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The common name for opium among the Chinese is yang yen--foreign
tobacco, and my wife says: "When calling at the Chinese homes, I
have frequently been offered the opium-pipe, and when I refused
it the ladies expressed surprise, saying that they were under the
impression that all foreigners used it."
What now were the results of the Opium War as viewed from the
standpoint of the Chinese people, and what impression would it
make upon them as a whole? Great Britain demanded an indemnity of
$21,000,000, the cession to them of Hongkong, an island on the
southern coast, and the opening of five ports to British trade.
China lost her standing as suzerain among the peoples of the
Orient and got her first glimpse of the White Peril from the
West.
Although the Empress Dowager was but a child of ten at this time
she would receive her first impression of the foreigner, which
was that he was a pirate who had come to carry away their wealth,
to filch from them their land, and to overrun their country. He
became a veritable bugaboo to men, women and children alike, and
this impression was crystallized in the expression yang huei,
"foreign devil," which is the only term among a large proportion
of the Chinese by which the foreigner is known. One day when
walking on the street in Peking I met a woman with a child of two
years in her arms, and as I passed them, the child patted its
mother on the cheek and said in an undertone,--"The foreign
devil's coming," which led the frightened mother to cover its
eyes with her hand that it might not be injured by the sight
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