Stories from Deli

The young Chinese and the riots in Surabaya.

De Sumatra Post 13-04-1912

As we gradually receive reports about what has happened in Beijing, and hear about what is now happening in southern China, one is astounded by the unparalleled brutality and shamelessness of the Chinese journalists, who have raised a ruckus about the police’s actions during the riots in Surabaya. Mr. Kasteleijn, who is currently in Beijing, wrote to someone here: “The destruction in this city is beyond description. Executions are ongoing, and bodies can be seen lying openly on the street with their severed heads beside them.” One of the most well-known missionaries from southern China wrote to me a few days ago: “Entire villages here have been destroyed, burned, and razed over distances of miles. What isn’t plundered by soldiers is seized by roaming gangs of robbers. People, often completely innocent, are tied together in tens and cut down with swords like cattle at a slaughterhouse. Women throw their children into the water to spare them from a torturous death.”

However, a recent comment by the editor of the “Hsin-Chung-Hua-Pao” newspaper published in Canton, attached to a reprint of the circular from the Dutch consul general in Shanghai, which pointed out that the authorities in Surabaya had been obliged to take up arms due to the attack on the house of the kapitein-Chinees, for the sake of order and peace, read: “this is of course a skewed and biased presentation of events by a Dutch official, to cover up the cruelty of the barbarians.”

I must honestly admit that I would rather stand with my compatriots on the side of the barbarians than with the young Chinese and Mr. Borel on the side of the chosen ones. The impact of reading Spencer, Huxley, and others is still minor. Perhaps they are currently practicing the rulers’ morality of Nietzsche. That is possible. But jokes aside, the yelling and blustering of the young Chinese are exceptionally irritating. Also, on them applies the same: perhaps these mass executions are necessary to bring order to the chaos currently prevailing in China. But that is not the question. The question is: why are the Dutch authorities inhuman barbarians for having to shoot a few Chinese, under duress for the sake of order and peace, while the Chinese authorities, according to the young Chinese, are apparently justified, if they deem it necessary, in killing and maiming thousands and thousands?

If Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, with his bold proclamation: “We will set an example for Europe,” meant an example of a lack of logic, then he hasn’t said too much. The same journalist claims that when the Chinese in Surabaya had hoisted flags to calmly and sedately express their patriotism, wild hordes of soldiers tore down these flags and shredded them, seizing the prohibition on flagging as an excuse to indulge their animalistic cruelty. The number of dead and wounded is not yet known. The flag, the symbol of the young republic, is sullied; this calls for revenge! Indeed. Why not? China has, in many respects, a brilliant past. China can have a great future, provided we start by getting rid of a few hundred such screamers.

The only effective punishment for a journalist as mentioned above would be: the punishment that was applied in ancient China, eleven hundred years before Christ. The victim, dressed in “the garb of Nature unadorned,” was tied to a white-hot pillar of copper and left until he burned to ash on the ground.

It reminds me of what an English scholar once wrote about the Japanese: “compared with the conceit of this nation, British arrogance is humility.” And if the noise and fuss over the situations in Java were still the result of mere stupidity and ignorance, then one might say: Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

It is, however, well known to them that although the Chinese in Java have grievances, serious grievances even, they are certainly not badly off, and many have managed to amass a nice fortune.

Why else would the young Chinese party have so often begged for money in India?

From people who, from morning till night, are oppressed and shot without any reason, one would not expect, surely, that they, constantly hunted like wild beasts, would still manage to save money. The tone the young Chinese are now adopting always reminds me of the appearance of Dr. Lim Boen Khing during his visit to Muntok, more than four years ago.

The resident had received a telegraphic notification that His Excellency Yang Sic Kai, the Chinese government commissioner, wished to visit Banka and was requested to receive him in the most courteous manner.

Upon the arrival of two warships at the anchorage, the secretary, the controller, and I boarded to welcome His Excellency and to ask when it would suit him to come ashore.

Mr. Va g S„e Kb informed us that he was continuing to Penang that same evening with one of the ships, but that his secretary and Dr. Lim Boen Khing would make their appearance before the resident in his stead.

And now the peculiar part. The secretary, a very refined young man, went ashore properly dressed in mandarin attire, whereas Dr. L;.m Boen Khing, on the other hand, wore white shoes, a white trousers, a sports shirt with a leather belt, a black lustre jacket, and a straw hat.

When I later expressed my surprise during a conversation, the answer was: “well, never mind, I don’t care a brass button for these fellows.”

This is exactly what characterizes these so-called reformers, and what irritates me; they are neither Europeans nor Chinese. They lack both Chinese and European civilization and always act with a kind of arrogant nonchalance.

“They are neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring,” an Englishman would say.

Fortunately, the majority of the Chinese people do not think much of these gentlemen.

When I recently asked the son of the late major Chinese, who had accompanied Prince Htüa on special request to Japan, America, and Europe, why Yuan Shih Khai had always refused to come to Nanking, the typical answer was: “Yuan Shih Khai, former head of the Imperial Academy, former viceroy of Caihli, and confidant of the late Empress Dowager, could not demean himself before someone like Sun Yat Sen, who had never taken an exam. Then Yuan Shih Khai would rather have committed murder. Sun Yat Sen is not a real Chinese, Sun Yat Sen is a Christian.”

Yuan Shih Khai would adopt what is good from the Europeans; he would promote trade, industry, and commerce; he would clean up what is outdated, but he would uphold Chinese traditions. Especially with the people, we must be careful, because if there is too rough a handling of customs and traditions, the people will rebel. Therefore, Yuan Shih Khai is the man for the job, because Yuan Shih Khai knows the people.

A.O. de Bruin.

The tone in which this was said did not imply any disdain for Christianity. The point was simply to highlight that Sun Yat-Sen was not “the right man in the right place.”