# The Rising of the Curtain explained — On a Chinese Screen

> Chapter companion for On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham.

## What happens

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.

## Themes in this chapter

### Cultural Clash and Misunderstanding

The narrator's perspective as a foreigner observing the city and its inhabitants highlights the gap between Western expectations and the reality of Chinese life.

### Colonial Ennui and Isolation

The foreigner's solitary observation and the rude cries of the boys suggest a sense of alienation and isolation in an unfamiliar environment.

### Beauty and Art as Escape or Illusion

The elegant lattice work, the Peking cart, and the imagined scholar or singing girl represent an idealized, almost illusory vision of Eastern beauty and mystery.

## Key lines

> You come to the row of hovels that leads to the gate of the city. They are built of dried mud and so dilapidated that you feel a breath of wind will lay them flat upon the dusty earth from which they have been made.

Approaching the city gate, you see a line of mud huts so decrepit that a gust of wind could collapse them back into the dust.

_Sets the scene of poverty and decay at the city's entrance._

> The Peking cart disappears into the gathering darkness: it seems to carry all the mystery of the East.

As the Peking cart fades into the dusk, it embodies the enigmatic allure of the Orient.

_Concludes the chapter with a sense of unresolved mystery._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters/i-the-rising-of-the-curtain
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters