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CRITICAL APPROACHES

TO A SUPERHERO
THE MANY LIVES OF THE BATMAN
Critical Approaches to a Superhero and his Media

EDITED BY ROBERTA E PEARSON AND WILLIAM URICCHIO

ROUTLEDGE newyork

O BFI PUBLISHING London

First published in 1991 bv
Routledge an imprint of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35 Street
New York, NY 10001

Published in Great Britain by

BFI Publishing
21 Stephen Street
London W1P 1PL

Copyright © 1991, Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

The Many lives of the Batman : critical approaches to a superhero and

his media / [edited by] Roberta E. Pearson and William Uricchio.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-415-90346-7 (HR).—ISBN 0-415-90347-5 (SB)
1. Batman (Comic strip)—History. 2. Comic books, strips, etc.—
United States—History and criticism. 3. United States—Popular
culture. 4, American literature—History and criticism. 5. Myth in
literature. I. Pearson, Roberta E. II. Uricchio, William.
PN6725.M36 1991
741.5'0973—dc20 90-49797

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

The Many lives of the Batman
I. American strip cartoons
I. Pearson, Roberta E. II. Uricchio, William
741.5973
ISBN 0-85170-275-9
ISBN 0-85170-276-7 pbk
 Contents

Acknowledgments v

Holy Shifting Signifiers: Foreword vii

Tony Bennett

Contributors x

Introduction ]
William Uricchio and Roberta E Pearson

1 Batman: Commodity as Myth 4

Bill Boichel

2 Notes from The Batcave: An Interview with

Dennis O'Neil 18
Roberta E. Pearson and William Uricchio

3 Batman and the Twilight of the Idols:

An Interview with Frank Miller 33
Christopher Sharrett

4 "Holy Commodity Fetish, Batman!": The Political

Economy of a Commercial Intertext 47
Eileen Meehan

5 Batman and His Audience: The Dialectic of Culture 66

Patrick Parsons

Hi
iv Contents

6 Batman: The Ethnography 90

Camille Bacon-Smith with Tyrone Yarborough

7 Same Bat Channel, Different Bat Times:

Mass Culture and Popular Memory 117
Lynn Spigel and Henry Jenkins

8 Batman, Deviance and Camp 149

Andy Medhurst

9 Batman: The Movie, Narrative: The Hyperconscious 164

Jim Collins

10 "I'm Not Fooled By That Cheap Disguise" 182

William Uricchio and Roberta E. Pearson
 Acknowledgments

Many people assisted us in various ways in the course of putting

together this collection of essays. We owe Dennis O'Neil special thanks
for taking the time to share the secrets of the batcave with us, for his
generosity with his scripts and the bat-bible and for his interest in the
project. Edward Buscombe of BFI Publishing has consistently provided
trans-Atlantic editorial support, counsel and the occasional bat-clip­
ping. We thank Tony Bennett for his encouragement, for struggling
through some of the essays in very rough draft form in order to meet
the deadline, and, perhaps most importantly, for investigating the ideo­
logical implications of the popular hero with his coauthor Janet Woolla-
cott in Bond and Beyond. Richard Taylor, formerly of Warner Commu­
nications Inc and now Palmer Professor of Telecommunications at the
Pennsylvania State University, has helped us in our dealings with DC
Comics, as well as provided insights into corporate structure and copy­
right and trademark issues We thank William Germano for conceiving
of the cover image and Peter Hine for doing the artwork
Marion Dougherty and Jo Bergman of Warners kindly provided
information and assistance about their roles m the Batman film and
music video. Lisa Henderson, Scott Bukatman, Steven Ellworth and
Tom Andrae deserve thanks for helpful discussions, critical readings
and other aid. Our research assistant, Tom Schumacher, collected
bat-material for us and gave insightful responses to some of the
essays. Siegfried Zielinski kept us abreast of Batman in Berlin. Lois
Seitz of the Liberal Arts Computing Center at the Pennsylvania State
University reformated many of our contributors' disks into our
word processing program. Ruthanne Long, Cindy Willson, and John
Yingling patiently and efficiently responded to last minute requests
for clerical assistance. The staffs of the Special Collections Division
of the UCLA library and of the Library of Congress Serials Division,
particularly Daniel Wisdom, facilitated access to the accumulated

v
vi Acknowledgmen ts

comic books of the past while Dianna Saiers, of Dianna's Comics in

State College, did the same for the present. We must also express
our gratitude to our contributors, without whom the book would not
be possible.
The editors wish to acknowledge their debt to each other for a thor­
oughly equal collaboration. The realities of publication force one name
to precede another on the cover of this volume as well as within it, but
academic Realpolitik force us to state that the name sequence nowhere
indicates "seniority." Throughout the editing of this volume, as well
as the writing of the various pieces, we have collaborated to such
an extent that we could not ourselves distinguish our "individual"
contributions.
We regret the absence of illustrations, particularly since they would
have, in many cases, helped to elucidate the argument. DC Comics
refused to grant us the right to use images as they did not feel that this
book was consistent with their vision of the Batman.
 Holy Shifting Signifiers:
Foreword

In introducing Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore notes

the degree to which Frank Miller is able to dramatically redefine Bat­
man's character in spite of his fidelity to almost every aspect of that
character's mythology:

Yes, Batman is still Bruce Wayne, Alfred is still his butler and Com­
missioner Gordon is still chief of police, albeit just barely. There is
still a young sidekick named Robin, along with a batmobile, a batcave
and a utility belt. The Joker, Two-Face, and the Catwoman are still
in evidence amongst the roster of villains. Everything is exactly the
same, except for the fact that it's all totally different.

In outlining the changes wrought by Miller—the portrayal of Gotham

City as an almost postapocalypse scene of urban decay, his foreground­
ing of the fascistic element in Batman's advocacy of vigilanticism be­
yond the law, the transmutation of Robin into a girl as a commentary
on the repressed gay aspects of the Batman/Robin relationship—Moore
counterposes these to what he describes as a tendency toward statis
inscribed in the comic book. Inherently conservative in view of their
conception as a juvenile medium, he argues, "comic books have largely
had to plod along with the same old muscle-bound oafs spouting the
same old muscle-bound platitudes while attempting to dismember each
other."
Cast in this light, the Batman of the late 1980s—of Miller's graphic
novel and of Moore's own The Killing Joke, and, of course, of Batman
The Movie—appears as if a sudden irruption into the field of signs, a
moment in the popular hero's life that is without parallel or precedent.
Clearly, the kinds of cultural and ideological remodeling of Batman
that have prepared the way for and marked the passage of his fiftieth
anniversary have been significantly new in many respects—and often

