China and the West

[Stowe, Harriet Beecher]. Hei nu yu tian lu. Lin Shu, Wei Yi yi. [ID D10429].
Lin Shu. Translator's notes to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Preface
In American history the enslavement of blacks in Virginia can be dated to 1619, when the Dutch transported twenty African blacks in a warship to Jamestown and sold them. This was the beginning of the enslavement of blacks by whites. That was before the United States had been established as a nation. Later, when the public-spirited Washington governed selflessly, not seeking a private fortune, he was still unable to change the laws on slavery. It was not until Lincoln's time that the slaves were fortunately emancipated.
Recently the treatment of blacks in America has been carried over to yellow people. When a cobra is unable to release its poison fully jt vents its anger by biting wood and grass. Afterwards, no one who touches the poisoned dead branches will escape death. We the yellow people, have we touched its dead branches? Our country is rich in natural resources, but they are undeveloped. Our people's livelihood is impoverished to the extent that they cannot make ends meet. Thus they try to support themselves by going to America to work, and every year send money back to support their families. Of the Americans, the more calculating ones are alarmed at the draining off of their silver and so treat the Chinese workers cruelly so as to stop them from coming. As a result, the yellow people are probably treated even worse than the blacks. But our country’s power is weak, and our envoys are cowardly and afraid of arguing with the Americans. Furthermore, no educated person has recorded what has happened, and I have no way to gain factual knowledge. The only precedent I can rely on is A Black Slave's Cry to Heaven.
This book was originally called The Oppression of Black Slaves, and also appeared under the title Tom's Family Affairs. It was written by the American woman writer, Stowe. I did not like the inelegance of these titles and hence changed the title to the present one. In this book the miseries of black slaves are depicted in detail. This is not because I am especially versed in depicting sadness; I am merely transcribing what is contained in the original work. And the prospect of the im¬minent demise of the yellow race has made me feel even sadder.
The vociferous [antiforeign] libel-mongers these days are too narrow-minded to reason with. Those who favor the white race, on the other hand, under the erroneous illusion that the Westerners are generous with vassals, are eager to follow or join them. In this respect, there are indeed quite a few readers for whom this book should serve as a warning.
The work owes much to Mr. Wei Yi of the Qiushi Academy, who rendered the story orally, which I then put down in writing. It was completed in sixty-six days.
preface written by Lin Shu (Lin Qinnan) of Min county, at Seavieio Tower over the lake, on Chongyang festival of year Xinchou during the Guangxu reign [1901].

Lin Shu : Afterword
Stowe is an American woman. The reason why the title 'Mrs.' was not attached to her name at the beginning of the volume is because according to Western custom men and women are treated as equals. Furthermore she did not call herself 'Mrs.' in the original book and that term appears only at the end of the book, so we have not changed this. According to Stowe herself, the book is largely based on what she personally heard and saw. Seventy or eighty percent actually happened, and only twenty or thirty percent is fiction. The names of men and women in the book are mostly false, but in reality there were such persons.
In translating this book, Mr. Wei and I did not strive to describe sorrow for the purpose of eliciting useless tears from readers. It was rather that we had to cry out for the sake of our people because the prospect of enslavement is threatening our race. In recent years the American continent has severely restricted the immigration of Chinese laborers. A stockade has been erected at the landing place where hun¬dreds of Chinese who have come from afar are locked up. Only after a week do they begin to release one or two people, and some people are not released even after two weeks. This is [like] what is referred to in this book as the 'slave quarters'. Up to the present, letters have never been opened in civilized nations, but now these people are opening all the letters of Chinese without exception. Wherever the word 'America' is mentioned [in a letter], it is taken to be an offense against the nation and no effort is spared to arrest and deport the person. Therefore I ask, do we Chinese have a nation or not?
As we can read in George's letter to his friend, a person without a country will be treated like a barbarian even by civilized people. So if in the future we Chinese become material for slaves, will this not be the basis? The Japanese are of the same yellow race. When the wives of their officials were humiliated by the health examination, they were en¬raged and fought the case in the American courts, organizing groups among themselves in order to resist. How brave the Japanese are! Do not our Chinese officials realize that their own nationals, though guiltless, are ignominiously being put in prison and wasting to death there? This situation of dominating and being dominated is like that of [the ancient states of] Chu and Yue. Our national prestige has been bounded; need more be said?
Fittingly, this book has been completed just as we are beginning to reform the government. Now that people have all thrown away their old writings and are diligently seeking new knowledge, this book though crude and shallow, may still be of some help in inspiring deter¬mination to love our country and preserve our race. Perhaps those gentlemen in the nation who are well-informed will not consider these words too excessive.
Lin Shu, Seaview Tower above the lake, ninth month of Xinchou [1901].

Lin Shu schreibt in der Einführung : "The book tells a fictitious story. But it may become a good lesson to Chinese laborers in the United States. The overseas Chinese in Peru and the Chinese laborers in America are now badly persecuted. It is hard to foretell the miseries of us yellow people. It is my hope that my readers will not take the story merely as fantasy."
Wei Yi schreibt im Vorwort : "In recent years, America has been engaged in expelling Chinese laborers. It is likely that we Chinese would be slaves. To be slaves is shameful. To be slaves in foreign countries is even more shameful. Yet, we are not even allowed to be slaves in foreign countries. I don't really know how we Chinese think of ourselves or how foreign countries regard us Chinese. This novel offers us an important lesson. I sincerely hope our readers will not ignore it as mere fiction but learn from it what we should do with ourselves."

Sekundärliteratur
Ling Shi schreibt in seiner 'review' : "The calamity is not about to befall our yellow race : the exclusion of Chinese labourers in the U.S. and the maltreatment of Chinese in various countries in the West are already a fact. Their predicament was in no way different from that of the Negroes, but worse than the latter. I weep for my yellow people with the tears I shed for the Negroes ; I grieve for the present of my yellow people in the same way I lament the past of the Negroes. I wish that every household had a copy of Uncle Tom's cabin."
Xin Shi schreibt in Xin min ri bao (1903) : "When we think of the grim future of the yellow race, it is not the black slaves that we should grieve over."
Hui Yun schreibt in Guo min : "Chinese laboreers are now shut up in stockades by Americans. How sad it is that China has lost its power, even its national rights. Seeing ourselves in the black slaves, I cannot refrain from weeping for the yellow race."
Jin Yi schreibt : "The black slaves are able to sing of freedom after the Civil War while it is now the yellow men's turn to be slaves. They have to bow their heads and be submissive even if they are shut up in chicken coups or pigsties.
A.R. Davis : Lin had adopted an especially patgriotic note, comparing the situation of the slaves with the treatment of Chinese labourers in America, a topic of high indignation in late 19th century China.
Martha Cheung : If Stowe was motivated by humanitarian and religious reasons to write, then Wei Yi and Lin Shu were motivated by political and patriotic reasons to translate, particularly by their anxiety about the fate that awaited the Chinese if they became a people without a nation.