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DATA STEWARDSHIP
FOR
OPEN SCIENCE
Implementing FAIR Principles
DATA STEWARDSHIP
FOR
OPEN SCIENCE
Implementing FAIR Principles

BAREND MONS
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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Version Date: 20180216

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 To all Data Stewards and Eleni
To Rob, Robert, Marek and Joke, you know why...
Contents

List of Figures xiii

Preface xv

Author xvii

Chapter 1  Introduction 1
1.1 DATA STEWARDSHIP FOR OPEN SCIENCE 1
1.2 INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR 6
1.3 DEFINITIONS AND CONTEXT 29
1.4 THE LINES OF THINKING 36
1.5 THE BASICS OF GOOD DATA STEWARDSHIP 38

Chapter 2  Data Cycle Step 1: Design of Experiment 63

2.1 IS THERE PRE-EXISTING DATA? 63
2.2 WILL YOU USE PRE-EXISTING DATA (INCLUDING
OPEDAS)? 65
2.3 WILL YOU USE REFERENCE DATA? 66
2.4 WHERE IS IT AVAILABLE? 68
2.5 WHAT FORMAT? 69
2.6 IS THE DATA RESOURCE VERSIONED? 70
2.7 WILL YOU BE USING ANY EXISTING (NON-REFERENCE)
DATASETS? 72
2.8 WILL OWNERS OF THAT DATA WORK WITH YOU ON
THIS STUDY? 73
2.9 IS RECONSENT NEEDED? 74

vii
viii  Contents

2.10 DO YOU NEED TO HARMONIZE DIFFERENT SOURCES

OF OPEDAS? 75
2.11 WHAT/HOW/WHO WILL INTEGRATE EXISTING DATA? 76
2.11.1 Will you need to add data from the literature? 77
2.11.2 Will you need text-mining? 78
2.11.3 Do you need to integrate or link to a different
type of data? 79
2.12 WILL REFERENCE DATA BE CREATED? 81
2.12.1 What will the IP be like? 82
2.12.2 How will you maintain it? 84
2.13 WILL YOU BE STORING PHYSICAL SAMPLES? 85
2.13.1 Where will information about samples be
stored? 87
2.13.2 Will your data and samples be added to an
existing collection? 88
2.14 WILL YOU BE COLLECTING EXPERIMENTAL DATA? 90
2.15 ARE THERE DATA FORMATTING CONSIDERATIONS? 91
2.15.1 What is the volume of the anticipated dataset? 92
2.15.2 What data formats do the instruments yield? 93
2.15.3 What preprocessing is needed? 94
2.15.3.1 Are there ready-to-use workflows? 95
2.15.3.2 What compute is needed? 96
2.15.4 Will you create images? 98
2.16 ARE THERE POTENTIAL ISSUES REGARDING DATA
OWNERSHIP AND ACCESS CONTROL? 99
2.16.1 Who needs access? 100
2.16.2 What level of data protection is needed? 101
2.16.2.1 Is the collected data privacy sensitive? 102
2.16.2.2 Is your institutes’ security sufficient
for storage? 103

Chapter 3  Data Cycle Step 2: Data Design and Planning 105

3.1 ARE YOU USING DATA TYPES USED BY OTHERS, TOO? 106
 Contents  ix

3.1.1 What format(s) will you use for the data? 107
3.2 WILL YOU BE USING NEW TYPES OF DATA? 108
3.2.1 Are there suitable terminology systems? 109
3.2.2 Do you need to develop new terminology
systems? 111
3.2.3 How will you describe your data format? 112
3.3 HOW WILL YOU BE STORING METADATA? 114
3.3.1 Did you consider how to monitor data integrity? 115
3.3.2 Will you store licenses with the data? 117
3.4 METHOD STEWARDSHIP 119
3.4.1 Is all software for steps in your workflow prop-
erly maintained? 120
3.5 STORAGE (HOW WILL YOU STORE YOUR DATA?) 123
3.5.1 Storage capacity planning. 123
3.5.1.1 Will you be archiving data for long-
term preservation? 124
3.5.1.2 Can the original data be regenerated? 126
3.5.1.3 If your data changes over time, how
frequently do you do backups? 127
3.5.2 When is the data archived? 129
3.5.3 Re-use considerations: Will the archive need to
be online? 130
3.5.4 Will workflows need to be run locally on the
stored data? 131
3.5.4.1 Is there budget to enable supported
reuse by others (collaboration/co-
authorship)? 133
3.5.5 How long does the data need to be kept? 135
3.5.6 Will the data be understandable after a long
time? 137
3.5.7 How frequently will you archive data? 138
3.6 IS THERE (CRITICAL) SOFTWARE IN THE WORKSPACE? 139
3.7 DO YOU NEED THE STORAGE CLOSE TO COMPUTER
CAPACITY? 141
x  Contents