vii
viii Foreword

conflicting ones. If Batman has been figured forth in a new guise so

as to serve as a vehicle of social commentary, that same process of
redefinition has simultaneously served as a means of breathing new life
into, and organizing new circuits of distribution for, a commodity
which might have otherwise have been looking at a long shelf life. Yet,
while right to stress its importance, it is misleading to see this moment
in Batman's career as exceptional. Indeed, the anniversary publication
of various commemorative collections of Batman stories offers compel­
ling evidence of the degree to which—in comic book format alone—
the figure of the Batman has been subject to a constant process of
redefinition.
For one whose "bat-teeth" were cut on the comics of the late 1950s
and the parodic TV series of the mid-1960s, it thus came as something
of a surprise, reading The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, to dis­
cover the strength of the Gothic associations of Bob Kane's first Batman
stories. And there have been many changes in between—some resulting
from new writers, others from changing publishing and marketing strat­
egics, others in response to changing external circumstances like the
Comics Code of the 1950s—affecting not merely the character of Bat­
man, (or as purists would insist, of the Batman) but his milieu, his
helpers and, of course, the villains he opposes.
It is these changes—the migrations of a shifting signifier—that Ro­
berta Pearson, William Uricchio and their co-contributors have sought
to chart in this collection. In doing so, they have been commendably
pluralistic in their approach. In considering the changing textual condi­
tions of Batman's existence—the conventions of genre, technical and
aesthetic developments affecting the graphic arts, the character system
of the Batman oeuvre—they have related these to changes in the eco­
nomic conditions of the comic industry, its marketing strategies and
its relations to the film industry. And these considerations, in turn,
have been connected to the changing discourses—of crime, urbanism,
sexuality—to which, as either political conditions have required or as
a changing cultural environment has suggested, the figure of Batman
has been adjusted. The economic considerations affecting the many
and diverse forms of Batman's commodity circulation (Batman toys,
the licensing of the Batman logo, etc.) are also examined as are the
possible psychoanalytic bases of the caped avenger's appeal, while the
interviews with Frank Miller and Dennis O'Neil accord the creative
intentions of graphic artists' full and proper consideration. Nor, finally,
have the conditions of reading been neglected. Indeed, the attention
paid to the variable assumptions, values and intertextual coordinates
which have influenced the way Batman texts have been read by different
kinds of readers and audiences in different circumstances convincingly
 Foreword ix

demonstrates the degree to which, once a popular hero is taken up

within a culture, it fulfills a range of signifying functions which, lacking
the kinds of empirical and ethnographic evidence offered here, can often
only be guessed at.
In concluding his introduction to The Dark Knight Returns, Moore
suggests that Miller's most significant renovation of the Batman my­
thos was that of introducing time into the life of the hero. This is true,
and not merely in the sense that Miller's Batman is cut free from the
timeless eternity in which comic book heroes often live so as to age
and thus confront the prospect of his own mortality. It is also true in
the sense that Miller's Batman bears the impress of all of the previous
guises in which the character—and his allies and opponents—have
been incarnated. The early Gothic Batman, the Cold War Batman of
the 1950s and his 1960s parodic successor: these are all there, like so
many sedimented layers of plot, narrative and characterization which
the text works with—or against—activating the reader's latent knowl­
edge of these matters and, thereby, registering the significance of the
remodeling of Batman which the text undertakes. The same is true, of
course, of all of the major new forms in which Batman has been incar­
nated for his sesquicentenary celebrations: Batman 1989 was, above
all, a self-consciously double-levelled Batman calling for a similarly
double-levelled reading response.
It is too soon to say whether this shift will prove irreversible or not.
Indeed—notwithstanding the likelihood of a sequel to Batman: the
Movie—there is nothing to vouchsafe that Batman will have a future.
For what is most clear from The Many Lives of the Batman is the
heavy weight of circumstantial considerations in the careers of popular
heroes. Some have dramatic deaths, others just fade away while a hand­
ful seem to go on forever. Whether Batman is destined for longevity or
whether 1989 was, indeed, the twilight of the idol remains to be seen.
In the meantime, however, the various perspectives on Batman col­
lected here offer a resource which, in the light it throws on the past
lives of Batman, also helps us to better understand the Batmania of the
past few years. If the late 1980s saw the birth of a more complex Batman,
the nuanced and probing forms of analysis developed in this study serve
both to match and comprehend the complexity of their object.

Tony Bennett
Griffith University
Brisbane
January 1990
 Contributors

Camille Bacon-Smith is currently visiting lecturer of writing and

folklore at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Tony Bennett is an associate professor and director of the Institute
for Cultural Policy Studies at Griffith University in Australia.
Bill Boichel is the owner and operator of BEM in Pittsburgh, which
operates in several areas of the comic book industry including retail
sales, comic book conventions and publishing.
Jim Collins is an assistant professor of communications at the Uni­
versity of Notre Dame.
Henry Jenkins is an assistant professor of literature at the Massachu­
setts Institute of Technology.
Andy Medhurst teaches media studies at the University of Sussex in
the United Kingdom.
Eileen Meehan is an assistant professor of media arts at the University
of Arizona.
Patrick Parsons is an assistant professor of mass communications at
the Pennsylvania State University.
Roberta E. Pearson is an assistant professor of mass communications
at the Pennsylvania State University.
Christopher Sharrett is an associate professor of communications at
Seton Hall University.
Lynn Spigel is an assistant professor of communications at the Uni­
versity of Wisconsin (Madison).
William Uricchio is an associate professor of mass communications
at the Pennsylvania State University.
Tyrone Yarbrough is a Ph.D candidate in folklore and folklife at the
University of Pennsylvania.
 Introduction
William Uhcchio and Roberta E. Pearson

"Batman?" said many of our fellow academics incredulously upon

hearing of this collection. True, it seemed a timely (and perhaps oppor­
tunistic) enterprise but couldn't we find more worthy topics of inquiry?
Though many seemed willing to grant, albeit grudgingly, the legitimacy
of studying music videos, romance novels and sixties television, linger­
ing doubts remained about a comic book hero who dresses up in a
funny costume to fight crime. Discussions of Detective Comics and toy
batmobiles still seemed to elicit more snickers than serious reflection.
Yet, as many of our contributors point out, 1989 was the Year of the
Batman, manifested in a plethora of corporately orchestrated expres­
sions of a fifty year old popular hero. Sheer numbers alone should
convince skeptics that this particular comic book hero, at least, has
significant cultural impact: double platinum record sales for the Prince
Batdance album; a box office take in the multi-millions of dollars;
millions more in revenues from merchandising tie-ins and even sales
of close to a million for Legends of the Dark Knight #1, the first solo
Batman comic book title in five decades. These figures attest not only
to corporate marketing savvy, but to public willingness to embrace the
character on a number of levels.
While the ubiquitous Bat-hype of the summer of '89 brought the
Batman (or Batman as non-purists call him) to the forefront of popular
consciousness, the extensive intertextual background stemming from
the fifty year, multimedia history of the character provided greater
cultural resonance than was the case with other intensively marketed
blockbuster movies such as Star Wars. The multiple "Batmen" of 1989
and the preceding five decades testify both to the institutional mainte­
nance of the character and to the modulation of that character required
to keep abreast of perceived market demands, leading to a distinctly
identifiable commodity on the one hand and diverse expressions of that

