On a Chinese Screen · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham.
Chapter 1
Dedication
A brief dedication of the book to Syrie.
Chapter 2
On a Chinese Screen
The chapter presents a series of vignettes and observations from the author's travels in China, capturing the cultural clashes, colonial ennui, and the search for meaning among Western expatriates and Chinese locals. Through encounters with various characters, the narrative explores the futility of Western superiority and the loss of tradition amidst modernity.
Chapter 3
The Rising of the Curtain
The chapter opens with a vivid description of the approach to a Chinese city, detailing the dilapidated mud hovels, a string of disdainful camels, and a crowd gathered at the gate. Inside the city walls, the narrator observes a bustling street of shops with ruined magnificence, a Peking cart, and the mysterious figures it might carry, evoking the exotic and enigmatic atmosphere of the East.
Chapter 4
II: My Lady's Parlour
A woman transforms an old Chinese temple into a Western-style living space, decorating it with imported furniture, wallpaper, and photographs to recreate the feel of an English home in Cheltenham or Tunbridge Wells.
Chapter 5
III: The Mongol Chief
A mysterious Mongol chief descends from the high Mongolian plateau through a mountain pass into China, accompanied by his henchmen. He rides proudly ahead, seemingly indifferent to the bustling traffic of camels, wagons, and livestock that fills the ancient trade route. The narrative suggests a historical echo of his ancestors who once rode down this same pass to loot the rich cities of China.
Chapter 6
IV: The Rolling Stone
The narrator recounts meeting a man whose extraordinary travels and experiences across the world, including a four-year journey through China disguised as a poor Chinese man, are belied by his unremarkable appearance and personality. Despite his vast collection of anecdotes and encounters, the narrator finds that the man's adventures have not deeply touched his soul, leaving him ultimately commonplace and his writing tedious.
Chapter 7
V: The Cabinet Minister
The narrator visits a Chinese Cabinet Minister in a room that blends Eastern and Western decor. They discuss the strange persistence of historical dress, the decline of Chinese civilization due to Western influence, and the minister's deep appreciation for traditional art. Despite the minister's refined aesthetic sensibility, the narrator reveals he is corrupt and unscrupulous.
Chapter 8
VI: Dinner Parties
The chapter presents two contrasting dinner parties: one in the Legation Quarter with a cosmopolitan mix of diplomats and socialites, and another at a Treaty Port where expatriates dine in stifling routine and boredom. Both scenes highlight the insularity, pretension, and emptiness of colonial social life.
Chapter 9
I: Legation Quarter
The chapter depicts a diplomatic reception in the Legation Quarter, introducing a cast of international characters—including the Swiss banker's wife, the Minister of Guatemala, the Chargé d'Affaires of Montenegro, a Russian princess, and the first secretary of the British Legation—whose interactions highlight the insular, performative, and often absurd nature of expatriate diplomatic society. The narrative satirizes their preoccupation with status, manners, and trivialities, while revealing their detachment from the local culture and their interchangeable existence across capitals.
Chapter 10
II: At a Treaty Port
The chapter depicts a formal dinner party at a treaty port, where the opulent setting contrasts with the tedious conversation and mutual boredom of the expatriate community. The guests, all business figures and their wives, are trapped in a cycle of repetitive social obligations, avoiding any meaningful discussion about China or abstract topics.
Chapter 11
VII: The Altar of Heaven
The chapter describes the Altar of Heaven in Peking, a sacred site where the Emperor of China once performed the winter solstice ritual to worship Heaven. It contrasts this ancient grandeur with the modern tourist Willard B. Untermeyer, who carves his name on the marble pavement in a bid for immortality, only to have a Chinese caretaker casually erase it with spittle, illustrating the futility of his gesture.
Chapter 12
VIII: The Servants of God
Two missionaries, an elderly Frenchman and a younger Englishman, sit together discussing trivial matters, yet share a profound goodness and humility. The Frenchman, nearly eighty, has spent fifty years in China and faced attacks on his mission; his eyes flash with prophetic intensity. The Englishman, a former soldier turned Church Mission member, is jovial and kind-hearted, having felt a sudden call to missionary work in India. They part, each heading to a different 'home'—one to his French town, the other to his ancestral English estate.
Chapter 13
IX: The Inn
The narrator describes the final leg of a journey to an inn, passing through a city gate and crowded streets. Upon arrival, the inn is depicted as a bustling, dimly lit yard with rooms, tables, and a stove. The narrator settles into a guest chamber, reflecting on the value of long books for passing time, and observes the arrival of more travelers. The night is marked by noise, a coughing man, and the sounds of morning.
Chapter 14
X: The Glory Hole
The chapter describes the Glory Hole, a small cubicle above a chandler's store in an Eastern port where old sea captains, pilots, and taipans gather to drink, gamble, and reminisce about the port's glorious past during the era of tea clippers. The narrator contrasts the lively, adventurous days of old with the present decline of trade and the disdain of younger men.
Chapter 15
XI: Fear
The narrator stays with Mr. Wingrove, a missionary in China, and observes the stark contrast between his refined tastes and his wife's vulgarity. Through subtle cues—his tortured eyes, strained voice, and physical revulsion toward the Chinese—the narrator realizes that Wingrove secretly loathes the very people he has devoted his life to saving. The chapter explores Wingrove's inner torment: he married beneath his class and cut himself off from the Oxford life he loved, driven by a religious compulsion he could not resist, and now martyrs his soul daily.
Chapter 16
XII: The Picture
The narrator reflects on a mysterious traveler—perhaps a mandarin or a student—who, delayed at a squalid Chinese inn, creates a delicate ink drawing of a plum branch and a bird on the wall. The sketch, executed with masterful calligraphy, transforms the miserable room with a fleeting sense of eternal beauty and spring.
Chapter 17
XIII: Her Britannic Majesty’s Representative
The chapter introduces the British consul, a small, officious man with a bristling demeanor and a talent for condescension. Despite his irritating manner, he displays unexpected bravery during a revolution, stepping between a firing squad and three condemned prisoners to secure their release. The narrative highlights the paradox of his character—petty yet courageous.
Chapter 18
XIV: The Opium Den
The narrator contrasts the sensationalized literary and theatrical depictions of opium dens with the mundane, homely reality he encounters when visiting one. Instead of a squalid den of vice, he finds a clean, well-lit room where people read, play chess, smoke sociably, and care for children, likening it to a cozy Berlin beer-house.
Chapter 19
XV: The Last Chance
The chapter introduces a single, thirty-year-old blonde woman in a treaty port who is desperately seeking a husband. Her efforts to appeal to every unmarried man are painfully transparent, and she is willing to adapt to any interest—from shooting to golf to billiards—to secure a match. Despite her good nature and genuine desire to be a good wife, her lack of subtlety and awkward attempts at allure make her a figure of pity and discomfort among the men.
Chapter 20
XVI: The Nun
The narrator visits a convent on a hill, meeting the Mother Superior, a Basque nun who has lived in China for twenty years. She shows the orphans making lace and the hospital with sick soldiers. She reflects on the kindness of the Chinese, though with limitations, and the narrator muses on her wisdom about not expecting more than people can give.
Chapter 21
XVII: Henderson
The chapter introduces Henderson, a British expatriate in Shanghai who outwardly espouses socialist and democratic ideals but reveals a deep-seated hypocrisy in his treatment of the Chinese. His conventional unconventionality and condescending attitude culminate in a moment where he kicks a rickshaw boy, exposing the contradiction between his professed beliefs and his actions as a member of the ruling colonial class.
Chapter 22
Dawn
The narrator describes the early morning departure from the inn, walking through the city streets and out the great gate as dawn breaks. He reflects on the beauty of the landscape, comparing the paddy fields and bamboo groves to Chinese paintings and, later, to English hop-fields, evoking a sense of nostalgia and cultural contrast.
Chapter 23
XIX: The Point of Honour
The chapter explores the French national character and the concept of honour, using the Vicomte de Steenvoorde as a case study. It describes his appearance, mannerisms, and his peculiar marital arrangement where he profits from his wife's infidelities to uphold his dignity.
Chapter 24
XX: The Beast of Burden
The chapter reflects on the figure of the Chinese coolie, initially seen as a picturesque element of the landscape but gradually revealing the harsh reality of relentless physical labor, suffering, and dehumanization. The narrator contrasts the initial aesthetic appreciation with the grim truth of exhaustion, sores, and malformation, ultimately expressing a futile compassion and quoting a Chinese mystic on the pitiful nature of such a life.
Chapter 25
XXI: Dr. Macalister
The narrator describes Dr. Macalister, a former medical missionary turned entrepreneur in China, who recounts his early idealism and the gradual transformation into a shrewd businessman. The chapter explores the contrast between his youthful missionary zeal and his current commercial success.
Chapter 26
XXII: The Road
The chapter describes a journey along a narrow causeway through the Chinese countryside, emphasizing the monotony and beauty of the landscape, the common sights of peasants and travelers, and the occasional moments of transcendent beauty that break the routine.
