CHAPTER XX
CHANGED CONDITIONS
Wherein some, though following a Path of Action, failed to understand it
THE very week that the British Minister issued passports for women to re-enter Shansi saw us in Tientsin on our way inland. Those precious documents which enabled us to return to our work were eagerly received, and we lost no time travelling over the familiar ground. How easily and smoothly we now sped over the iron rails as compared with our former journey; we need now take no interest in gradients, nor fear that the train would not start at the appointed hour, nor convey us to our destination.
We found ourselves in a strange country. In place of the dragon, the five-colour Republican flag was everywhere in evidence, which by the Chinese is thus explained: China's eighteen provinces are represented by the red line, Manchuria by the yellow, Mongolia by the blue, Ili, Chinghai, and Sinkiang by the white, and Thibet by the black; the ideal of the Chinese republic, a united territory, being indicated.
Soldiers in semi-foreign uniform lined up on each station platform to salute the train, remaining at their posts until the puffing monster was out of sight. At Taiyüanfu were further surprises. No man wearing a queue could enter the city. Should he make an effort to do so, the soldiers guarding the gates speedily removed the appendage with a pair of large scissors.
The shops vied with one another in having the very latest "Republican" goods; the buttons one bought were "Republican"; all school-books were changed to the latest "Republican" editions; the cloth trade mark was "Patriotic." Everything was Republican, and we began to realise that China, far from being the conservative country we had thought, was one of the most progressive.
As we came to districts where the regulations had been less severely enforced, we found the queue replaced by the most extraordinary head-dress; the hair, varying in length, was sometimes braided and sometimes held in place by a strip cut from a petroleum tin, and bent to a semi-circle. The more wealthy members of society affected a style similar to that of an English schoolgirl, the flowing locks reaching to the shoulders and held from the face by a circular comb. Others allowed the tresses to fall as nature dictated, keeping them of such a length that with very little trouble the plait might again appear, for as some remarked: "Who knows, maybe we lose tails to-day, and heads to-morrow!"