"THE MAN IN THE STREET" IN CHINA 



409 



Photograph by Guy Magee, Jr. 



HERE THE PHOTOGRAPHER HAS CAPITALIZED THE NATIVE CURIOSITY OE CHILDREN, 

 WHICH OUTWEIGHS INSTINCTIVE DISLIKE FOR THE FOREIGNER 



The fat boy in the foreground is the son of a well-to-do tradesman of the Yangtze 

 Valley. The features of the boy wearing the foreign cap are suggestive of the southern type. 

 The child to the right and rear of the fat boy is a slave girl (see text, page 415). 



4. South of the Yangtze Valley are the 

 native Chinese, as distinguished from the 

 Manchu or mixed races, culminating in 

 their marked characteristics in the Can- 

 tonese. They have a slight, rather grace- 

 ful stature, intelligent and mobile fea- 

 tures, quick perception, and a profound 

 contempt for the foreigner. 



THE YANGTZE VALLEY CHINESE ARE BEST 

 KNOWN TO TRAVELERS 



The type occupying the Yangtze Val- 

 ley is the largest, the most accessible, and 

 probably the best known to the foreigner. 

 In this large group there is far less 

 homogeneity than in any one of the other 

 three, and, generally speaking, this rather 

 curious fact may be traced to two entirely 

 different causes — one natural, the other 

 artificial. 



The natural cause is the intermarriage 

 for nearly 400 years of the northern, or 

 Manchu, type with the southern, or Chi- 

 nese. The artificial cause is the great 

 Taiping Rebellion ; it was of far-reach- 

 ing effect, and is more noticeable in its 

 traces today, although only seventy years 

 have passed, than the earlier intermin- 

 gling of Manchus and Chinese. 



The extent of the social upheaval 

 caused by the Taipings may be partially 

 grasped when it is considered that the 

 best historians, native as well as foreign, 

 concede that, fire and famine assisting, 

 more than forty million people perished 

 in the rebellion. 



To remove any doubt regarding these 

 figures one has only to visit some of the 

 larger native cities — Soochow, Nanking, 

 and Hang-chau, for example — and see 

 the large intramural areas to this day 

 razed and unpopulated ; then consider 

 that the same devastation extends hun- 

 dreds of miles along the broad sweep of 

 the valley, and that millions of the slain 

 were replaced by the invaders. 



In general, the march of the rebels was 

 from west to east down the valley of the 

 Yangtze, dispersing myriads of families 

 and thousands of communities ; some of 

 the people fled north, some south, and 

 some in the van of the invasion. 



Upon reaching the sea, progress was 

 checked ; pursuers and pursued recoiled 

 upon each other in a great struggling 

 mass. A retrograde movement to the 

 west set in, but. lacking organization and 

 objective, it soon spent itself. 