Chapter 27
XXIII: God's Truth
Birch, a B.A.T. agent stationed in a remote Chinese town, suffers from extreme isolation and homesickness after three months without seeing another white man. When he finally encounters a missionary on the road, his desperate attempt at connection is rebuffed due to the missionary's moral objection to the tobacco trade. The encounter escalates into a violent confrontation, leaving Birch more desolate than before.
Chapter 28
XXIV: Romance
The narrator reflects on the nature of romance while traveling down a river in China. He recounts past experiences that seemed romantic only in retrospect, and describes a sudden, inexplicable feeling of romance that seizes him in his humble cabin on the boat. He tries to analyze the source of this feeling but finds it elusive, comparing it to tearing a butterfly to discover its beauty. The chapter blends a personal meditation on romance with a vivid description of the river journey and the legend of Chang Chien sailing the Milky Way.
Chapter 29
XXV: The Grand Style
The narrator reflects on an elderly doctor, over eighty, who arrived in China fifty-seven years ago as a ship's doctor. Now serving as vice-consul in a small anchorage, he embodies an old-world gentlemanliness marked by classical education, antique courtesy, and a grand, adventurous spirit. The chapter contrasts his dignified style with modern manners, attributing his distinction to a bygone era's solid reading, Latin quotations, and a sense of style akin to Swift's prose.
Chapter 30
XXVI: Rain
The narrator contrasts the discomfort of a rainy journey in China with the cozy comforts of London life, reflecting on the pleasures of home, family, and leisure activities like reading, writing, and attending the theater.
Chapter 31
XXVII: Sullivan
The chapter tells the story of an Irish sailor who deserted his ship in Hong Kong and spent three years wandering across China, living on his wits by begging from magistrates. His luck ran out when a magistrate ordered him beaten, which so shocked and humiliated him that he abandoned his vagrant life and became a tide-waiter for the customs service. Now settled with a Chinese wife and children, he recounts his adventures freely but remains haunted by the inexplicable beating.
Chapter 32
XXVIII: The Dining-Room
The narrator describes a once-grand dining room in a decaying port city, reflecting on the decline of the foreign merchant community. The room's faded opulence mirrors the loss of prosperity and the melancholy of a bygone era.
Chapter 33
XXIX: Arabesque
The chapter presents a vivid and haunting description of the Great Wall of China, emphasizing its immense scale, solitude, and the human suffering embedded in its construction. The wall is portrayed as a silent, majestic, and terrible monument, indifferent to nature and time, stretching endlessly across the rugged landscape.
Chapter 34
XXX: The Consul
The chapter focuses on Mr. Pete, the British consul, who is in a state of extreme irritation following a visit from Miss Lambert, an Englishwoman who married a Chinese man named Yü. Despite his efforts to persuade her to leave, she stubbornly refuses, citing a trivial physical attraction to her husband. The consul's frustration highlights his eccentricities, isolation, and the cultural clashes inherent in his position.
Chapter 35
XXXI: The Stripling
A confident seventeen-year-old Chinese youth walks along a causeway toward a walled city, seeking his fortune. He is tall, slim, with a smooth yellow skin, large eyes, and a jaunty bearing. Dressed in a black gown with turned-up trousers and straw sandals, he carries a blue cotton parcel and a cage containing a green parrot. His journey takes him through villages and past burial grounds, and as he nears the city, he steps forward with bold resolution.
Chapter 36
XXXII: The Fannings
This chapter introduces the Fannings, a solitary British family living in a fine square house on a low hill facing a river, five miles from the city. Fanning, the deputy commissioner, is a bald, thickset martinet whose aggressive, brusque manner conceals a painful shyness, bolstered by his wife's constant reassurance. Mrs. Fanning is a plain, untidy woman with a love of brilliant colors and a soft musical voice, who devotes herself entirely to her husband and their two young sons. The family lives in near isolation, with only occasional visits from tide-waiters or passing travelers. Despite Fanning's gruff exterior, the household is united by Mrs. Fanning's passionate, selfless love, and they spend their evenings playing piquet and listening to gramophone records from London, dreaming of their children's future.
Chapter 37
XXXIII: The Song of the River
This chapter describes the various songs heard along the river, from the rowers and trackers on junks to the coolies carrying bales up the town steps. It captures the effort, strain, and indomitable spirit of the laborers, as well as the despair and suffering inherent in their toil.
Chapter 38
XXXIV: Mirage
The chapter introduces a tall American man with bulging blue eyes and an embarrassed manner, who manages the B.A.T. in a Chinese city that serves as a gateway to Mongolia. He lives in a combined office, godown, and residence, but prefers his bedroom, furnished like a boarding house, where he reads only American magazines. Despite living in China for five years, he knows no Chinese and takes no interest in the local culture. His business involves risky journeys into Mongolia, but he finds them boring and is always relieved to return to his familiar bedroom. He is oblivious to the adventure and exotic life around him, only experiencing excitement through printed stories of derring-do in America or the South Seas.
