# XXXI: The Stripling explained — On a Chinese Screen

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

## What happens

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.

## Themes in this chapter

### Search for Meaning and Identity

The stripling's journey to the city to seek his fortune embodies a youthful quest for purpose and self-definition.

### Loss of Tradition and Modernity

The contrast between the traditional causeway, burial grounds, and villages and the youth's bold, forward-looking ambition hints at the tension between old ways and new aspirations.

## Character check-ins

### The Stranger

The stripling is introduced as a seventeen-year-old youth walking along the causeway, seeking his fortune in the city.

## Key lines

> He walked along the causeway with an easy confident stride. He was seventeen, tall and slim, with a smooth and yellow skin that had never known a razor.

A seventeen-year-old youth walked confidently along the causeway, tall and slender, with a smooth, beardless face.

_Introduces the protagonist's age, appearance, and demeanor._

> All his worldly goods were wrapped up in a parcel of blue cotton which he carried over his shoulder.

He carried all his possessions in a blue cotton bundle slung over his shoulder.

_Highlights his poverty and readiness for a new life._

> Now Dick Whittington, setting out to win fame and fortune, had a cat for his companion, but the Chinese carried with him a round cage with red bars, which he held with a peculiar grace between finger and thumb, and in the cage was a beautiful green parrot.

Unlike the English folk hero Dick Whittington who had a cat, this Chinese youth carried a red-barred cage with a green parrot, held gracefully in his fingers.

_Draws a cultural parallel to emphasize the youth's unique companion and his journey._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters/xxxi-the-stripling
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters