standing the obvious disadvantages under which the native labours in having to acquire a foreign language and foreign habits of thought, his capacity for learning is so great that it will sustain him neck and neck in the race with his European rival.
There are a number of schools in different parts of the country, supported by the Chinese Government, in which foreign languages and sciences are taught by foreign and native professors. The most important, probably, is the College at Peking, under the supervision of Dr. Martin. There is also an extensive training-school at Foochow, where the pupils are taught naval architecture, engineering, mechanics, and the science of navigation. In this school the theoretical training is reduced to practice in the construction of steamers on the most approved foreign models, and by employment in actual navigation.
A CHINESE GIRL.
THE education of the girls of a Chinese family is conducted within the domestic circle. They are strictly secluded, and consequently Chinese history offers few examples of women who have been distinguished for their literary attainments. In the higher orders of society ladies here and there receive an education which enables them to form some slight acquaintance with the literature of their country, and to conduct and express themselves according to the strict and formal rules of etiquette which pertain to their position as the daughters or wives of men of learning and cultivation. In a few cases they are taught elegant accomplishments, playing on the lute, for example, that they may charm the leisure hours of their lords with song, but the science to which they devote themselves with most assiduity is the knowledge of the mysteries of cosmetics and the toilet; how to paint to the proper tint, finishing with the bright vermilion spot on the under lip; how to poise the quivering ornaments of kingfisher plumes or sprays of pearls about the coiffure; how to walk with grace on their tiny feet, and to sit down without furling or disarranging a fold of their silken attire. The women of the lower classes are seldom taught anything beyond the duties of the household, or the more arduous work of bearing burdens or labouring with the men of their family in the fields. Tea-picking, and the rearing of the silk-worm, are also female occupations. Such an education as this, however, is not unsuited for their lowly station in life, as they are trained to strict habits of industry and domestic economy.
A HONG-KONG ARTIST.
LUMQUA was a Chinese pupil of Chinnery, a noted foreign artist, who died at Macao in 1852. Lumqua produced a number of excellent works in oil, which are still copied by the painters in Hong-Kong and Canton. Had he lived in any other country he would have been the founder of a school of painting. In China his followers have failed to grasp the spirit of his art. They drudge with imitative servile toil, copying Lumqua's or Chinnery's pieces, or anything, no matter what, just because it has to be finished and paid for within a given time, and at so much a square foot. There are a number of painters established in Hong-Kong, but they all do the same class of work, and have about the same tariff of prices, regulated according to the dimensions of the canvas. The occupation of these limners consists mainly in making enlarged copies of photographs. Each house employs a touter, who scours the shipping in the harbour with samples of the work, and finds many ready customers among the foreign sailors. These bargain to have Mary or Susan painted on as large a scale and at as small a price as possible, the work to be delivered framed and ready for sea probably within twenty-four hours. The painters divide their labour on the following plan. The apprentice confines himself to bodies and hands, while the master executes the physiognomy, and thus the work is got through with wonderful speed. Attractive colours are freely used; so that Jack's fair ideal appears at times in a sky-blue dress, over which a massive gold chain and other articles of jewellery are liberally hung. These pictures would be fair works of art were the drawing good, and the brilliant colours properly arranged; but all the distortions of badly taken photographs are faithfully reproduced on an enlarged scale. The best works these painters do are pictures of native and foreign ships, which are wonderfully drawn. To enlarge a picture they draw squares over their canvas corresponding to the smaller squares into which they divide the picture to be copied. The miniature painters in Hong-Kong and Canton do some work on ivory that is as fine as the best ivory painting to be found among the natives of India, and fit to bear comparison with the old miniature painting of our own country, which photography has, now-a-days, in a great measure superseded.
I shall have occasion to notice Chinese art and artists in a subsequent portion of this work.
