The expensive dinners which no one eats and which I discussed in a previous chapter are an illustration.

No one in China would spend money in this fashion excepting for some definite purpose.
We Chinese like to flatter, and to openly praise to their faces those whom we admire.

Most Westerners, would, I think, please rather than admire; most men and women in America and Europe enjoy applause more than instruction.

This recognition of the delicate pleasure of being able to please some one else naturally attracts quite a different type to the Western stage from the material usually found in Chinese dramatic companies, and in a society where everyone acknowledges the beauty of pleasing another, the position of the actor naturally becomes both envied and desirable.

When therefore a man or woman succeeds on the European or American stage he or she is looked up to and welcomed in fashionable society, e.g., Henry Irving had the entree to the highest society, and his portrait was always found among the notables.
Newspapers published long notices of his stage performances, and when he died he received as great honors as England could give.