What is true about the Chinese People

== quote of "The spirit of the Chinese people" by Gu, Hongming ==
In fact, in order to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation, a man must be deep, broad and simple, for the three characteristics of the Chinese character and the Chinese civilisation are: depth, broadness and, simplicity.

The American people, I may be permitted to say here, find it difficult to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation, because the American people, as a rule, are broad, simple, but not deep. The English cannot understand the real Chinaman and Chinese civilisation because the English, as a rule, are deep, simple, but not broad. The Germans again cannot understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation because the Germans, especially the educated Germans, as a rule, are deep, broad, but not simple. The French, well the French are the people, it seems to me, who can understand and has understood the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation best. The French, it is true, have not the depth of nature of the Germans nor the broadness of mind of the Americans nor the simplicity of mind of the English, but the French, the French people have to a preeminent degree a quality of mind such as all the people I have mentioned above as a rule, have not, a quality of mind which, above all things, is necessary in order to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation ; a quality of mind viz : delicacy, For, in addition to the three characteristics of the real Chinaman and Chinese civilisation which I have already mentioned, I must here add one more, and that the chief characteristic, namely delicacy ; delicacy to a preeminent degree such as you will find nowhere else except perhaps among the ancient Greeks and their civilisation.
== end of quote of "The spirit of the Chinese people" by Gu, Hongming ==

== quote of "The Importance of Living" by Lin, Yutang ==
The following are my formulas for the characters of certain nations, entirely personal and incompletely incapable of proof or verification. Anyone is free to dispute them and change them or add his own, if he does not claim that he can prove his private opinions by a mass of statistical facts and figures. Let "R" stand for a sense of reality (or realism), "D" for dreams (or idealism), "H" for a sense of humor, and--adding one important ingredient--"S" for sensitivity. And further let "4" stand for "abnormally high", "3" stand for "high", "2" for "fair" and "1" for "low", and we have the following pseudo-chemical ofrmulas for the following national characters. Human Beings and communities behave then differently according to their different compositions, as sulphates and sulphides or carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide behave differently from one another. For me, the interesting thing always is to watch how human communities or nations behave differently under identical conditions. As we cannot invent words like "humoride" or "humorate" after the fashion of chemistry, we may put it like this: "3 grains of Realism, 2 grains of Dreams, 2 grains of Humor and 1 grain of Sensitivity make an Englishman."
R3D2H2S1 = The English
R2D3H3S3 = The French
R3D3H2S2 = The Americans
R3D4H1S2 = The Germans
R2D4H1S1 = the Russians
R2D3H1S1 = The Japanese
R4D1H3S3 = The Chinese

I do not know the Italians, the Spanish, the Hindus and other well enough even to essay a formula on the subject, realizing that the above are shaky enough as they are, and in any case are enough to bring down a storm of criticism upon my head. Probably these formulas are more provocative than authoritative. I promise to modify them gradually for my own use as new facts are brought to my knowledge, or new impressions are formed. That is all they are worth today -- a record of the progress of my knowledge and the gaps of my ignorance.
== end of quote of "The Importance of Living" by Lin, Yutang ==