Writing in the "Strand Magazme' for November, Mr. Matheson Long, telling how he came to play "Mr. Wu," s It was a curious cidence that Mr. Meyer should have shown me the play, for during my tour I had visited China and had closely studied the characteristics of the people. To this fact I attribute not a little of the success of "Mr. Wu." The popular conception of a Chinaman seemed to be that. he was a small, rather ignorant, wily individual, steeped mediwvalism and proud of the length of his pigtail. In reality the present-day Chinaman is full of Western ideas, knowledge. and enterprise. As a business man he is hard to beat. He likes a good play, prefers Shakespeare, is alway fous to learn, and does not make a fetish of his "pigtail." Mr, Wa was typical of the Chinaman as I knew him, and one of the chief merits of the play was the correct. atmosphere which my knowledge enabled me to introduce into it.
Mr. Matheson Long's visit to China was a few years ago. but though he gained the impressions set out above and apparently claims to have obtained, te corset atmosphere in the play, he certainly did not show it in the film production. His coolies walked about the attitude made traditional by comic opera, and as for the setti the out-door portions were played in a Japanese garden.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.