Metropolitan

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY

Motley crowd — Jinrickshas — Wheelbarrows — Prisoners — Tea gardens — Opium smokers — ^Sunflower seeds — Birds — Peking bird fidr — Quack cures — Musical instruments— Tongue scrapers 29

THE first thoroughly pleasant afternoon I "*" ever spent in Shanghai was when, without a card-case— rShanghai is the city of many calls — a little company in rickshas, we careered along the Bund, always a most animated scene with its very modey crowd of long pigtailed, short velvetcoated, blue-gowned Chinamen; Sikh policemen of magnificent proportions, grimly bronzed faces and turbans of startling scarlet, as also of startling height ; and, mingled amongst them, coolies crooning, "Eh — ah! Eh — ^ah!" as they carried packages suspended from bamboos ; Parsees with their curious high, cylindrical hats ; Jews of many nationalities but one type, Portug^uese, French, Ei^lish, etc. etc. ; a few blue-jackets encouraging their ricksha men, as if they were donkeys, by good-naturedly ineffective blows ; one or two bound-foot Chinese women looking on amused, and a wedding procession, mosdy scarlet, threading its way deftly in and out among the " Barbarians.'' Suddenly we caught sight of men carrying baskets full — but full to overflowing— of brilliant purple and green Muscovy ducks, all craning to look about them, and flashing in. At once our spirits rose, we nodded at one another, turned down a long, narrow street, past the old French Consulate, and on right opposite to it, apparently under the protection of France, we saw the garden that has ruined more Chinamen than one given place in China. We turned a corner, sprang out of our rickshas, and to that little visited, almost unknown Chinese town of Shanghai.

以下是第四章「APRIL NEAR NINGPO」的翻譯：

四月的寧波近郊

寧波的景點——野生杜鵑花——竹筏——茶園——婦女的服飾——廟宇儀式——僧人——大朗山（Ta Lang Shan）——古老的茶樹叢——美麗的峽谷——毛襪——美麗的房屋——鳥巢——雪谷旅行者的手冊——被抬在衣籃裡——意外之事——多樣的樹葉——中國人的熱情款待——婦女的髮簪——最美麗的山谷——急流——數百隻白鷺——美麗的甬江——前往天童寺的路上——休息站和免費茶水——僧侶——不同類型的佛像——旅行的費用.....49

我在上海度過的第一個非常愉快的下午 是在沒有名片盒的情況下度過的——上海是個充滿拜訪的城市——我們一小群人乘坐黃包車沿著外灘飛馳，外灘總是一個非常熱鬧的場景，這裡有穿著長辮、短天鵝絨外套、藍長袍的中國人；身材魁梧的錫克警察，臉色黝黑且嚴肅，頭上裹著引人注目的鮮紅色頭巾，頭巾高得驚人；還有與他們混在一起的苦力，嘴裡哼著「哎——啊！哎——啊！」，挑著用竹子懸掛的包裹；穿著奇特高筒帽的帕西人；來自多個國家的猶太人，但他們只有一種類型；葡萄牙人、法國人、英國人等等；還有幾個藍領水手，善意地用無效的拍打來鼓勵他們的黃包車夫，就像對待驢子一樣；一兩個裹著小腳的中國婦女在一旁興致勃勃地觀看；以及一支以紅色為主的婚禮隊伍，靈巧地穿梭在這些「野蠻人」之中。突然間，我們看見幾個人挑著滿滿的——滿到溢出的——籃子，裡面裝著色彩鮮豔的紫色和綠色的麝香鴨，它們都伸著脖子四處張望，閃閃發光。我們的心情立刻高漲起來，互相點頭示意，然後轉入一條狹窄的小巷，經過法國領事館舊址，對面似乎在法國的保護下，我們看到了那個毀了無數中國人的花園。轉過一個彎，我們跳下黃包車，來到了那個鮮有人至、幾乎不為人知的上海唐人街小鎮。

