OUR CHINESE VISITORS
Harper’s Weekly, September 4, 1869, page 574 (Article)
The visit of Choy-Chew and Sing-Man, the Chinese merchants from San Francisco, who arrived here on the evening of August 11, will further the influences of the recent visit of Mr. Burlingame and his diplomatic party. It will even more directly promote the friendly commercial relations which it was a main object of the Burlingame mission to inaugurate. Choy-Chew, in his speech at Chicago on the 6th of August, admirable expressed the sentiments of the more enlightened among the great merchants in the Chinese empire when he said: "China must brush away the dust of her antiquity, and, looking across the Pacific, behold and profit by the lessons of the New World." That she has already begun to do this is manifest from the facts stated by him that "steamboat lines have been established on our rivers, and the telegraph will soon connect us with this wonderful sovereignty, where the people rule, and where every thing proclaims peace and good-will to all." About thirty-eight years ago the Edinburgh Review exposed the falsity of the statements made by those interested in the monopoly of the East India Company as to the anti-commercial character of the Chinese. It proved that they were, on the contrary, a highly-commercial people; that they were, as they still are, the great traders of the Eastern Archipelago; that vast numbers of them were settled at Batavia, Singapore, and other commercial emporia, all actively engaged in trade or in some species of useful industry. The Edinburgh Review predicted even then the growth of that American trade with China which now promises to assume such prodigious proportions, and the interests of which will be materially helped by the visit of Choy-Chew and Sing-Man to our metropolis as representatives of Chinese industry and commerce.
These Chinese merchants have been long settled in California, and have practically become American citizens. They speak our language with perfect freedom, and are well acquainted with our country. Of course, they are particularly interested in the schemes lately projected for Chinese emigration to America.
Harper’s Weekly, September 4, 1869, page 574 (Article)

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