more down-to-earth "lower valuations" of the situation was that genuine friendship between Chinese and Europeans as equals was at the time so rare as to be not worth exemplifying. The same implicit message is conveyed by the deference and outwardly very respectful tone of several of his more formal examples of business letters. On the other hand, his suggestion that readers test the usefulness of the book by picking out any one English word and asking a non-English-speaking Chinese person to read the adjoining Chinese characters and produce the sound required implies quite a modern, empirical attitude towards the question of language and the assumption by Mok Man Cheung of a type of independent, verifiable authority. A.W. Brewin's short and inelegant note, included as an endorsement of the book and quoted at the outset of this article, intimates that the Registrar General had taken the author at his word and conducted a number of these experiments personally.
The reprint, in the “Introduction” to a second edition of English Made Easy, of the South China Morning Post's review of Mok Man Cheung's work, besides explaining his "system" in greater detail, also identifies the book's readership more specifically.
This work is self-teaching, and it is believed that it will supply a want which has long been felt by the following classes of the Chinese and Chinese who are unacquainted with the sounds of English words:- 1. Country youths who have acquired [sic] a fair Chinese education, but find it inconvenient for them to come from their country homes to learn English. 2. Chinese literates, scholars and officials who are desirous of picking up a few words of simple English to enable them to hold short conversations with Englishmen; 3. Servants in the employ of Europeans who are too old to go to school or unable to attend school for want of means and time.
One cannot know now the extent to which Mok Man Cheung himself contributed towards this analysis. It is, however, consistent...
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