But not so quickly! Easier said than done. Jinrickshas—that delightful missionary invention originally called Jen-li-che or man-power, but quickly corrupted into Jen-ri-che by those who hear no difference between r’s and l’s—rickshas can run no longer through the crowded Chinese streets, but there are an array of wheelbarrows waiting to be hired. The street is narrow, the turns are sharp, and the wheelbarrow man is determined we shall hire him. He wheels against us here, he wheels against us there, he blocks the way, he is in front and behind us all at once. And all the time, good-humoured and silent, it is impossible to be otherwise than good-humoured and silent. But at last we get through the wheelbarrows also through the city gates, which are by no means imposing, and pass the poor men sitting with cangues round their necks. This is the first time I have seen this punishment, but there seems to be plenty of it in the Shanghai Chinatown. Are the policemen cleverer to catch thieves there than at Hankow or Peking? Are the people wickeder, or are the temptations greater ? Anyhow, there are the poor wretches with large cangues, preventing them from lying down, or even leaning back, unable to take them off day or night, or even feed themselves, and looking wretchedly sick and hungry, as they hold out suppliant hands, and point at their mouths waiting to be fed. But the vehement Neapolitan makes a gesture far more expressive of famine abandonment than these Chinese prisoners. The Chinese always convey the impression of having very little to express from their poverty of modes of expression. No flashing eyes, that speak for themselves, no working features, articulate without a sound, no dramatic gestures easy to read a mile off, and finally a language almost inarticulate when spoken. Did they wish much to say anything their whole physique must have altered long Bgq. But they were bom, one would say, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, and to endure many things patiently.

Shanghai Chinatown enjoys the reputation of being very dirty and disgusting, but that sunshiny afternoon we did not find it so, though we wondered a litde at the dirt as we passed down one street of Chinese houses crowded picturesquely on to a narrow creek, the tops of the houses, wooden sheds apparently, each with a skat-fat on the roof, or, as I should call it, an Italian loggia. But here the little roof balcony or summer house is not built for pleasure to enjoy the sun and il dolce giuoco degli occhi, as the Italians say, but to hang out clothes to dry. The tide was high, so there was litde smell, but the water between us and the houses looked foul and sluggish, like a canal rather than a river, and a canal badly used, with everything flung into it. It is all these poor people have for washings cooking, drinking. And yet just at hand there is the foreign Concession with its abundant supply of wholesome, pure water, and an enterprising company doubtless thirsting to prolong its mains into the Chinatown whenever the Taotai will allow of it. Meanwhile the poor people die of cholera, .and who can wonder, looking at that water, which must also be far more objectionable when the tide is out. Across the creek each house had its own independent, narrow, rail-less bridge turned edgeways, with nails projecting

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 33

upwards from the upturned edge, so as to prevent even a cat getting across, when the cottage wants to receive no visitors ; but difficult for imaginative and consequendy giddy Europeans to walk over, even when laid flat to invite intercourse.

但沒那麼快！說比做容易。人力車——那個最初被稱為「Jen-li-che」或「人力」的美妙傳教士發明，卻很快被那些無法分辨「r」和「l」音的人改為「Jen-ri-che」——在人群擁擠的中國街道上無法繼續前行，因為有一排排等待租用的獨輪車。街道狹窄，轉彎處十分急，獨輪車夫決心要我們租用他的車。他在這裡推過來，在那裡推過去，他擋住了去路，一會兒在我們前面，一會兒又在我們後面。整個過程中，他始終和藹可親，沉默寡言，讓人無法對他發火。但最終我們還是穿過了獨輪車群，進入了城門，這些城門一點也不雄偉，並且越過了那些脖子上掛著枷鎖的可憐人們。這是我第一次看到這種懲罰，但在上海的唐人街似乎隨處可見。這裡的警察是不是比漢口或北京的警察更聰明，能抓到更多的小偷？還是說這裡的人更壞，或者誘惑更大？無論如何，這些可憐的罪犯戴著大枷鎖，無法躺下或靠著，日夜無法摘下枷鎖，甚至無法自己進食。他們看起來又病又餓，向人們伸出懇求的手，指著自己的嘴巴，等待被餵食。但是，相比之下，激動的那不勒斯人做出的動作更能表達飢餓和絕望的情感。中國人總是給人一種表達方式貧乏的印象。沒有能說明一切的閃爍眼神，沒有無聲地表達情感的臉部特徵，沒有能遠遠傳達意思的戲劇性手勢，最終，他們的語言在口語表達時幾乎顯得不清晰。若他們真的想表達什麼，他們的整個身體結構早已該改變。但人們會說，他們天生就是伐木者和汲水者，並且能耐心地忍受許多事情。

