Days [ ) A Chinese newsboy | Henri Michaux, 1949

Paris, 1929

”In China the ‘unskilled workman’ does not exist. What is simpler than to sell newspapers?
A European newsboy is a shouting, romantic fellow, who tears about, screaming at the top
of his voice: ‘Times. Herald- Tribune,’ and gets under your feet. A Chinese newsboy is an
expert.  He examines the streets where he is going on his rounds, observes where the people
are to be found and, using his hand as a megaphone, lets out his voice, now toward a window,
now toward a group  there on the left, wherever it is necessary, calmly. What is the use of
letting your voice run away with you, tossing it where there is no one to catch it?”

Henri Michaux, A Barbarian in Asia, 1949