文档介绍：THE MIRROR OF KONG HO
THE MIRROR OF
KONG HO
BY ERNEST BRAMAH
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THE MIRROR OF KONG HO
A lively and amusing collection of letters on western living written by
Kong Ho, a Chinese gentleman. These addressed to his homeland, refer to
the Westerners in London as barbarians and many of the aids to life in our
society give Kong Ho endless food for thought. These are things such as
the motor car and the piano; unknown in China at this time.
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THE MIRROR OF KONG HO
INTRODUCTION
ESTIMABLE BARBARIAN,--Your opportune suggestion that I
should permit the letters, wherein I have described with undeviating
fidelity the customs and manner of behaving of your plished race, to
be set forth in the form of printed leaves for all to behold, is doubtless
gracefully-intentioned, and this person will raise no barrier of dissent
against it.
In this he is inspired by the benevolent hope that his immature
compositions may to one extent e a model and a by-word to those
who in turn visit his own land of Fragrant Purity; for with exacting care he
has set down no detail that has e under his direct observation
(although it is not to be denied that here or there he may, perchance, have
misunderstood an involved allusion or failed to grasp the inner
significance of an act), so that Impartiality necessarily sways his brush,
and Truth lurks within his inkpot.
In an entirely contrary manner some, who of recent years have
gratified us with their magnanimous presence, have returned to their own
countries not only with the internal fittings of many of our palaces (which,
being for the most part of a replaceable nature, need be only trivially
referred to, the incident, indeed, being generally regarded as a most cordial
and pressing variety of foreign politeness), but also--in the lack of highly-
spiced actuality--with subtly-imagined and truly objectionable instances.
These calumnies they have not hesitated mit to the form of printed
books, which, falling into the