Chapter 39
The Stranger
The missionary escapes the sweltering city for his hill bungalow, but is troubled by an encounter with Dr. Saunders, who tells him about a stranger claiming to be Christ who sought the missions only to find them closed for the summer. The missionary broods over the implied criticism and later thinks of a retort.
Chapter 40
XXXVI: Democracy
The narrator observes a Chinese official's initial display of authority at an inn, followed by his casual camaraderie with a coolie, reflecting on the nature of democracy in the East versus the West. He argues that the Western obsession with cleanliness and the 'sanitary convenience' has created class divisions, while the Chinese, accustomed to strong odors, maintain a genuine social equality.
Chapter 41
XXXVII: The Seventh Day Adventist
The chapter introduces a Seventh Day Adventist missionary traveling up the Yangtze River. He is a large, determined-looking man in a tight blue suit with an American flag lapel pin. He shows no interest in the scenery or local culture, studies Chinese mechanically, and reads outdated newspapers. He dismisses all local religions as devil worship, lacks knowledge of Chinese history or philosophy, and treats his mission as a business proposition focused on organization and membership growth. He is upright but lacks passion, viewing the Chinese as simple and inferior, yet is good-humored and willing to help as long as his authority is not challenged.
Chapter 42
XXXVIII: The Philosopher
The narrator visits a renowned Confucian philosopher in a remote Chinese city. The philosopher, a passionate defender of old China, condemns Western influence and the machine gun as the true source of Western superiority. He laments the loss of tradition and the rise of individualism. After a lengthy discourse, the narrator requests a sample of his calligraphy, receiving two poems that reveal a personal and poignant reflection on love and loss.
Chapter 43
XXXIX: The Missionary Lady
The narrator describes a formidable missionary lady, a woman of unwavering conviction and confident authority, who engages him in a conversation filled with platitudes and clichés. He attempts to match her with his own banalities, leading to a mutual but hollow exchange of ideas, highlighting the absurdity of their intellectual posturing.
Chapter 44
A Game of Billiards
The narrator, staying in a small hotel, is invited to play billiards by a mysterious, thin, red-faced stranger. After a silent game, the stranger abruptly asks if the narrator believes in fate, then departs, leaving the narrator to wonder about the man's strange impulse.
Chapter 45
The Skipper
The narrator observes a seemingly wholesome, clean-living skipper who, despite his youthful appearance and respectable demeanor, reveals a drunken confusion about democracy and socialism. The skipper, a Harrow-educated man, expresses disdain for socialism and the working class, insisting he is not a working man himself, highlighting a tension between his self-image and his actual profession.
Chapter 46
XLII: The Sights of Town
The narrator describes his aversion to conventional sightseeing, preferring to wander aimlessly in foreign towns. He stumbles upon a 'baby tower' outside the city wall, a site where unwanted infants are abandoned, and reflects on the philosophical interplay of good and evil. He then visits a nearby orphanage run by Spanish nuns, observing their tender care for the children and the humble, touching conditions of the institution.
Chapter 47
Nightfall
The chapter describes a solitary journey at dusk through a stone gateway in a deserted landscape, evoking a powerful sense of nostalgia and melancholy. The traveler, carried in a chair, passes rice fields and a causeway, but the woodland odors trigger memories of Kentish soil and lost youth, leading to tears and a struggle for self-control as night falls.
Chapter 48
XLIV: The Normal Man
The narrator reflects on the rarity of normalcy, using a lesson from anatomy to introduce Robert Webb, a seemingly ordinary and well-liked British consul in China. Through a series of personal revelations, Webb's facade of normalcy cracks as he expresses deep emotional pain over being separated from his family for eight years due to the war, missing his daughter's childhood and marriage. The chapter concludes with the narrator doubting whether Webb is truly normal after all.
Chapter 49
The Old Timer
The chapter introduces a seventy-six-year-old former sailor who has spent his life in China, recounting his varied career on the Yangtze, his three marriages, and his current role as chief officer on a river steamer. Despite financial ruin and old age, he reflects on his past without regret, finding solace in the familiar river and his loyal Chinese servant.
Chapter 50
XLVI: The Plain
The narrator reflects on a moment of profound personal association when, expecting to see a Chinese landscape from a hilltop, he instead sees a vista that reminds him of the Rhine valley near Heidelberg. This triggers a flood of memories about his youth, his first experiences of beauty, knowledge, and conversation, and his deep emotional connection to the European landscape, which has become his symbol for happiness.