3.8 COMPUTE CAPACITY PLANNING 143

3.8.1 Determine needs in memory/CPU/IO ratios 143

Chapter 4  Data Cycle Step 3: Data Capture (Equipment

Phase) 147
4.1 WHERE DOES THE DATA COME FROM? WHO WILL
NEED THE DATA? 150
4.2 CAPACITY AND HARMONISATION PLANNING 152
4.2.1 Will you use non-equipment data capture (i.e.,
questionnaires, free text)? 153
4.2.1.1 Case report forms? 155

Chapter 5  Data Cycle Step 4: Data Processing and Curation 157

5.1 WORKFLOW DEVELOPMENT 157
5.1.1 Will you be running a bulk/routine workflow? 158
5.2 CHOOSE THE WORKFLOW ENGINE 159
5.2.1 Who are the customers that use your workflows? 162
5.2.2 Can workflows be run remotely? 163
5.2.3 Can workflow decay be managed? 164
5.2.4 Verify workflows repeatedly on the same data 165
5.3 WORKFLOW RUNNING 166
5.4 TOOLS AND DATA DIRECTORY (FOR THE EXPERIMENT) 168

Chapter 6  Data Cycle Step 5: Data Linking and ‘Integration’ 171

6.1 WHAT APPROACH WILL YOU USE FOR DATA
INTEGRATION? 175
6.2 WILL YOU MAKE YOUR OUTPUT SEMANTICALLY
INTEROPERABLE? 176
6.3 WILL YOU USE A WORKFLOW OR TOOLS FOR
DATABASE ACCESS OR CONVERSION? 179

Chapter 7  Data Cycle Step 6: Data Analysis, Interpretation 181

7.1 WILL YOU USE STATIC OR DYNAMIC (SYSTEMS)
MODELS? 182
 Contents  xi

7.2 MACHINE-LEARNING? 183

7.3 WILL YOU BE BUILDING KINETIC MODELS? 185
7.4 HOW WILL YOU MAKE SURE THE ANALYSIS IS BEST
SUITED TO ANSWER YOUR BIOLOGICAL QUESTION? 186
7.5 HOW WILL YOU ENSURE REPRODUCIBILITY? 187
7.5.1 Will this step need significant storage and com-
pute capacity? 188
7.5.2 How are you going to interpret your data? 189
7.5.3 How will you document your interpretation
steps? 191
7.6 WILL YOU BE DOING (AUTOMATED) KNOWLEDGE-
DISCOVERY? 192

Chapter 8  Data Cycle Step 7: Information and Insight

Publishing 195
8.1 HOW MUCH WILL BE OPEN DATA/ACCESS? 196
8.2 WHO WILL PAY FOR OPEN ACCESS DATA PUBLISHING? 199
8.3 LEGAL ISSUES 202
8.3.1 Where to publish? 203
8.4 WHAT TECHNICAL ISSUES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH
HPR? 206
8.4.1 What service will be offered around your data? 207
8.4.2 Submit to an existing database? 209
8.4.3 Will you run your own access Web service for
data? 210
8.4.4 How and where will you be archiving/
cataloguing? 212
8.5 WILL YOU STILL PUBLISH IF THE RESULTS ARE
NEGATIVE? 213
8.5.1 Data as a publishable unit? 214
8.5.2 Will you publish a narrative? 215

Bibliography 219

Index 223
List of Figures

1.1 Open science basics: pattern recognition versus confir-

mational reading 7
1.2 Open science needs respectful collaboration of specialists 8
1.3 Data stewardship problems today and the major rea-
sons for non-reproducibility 10
1.4 Science should not become a fruit machine of correlations 11
1.5 Too much time is spent on repetitive data munging 13
1.6 Link rot in papers, the second worst invention: supple-
mentary data 14
(+)
1.7 The sequential hurdles put up by the Article approach 17
1.8 No escape from writing more than we can read?
Article(+) approach 18
1.9 No escape from complexityArticle(+) approach 19
1.10 The possibility to use distributed and independently
generated linked FAIR data 21
1.11 The current malpractice in scholarly publishing and
communication 23
1.12 The Silver back problem in current science 25
1.13 The data stewardship cycle 28
1.14 The link between this book and the data stewardship
wizard 30
1.15 A data stewardship wizard 31
1.16 Big data is not the issue as much as variety 45
1.17 Data and services as building blocks of digital objects 46
1.18 Degrees of FAIRness explained 60

