05.06.2016 Воскресенье 01:43
Впечатления Чехова о Гонконге.
The vibrancy of Hong Kong
After setting sail from Vladivostok, which Chekhov lamented was characterized by “poverty, ignorance and worthlessness that might drive one to despair,” his ship bypassed Japan – in the grip of a cholera epidemic at the time – and headed for Hong Kong. The writer took an instant liking for the city. A lot of his impressions sound similar to comments about the bustling metropolis from modern-day travelers, who like the city’s bays, mountains, trams and Victoria’s Peak.
“It is an exquisite bay,” Chekhov wrote. “The traffic on the sea was such as I had never seen before even in pictures; excellent roads, trams, a railway to the mountains, a museum, botanical gardens; wherever you look you see the tenderest solicitude on the part of the English for the men in their service; there is even a club for sailors.”
The playwright traveled on a hand-pulled rickshaw and, although he noted the poor conditions that the city’s Chinese people were living in, he refused to be too harsh on the British colonizers. Taking a swipe at his fellow Russians, he wrote, “Yes, the English exploit the Chinese, the Sepoys, the Hindoos, but they do give them roads, aqueducts, museums, Christianity – and what do you give them?”
http://rbth.com/arts/literature/2016/06/03/sakhalin-to-moscow-how-a-brief-asia-trip-revived-chekhovs-sagging-spirits_600085