1
2 Introduction

commodity on the other. The carefully coordinated production and

circulation of bat-texts in 1989 originated from a powerful, multina­
tional, profit-motivated media giant, but one cannot for this reason
discount both producers' and audiences' negotiations of a complex
synchronic and diachronic intertextual frame formed by the simultane­
ous presence of various comic book adventures (reprints, multiple story
issues, graphic novels), the reruns of the sixties television series, the
Batman film, the Prince video, the related commercials, and the over
three hundred licensed, not to mention the hundreds more unlicensed,
product tie-ins.
Why Batman, then? As the above suggests, the character constitutes
a complex cultural phenomenon that unpacks on many levels. The
Batman character can be used as a means for illuminating the produc­
tion, circulation and reception of the media products that make up
contemporary popular culture. The synchronic and diachronic richness
of the character demands the application of a number of different and
complementary theoretical paradigms which together represent the
wide-ranging analytic perspectives of contemporary cultural studies
and permit including the voices of both producers and audiences.
The first four contributions to the volume detail various aspects of
the production process. Bill Boichel offers a useful historical overview
of the Batman's fifty year plus history, locating the character's anteced­
ents, chronicling additions to the character's mythos and charting the
undulations in the character's persona. The interview with Batman
editor Dennis O'Neil discusses his significant reconfiguration of the
Batman, details the organization of labor within the comic industry
and addresses the pivotal role of the fans. Christopher Sharrett's inter­
view with Frank Miller focuses specifically on Miller's The Dark Knight
Returns, the major Batman comic text of the last decade, considering
the place of the superhero in fin-de-siecle America. Eileen Meehan's
essay complements and complicates the views expressed by these
voices from within the comics industry. Meehan uses a political econ­
omy paradigm to investigate Warner Communications Inc.'s use of
Batman as a commercial text to multiply profits across media and
product forms and maximize the exploitation of various markets.
Patrick Parson's essay takes an historical macro-view of comic book
readership since the Batman's first appearance. Parsons uses the dis­
course of both the industry and its critics to map the contours of the
audience over the years, discussing external pressures on the industry,
the industry's own marketing strategies and the role of fandom. Camille
Bacon-Smith, writing with Tyrone Yarborough, applies an ethnographic
perspective to construct a micro-view of both comic fans' and general
viewers' reactions to Batman: The Movie. The methodologies of these
 Introduction 3

articles represent two very different approaches to that most vexed of

issues in mass communications, audience reception, and begin to chart
the diverse responses of various fan communities.
The next two articles deal more directly with distinct fan communi­
ties. Lynn Spigel and Henry Jenkins address issues of popular culture
and popular memory, focusing on the Batman television series of the
1960s, seeking to understand how television shows function in viewers'
lives. They first review the contemporary debates around the series'
cultural status. They then use this historical background to situate the
personal memories of interview subjects about the place of the Batman
series in their lives then and now. Andy Medhurst's essay provides a
British gay perspective on both the television series and other bat-texts.
He speaks of a particular community's appropriation of Batman and
Robin's relationship as well as of the camp aspects of the television
series.
Drawing on recent developments in narrative theory, Jim Collins
explores what he terms the "hybridization" of popular narrative in the
post-modern age. Collins argues that texts such as Batman: The Movie
and The Dark Knight Returns self-consciously evoke and playfully
rework the intertextual encrustations that have become inseparable
from the text.
William Uricchio and Roberta E. Pearson investigate the series char­
acter nature of the Batman, discussing tensions between character co­
herence and fragmentation engendered by market and authorship pres­
sures. They argue that character maintenance depends upon the
presence of five key components, which manifest themselves in the
iterative events of crimefighting and bring with them certain ideologi­
cal implications.
Together the essays provide a multifaceted perspective on one of the
longest lived of American popular heroes, revealing the complexities of
various aspects of the processes of production and reception in multiple
media. The essays also represent many of the paradigms which consti­
tute contemporary cultural studies. The diversity of subject and method
makes this volume the first serious academic exploration of the many
lives of the Batman.
 1
Batman: Commodity as Myth
Bill Boichel

"And thus is bom this weird figure of the dark . . . this avenger of
evil. . . The Batman." Thus concluded "The Legend of Batman/' a two-
page introduction that led off Batman #1 (Spring 1940). Though this
story appeared less than a year after Batman's introduction in the open­
ing pages of Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), the character had al­
ready become a "legend," both a resonant signifier and a valuable prop­
erty—the world's second superhero. The first superhero, Superman,
represented a calculated response to the Nazi concept of the Uber-
mench: an ideal, superior man who would lead the masses to victory.
Created by two Jewish high-school buddies from Cleveland, Ohio, Jerry
Siegal and Joe Shuster, Superman first appeared in June 1938 in Action
Comics #1. A native of Krypton, Superman was a uniquely American
Ubermench with a social conscience. Discovering his superpowers, he
"decided he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would
benefit mankind, and so was created Superman! Champion of the op­
pressed, the physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existence to
helping those in need!"
Superman's overnight smash success encouraged the character's
owners, National Periodical Publications, to commission a similar
character, Batman. The host of costumed superheroes following in the
Batman's wake supplied clear evidence that the phenomenon of the
superhero had arrived. But neither Superman nor Batman nor any of
their super colleagues could have achieved national visibility had the
comics industry not existed.
Initially intended as circulation boosters in the rivalry between news­
paper publishing giants William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer,
newspaper comic strips first appeared in the last decade of the nine­
teenth century. The Yellow Kid, created in 1895 by Richard Outcault
for Pulitzer's New York World, is the most notable character of this

