A SENSIBLE VIEW by John Harvey Kellogg

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1880

A SENSIBLE VIEW.

By John Harvey Kellogg

IN all that we have read on the Chinese question we have seen nothing which so commends itself to the consideration of Christian workers as the following from the Herald of Truth:-

"It is a matter of great surprise to us that men holding important positions at the head of several departments of Chinese Evangelization on the Pacific coast, should put upon Chinese converts the expectation that sooner or later they should become essentially Americanized, particularly in the matter of dress. This expectation evidently proceeds upon the assumption that the customs of dress among the Chinese are essentially heathenish, and for this reason are to be put aside, on the same grounds as those for which they have renounced their idols.

"In the matter of dress, the Chinese, as other people, are the children of fashion, with this peculiarity only, their custom does not often change. If it could be shown that an article of dress adopted by the Chinese was an offense to purity or good taste, there might be some ground of objection to it. As far as our observation goes, the garments of the Chinese for quality of cloth and cleanliness of fibre bears favorable comparison with that of any class of foreigners in the same rank of life, and their toilet is by no means objectionable.

"These words are suggested by a demand made by American missionaries at a recent Chinese picnic at San Rafael, California, that Chinese Christians would do well as soon as possible to cut off their queues; a requisition that seems to us altogether exacting. To make a Chinaman a Christian is the only interest we have in him at the present date. But to make him an American is not required by the genius of Christianity.

"Patting a high Chinese officer of the steamship Tokio on the shoulder, a prominent San Francisco missionary among the Chinese said to Rev. T. P. Crawford, D. D., just ready to return to China, 'Make a good American out of this Chinaman, Dr. Crawford!' 'I won't do it,' was the reply, 'I will make him, if I can, a good Chinaman.'

"To ask a Chinaman to clip his 'pig tail,' for the sake of a 'swallow tail,' is not an injunction of the sermon on the Mount. A Chinaman's queue is as dear to him as the blood that flows in his veins. Two centuries ago it was his badge of slavery to the Tartar throne. It is now his badge of loyalty, and no question of heathenism, but one wholly of patriotism is involved in his wearing it. It is neither disgusting nor impure.

"If our missionary brethren have not forgotten their school-boy declamation,

'Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land,'

Or if they have read Edward Everett Hale's 'A Man Without a Country,' they may possibly conceive of a Chinaman not caring to sacrifice patriotism in his acceptance of Christianity. We wish, therefore, it might once for all be understood that to evangelize a Chinaman is one thing, but to denationalize him is another. To enforce upon him the sundering of his queue is an indignity that makes his patriotic blood mount in his veins. For, as Goldsmith says,

'Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, His first, best country ever is his home.'"

It does seem strange, when we come to consider it, that Christians should ever have thought it essential in the conversion of the Chinese that they should adopt American manners and fashions in dress. Certainly American manners and fashions have no necessary relation to Christian character, and there is no reason whatever why the Christian Chinaman should be required to adopt them. We think this idea of Americanizing the Chinese has been quite too prominent among Christians, especially in California. When a more liberal spirit is manifested among missionaries; and when their efforts shall be directed solely to the work of evangelizing, and not at all to denationalizing, they may have greater success among the pagans whom the providence of God has placed in our midst.

Pagans though they are, the Chinese are not an ignorant or a dull people. To the contrary, they are proverbially shrewd and observing. They understand us, sometimes, better than we understand ourselves. We cannot hide from them the inconsistency of denying to them the rights and privileges of citizenship and of the public schools, and then complaining that they do not assimilate to our civilization; or, of depriving them of the privilege of holding real estate, and then complaining that they transfer their earnings to their native land. We believe that prejudice has often been excited against them by those who have acted from selfish motives and for selfish purposes. As Christians we should stand aloof from all this, and regard them as creatures of God who are entitled to our Christian sympathies, and to the benefits of our best efforts to do them good.

We heard Bishop Wiley, of the M. E. church, in an address to a missionary meeting in Los Angeles, say that we, in California, do not know the Chinaman. Bishop Wiley has had the experience of years of missionary labor in China, and may be considered well qualified to give a correct opinion. The traditions and habits of the Chinese lead them to exclude themselves from other people; and it would be strange indeed if they should appear open and frank, or try to affiliate with their neighbors, under the treatment which they have received in America.

J. H. W.