CHINESE QUEUE COSTUME FULL

In the mean time, the popular feeling against the queue has grown in proportion to the increase of foreigners coming into China, as well as to the unprecedented exodus of Chinese travelers and students into other countries. This, however, did not prove to be the case and the queue prospered as ever, in spite of all the violent changes in China. In that year it was reported in some quarters that the advance of the allied forces into Peking meant the end of the queue. But the ambition of that enlightened Emperor was cut short by the coup d’état of 1898, after which everything returned to its former course, and no further talk of this reform was heard until 1900.

But nothing appreciable had been done toward its removal until after the Chino-Japanese war, when the Emperor Kwanghsu, along with the other reforms which he was about to introduce, was reported to have favored the removal of the queue. With the beginning of intimate intercourse with the West, however, there gradually sprang up a feeling against the queue, which has grown, not because of any lack of loyalty to the Dynasty, but because of the conviction of the inconvenience of the queue itself. Indeed, it seemed as if the queue were to remain a part of the Chinese people as long as China should remain a nation. During the last two centuries, scarcely any one ever thought of changing the queue, much less of abolishing it. Such has been, and to a large extent is, the affection of the Chinese for the queue.

Thus what was originally a badge of servitude has ended by becoming an object of pride and solicitude. Indeed, to be born a Chinese boy without a wealth of hair for a good queue sometimes is regarded as more unfortunate than to be born an American girl prone to many freckles on the face, and hair of an unbecoming shade. To an average Chinese young man, a fine long queue is of more importance for his social prominence than the choice neck-tie, the smart cut of the coat, the crease of the trousers, and all other similar points of style combined, of his American brother. Not only have the Chinese people long forgotten the rancorous hostility of their forefathers toward the queue, but they have become more proud of it, perhaps, than of any other characteristic of their dress. Time and dexterous policy have worked a complete change. Smith remarked, the rulers ‘showed how well they were fitted for the high task they had undertaken, by their persistent adherence to the requirement, compliance with which was made at once a test of loyalty.’ Stories abound to the effect that many people during those years preferred to lose their heads rather than to shave their hair. It was inevitable that such a conspicuous and tangible mark of subjection should have been bitterly resisted even to the death by large numbers of the Chinese.

CHINESE QUEUE COSTUME FULL

Official barbers, with full power either to shave the hair of every one whom they could catch, or, on his refusal, to cut off his head, were said to have been stationed in many parts of the country. The present Dynasty, on conquering the previous ruling house, imposed by martial law upon every male in the country the Manchu style of the queue.

Before the advent of the present Dynasty in 1644, the Chinese wore their hair long, usually tied up in a knot on the top of their heads. The far-reaching effect and significance of this reform, however, cannot be estimated aright without some knowledge of the origin and singular meaning of this peculiar form of wearing the hair, which has been the mark of ridicule on the one hand, and a sign of refinement on the other.Īfter noting the great fondness which the Chinese in the United States have for their queues in the face of much inconvenience and embarrassment, one can hardly believe that this style of tonsure was once forced upon them, with the sword, as a mark of subjection. Indeed, the Chinese without the queue are inconceivable! It is no wonder, then, that the recent Imperial Edict of the Chinese Emperor ordering all the Chinese diplomatic officers to cut off their queues, has at once aroused world-wide interest. To mention the Chinese immediately suggests the queue, and to mention the queue at once reminds one of the Chinese. The queue and the Chinese have become synonymous. The significance of the economic as well as moral meaning behind this reform can hardly be overestimated. The queue itself is insignificant but its abolition means incomparably more than the mere removal of a few feet of hair. THAT a new style in the cut of the hair may mean, on the one hand, a saving of millions of dollars a year to a whole people, involving the destiny of a nation, and on the other hand, the most disastrous derangement of economic conditions, even to the extent of dislocating great industries of a whole nation, may not have occurred to those who have noted recently that the Chinese are cutting off their queues.

Chinese queue costume