4
 Batman: Commodity as Myth 5

period. Acquired by Hearst for his New York Journal, the character's
association with the Hearst paper's sensationalism led to the term
"yellow journalism." Soon after the Yellow Kid's appearance, comic
strips proliferated geometrically both in number and in popularity, their
growth enabled by the creation of the comic strip syndicates. In a
continuation of the Hearst-Pulitzer rivalry, the syndicates competed
fiercely in their expansion, and continue to control the comic strip
market in the United States to the present.
By the first decade of the twentieth century, comic strips, now com­
monplace in the daily papers and as special color Sunday supplements,
had achieved enough popularity to warrant the publication of book­
form reprint collections for both commercial and promotional pur­
poses. Many of these collections—the first "comic books"—appeared
through the 1920s. Published from 1929 to 1930, the thirty-six issues of
The Funnies, a tabloid-format magazine printing original comic strips,
represented the first four-color newsstand publication.
The format that came to be known as the comic book first appeared
in 1933, thanks to the efforts of Harry Wildenberg and Max C. Gaines,
members of the sales staff of New York's Eastern Color Printing Com­
pany. The Company produced a print run of 10,000 copies of Funnies
on Parade, a 7V2" x 10" magazine containing thirty-two pages of Sunday
newspaper comic strip reprints, for the Proctor and Gamble Company
to give away as premiums. Shortly thereafter Eastern Color, spurred
on by the enthusiasm of Max Gaines, produced Famous Funnies: A
Carnival of Comics and then Century of Comics in quantities of over
100,000. Gaines sold these comics to major advertisers such as Milk-
O-Malt, Wheatena, Kinney Shoe Stores and others, for use as premiums
and radio giveaways. The premium and give-away schemes were so
successful that, early in 1934, Gaines persuaded Eastern to produce
35,000 copies of Famous Funnies, Series 1.
Distributed by the Dell Publishing Company to chain stores, the 64
page color comics, priced at ten cents, immediately sold out. Eastern
promptly released Famous Funnies #1 in May (cover dated July) 1934,
which became, upon release of #2 in July, the first regularly scheduled
comic book magazine.
A new commodity form, the comic book experienced a period of rapid
growth within the consumer market. Unlike the comic strip industry,
which served the preexistent newspaper industry and was controlled
by a handful of syndicates, the comic book industry was virgin territory,
promising quick and easy profits. New publishers constantly entered
and, in some cases, subsequently left, the field.
One of these entrants played a pivotal role in the creation of Batman.
In 1935, the New York City-based National Periodical Productions
6 Boichel

entered the comic book market with the tabloid-sized New Fun. After
a name change to More Fun and a format conversion to standard comic
book magazine size, this publication became the first title regularly
printing new material created specifically for the comic book market.
Two years later, National Periodical Productions released Detective
Comics, one of the earliest comic books devoted exclusively to a partic­
ular genre. Late in 1937, Harry Donenfeld bought National Periodical
Publications and established Detective Comics' initials as the imprint
for the company's entire output. Shortly thereafter, in the spring of
1938, DC moved onto the center stage of the industry with the publica­
tion of Action Comics #1.
A year after Superman's success, DC introduced Batman, created by
artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, in Detective Comics #27. At the
time a young cartoonist in his early twenties, Bob Kane had begun his
career in comics two years earlier in 1936 at the Eisner/Iger studio, the
first company devoted to producing work for the comic book industry.
Kane then worked briefly for the Fleischer Studio doing fill-ins, inking,
and opaquing on Betty Boop cartoons. Upon leaving the Fleischer Stu­
dio, Kane returned to comics, getting a job at DC producing features
such as "Rusty and His Pals," and "Clip Carson," both of which were
scripted by a former high-school pal, Bill Finger. Finger had worked as
a shoe salesman in the Bronx, but his passion for pulp magazines se­
duced him away from his job and into the allied field of scripting for
the nascent comic book. Although Bob Kane received sole credit from
DC for the creation of Batman, both the Batman character and the
classic period, or Golden Age, Batman mythos were the co-creations of
Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
The Batman mythos springs from the popular culture of the 1930s—
movies, pulps, comic strips, and newspaper headlines—in which both
Kane and Finger were fully immersed. According to Bob Kane, two
movies contributed significantly to the formulation of the Batman
character. The Mark of Zorro (1920) starred Douglas Fairbanks as Zorro,
a wealthy landowner who maintained both an alter ego as a masked
and caped crimefighter and a secret cave-hideout beneath his mansion.
From this film came the Bruce Wayne-Wayne Manor/Batman-Batcave
duality. The Bat Whispers (1930) featured a dual identity of a more
schizophrenic nature: that of a detective and his alter ego, the murderer
dubbed "The Bat," who dressed in a costume which inspired that of
Batman. This film also featured a prototype of the Bat-Signal.
Finger's depiction of the Batman as a figure of awe and mystery as
well as a master sleuth and scientist owed much to pulp magazine
superstars Doc Savage and the Shadow, created by Kenneth Robeson
and Walter Gibson, and to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's master sleuth,
 Batman: Commodity as Myth 7

Sherlock Holmes. Chester Gould's comic strip creation, Dick Tracy,

provided a prototype for Batman's square jaw as well as a model for
Robin in Tracy's sidekick, Junior. The strip's cast of bizarre villains also
provided major inspiration for the exaggerated visual representation of
many of Batman's foes.
Newspaper accounts headlining the exploits of real-life criminals and
gangsters such as John Dillinger, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde,
Al Capone, and "Dutch" Schultz, often served as the catalyst for these
crafted fictions. Operating outside the law, on their own terms, and at
the expense of the status quo, criminals fascinated many a consumer
of popular culture. Creating a figure who, like the criminals, operated
outside the law and on his own terms, yet did so on behalf of the status
quo, Kane and Finger originated a popular myth that has lasted for over
half a century.
Despite his affiliations with the gangsters who have entered our
popular mythology, Batman's opposition to crime and support of the
status quo are clearly embedded in the character's narrative origin. First
related in Detective Comics #33, six months after the character's initial
appearance, the origin sequence centers around the criminal act that
brought the Batman into existence: interrupted in the course of strolling
home from a movie, in the company of their child Bruce, Thomas and
Martha Wayne, wealthy, upstanding citizens, are brutally slain by a
faceless, no-name thug attempting to rob them. The trauma that their
murder inflicts upon young Bruce eventually leads him to adopt the
alter ego of Batman. Swearing to avenge his parents' death by dedicating
his life to combating crime, young Bruce devotes his youth and early
adulthood to preparing his mind and body for the fight to come, his
inherited wealth enabling his single-mindedness of purpose. Taking the
appearance of a bat at his window as a long-awaited signal, the adult
Bruce Wayne dons a costume to mimic this dark creature of the night
and enters the world of crime that had spawned him.
Batman does not fight alone but is aided by a cast of supporting
characters. The first of the supporting characters to appear, and the
most consistently present, is Police Commissioner James Gordon. In­
troduced along with Bruce Wayne and Batman in the first Batman story,
Gordon, at the outset a friend of Wayne's, soon allied with Batman,
without ever becoming aware that the two were one and the same
person. Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) introduced the character
destined to play the most important supporting role in the Batman
mythos. Robin, The Boy Wonder, represented a youthful duplicate of
Batman. A member of The Flying Graysons trapeze act, young Dick
Grayson witnessed the murder of his parents by gangsters. Bruce Wayne
adopted the grief stricken lad and gained his confidence through disclos­
8 Boichel