上海的唐人街素有骯髒和令人厭惡的名聲，但在那陽光明媚的下午，我們並未感覺如此，儘管我們在穿過一條擠滿中國房屋的街道時對這些骯髒景象感到有些驚訝。這些房屋擁擠地排列在一條狹窄的小溪邊，房頂上建有木製棚屋，每個屋頂上都有一個小陽台，或稱之為意大利風格的露台。不過在這裡，這些小陽台或涼亭並不是為了享受陽光和「眼睛的甜美遊戲」（il dolce giuoco degli occhi，意大利語），而是用來晾曬衣物。潮水漲得很高，所以氣味不重，但我們和房屋之間的水看起來又骯髒又緩慢，更像一條壞掉的運河，而不是河流，裡面堆滿了各種丟棄的東西。這就是這些窮人用來洗漱、做飯、飲用的唯一水源。然而，外國租界就在不遠處，那裡有充足的、乾淨的水源供應，而一家公司無疑渴望在道台允許的情況下將供水管道延伸到唐人街。與此同時，這些窮人因霍亂而死，當看到那水時，誰會感到驚訝呢？當潮水退去時，這些水的狀況只會變得更加惡劣。小溪對面的每個房子都有自己的獨立狹窄的橋樑，沒有護欄，橋面向上翻起，釘著突出的釘子，這樣在房子不想接待訪客時，連貓都無法穿越這座橋。但即使橋面平鋪，邀請交流，對於容易頭暈目眩的歐洲人來說，走過這些橋仍然是一件困難的事。

The great thing to visit in Shanghai is the tea gardens with a certain far-off resemblance to the picture on the famous willow-pattern plate. Here is water, with quaint, devious bridges, starting first one way, then another, and here are pavilions and rockwork. When it was all made, one cannot help thinking the water must have been cleaner, and that there must then have been a few plants among the rockwork instead of as now stagnant pools and filth. But the arrangement is really very pretty. As usual people say vaguely "The Rebels," when one wonders why, like everything else Chinese, it is in decadence and uncared for. But the rebels were such a long time ago I cannot help thinking, if Shanghai city cared to furbish up its tea garden, it could have done so in nearly half a century, and I begin to wonder if it is not owing to the increasing use of opium rather than to the rebels, that one finds things so untidy and neglected as in England one finds them only in a drunken woman's household. After all, it is only quite of late years the Chinese have smoked opium extensively. And the first generation of opium smokers were possibly smokers in moderation. Anyway their constitutions were not soaked with it, as those of their grandchildren and greatgrandchildren must be. Dipsomania is a modern development in England, where gin drinking is of comparatively recent date, as also tobacco smoking as other than a luxury. Science has not yet even attempted to work out how far national characters and constitutions are determined by their food and affected by a change of diet. And if it is opium that has made the Chinese grow so careless, there may be other developments going on in England, which we do not notice, because we are used to things as they now are. But certainly nothing has ever made me feel more anxious about the future of England than the dilapidated coquetries of that Shanghai tea garden; for, bad though trade was then, the Shanghai Chinatown must be far wealthier than it was when that garden was made.