Chapter 51
XLVII: Failure
The chapter introduces a portly, aging man with a theatrical air, dressed in outdated but flamboyant clothing, who once came to China as a tea-taster but failed to prosper as Ceylon tea overtook Chinese tea. He tried various trades—wine merchant, undertaker, estate agent, broker, auctioneer—but all failed with the port's decline. Now a broken man, he retains a magnificent assurance, blaming fate rather than his own capacity for his failure.
Chapter 52
XLVIII: A Student of the Drama
The narrator receives a visit from a young Chinese professor of Comparative Modern Literature, who has studied in Europe and advocates for Scribe as the model for Chinese drama. Their conversation reveals the professor's narrow specialization, his ignorance of Chinese philosophy, and his perplexity at the narrator's simple views on playwriting. The chapter satirizes academic pedantry and the clash between Western theatrical ideals and Chinese tradition.
Chapter 53
XLIX: The Taipan
The Taipan reflects on his rise from a modest home in Barnes to his powerful position as head of a major English firm in China. After a lavish lunch, he strolls through a cemetery, sees two coolies digging a grave, and becomes unsettled when no one in the community is dead and the grave later disappears. The incident triggers a profound fear of dying in China, leading him to write a letter requesting an immediate transfer home. He is found dead the next morning.
Chapter 54
L: Metempsychosis
The narrator encounters an old Chinese gentleman, dressed in traditional silk robes and cap, who appears as a sage from an old painting. However, the old man is engaged in the frustrating task of leading a little black pig along a causeway, and the pig refuses to cooperate. The narrator reflects that in the Tang dynasty, the old man was a philosopher who manipulated facts to suit his theories, and now, through metempsychosis, he is expiating his sins by suffering the stubborn tyranny of the facts he once outraged.
Chapter 55
LI: The Fragment
The narrator reflects on the Chinese passion for decoration, from shopfronts to bridges, and the weariness it eventually induces. A French doctor shows him a fragment of a Greek statue discovered near the Tibetan frontier, which stirs a deep longing for the familiar Western aesthetic and evokes visions of a lost Hellenistic kingdom in Central Asia.
Chapter 56
One of the Best
The chapter introduces a nameless, middle-aged bachelor who is highly regarded in the port community as 'one of the best.' He is cheerful, sociable, and generous, yet openly despises China and its people after thirty years of residence, refusing to learn the language or engage with Chinese culture. His interests remain firmly fixed on London musical comedies and Western amusements, revealing a profound cultural isolation and frivolity.
Chapter 57
LIII: The Sea-Dog
The chapter contrasts the dull, practical nature of most sea captains with the unique character of Captain Boots, a Dutchman with a restless, elusive personality. It recounts his varied career from seal hunting to estate agency, his humorous trick on a harbor master, and his firm stand against mutinous soldiers.
Chapter 58
LIV: The Question
The narrator is taken to a temple complex where locals point out the exquisite artistry and architectural harmony of the buildings, but when asked about the spiritual purpose behind the construction, they are unable to provide an answer.
Chapter 59
LV: The Sinologue
The chapter introduces a sinologue, a European scholar living in a temple outside the city gate, who is deeply immersed in Chinese language and literature. He is physically stout and nervous, living in sparse conditions with only books for comfort. He has spent ten years on a dictionary to surpass a rival scholar. Despite his vast knowledge, he leads a purely intellectual life, disconnected from sensory experiences and beauty, which the narrator questions as a limitation.
Chapter 60
The Vice-Consul
The vice-consul attends an execution in the judge's yamen, observing the condemned man's terror and dignity. After the shooting, he returns to the consulate and stops at the club for a cocktail, where he casually discusses the event with other men.
Chapter 61
LVII: A City Built on a Rock
The chapter vividly describes a grey, gloomy city built on a rock at the confluence of two rivers, with narrow, winding streets, a dense and noisy population, and a pervasive stench. The narrator reflects on the impenetrable strangeness of the Chinese people, contrasting the inability to understand them with the familiarity of one's own culture. The chapter concludes with a haunting description of the surrounding graves, which seem to menace the living and foreshadow an eventual silence.
Chapter 62
LVIII: A Libation to the Gods
An old, poor Chinese woman performs a traditional ritual at the harbor, lighting a red candle, joss-sticks, and burning paper offerings while muttering prayers. She pours a libation, bows three times, and then calmly departs, unnoticed by the busy crowd, having propitiated the gods.
Chapter 63
Endnotes
A brief endnote acknowledging the kindness of Mr. P. W. Davidson.
