28
Five of volume two, A Mortal Flower, she remarks:
I was making fifteen dollars a month more than he [the Chinese male secretary] did. I had crossed the “Chinese" line, I was on my way towards "Eurasian" pay, though a great deal below European pay. I never would attain the latter, unless I married a European, perhaps.
The subtle well-ordered differences in status and in pay even among Eurasians, where it depended upon being more, or less, Chinese, I learnt about during the two years I was a secretary at the P.U.M.C. But I had no sense of personal injustice because I was not there to stay, I was there to earn money while preparing myself for the University. I did not fight for wages, I merely found two extra jobs to do in my spare time, to increase my study fund quickly.
Preparation for the University meant a lot of self-educational effort also, which in the simplest way could be attained by the passionate devouring of books. One of them was entitled Races of the World and included the following 'pre-medical knowledge' for the covetous young student (the same Chapter Five from A Mortal Flower):
There are four races in the world; white, yellow, red and black... the white race is distinguished by the characteristic that its BRAIN WEIGHT is the highest; the brain of the average white man weighs one thousand six hundred grammes, that of the yellow man one thousand four hundred, the red man's brain weighs one thousand three hundred and forty and the black man's round about one thousand two hundred...
Further, Han Suyin continues:
This account was illustrated by pictures, front and profile of skulls; with captions calling attention to “width of brow.” There were a few lines on mixtures. “Racial mixtures are prone to mental unbalance, hysteria, alcoholism, generally of weak character and untrustworthy...
"Oh God," I prayed, "don't let me go mad, don't let my brain go, I want to study.”
17
Throughout her life, Han Suyin was to incessantly be confronted with racism, to a considerable degree the derivative of colonialism and
28
Five of volume two, A Mortal Flower, she remarks:
I was making fifteen dollars a month more than he [the Chinese male secretary] did. I had crossed the “Chinese" line, I was on my way towards "Eurasian" pay, though a great deal below European pay. I never would attain the latter, unless I married a European, perhaps.
The subtle well-ordered differences in status and in pay even among Eurasians, where it depended upon being more, or less, Chinese, I learnt about during the two years I was a secretary at the P.U.M.C. But I had no sense of personal injustice because I was not there to stay, I was there to earn money while preparing myself for the University. I did not fight for wages, I merely found two extra jobs to do in my spare time, to increase my study fund quickly.
Preparation for the University meant a lot of self-educational effort also, which in the simplest way could be attained by the passionate devouring of books. One of them was entitled Races of the World and included the following 'pre-medical knowledge' for the covetous young student (the same Chapter Five from A Mortal Flower):
There are four races in the world; white, yellow, red and black... the white race is distinguished by the characteristic that its BRAIN WEIGHT is the highest; the brain of the average white man weighs one thousand six hundred grammes, that of the yellow man one thousand four hundred, the red man's brain weighs one thousand three hundred and forty and the black man's round about one thousand two hundred...
Further, Han Suyin continues:
This account was illustrated by pictures, front and profile of skulls; with captions calling attention to “width of brow.” There were a few lines on mixtures. “Racial mixtures are prone to mental unbalance, hysteria, alcoholism, generally of weak character and untrustworthy...
"Oh God," I prayed, "don't let me go mad, don't let I want to study.”
my
brain go,
17
Throughout her life, Han Suyin was to incessantly be confronted with racism, to a considerable degree the derivative of colonialism and
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.