ing that his parents were also murdered. Bruce revealed his secret
identity and, after providing Dick with the necessary training, initiated
him as his partner. Kane, Finger, and Kane's newly hired young assis­
tant, Jerry Robinson, designed the Robin character to enable younger
readers to identify more closely with the Caped Crusader's adventures.
The character was an immediate success and so widely imitated that
the junior sidekick emerged as one of the most important terms in the
superhero lexicon. Three years later, Batman #16 introduced another
permanent fixture in the Batman mythos, the only character privy to
the secret identities of Batman and Robin. Alfred, the faithful butler of
Wayne Manor and the Batcave, lent a homey touch to Batman's harsh
environs and was ever ready to provide a steadying and reassuring hand.
Just as these supporting characters are integral to the Batman legend,
so too are his foes and rivals. An immense and labyrinthian catalogue
of criminals has crossed the path of the dark knight detective through­
out his fifty-year history. Attempting to distinguish his adventures
from the mundane cops and robbers genre, Batman's writers/artists
have continually striven to create villains worthy of the attentions of
a legend. Many of these villains mirrored aspects of Batman's character
and development. The villains, like the Batman, frequently have their
origin in a traumatic event or series of events that has forever altered
their lives. In the case of the villains, however, the trauma invariably
drives them to madness and a life of crime, if not a quest for world
domination, the latter reflecting the anxieties about fascism that were
particularly prevalent during Batman's early years. These villains often
also share Bruce Wayne's status as a respected member of society.
Batman's earliest foes, Doctor Death (Detective Comics #29, July
1939) and Professor Hugo Strange (Detective Comics #36, February
1940) were both respected professionals who turned on society in a
crazed quest for self-gain. Clayface (Detective Comics # 40, June 1949),
an aging silent film star, transformed himself into one of his early roles
to wreak vengeance on those he saw as robbing him of his immortality
by remaking his early "classics." The Scarecrow first appeared in
World's Finest #3 (Fall 1941), a title created to showcase Batman and
Superman adventures. He was a professor of psychology who fell victim
to his own obsession with fear. Adopting as his alter ego the derisive
nickname "Scarecrow," jestingly applied to him by his students and
colleagues at the university, he used his knowledge of fear as an extor­
tionist's tool.
As a child, the Penguin (Detective Comics #58, December 1941)
experienced the unending ridicule of his schoolmates, who constantly
reminded him of his resemblance to the ungainly bird. Oswald Chester­
field Cobblepot dedicated his life to vengeance and, after attaining a
 Batman: Commodity as Myth 9

degree in Ornithology and a knack for umbrella-engineering, used his

knowledge and skills for evil-doing. Two-Face {Detective Comics #66,
August 1942) had been the popular Gotham City District Attorney^
Harvey Dent. Nicknamed "Apollo" by the press because of his out­
standing good looks, he was permanently disfigured after a criminal he
had convicted hurled acid in his face. Teetering on the brink of madness,
Dent fixated on a defaced coin that had belonged to the man responsible
for his fate. He decided that a toss of this coin would determine his
actions: the unaltered side for good and the defaced side for evil.
Diverging somewhat from this pattern, the origins and identity of
the archfiend of the Batman mythos remained a complete mystery for
ten years. Introduced in the first story of Batman #1, the Joker proved
to be the Batman's most implacable foe. The personification of the
irrational, an agent of chaos, the Joker represented everything that
Batman opposed. Inspired by a combination of a playing card joker and
a still of German actor Comad Veidt in the 1928 movie The Man Who
Laughs, the Joker has elicited more popular response than any other
character in the history of Batman.
While Bruce Wayne has courted many of Gotham's female socialites,
Batman has tangled with those members of the opposite sex who oper­
ate on the opposite side of the law. The third story of Batman #1
introduced the first and most important of these female offenders.
Referred to in this initial appearance as The Cat, a jewel thief whom
Batman, much to the consternation of Robin, allows to escape, The
Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle, served to inject a hint of sexuality into the
caped crusader's cavortings.
The first few stories introduced not only ongoing characters, but an
array of bat-paraphenalia. The Bat-prefix made its appearance very early
on with the Batgyro and Batarang both debuted in Detective Comics
#31, though Batman's vehicle was not dubbed the Batmobile until
Detective Comics #48 (February 1941). This issue is significant for
another reason as well: it contained the first identification of Batman's
locale as Gotham, the city having previously been referred to alternately
as Manhattan and Metropolis, the latter the locale of Superman's adven­
tures. The difference between Gotham and Metropolis succinctly sum­
marizes the differences between the two superheroes. As current Bat­
man editor Dennis O'Neil put it: "Gotham is Manhattan below
Fourteenth Street at 3 a.m., November 28 in a cold year. Metropolis is
Manhattan between Fourteenth and One Hundred and Tenth Streets
on the brightest, sunniest July day of the year."
By 1942, writers and artists had established most of the basic ele­
ments of the Batman mythos. Nineteen forty-two also found DC enjoy­
ing the profits resulting from successfully marketing their premiere
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 CHAPTER IX
Journey into Shansi in 1893

I
NOW must go back to my first coming to Tientsin in 1893. From
Shanghai I came in a coasting steamer, and it was after starting
that I made the rather disconcerting discovery that I was the only
woman on board. Nevertheless it was the pleasantest voyage I ever
had, as my cabin had a proper bed in it and its own bathroom, and I
made the happy discovery that Chinese servants could be the best
in the world, while the officers all conspired to amuse me. The
voyage lasted a week, and the slow passage up the mouth of the
Peiho (ho means “river”) was quite a new experience. We ran into
the soft banks pretty frequently, and they crumbled like dust;
sometimes we were in imminent danger of carrying away a hut as
well, but happily that did not occur. One dreadful object kept
recurring again and again—a tall pole on the river-bank with a basket
on the top, containing a criminal’s head.
At Tientsin I was met by one of my sisters and her husband, who
had come to take me into Shansi. The European town was very dull
and prosaic, and the native city abjectly squalid, but now the former
is well laid out and there are plenty of large houses, shops, schools,
colleges, and tramways. I was not sorry to get away from it, however,
as I was anxious to see the real China, and we soon got our things
accommodated in a small house-boat to travel up the river to
Paoting-fu. Three little compartments were all we had, but we spent
a good part of each day walking on the banks and admiring the
lovely autumn colouring of the rushes. On my return a year later we
were not so fortunate, as the war with Japan was in full swing, so
that the country was too disturbed for us to walk about, and we had
to take whatever could be got in the way of a boat, namely, one
infested with cockroaches and other vermin. For three days and
nights we sat in misery, scarcely able to eat or sleep, and when we
opened our trunks at Tientsin we found them simply swarming with
cockroaches. They had eaten all the straw of a bonnet, leaving
nothing but lining and trimmings!