We sat down in one of the pavilions, and had most excellent tea, accompanied by sunflower seeds and pea nuts, both sold to us by itinerant vendors, evidendy the ruined victims of opium. Sunflower seeds are like shrimps, very pretty eating when you arrive at it, but it is a question whether the amount of the delicacy obtained is in

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 35

|MX>portion to the trouble. An opium smoker came and offered us a bird for sale. His bird had learnt a very pretty trick of catching seeds, as he threw them into the air. It sat, as is usual with Chinese birds in captivity, on a cunninglycrooked stick, and had a silken thread around its throat. Outside amongst the slanting bridges and water there was a regular bird market going on. A man threw his bird into the air. It fluttered, and flew back. Again and again he threw it; sometimes it would perch for a few moments on the curved gable of the tea garden pavilion, but always only to fly down to him again, a crowd standing by to watch. There was a glorious, golden pheasant for sale cooped up in a wretched litde cage. But otherwise the birds were very dull in colouring after those at Tientsin andPdung.

There was a great Fair going on in Peking whilst we were there, and the hooded hawks tempted me more than anything. We saw the greatest beauty, for which three taels, about twdve shillings, were asked. But our man was against our buying it, saying if we could train it and take it out it would be all right, but if we shut it up, or kept it confined, "hawks had no conscience/' Trained hawks cost forty or fifty taek. This one was young, newly caught.

在上海值得參觀的地方之一是茶園，它與著名的柳樹圖案盤子上的景象有些許相似。這裡有水，有曲折的古老橋樑，先朝一個方向延伸，然後再朝另一個方向，還有亭台和假山。當這一切都建成時，人們不禁會想，那時的水一定更乾淨，而且當時假山中應該還有一些植物，而不是現在的死水池塘和污穢。但整體佈局確實非常漂亮。像往常一樣，人們含糊地說「反叛者」是這些中國事物為何衰落且無人管理的原因。然而，反叛者發生在很久以前，我忍不住想，如果上海市真的想整修它的茶園，在過去的半個世紀裡應該早已經完成了。因此我開始懷疑，是否由於鴉片使用的增加，而不是反叛者，導致現在的事情變得像英國醉酒女人的家庭一樣雜亂無章。畢竟，中國人大規模吸食鴉片只是最近幾年的事情。第一代鴉片吸食者可能還只是適度吸食，無論如何，他們的體質並未像他們的孫子、曾孫一樣被鴉片浸透。在英國，嗜酒症是一種現代發展，喝杜松子酒的習慣也是相對較近的事，吸煙作為一種奢侈品以外的行為也是如此。科學甚至還未嘗試研究國民性格和體質在多大程度上受飲食的影響，以及飲食改變如何影響它們。如果鴉片使中國人變得如此懶散，那麼在英國也可能正在發生其他我們沒有注意到的發展，因為我們已經習慣了現在的情況。但毫無疑問，沒有什麼比那座上海茶園的破敗更加令我對英國的未來感到擔憂；儘管當時貿易狀況糟糕，上海唐人街的財富仍比茶園建成時多得多。

我們坐在其中一個涼亭裡，喝了非常棒的茶，並搭配葵花籽和花生，這些都是由流動小販賣給我們的，他們顯然是鴉片的受害者。葵花籽就像蝦一樣，當你吃起來的時候非常美味，但要得到這種美味是否值得付出那麼多功夫還是一個問題。一個鴉片吸食者走過來，想賣給我們一隻鳥。他的鳥學會了一個非常漂亮的把戲，當他將種子拋向空中時，鳥兒會接住它們。像所有被圈養的中國鳥一樣，它坐在一根巧妙彎曲的棍子上，脖子上系著一根絲線。在外面，在傾斜的橋樑和水之間，進行著一個常規的鳥市。一個人把他的鳥拋向空中，鳥兒撲騰著，然後飛回來。一次又一次，他把它拋出去，有時候它會停在茶園涼亭的彎曲飛檐上幾分鐘，但總是飛回到他身邊，一群人站在旁邊觀看。有一隻金光閃閃的錦雞被關在一個破舊的小籠子裡出售。然而，與天津和北京的鳥類相比，這裡的鳥顏色非常黯淡。

