Dicono che gli Italiani siano mammoni. I cinesi invece...

"The Chinese people, I say, have the power of sympathy because they live wholly a life of the heart_a life of emotion or human affection. Let me here, first of all, give you two illustrations of what I mean by living a life of the heart. My first illustration is this. Some of you may have personally known an old friend and colleague of mine in Wuchang known him when he was Minister of the Foreign Office here in Peking Mr. Liang Tun-yen, Mr. Liang told me, when he first received the appointment of the Customs Taotai of Hankow, that what made him wish and strive to become a great mandarin, to wear the red button, and what gave him pleasure then in receiving this appointment, was not because he cared for the red button, not because he would henceforth be rich and independent, and we were all of us very poor then in Wuchang,  but because he wanted to rejoice, because this promotion and advancement of his would gladden the heart of his old mother in Canton. That is what I mean when I say that the Chinese people live a life of the heart a life of emotion or human affection."


Gu Hongming, "The Spirit of the Chinese People" (1915)