China and the West

Letter from Alice Chipman Dewey to Frederick A., Sabino, & Elizabeth Braley Dewey
Peking Feb 13th. [1920]
Dearest children, Fred, Bino and Elizabeth.
It seems by the records I have been making a very bad account in writing home lately. Things go the sme here as elsewhere tho I have not the same excuse of hard work and being tired, but we get domestic and nothing of new importance happens and I allow myself to get busy with the passing incidents and with taling to people. Today is a great day, for Evelyn is landing or has landed on the continent of Asia if she has carried out the plans she wired to us from Tokyo. It seems to put the freshness and the sensation back into the strange appearances that have now become familiar. You know she will get here the day before New years and if she is not tired or sick we ought to have a great time for ten days seeing the markets and the exhibitions. The weathe[r] here is sunny and not too cold, tho it is the coldest of the year. We may still have snow and then it will be hard work standing on the stone floors, looking. But it is all a matter of clothing and the Chinese know how to adapt themselves. The food I have already talked about, but the cl[o]thes ought to be seen to be understood. Lately I have been relieving my own distress as well as mitigating the pains of others a little by putting some little children in K.G. for the rest of this year. Lucy has one particular favorite and the first day this child went she was like a stuffed ball in appearance, her arms stuck out like the wadded dolls and were not much more movable. if the children fall down here there is nothing to worry about. The shoes are the most convincing of our vanities for they are made of felt with thick soles and wadded linings, no heels. The college girl here would not pass on the Smith or Brynmawr campus. All her clothes are made of cotton cloth like the ones I sent home, only in general the good old colors have gone. They wear fur lined coats, both small and over coats made of a dirty brown color and sometimes a long wool overcoat like a very narrow mans ulster with a cheap fur collar. In the house they all wear the thin silk skirts of black put on over several pairs of trousers, and at least four coats one on top of the other, one or two of them being lined with fur. I think they tell the truth when they say they are never cold. no cellars, stone floor, no rug if a little stove with fire they often open their door to get air.
I have just read a note from Joanna, came on the Russia I think, tho we ar[e] to get another mail today—if we do. I believe a cotton coat is about as costly for a girl here as a plain silk one would be. When they go out for company they wear the lovely brocade satins. We had a call from a bride yesterday afternoon, She was dressed all in splendid white borcade. This is the second white brocade suit we have seen on an afternoon caller. As for food, let me suggest this dish to you. Put into your chafing dish enough broth for your soup. Put on the table beside it vegetables either cooked or partly so, and thin sliced meat and fish of as many kinds as you wish, very thin, drop these slices into the boiling broth and take them out with your chopsticks and put them into your mouth. After you get enough of this, put all you have into the broth and then put the whol into your soup plates and finish with rice or without. We are h[a]ving it alone for tiffin [luncheon] today. Chinese have it for the last course at a dinner. They always have their sweet in the middle of the dinner. We have today broth well flavored, cabbage wgich is cut up and boiled first, thin sliced potatoes, lamb and I dont know what else for the cook always surprises us with things we know not…
As for politics here things move on in the same direction so far as I can see Japan and the interests that go with her seem to calmly press the heel harder all the time on the necks of the majority who are struggling to get loose. The students are doing very l[i]ttle work tho they are not striking nominally. The whole excitement has been very upsetting to them and they still feel they have work more important than studies, and the idle ones take advantage to be more lazy than ever, Mrs [Lois Miles] Zucker taeches English Lit in the govt University. She says she had three boys in one clss this week and that is the largest number, Those t[h]ree told her they came because they were sick and could not go out to speak. Yesterday we were about the town but saw no one speaking, It is said they are speaking on the shops. Meantime the Minister of Foreign affairs has left and his Vice minister has gone with hime and there is chaos in the foreign office. It is a time when I sho[u]ld like to see Mr [Bertram Lenox] Simpson and hear his view. He is in general hopeful but advisers in general have not much influence tho he is said to be listened to by the foreign office. Perhaps that is the reason they are out, I dont know. He is writing articles for the Leader showing how China may keep her advantages if she will and the students are following the lines of the information he gives them. In general no one dares to move and so every thing is outwardly calm, tho that is an atmosphere that suots Japan.
We are sending lanterns for New Years presents to our friends the children. They are the very most interesting cheap decorations I have ever seen, all the insects, fishes, birds, vegetables and some quadrupeds are wonderfully reproduc[ed] You put a light inside them, their legs and arms move in the air, they are colored, and they cost 25 cents each. The colors are varnished on so they are very durable. The deer is a sacred animal, brining good luck I saw a fawn life size standing on its feet. There are lovely ones of painted silk which are more expensive. We had a gift of lovely paintings, panels two by six inches The one I like best of our l[a]nterns is a red peach with a scarlet butterfly resting on thr leaf. I wish E.A. could have some of them, but if she did they would have to be made in the U.S. for they would not travel well. Some time may be we wll bring the lantern makers to us but their works will be much more expensive than they are here, like all art…
Our lillies are in full bloom and I fear will not make a good show when Ev arrives tho they were bought to celebrat her arrival. The Chinese are wonderful in forcing things and the flowers tho spafrce and very dear are delicious They take two or more liily bulbs abd bind them together in a straight line by running a splint of rattan thru them so you have a lovely flower bed out of two bulbs. I have one such with nine spikes of heavy bloom on it and the three bulb combinations have sometimes 15 others have 12. They produce very fots. and not such big leaves as when we put them in a lot of water, Change water every fay and keep but little in bowl. They are sold for 2½ cts per bloom so there is never any doubt. When you buy the buds are just ready to bloom and the leaves three inches long, Later they get tall, at least I cant prevent that
Tomorrow morning at seven oclock I am going to the silk and fur market. So far during the cold I have not had the nerve to do it. I think I shall buy a fur coat for next winter of grey squirrel. The cost about one sixth of the prices I see in the papers from N.Y. Furnishing the flat has so tzken up my intest tht we have not bought much to take home. mean time the prich of rugs has so soared since last summer that I am mad at not having made invesfments in them.
Peking is full of conventions, Methodist, Missionary, and Medical…
Lots of love, Mama.