I02 



The Journal of Heredity 



people, yet many foreigners think that 

 the Chinese are only fitted to be cooks 

 or laundrymen! 



Physically the Chinese are shorter 

 and thinner than the Teutonic people 

 on the average. But the Chinese are a 

 mixed people of many sub-races, so 

 their weight or stature may vary from 

 the highest to the lowest, just as does 

 the American. Travelling writers and 

 moving picture producers, having for 

 their sole purpose financial success, have 

 often too grossly exaggerated the queer 

 Chinese physique and personalities in 

 order to please their reader or audience. 

 Alas, the majority of the world has too 

 often been ruled by illusions! There is 

 little doubt that Chinese school child- 

 ren are not so well developed physically 

 as the American, but this is due to the 

 fact that physical education in the 

 Chinese schools is poorer, and not to 

 inherited deficiencies. If any one has 

 seen the well developed physique of 

 the Chinese farmers with their mar- 

 velous rigidity and durability, he will 

 be convinced that the Chinese are not 

 weak physically. 



SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STANDARDS 



We can be assured, then, that the 

 Chinese people are not weak morally, 

 mentally, or physically; but how about 

 their social or political abilities? The 

 social and political standards are 

 determined by history and tradition 

 rather than anything else. They are 

 the results of the tastes and dreams of 

 the people. So if a people changes its 

 tastes and dreams, the social and politi- 

 cal standards are changed accordingly. 

 Judging the present Chinese society 

 and government by western standards, 

 they do not measure up very well, but 

 one must know that the Chinese for 

 forty centuries have had and will have 

 forever their peculiar tastes and dreams. 

 They must be judged by that standard. 

 The Chinese are now undergoing a 

 transitional period; they are trying to 



adapt themselves to the best arts of the 

 western civilization according to their 

 own ways and conditions. America 

 took more than half a century to 

 develop a strong central government, 

 and "Rome was not built in a day." 

 But despite all the difficulties the 

 Chinese people have had to face, their 

 social and political progress during the 

 last decade has perhaps not been dupli- 

 cated anywhere at any time. As men- 

 tioned above, history is the best meas- 

 ure to ascertain the hereditary ability 

 of a people; is there any place since 

 man has kept his record, where he has 

 had a longer and more peaceful and 

 prosperous life than in China? 



Tfie reader might now ask, since so 

 much has been said about the good 

 points of the Chinese heredity, "why 

 don't you tell why it is so?" This 

 question may be answered briefly by 

 the following: 



(1) The modern Chinese are derived 

 from the mixing of many highly en- 

 dowed tribes. 



(2) In an over-populated country 

 like China natural selection in the 

 form of diseases and famines has been 

 very severe. 



(3) There are many Chinese religions 

 or customs which are eugenic, such as 

 ancestor worship, large family system, 

 early marriage, etc. 



(4) There is a predominant rural 

 population — ^85 percent according to 

 the best available statistics — and the 

 farm is the best habitat for human 

 beings. 



The Chinese are, therefore, justified 

 in being proud of their heredity. They 

 have led civilization in the past, and 

 they will contribute much in the future. 

 What they need is self-confidence, and 

 recognition of their good heredity by 

 others. They should learn all that can 

 be adapted from the western civiliza- 

 tion, yet at the same time preserve and 

 develop what is best in their own. 



