花，這種被稱為「抗霜花」的花卉，但他們的寵物和伴侶卻是鳥兒。我們經過一名婦女，她正在採摘一種生長在城牆上的野生小黃菊，用來裝飾女性的髮梳。有時候他們會用綠色漿果來做更硬的裝飾。我們遇到的每個人似乎都如往常一樣健談；但有些人乞討，一些傻孩子叫我們「ladrões」，這是葡萄牙語「強盜」的變形，在上海被用來稱呼外國人。我們沒有時間去探索一座隱藏在城牆一個非常安靜、偏僻角落的美麗廟宇。太陽已經迅速沉下去——像個金紅色的球體——在周圍的平原上投下長長的紫色影子；所以我們趕緊往家走，儘管很想認識一下唐人街島上一個小殖民地——這座島嶼僅僅因為開放的排水溝或污水流而與外界隔絕，但其上建築如此精緻整潔，讓人很想知道那裡的人是誰。他們為自己建造了一座非常整潔的橋樑，用籐條做成的柵欄搭在上面，柵欄上裝有籐門，門後還有一個屏風。柵欄、牆壁、大門，一切都整潔有序；走過橋的是兩位穿著樸素衣服的中國人，他們留著辮子，是規矩的典範。但現在郵件到了！讓我們忘記中國，再次回到英格蘭吧，每個人都與自己親近的人重新建立熟悉的聯繫！

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