DOI issue:
No. 172 (July, 1907)
DOI article:Sheldon-Williams, Inglis: Bits of old China
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20775#0143
Bits of Old China
"SHANGHAI TRAFFIC" I1Y INGLIS SHELDON-WILLIAMS
stepping pig-tailed "boy," and the more rugged the town for all the world to see; only the bride is
countenance of the lower caste coolie, his queue invisible in her closely-draped and gorgeously-
coiled on a head bare or tied about with white appointed palanquin.
or coloured rag, to the finely chiselled, often Before these subjects, the busy but unhurried life
almost classic, features of the Manchu from the along the quays, the solitary, brooding temples with
North. red and gold lacquerwork dimmed by the dust of
Women with feet free from the cramped confine- years, and courtyards buried in weeds, alluring
ment suffered by the higher classes share in the glimpses of Rembrandtesque interiors, towering
labour, and enjoy their immunity from the social wooden shop fronts carved from pavement to pin-
restrictions that regulate the coming and going of nacle, with panels of screening foliage filled with
their nobler-born sisters; cheery, good-tempered figured birds and creeping things; the teeming
looking and hardy, they seem less taciturn than their bazaars, the spattered colouring of the bird market
menkind, and gossip and gesticulate at windows, with its vistas of cages swung along the booths :
loop-holes and alley corners with the freedom and among these and a thousand other things the
eloquent gesture of an east end housewife. On the painter may well pause in bewilderment as to the
parapets of the frequent bridges that span sinister, means whereby some analysis and selection may
indigo-coloured streams, knots of idlers bask in the be arrived at that will yield a few intelligible,
sun; now and again, with a flash of sky-blue, purple unconfused records from the profuse mass of
and gold, some dignitary flits through the sombre- material spread abroad on every hand. At one
coloured crowd like a dragon-fly, or a gorgeous moment the eye dwells with satisfaction on large
wedding procession pours its glittering stream and sweeping lines, at the next the attention is
across the bridge and wakes to a momentary, half- arrested by every resource of the metalworker's
hearted response the sullen waters below. craft expended on some comparatively unimpor-
In China one may know each detail of the couple's tant detail, but, once seen, the impression of
plenishings and wedding presents, as the entire con- thoroughness in every part remains upon the mind,
tents of the future home is borne in procession round for the Chinaman lacquers the bottom of the box,
rl3
"SHANGHAI TRAFFIC" I1Y INGLIS SHELDON-WILLIAMS
stepping pig-tailed "boy," and the more rugged the town for all the world to see; only the bride is
countenance of the lower caste coolie, his queue invisible in her closely-draped and gorgeously-
coiled on a head bare or tied about with white appointed palanquin.
or coloured rag, to the finely chiselled, often Before these subjects, the busy but unhurried life
almost classic, features of the Manchu from the along the quays, the solitary, brooding temples with
North. red and gold lacquerwork dimmed by the dust of
Women with feet free from the cramped confine- years, and courtyards buried in weeds, alluring
ment suffered by the higher classes share in the glimpses of Rembrandtesque interiors, towering
labour, and enjoy their immunity from the social wooden shop fronts carved from pavement to pin-
restrictions that regulate the coming and going of nacle, with panels of screening foliage filled with
their nobler-born sisters; cheery, good-tempered figured birds and creeping things; the teeming
looking and hardy, they seem less taciturn than their bazaars, the spattered colouring of the bird market
menkind, and gossip and gesticulate at windows, with its vistas of cages swung along the booths :
loop-holes and alley corners with the freedom and among these and a thousand other things the
eloquent gesture of an east end housewife. On the painter may well pause in bewilderment as to the
parapets of the frequent bridges that span sinister, means whereby some analysis and selection may
indigo-coloured streams, knots of idlers bask in the be arrived at that will yield a few intelligible,
sun; now and again, with a flash of sky-blue, purple unconfused records from the profuse mass of
and gold, some dignitary flits through the sombre- material spread abroad on every hand. At one
coloured crowd like a dragon-fly, or a gorgeous moment the eye dwells with satisfaction on large
wedding procession pours its glittering stream and sweeping lines, at the next the attention is
across the bridge and wakes to a momentary, half- arrested by every resource of the metalworker's
hearted response the sullen waters below. craft expended on some comparatively unimpor-
In China one may know each detail of the couple's tant detail, but, once seen, the impression of
plenishings and wedding presents, as the entire con- thoroughness in every part remains upon the mind,
tents of the future home is borne in procession round for the Chinaman lacquers the bottom of the box,
rl3