xiii
Preface

When I was asked to write this book in early 2015, my first reaction
was: “Why write a book with the essential message to stop writing?”
However, after giving it some thought, and after talking to a few col-
leagues, I decided that this book may serve a purpose after all.
I fully understand that a printed book in (and about) the era of
data-driven science seems like an anachronism. But, first of all, this
book has an e-book version and, much more importantly, it is for a
large part accessible in open access in the context of a data steward-
ship wizard. In the wizard there will be regular updates, as well as
community participation in further improving the essentials for good
data stewardship for open science.
Since the agreement to write this book, a lot happened. The FAIR
principles were ‘going viral’, I was appointed chair of the High Level
Expert Group of the European Commission to give advice on the Eu-
ropean Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and meanwhile I co-led an inter-
national implementation strategy to realise the Internet of FAIR Data
and Services. In all preparatory and advisory roles, I was confronted
from all sides by the pressing need to educate and adequately equip
a whole new generation of data stewards, who know how to deal with
(FAIR) data as well as with the associated services. During the two-
year period in which this book and the associated wizard developed,
my motivation to contribute to the toolbox needed for data stewards
only increased, and, here is the first result, for what it’s worth. I hope
it contributes to the development and establishment of a new, much
needed, profession and ultimately to better science for a more effective
society.

xv
Author

Barend Mons is a molecular biolo-

gist by training (PhD, Leiden Univer-
sity, 1986) and spent over 15 years in
malaria research. After that he gained
two decades of experience in computer-
assisted knowledge discovery, which is
still his research focus at the Leiden Uni-
versity Medical Centre. He spent time
with the European Commission (1993-
1996) and with the Netherlands Organ-
isation for Scientific Research (NWO
1996-1999). Dr. Mons also co-founded
several spin-off companies in the field of
semantic technologies and data curation.
Currently, Dr. Mons is professor of
biosemantics in the Human Genetics de-
From
partment of Leiden University Medical
http://www.marietmons.nl
Centre. He was the first head of node
for ELIXIR-NL at the Dutch Techcen-
tre for Life Sciences, he is integrator for life sciences at the Nether-
lands eScience Centre, and board member of the Leiden Centre of
Data Science. He coined the Knowlet concept in 2008 and the con-
cept of nanopublication, together with Jan Velterop, in 2009. Both are
used in machine-assisted knowledge discovery. In 2014, Dr. Mons initi-
ated the Lorentz Conference, which led to the FAIR data principles. In
2015, he was appointed chair of the European Commission’s High Level
Expert Group for the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), DG Re-
search and Innovation. He resigned from that group after completion of
the EOSC recommendations and is currently leading the Global Open
FAIR initiative.

xvii
xviii  Author

Having been confronted on all levels by an alarming lack of aware-

ness about good data stewardship, Dr. Mons wrote this book to make
scientists, funders, and innovators in all disciplines and stages of their
professional activities broadly aware of the need, the complexity, and
the challenges associated with open science, modern science commu-
nication, and data stewardship. The FAIR principles will be guiding
the reader throughout, and it should be emphasised here that these
are indeed principles and not standards in and of themselves. Faithful
to that, this book will not go into depth concerning specific standards
and protocols, as good data stewardship and data can be realised in
many different ways and will be different by discipline as well. Thus,
this book should leave experimentalists consciously incompetent about
data stewardship and hence motivated to respect data stewards as
representatives of a new profession, while it might motivate others to
actually become data stewards. However, just reading this book will
not make you one.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

1.1 DATA STEWARDSHIP FOR OPEN SCIENCE

Generating knowledge using public funding implies public

responsibility.

Society and science are in an unprecedented transition, and those

who deny the paradigm shift in science will soon be left behind. Science
in the 21st century is no longer an ivory tower hobby of an eccentric
elite, but it has invaded all sectors of society. Terms like evidence-
based and data-driven emerge everywhere and suggest that properly
collected and interpreted data and evidence is driving decisions and
developments in almost every societal domain. Still, science should not
be predominantly driven by potential practical applications. It serves
the expansion of our collective knowledge and therefore it should by
definition go in all directions. However, it is a logical consequence of
the growing involvement of the general public in knowledge discovery
that the research process is under more public scrutiny and pressure
than ever before. Europe alone annually spends close to 250 billion
Euro of taxpayer money on research and development, and the research
and innovation process is increasingly assisted and scrutinised by well-
educated citizens.
At the same time, and maybe related to this increased societal in-
tegration, visibility, and scrutiny, many elements of the scientific pro-
cess itself that have been established for centuries are now facing a
crisis. This includes peer review reproducibility, publication pressure-
induced fraud, and undue ownership claims in scientific results that
were generated with public funding. The credibility crisis we currently

