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America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat-Part15_TingFang Wu(1842-1922)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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like to see a man, justly called a rake, looking at the half-exposed bosom

of a lady. There is no doubt that too much clothing is an evil,



as well as too little; but clothing that swelters or leaves us with a cold

are both lesser evils than the exposure of esoteric charms



to stir the already heated blood of the `roue'. What we have to do,

as far as fashion and the public opinion it forms will allow,



is to suit our clothing to our climate, and to be truly modest and healthful

in our attire." Mrs. Nichols, speaking from her own experience,



has naturally devoted her book largely to a condemnation of woman's dress,

but man's dress as worn in the West is just as bad. The dreadful high collar



and tight clothes which are donned all the year round,

irrespective of the weather, must be very uncomfortable.



Men wear nearly the same kind of clothing at all seasons of the year.

That might be tolerated in the frigid or temperate zones,



but should not the style be changed in the tropical heat of summer common to

the Eastern countries? I did not notice that men made much difference



in their dress in summer; I have seen them, when the thermometer was ranging

between 80 and 90, wearing a singlet shirt, waistcoat and coat.



The coat may not have been as thick as that worn in winter,

still it was made of serge, wool or some similarly unsuitable stuff.



However hot the weather might be it was seldom that anyone was to be seen

on the street without a coat. No wonder we frequently hear of deaths



from sunstroke or heat, a fatality almost unknown among the Chinese.**

--



* "The Clothes Question Considered in its Relation

to Beauty, Comfort and Health", by Mrs. M. S. G. Nichols.



Published in London, 32 Fopstone Road, Earl's Court, S.W.

** There have been a few cases of Chinese workmen who through carelessness



have exposed themselves by working in the sun; but such cases are rare.

--



Chinese dress changes with the seasons, varying from the thickest fur

to the lightest gauze. In winter we wear fur or garments lined with



cotton wadding; in spring we don a lighter fur or some other thinner garment;

in summer we use silk, gauze or grass cloth, according to the weather.



Our fashions are set by the weather; not by the arbitrary decrees

of dressmakers and tailors from Peking or elsewhere.



The number of deaths in America and in Europe every year,

resulting from following the fashion must, I fear, be considerable,



although of course no doctor would dare in his death certificate

to assign unsuitable clothing as the cause of the decease of a patient.



Even in the matter of dressing, and in this twentieth century,

"might is right". In the opinion of an impartial observer



the dress of man is queer, and that of woman, uncouth;

but as all nations in Europe and America are wearing the same kind of dress,



mighty Conventionality is extending its influence, so that even

some natives of the East have discarded their national dress



in favor of the uglier Western attire. If the newly adopted dress were,

if no better than, at least equal to, the old one in beauty and comfort,



it might be sanctioned for the sake of uniformity, as suggested

in the previous chapter; but when it is otherwise why should we imitate?



Why should the world assume a depressing monotony of costume?

Why should we allow nature's diversities to disappear?



Formerly a Chinese student when returning from Europe or America

at once resumed his national dress, for if he dared to continue



to favor the Western garb he was looked upon as a "half-foreign devil".

Since the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1911,



this sentiment has entirely changed, and the inelegant foreign dress

is no longer considered fantastic; on the contrary it has become a fashion,



not only in cities where foreigners are numerous, but even in

interior towns and villages where they are seldom seen.



Chinese ladies, like their Japanese sisters, have not yet,

to their credit be it said, become obsessed by this new fashion,



which shows that they have more common sense than some men.

I have, however, seen a few young and foolish girls imitating



the foreign dress of Western women. Indeed this craze for Western fashion

has even caught hold of our legislators in Peking, who, having fallen under






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