CAMEL INN

At Paoting-fu we left the river, and I had a mule litter while the
others rode. These litters are the most horrible invention, as the
mules perpetually tumble down, and even though you pad the sides
with your bedding you get much shaken. When we came to a river
we had to ford it or be ferried across, for there are no bridges in this
part, and often the rivers are very dangerous. On the roads we met
long strings of camels carrying packs, the tail of one animal being
attached to the nose of the one behind. They have inns of their own,
being cantankerous beasts, and are supposed to travel at nights,
because of being such an obstruction to traffic. Certainly if you lie
awake you can generally hear the tinkle of their bells. They are a
most attractive feature of the landscape in the north, whether seen in
the streets of Peking, or on the sandy plains of Chili. My sketch was
taken in the summer when the camels were changing their coats, so
that the one in the front has a grey, dishevelled look, corresponding
with Mark Twain’s description. He says that camels always look like
“second-hand” goods; but it is clear that he cannot know the fine
stately beast of North China.
The road leading to Taiyüanfu—our objective—was always
thronged with traffic, men on foot, on horseback, in chairs, or in
carts. The official messengers wore yellow, and dashed along faster
than any one else; but one day we met six mandarins in four-bearer
chairs, carrying an important document from the Emperor at Peking
into Szechwan, the western province. They were received
everywhere ceremoniously, and crackers sent off in their honour;
they were accompanied by a military escort and gorgeous banners.
At nights we often had to put up in wretched inns. The cold was
extreme at this time of year (November), and the brick bedsteads
were heated from underneath by a fire. This was all very well if it was
properly regulated, but sometimes it was allowed to get too hot, and
then you woke to find yourself baked like a biscuit. The nights were
short, for we often arrived after dark and had to get up at 4.30. Even
then it was difficult to get the men started at six, sometimes only at
seven o’clock. The clear cold moonlight mornings were very lovely,
and I was glad enough to walk to keep warm.
One day my brother-in-law made a détour to visit a village where
there is an interesting Christian community, whose history is a
remarkable one. It was the home of a thief, who in his wanderings
happened to go into a mission hall and heard the story of the life of
Christ. The next time he returned home, amongst other items of
news he retailed what he could remember of this strange story, and
so deeply interested the listeners that they found his knowledge far
too meagre to satisfy them; they decided to send two of their most
respected seniors to learn more about it. These men went to the
mission station, were carefully instructed and became Christians.
They returned to their village in course of time, taking a supply of
Christian literature, and thenceforward they have given themselves
entirely to the work of evangelisation at their own cost. Occasionally
a missionary goes round to see them—as in the present instance—
but otherwise they work steadily and successfully, without any
assistance from Europeans. This is an example of a fact which holds
good in China generally, namely, that the people do not leave
mission work to be done only by the missionaries, but become the
best workers themselves when they have accepted Christianity.
What Mr. James (of the Bombay Civil Service) says of the work of
the Presbyterians in Manchuria exemplifies this same fact: “Of 600
people who have been baptized since Mr. Ross came to Manchuria,
not more than a dozen owe their conversion primarily or chiefly to
the foreign missionaries; the others have become disciples of these
converts, and this spiritual seed has produced within a dozen years
the sixth or seventh generation.” This is the experience of workers
throughout the Empire, and was expressed by a Chinese lady
visiting England in a pathetic appeal for more missionaries: “If only
you will send us teachers now—for a few years—we will do the rest.”
To return to our narrative, my brother-in-law brought the two
Chinese elders with him when he rejoined us on the road, and they
greeted us like old friends, with radiant happiness. It was inspiring to
see their simple, heartfelt piety and their absolute realisation of
Christian brotherhood. We chanced to come across them again a
year later on my return journey to the coast, and again I saw their
simple, joyous faith, the sincerity of which could not be doubted by
the most cynical sceptic. It was the one bright spot in an otherwise
very trying and anxious journey, for the country was much disturbed,
owing to the war with Japan, and one of our party was ill with fever—
a boy of seven—and growing daily worse, so that when we at last
reached Tientsin he had a temperature of 107°.
When we approached the province of Shansi we got into a hilly
district, and crossed several ridges called “the Heavenly Gates.” In
some cases the ascent was pretty steep (2860 feet), and there were
temples at the bottom where the coolies prayed for a safe journey
up. When I stopped to sketch it aroused much interest, and
spectators always treated me with respect. It was explained to them
that I desired to show my mother the beauties of their country, so I
became the type of English “filial piety”!
The dangers of the road are numerous, and crossing the rivers is
often a very perilous proceeding: sometimes it is possible to ford
them, but the river-beds are so changeable that it was usually
necessary to have the guidance of experienced men. Sometimes we
had to be carried across on men’s backs, and it is not altogether a
pleasant experience to cling on to a bare, greasy back in a kneeling
position, with your arms round a most unwashed neck! Sometimes
we were ferried over, which was much the safest and pleasantest
way of crossing, and the charge is infinitesimally small.
Another danger of the road arises from the nature of the soil,
which is largely a loess formation. The road runs through deep
gulleys, often over 100 feet deep and quite narrow, but the loess
walls are apt to give way, especially after rain. One day we were
walking quietly along under a high cliff, when a deafening
thunderclap close behind us made us start and look back, to see a
dense cloud of dust where the cliff had fallen right across the path
we had just traversed. We had a very close shave that time. About a
year later my cousin was killed by the similar breaking down of a
road alongside a river; she was riding in a cart, and was buried
under it in the river. A friend who was with her had just got out to
walk a little, and consequently escaped.
During the rains travellers are often drowned by the sudden rush
of water down the gullies, and there are places of refuge in the high
banks—little caves or hollows. In some of the villages where we had
to stop the night the houses were dug in these cliffs, and were really
caves. The smells were atrocious, as there was but little ventilation.
The chimneys form danger traps to the unwary traveller walking
along the top of the cliffs; he may easily step into one, if he is not
looking carefully where he is going.
 The day before we reached Tai Yuänfu, the capital of Shansi, we
stopped at a mission station in the charge of a delightful, courtly old
Chinese evangelist, whose hospitality I enjoyed several times. He
treated us royally, cooking dinner for us in European style, and would
have been sorely grieved had we offered him any remuneration.
When the troubles came later, not only he but every member of his
little flock—forty-one in all—were “faithful unto death,” refusing to
accept life at the price of recantation.
The journey from the coast took altogether a fortnight, and I was
glad when at last we reached the wide plain in which Tai Yuänfu is
situated. In May it is a vision of loveliness with its crops of millet,
sorghum, and poppy—white and puce colour—but now it was one
monotonous expanse of dust. The dust storms which blow across
the plain are terribly trying; they are as bewildering and as blinding
as a fog, and they sometimes go on daily for weeks during the early
part of the year.
Shansi is one of the worst provinces of all as regards opium-
smoking, and the poppy is largely cultivated. In the accompanying
sketch a group of patients is seen, who have come to a mission
refuge to try and break off the habit. They are allowed to smoke
tobacco, but are mostly resting or sleeping on the khang; the brick
bed seen in every inn and in most private houses. On the floor in
front of it is seen a small round aperture, where the fire is fed, which
heats the whole khang. The present Governor of Shansi is taking
active steps to put down opium cultivation, and the prospect seems
hopeful. Revenons à nos moutons. When we reached the city gate
there was a slight delay, as carts are apt to get jammed in it. Though
the gateway is large it is considerably blocked by stones, set up by a
former governor to prevent carts of above a certain gauge from
entering the city: this was to encourage the trade of the
wheelwrights. Now there is a railway right up to the walls of the city,
but from what I have already said it will be easily understood how
difficult a task it has been to construct a safe line. The railway joins
the Péhan line at Cheng Ting.
OPIUM REFUGE
 CHAPTER X
Taiyüanfu

