At first, as foreigners generally are, I was considerably disgusted by the unnatural appearance of the men my lot was cast with, consequent upon the shaved head and monkey appendage. This frightful custom in no slight degree adds to the naturally cruel expression of their oblique eyes and altogether peculiar features; in fact, hair is absolutely required to tone down the harsh and irregular contour of their faces.
While wandering through the town, I was much struck by the appearance of many Chinese girls wearing European shoes on naturally formed feet, and head-dresses of brilliant Manchester pattern, in the form of handkerchiefs, folded diagonally and once knotted under the chin, the ends projecting on either side by a particular and almost mathematical adjustment. I soon became convinced that the European proclivities of the Canton girls went much further than this. These young ladies, before marriage or obtaining a "massa," wear their front hair cut short and hanging over the forehead, which gives them an expression between that of a London street-preacher and a person just dragged through a haystack; their back hair is gathered together and plaited into a long tail, which, when loose, strangely resembles the tail of a black Shetland pony. To the best of my knowledge, the Chinese women never cut their hair, and their system might be beneficially imitated by foreigners, for their tresses are certainly much longer and more luxuriant than those of the women of Europe.
I arrived during the Chinese New Year holidays, which, throughout China, are celebrated with extensive merry-making. At Hong-Kong the new year is welcomed with much festivity, and during many days the cracking of fire-crackers, the roar of petards, and the clanging of gongs is incessant; which, being continued all night, renders sleep difficult.
I visited numberless sing-songs, or theatres, in all of which I found the most persevering of instrumental and vocal performers. Some exclusively confined themselves to musical (Chinese) entertainment, while others were devotees of the Chinese Thespis, and, of the two, I think the latter preferable; for, although their principal hits consist of a tremendous crash of gongs, drums, horns, &c. (which invariably places the audience in ecstasies of delight), there is not so much of the shrieking falsetto of the singers, or the scraping of that excruciating tympanum-piercing instrument of torture--the Chinese fiddle. The nation has certainly obtained its knowledge of musical concord from the vicinity of Pandemonium, its idea of discord must come from somewhere considerably beyond that place.