114
CARL T. SMITH
“And you liked the manners and customs of the women in the United States?”
"Oh, yes".
"And having returned to China, how is it? Are you diligently seeking for a young lady with bound feet for a wife? one who must stay at home because she can't walk?”
"No, indeed", Yung Wing said, adding with a touch of humour that he wished for a wife who would be able to run with him should ever the need arise.
The conversation had struck a sensitive issue for these Chinese who had been trained in values different from their contemporaries. With some feeling, Lai-sun's wife spoke out.
"How can this cruel custom be abolished, when Christian women, by binding their own and their children's feet, are handing it down to future generations?"
"Aside from religion", remarked Yung Wing, "the practice is barbarous, cruel and atrocious.”
Their changed attitudes toward certain aspects of Chinese life were not only reflected in their conversation but also in the furnishing of their home. The missionary lady comments on the Chan's “nice parlor” fitted out with both foreign and Chinese furniture. "Most conspicuous was a very nice organ, with which the good man accompanies himself in singing the songs of Zion.”
Chan Lai-sun died on 2 June 1895 in Tientsin. His obituary, published in the North China Daily News, on which his son Spencer was a reporter, was republished in the Hong Kong Daily Press (12 June 1895). In addition to the biographical data given by Mr. Char, there is an account of his early business connections in Shanghai. He first entered the firm of Messrs. Bower, Hanbury and Company, where he became a close friend of Mr. Thomas Hanbury, one of the partners. He then set up his own business in partnership with Mr. H. E. Clapp of the firm Clapp and Company, but the venture was not a success, so Lai-sun joined the staff of Viceroy Tso Tsung-tang at Foochow, where he was appointed instructor and subsequently superintendent of the Foochow Naval School. He left the school to become a member of the Chinese Educational Mission in 1872. Returning to China in 1874, he then joined the staff of Viceroy Li Hung-chang.