T
AIYÜAN is surrounded by a lofty wall, with a gateway at each
of the four points of the compass. The Chinese always use
these terms when we should use “right” and “left”: they speak
of the position of furniture in a room, for instance, as being north,
south, east, or west, and can always tell you the relative positions of
places and things in that way. It is the seat of the Government of the
province, and was the first place in the Empire to have a Western
university after the 1900 troubles.
The finest of all its temples—whether Confucian, Buddhist,
Mohammedan, or Taoist—is the temple of Heaven and Hell. The
entrance is magnificent in colouring, with roof and walls covered with
turquoise-coloured tiles peculiar to this province, which make its
temples so much more beautiful than those in the west. There are
interesting but repulsive statues within, mostly depicting the torments
of hell. In one temple, however, there is a deity to which childless
women especially come to pray. She is a hideous figure about life
size, with a gaping mouth, into which they stuff raw eggs by way of
offering. On the adjoining wall is a fresco representing people
receiving babies out of a cash-bag full of them, which a man carries
over his shoulder.
I visited the temple at the time of a large fair, which was held in
its courtyards (a common custom in China), and had one of the
teachers in attendance, to his great disgust, as it is not the correct
thing for Chinese ladies to go to fairs, and European manners had
not yet penetrated to this part of the Empire. It was a very fine sight,
notwithstanding the absence of the élite, for the women and children
were most gaily attired—and then the setting! They were all perfectly
civil to us and ready to talk. A woman was feeding her five-year-old
baby, not yet weaned. Family parties kept arriving on donkeys, and
women had their feet tied up in bags to protect their dainty shoes
from the dust of the road. At one side theatricals were going on, to a
loud and ceaseless accompaniment of drums. The theatres are all
connected with the temples, a visible sign of their origin in the East
as well as in the West; and the theatre and temple dues are
collected together. Actors are looked down on, and none is allowed
to compete in the literary examinations; they are in the lowest grade
of society. The accompanying sketch gives some idea of the
beautiful colour scheme of temple and theatre eaves. It is the open-
air stage of a theatre at Showyang, about sixty miles from Taiyüan.
The little figures of beasts on the roof are a characteristic feature.
THEATRE STAGE
 The stalls were full of interesting objects from all parts of the
province, and we went round buying various things that took our
fancy. There were handsome embroideries and lovely silks, and I
was surprised to find that we could take whatever we liked without
paying for it; it was sufficient to say, “Come to the mission hospital to-
morrow and the doctor will pay.” No Chinaman could have had better
credit, and few, I think, as good, in this city.
From the temple of Heaven and Hell we returned past the
barracks, and saw the men practising walking on stilts; apparently
that was part of their drill, as finally they all filed off into the yard on
them. The soldiers are quite a decent set of men, and one of the
officers frequently sent them to the hospital to be broken of the
opium habit. It is terribly common here. In a neighbouring town it is
estimated that 90 per cent. of the population (men, women, and
children) are smokers.
From Taiyüanfu we made an interesting little excursion to a place
to the south-west called Tsinssu, where there is a magnificent old
temple on the rocky hillside dominating the village. The temple is
overshadowed by hoary trees, and has remarkable golden dragons
twisted round the pillars of the façade. In the grounds are hot
springs, and the water flows under an ornamental bridge leading to
the terrace on which the temple stands. Had it not been for the hot
water it would have been impossible to sketch, as the water froze on
the surface of the paper, and every few minutes I had to put my
paint-box in the stream to thaw the coating of ice formed on the
colours. The subject, however, was so charming that I could not
waste the one chance I had of sketching, and in the afternoon I
made a rapid drawing of a pagoda, with the little bells hung on each
story tinkling in the breeze; an adjacent tower looked precisely like
an English church, but its real use was as a granary. The hot springs
are valuable in enabling the people to grow rice, which is not grown
elsewhere so far north, and it is the motive-power of many paper-
mills in the district. In a recent expedition roe-deer, leopards, boars,
and David squirrels have been found in this neighbourhood, but we
saw nothing more interesting than a beautiful pastoral scene—a
shepherd lad piping a melancholy ditty to his sheep under the clear
blue sky. I should like to have sketched him, but the shadows were
already lengthening, and we had to hasten our return before the city
gates were closed.
PAGODA
 We attended a review one day, and saw the old régime in its full
glory, now already a thing of the past. We started at 7 a.m. in the
cart, and although the parade-ground was only a quarter of a mile
away we were none too early. The soldiers were already mustered,
and two gorgeously arrayed officials were seated in state under a
canopy waiting for the Governor, with a fine sort of helmet on a stand
behind them. He arrived shortly after we did, and although there was
a drizzling rain the numberless banners looked lovely, bowing down
while the Governor passed, and then floating proudly up again. Many
of them were pale-blue silk and carried on long bamboo rods. There
were a good many soldiers mounted on smart ponies that
scampered along bravely; but the black turbans surmounting the
blue or red uniforms made them look rather like women. Some of
them were armed with bows and arrows, slung on their backs; others
had prehistoric guns which required two men to work them, one to
hold and the other to fire off by means of a lighted stick of incense,
which at other times was thrust (lighted) into the soldier’s chest,
where also he carried his powder!
One regiment was a great contrast to the others—the celebrated
tiger braves. They were clad cap-à-pie in yellow cloth striped with
black, even the boots and cap being of the same material. The latter
was most cunningly made, with little pink-lined ears which stood
erect, and ferocious black eyes, and white fangs, and a red tongue
hanging out. This alarming costume was supposed to render all
further equipment unnecessary, and I asked one of the “braves” if he
had no weapon, on which he showed me merely an ordinary knife
stuck in his waistband. I asked if he would sell me his uniform, but as
he could not do that he lent it, and I had an exact copy made. On my
return home Mr. Chamberlain saw it, and was struck with the idea
that the braves scared away the enemy by their uniform and their
roaring, and made a telling use of it later on in describing the tactics
of “the opposition”!
Yet a step farther back in history, it is interesting to learn how the
soldiers used to travel in earlier times. A model has recently been
constructed (by Professor Hopkinson) of the chariot used to convey
eighteen soldiers. This chariot was in use about a thousand years
ago in China, and registered distance, a gong sounding at the end of
every “li” (about one-third of a mile), and a bell at the end of every
ten “li.” This vehicle was called the “measure-mile drum carriage,”
and it is from the description of the mechanism given in the writings
of the period that the professor has made his model. An ode was
written in its honour. The chariot was drawn by four horses.
TIGER BRAVE
 The main features of the review were the sword exercises,
varied with turning somersaults, the charging of soldiers with two-
pronged pikes, accompanied by roaring—and various feats of
horsemanship. The men rode about clinging to their horses from
underneath, or jumped on them going at full gallop. The review
lasted all day, and we got tired long before it was over. The military
examinations of officers were on the old lines, and success in getting
promotion depended on the strength shown in drawing a bow, or
lifting a weight. Two officers came to hospital for treatment on
account of having overstrained themselves by their exertions, and
were anxious lest they should be disqualified in consequence. Now
everything is changed. There are military colleges springing up,
where everything is modelled on the military systems of the West,
and students go in increasing numbers to Europe to study these at
first hand. The Ministry of War has decided to adopt the same
gradations of rank as those of the British army and navy
respectively; thus a second lieutenant in the navy will be of equal
rank with a senior lieutenant in the army, and so on. In the past,
military service was one of the two only ways in which it was
possible in China to climb the social ladder.
In September 1904 I saw one of the last great triennial
examinations, to which students came from all parts of the province.
It opened with a great procession, headed by the Governor and
examiners who had come from Peking. Some of the big men rode in
chairs, preceded by scarlet umbrellas, and boys carrying boards
enjoining silence, many banners and discordant drums. It seemed as
if all the rag-tag and bobtail of the city had been collected to grace
the occasion; they were decked out in magenta felt hats and scarlet
cloaks which by no means covered their rags and dirt. Some wore
scarlet and gilt, others green and gilt caps, but no shoes on their
feet. The three principal men were carried on chairs, raised on little
platforms and covered with yellow rugs, supposed to represent the
imperial dragon. The imperial letters were carried (wrapped in yellow
cloth) across the shoulders of men on horseback, and the imperial
seals under gay canopies. The examination buildings are extensive,
and are well seen from the city wall. There are 10,000 cells,
arranged in rows of 100 each in alleys closed by a door. Each cell is
about 6 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 5 feet deep, and is provided with
a sliding seat and a board for writing on, which the student can slide
into the same groove as the seat to curl up on at night, for he has to
spend three days and nights without leaving it. The cell is open in
front, and an invigilator walks up and down to see that no cheating
goes on. If the student is taken ill he may not leave, and if he dies
(not an infrequent occurrence at examination times) his body is
simply put over the wall at the outside end of the alley. These
examinations are competitive, and there may be only thirty or forty
vacancies for thousands of students. At Canton there are 25,000
cells in the examination hall, and each province has its own
examination, to which students of other provinces may not come.
There are characters at the end of the rows of cells, drawn from one
of the classics, which are used as numerals, to distinguish the rows
from one another.
It is interesting to observe what supreme importance is attached
by the Chinese to learning and to morals. Learning is the main road
to eminence; the only other one—the military service—is quite
subsidiary. The highest grade of the people is the Sze, the scholar,
and from it all public servants are drawn. There is no bar to prevent
men of other grades passing into this class, provided they fit
themselves to do so and pass the necessary examinations. There
are six examinations possible.
 OLD EXAMINATION BUILDINGS

