Humorous and lighthearted observations about China and the Chinese, often making comparisons between China and Europe, such as this:
“Before I went to the Far East I knew that the people on ‘the other side of the lantern’ did many things which to us seemed the reverse of what was rational and proper.
I knew that they read a book from the back forward and put their foot-notes at the top of the page, not at the bottom; that they locked a door by turning the key to the left, not to the right; that on entering a house they took off their foot-gear, not their head-gear; that when they greeted a friend they shook their own hand, not his; that they drained a web umbrella handle downward, not upward; that in sewing they pushed the needle from them, not toward them; that they struck a match toward them, not away from them; that they ate dessert before meals, not after;….”
Contents:
- Interpreting the Orient
- Pidgin-English and Oriental Conversation
- Topsyturvydom
- A Little Realism
- Down the Yangtze
- Glimpses of Life
- Bits of Old China
- Dragons and Dragonries
- Little Tales of Tragedy and Humor
- Rickshaw Boys
- Fans
- Jade
- Names of China
- Foreign Devils
- Pigtails
- Chop-suey
- Chinese woman
- The Woman that Henpecked a Nation
- Through a Window
- The “Boy Emperor”
- The Great Wall of China
- Pirates and Typhoons
- Tsingtao
- Shadows
- Singapore
- In a Theater
- Kudan, the Pipe-Seller