Moreover, no one to whom sincerity is as the gums are to the teeth, would wish to acquire the art of acting as though he were some one else.

Hence actors in China have from ancient times been looked down upon.

Actresses, until the last decade or so, were unknown in China, and a boy who became an actor could never afterward occupy any position of honor.

He, his children and his grandchildren might be farmers, merchants or soldiers, but they could never be teachers, literary men or officials.

The Chinese feeling for sincerity, amounting almost to worship, has caused the profession of an actor in China to be considered a very low one, and so until the new regime the actor was always debarred from attending any literary examination, and was also deprived of the privilege of obtaining official appointment; in fact he was considered an outcast of society.