The first examination is held yearly by the district magistrate; it

lasts for three days, and the candidate has to write two essays, one
on poetry. The second examination is held (generally a few months
later) in a prefectural town, and is therefore called Fu Kau, or country
examination. The students who pass this examination are called Shu
Tsai. The third examination (only open to those who have passed the
previous one) is the triennial one, which takes place in the capital of
each province, as above described, and is called the Ju Jen degree.
This time the candidate has to write several more essays than for the
Shu Tsai degree; the quality most valued in these essays is skill in
quotation, both as to the number of quotations made from the
classics and the way in which they are combined—this might aptly
be compared to a string of pearls. The candidates who obtain the Ju
Jen degree are alone eligible for the degree of Tsin Sze. This fourth
examination takes place triennially at Peking. The candidate is
confined for nine days in a small compartment in the examination
building. No matter how great the discomfort of this confinement may
be, he has to write nine essays. I obtained the most fascinating little
crib containing the whole classics, not larger than one inch square,
which would offer a severe temptation under such circumstances to
the most conscientious student! If the candidate is successful with
his nine essays he receives the title of Tsin Sze, but if not, he may be
appointed to a clerkship of a more or less important nature,
according to the merit of his essays.
A yet higher degree may be obtained called the Tien Sze,
because it is held in one of the buildings of the Imperial Palace. The
student at the head of the list is called Cheong Yuan; the second is
Paun Yien; the third is called Tua Hwa, and the fourth Chuan Lo To.
Their official title, which is also given to other successful candidates
in this examination, is Han Lin Yuan Shu Chi Sze, and they are
obliged to study for the next three years at the Han Lin Yuan for the
next examination. The successful candidates are retained at the Han
Lin, and the unsuccessful ones receive posts of lesser importance,
such as magistracies and other civil appointments. They are
6
considered to have a first claim to all such appointments.
This old examination system is being replaced by one in which
Western subjects are to a large extent taking the place of the
classics. Since 1904 the degrees of the Ju Jen and Han Lin have
been granted in this way to students educated abroad and examined
on their return to China. At the present time there are about 300
Chinese students in England, studying mainly law, medicine,
engineering, and manufactures: some are still in public schools,
grammar schools, &c.; others are at the English or Scotch
universities.