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In addition to the wife and concubines, each son when he marries
brings his wife home to a parental court, and all these
sisters-in-law, or daughters-in-law add so much to the
complications of living, for each must have her own retinue of
servants.
Young people in China are all engaged by their parents without
their knowledge or consent. This was very unsatisfactory to the
young people of the old regime, and it is being modified in the
new. One day one of my students in discussing this matter said to
me:
"Our method of getting a wife is very much better than either the
old Chinese method or your foreign method."
"How is that?" I asked.
"Well," said he, "according to the old Chinese custom a man could
never see his wife until she was brought to his house. But we can
see the girls in public meetings, we have sisters in the girls'
school, they have brothers in the college, and when we go home
during vacation we can learn all about each other."
"But how do you consider it better than our method?" I persisted.
"Why, you see, when you have found the girl you want, you have to
go and get her yourself, while we can send a middleman to do it
for us."
I still argued that by our method we could become better
acquainted with the young lady.
"Yes," he said, "that is true; but doesn't it make you awfully
mad if you ask a lady to marry you and she refuses?" and it must
be confessed that this was a difficult question to answer without
compromising one's self
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