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# CHINESE STREET-CRIES IN HONGKONG
By J. NACKEN*
Editor's note. Dr. Alan Birch, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hong Kong, came across this article in the China Review, Volume II, 1873, pp. 51-55. This publication was made available to him from U.S. National Archives Microfilm, Gp. 108, Roll 9 by courtesy of the United States Consulate General, Hong Kong. The Branch is grateful to Dr. Birch for bringing this interesting article to our notice. It is reproduced here exactly as in the original, though a different format has been adopted to suit the Journal's printing style.
My friend was sitting at his desk, busy, no doubt, in framing the best-worded sentence ever penned in the East, when a howl from the street rang through the lofty verandah, and rebounded, as it were, from the high ceilings of the room. "That's one of those ubiquitous hawkers," said my friend angrily, springing to his feet and rushing to the verandah to have a look at the back of the disturber. I joined my friend quietly and was just in time to see a pair of broad shoulders raising themselves, and a pig-tailed head bending backwards; and then came a second edition of the howl we had heard before. I myself, being of an asthmatic nature, rather envied the sturdy fellow who could carry so much on his shoulders and walk a brisk pace, and yet have breath enough left to utter such stentorian sounds.
"What does that fellow call out?" my friend asked. I could not say, though I had been in China for some years, and, as my friend remarked, ought to know, if I pretended to know Chinese at all.
That was some years ago. In the mean-time others like my friend must have suffered from the annoyance which led to the framing of Ordinance No. 8 of 1872, which says that:
"Every person is liable to a Penalty who shall use or utter Cries for Purpose of buying or selling any articles whatever,... within any District or Place not permitted by some Regulation of the Governor in Council.'
For the hawkers of Hongkong wooden tickets are provided which must be renewed every quarter at a cost of 50 cents. These
* Mr. Nacken was a member of the Rhenish Mission, Mr. H. A. Rydings has located a brief reference to his work in South China in the account of the Rhenish Mission given at pp. 272-276 of The China Mission Hand-Book (Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1896). Ed.