Hainan and its People

Abstract

PORTIONS of this book have already appeared from time to time in the two magazines in the English language published in China, the China Review and the Chinese Recorder, but they well deserved the more permanent book form, for the author, like many other missionaries, has travelled widely in parts of China which are rarely visited by Europeans. Mr. Henry, too, writes from a full mind; he has made the most of his great opportunities, and accordingly he has contributed here a very real and solid addition to our knowledge of the Middle Kingdom. In reading it we are constantly reminded of a work written a good many years ago by another missionary, which has now almost attained the dignity of a classic, viz. Dr. Williamson's “Journeys in North China”; both are of the same useful, substantial kind, and for a long time to come both will have to be referred to for information in regard to the respective districts with which they deal. Mr. Henry refers solely to Southern China, as the name Ling-Nam (“South of the Ridge”) implies, and to the Kwangtung or Canton province. He describes various journeys through the central and northern parts of this large and populous province, along the principal streams. As we read o town after town with populations of 100,000 and over, we begin to understand how populous China is. But then, with the exception of the valley of the Yangtsze, the two great southern provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi are the most thickly peopled of the whole empire. Even those who have travelled in parts of the Canton province will be surprised to learn from Mr. Henry of the magnificent scenery of the north and north-west. The idea of the passing traveller in and around Canton and the neighbouring cities is that the whole province is a vast plain in a high state of cultivation; but in the upper courses of the tributaries of the West River Mr. Henry found scenes worthy of the wildest mountain regions. Here also, on the borders of Hunan, he came in contact with one of those tribes which are found like scattered fragments over the whole of China south of the Yangtsze—amongst, but not of, the Chinese, with their own communities living generally in fastnesses amongst the mountains, preserving in a great measure their ancient habits, and but slightly contaminated by the proximity of their Chinese conquerors. Their name is legion, and they are sure to furnish abundance of work for ethnologists in the future. In the present instance the people are called the Iu, and are described by Mr. Henry as lower in stature than the Chinese, with a similar complexion, although some are almost copper-coloured. They do not shave the head, but wear the hair coiled up behind, men and women having long hair. They wear immense silver earrings and necklets, while the hair is decorated with ornaments made of the pith of the wood-oil tree and cocks' feathers. Their territory is forbidden ground to the European, the Chinese taking care that the restriction is rigorously enforced. The meagre Chinese accounts of this people add little to our knowledge of them; but it appears that they have no written language, although a few understand Chinese. Their language is distinct from any Chinese dialect. Beyond these few details nothing is known of the Iu, and they and their country appear destined to remain a mystery for some years to come.

Ling-Nam, or Interior Views of Southern China, including Explorations in the hitherto untraversed Island of Hainan.

By B. C. Henry (London: S. W. Partridge and Co., 1886.)