Nothing is less intelligible to a high-bred mandarin than the desire of foreign females to be introduced to him. At Hong Kong, when English ladies were brought to see the ex-commissioner, he turned away and refused to look at them, and on their departure he expressed his annoyance and disgust. He was invited at Calcutta to a ball given by the governor of Bengal. Inquiring what was meant, he was told by his Chinese secretary that a ball was a sport in which “men turned themselves round, holding the waists and turning round the wives of other men,” on which he asked whether the invitation was meant for an insult.
There was an amusing scene at Canton, when Chinese ladies were for the first time introduced to some of our British fair [ladies]. The Chinese kept for some minutes tremblingly in the distance, afraid to approach, when one was heard to say to another, “They do not look so very barbarous after all,” and they moved a little forward to meet their guests; surely they have learned how to behave themselves. Is it not wonderful?” and a third voice replied. “Yes, but you know they have been for some time in Canton!” — Cornhill.