在我們在北京的時候，有一個大集市正在舉行，而戴著頭罩的獵鷹對我來說是最具誘惑力的。我們看到了最漂亮的一隻鷹，價格是三兩，大約十二先令。但我們的同伴反對我們買下它，說如果我們能訓練它並帶它外出，那還可以，但如果我們把它關起來或限制它的行動，「鷹是沒有良心的」。訓練過的獵鷹價格四十到五十兩。這隻鷹還很年輕，剛被捕獲。

There were numbers of dear litde birds with red golden throats. I hear that a good one will fetch five hundred dollars, that is, a well-trained one. There is a bird the Pekinese teach to catch little balls ; it is said to be able to go after three at once and bring them back, if you throw them up in the air. I saw also the most magnificent black bird, a Mongolian crow, I think it was, very big and fat, with a beautiful glossy blue-black plumage. The crow is called the grave of the Mongols, though whether their dead bodies are strapped, on to wild horses, which are then let loose, as I was told, I really do not know. Any more than I know whether it is true, as some member of the French Legation, who recently went home through Siberia, writes word, that the tarantasses there are drawn by numbers of horses, generally ridden by women, the women wearing the harness, not the horses. It may be true, but if so it seems odd not to have heard of it before.

But to return to Shanghai. We passed by a stall with artificial teeth, covered with announcements how every tooth pain could be at once cured, and paused for some time by an itinerant vendor of quack medicines. He had wonderful things upon his stall, a tiger's heart, a tiger's teeth, a little monstrosity of a fat baby, made in three parts, head, body, limbs united, no anatomy oi any kind indicated, but probably used by his patients to point out where their babies were affected. He was closing for the night, so we could not hear his patter. Hard by there were pretty little China cups as usual lying in the dust for sale, the fanciful Chinese pen rests, a hawthorn twig, green, with four white flowers, a white and green bird nestling among them, and offering on its back several nice ledges for Indian inkbrushes to rest and dry.

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 37

Before that we had gone into the silk shops and bought skeins of every lovely hue ; examined Chinamen's pockets — ^possibly useful for travelling letter-cases — also their shagreen spectacle cases. We had seen the pretty litde musical instruments made of crocodile skin, highly ornamental to hang upon a boudoir wall, if not very harmonious, with their two strings between which the bow is fixed. Chinese tailors' scissors, one handle ending in an dongated curve, proved quite irresistible. We had to invest in them, thinking how many weary finger aches might be saved to English cuttersout if they once became usual in England. Nor was it easy to resist gambling for sweets in the streets and bestowing those gained upon the very smart little girls, who were standing round looking and longing, combs of yellow immortelles, or tiny yellow daisies framing the backs of their well-plastered heads, and giving them a most elegant appearance. We failed to get tonguescrapers, though they were duly advertised for sale over more than one shop we passed by, and we put off till another day examining the convenience of Chinese irons, lately brought out as a patented new invention in America, as balanced rudders have been with us. For if " they didn't know everything down in Judee," it really seems almost impossible to hit upon any convenience of life, which they did not know in the good old days in China, where they long ago discovered how to make divided skirts, such as Lady Harberton has so far failed even in copying, and where they know how to make great-coats with sleeves so cut, that you can put both arms in at once without any laborious pushing or hauling, such as makes an Englishman shrink from getting into, or being in from getting out of, his outer garment. When I left England the last new society, its prospectus not printed yet, was that of the Ladies or Dames of the Thimble, to supply women menders, and find them mending to do. You may see these menders in Chinese towns, tidy women, going about in couples with their little stools, or sitting outside cottage doors mending the family linen. It is a thing of old custom here. Americans often say if the English ever do beat in the great international yacht race, it will yet be America's triumph, for it must be with a centreboard boat, and America invented centreboards. Not so, America! Honest John Chinaman had been sailing about in centreboard boats for generations before ever you thought of them.

Exceedingly tired physically, but mentally refreshed, we came back to electric light, and carriages, callers, and Caledonians.