1
2  Data Stewardship for Open Science: Implementing FAIR Principles

face in science is directly related to the fact that the way we value
and communicate scientific output is stuck in the 20th century. The
scholarly communication system and market did not yet pick up on
the enormous power of the Internet and is dominated by an extremely
profitable and hence conservative private sector. Before bashing the
publishers for all this, which is too easy, we should realise that the sci-
entific guild let the crucial business of communicating its results and
re-using them for further knowledge discovery be orphaned, and thus
handed it over to an industry that became so extremely profitable that
it is almost unable to change without upsetting its shareholders. In the
more recent past, some rescue operations have been undertaken, such
as open access business models and the introduction of supplementary
data to be co-published with articles, but these have not led to a fun-
damental rethinking and a step-change in the way we communicate
science. They have led to more open access articles, which is a mini-
step forward, but also to the mushrooming of institutional repositories,
in which data and text are open, but hardly findable, badly accessible,
frequently non-interoperable, and thus still useless. As a result, pre-
liminary studies indicate that in data-intensive science disciplines, the
average PhD student may spend as much as 60% of research time on
so-called data munging (trying to find, extract, reformat, and integrate
data for meta-analysis). Better data stewardship should therefore not
be seen as a new investment, but rather as part and parcel of the re-
sponsible use of public research funds and a major cost-saving factor,
generating more capacity to actually perform creative research.
While we were sleeping, computers and in particular virtual ma-
chines rapidly became our most important research assistants, but we
continue to make their jobs miserable by spitting out narrative, PDF’s
and other file formats that are near-useless for computers. More re-
cently, we started to create rapidly decaying links to crucial supplemen-
tary data, rendering them either completely obscure, non-accessible,
non-interoperable, or subjected to link rot and thus again reuseless, in
particular for meta-research using machines. The scholarly communi-
cation and rewards system is thus trapped in the publish (narrative)
or perish paradigm, and is no longer effectively supporting classical
science, let alone open science. It will take a united effort, way beyond
requesting open access articles, to break away from the 20th-century
system that causes all the looming and substantiated crises in con-
temporary science. We cannot wait for governments, funders, or for
 Introduction  3

that matter the status quo-oriented publishing industry to make that

change, without the guilty guild taking the lead towards its own rescue.
As a first step towards this rescue operation for data and related ser-
vices, we introduce here the recently developed but meanwhile widely
adopted FAIR principles. Later on, these principles and their bound-
aries will be discussed in greater detail, but at this point it suffices to
lay out the general principle that data (and the services to make sense
of them) should be Findable (independently by machines and humans),
Accessible (under well-defined conditions), Interoperable (again, inde-
pendently by machines and human users), and thus Reusable (under
properly defined licences and properly cited). In many cases data will
be reused way beyond the purposes for which they were originally cre-
ated, so long-term data stewardship will be a crucial element in open
science. We define data and services that do not meet one or more of
these elements of FAIRness here as reuseless.
The FAIR principles, as explained later in more detail, do not con-
stitute a standard, nor do they specify a particular format or tech-
nology. Rather, they give a context and a direction to efforts to make
data and services more useful and actually support their reuse. In that
general sense, they are the major guiding principles for any form of
proper data stewardship.
Throughout this book you will find a series of one-liners as
take home (or Twitter) messages, which could be considered virtual
machine-outcries. The first is:

Machine-readable research data are key and narrative

should be supplementary.

Contemporary (open) science is increasingly based on reusing an-

other’s data and methods. As a key substrate for the computer-assisted
knowledge discovery process, data should be machine-actionable wher-
ever possible and be carefully stewarded for their entire life cycle. For
the purpose of this book, we cover the entire process that deals re-
sponsibly with one’s own and other people’s data throughout and af-
ter the scientific discovery process under the term data stewardship.
Taking good care of research data has obviously always been good
scientific practice, but we all know that the current situation around
research data is in total disarray. Now that science is in transition to
a much more internationally collaborative and collective intelligence-
based knowledge discovery effort using data from different disciplines,
4  Data Stewardship for Open Science: Implementing FAIR Principles

good data stewardship moves to centre stage. Although data stew-

ardship itself may not be considered rocket science, good data and
research infrastructure will be a prerequisite for future top-science and
could thus be considered the rocket launcher.
Generating research data without an executable data stew-
ardship plan is scientific malpractice.
So, what is open science, just a hype term or a fundamentally new
way of doing science? The term open science is clearly already referring
to different concepts in different people’s minds and meanwhile enjoys
many definitions. The most open societal definition of it might be found
in the most prominent citizen-driven knowledge base, Wikipedia, which
states: “Open science is the movement to make scientific research, data,
and dissemination accessible to all levels of an inquiring society, ama-
teur or professional. It encompasses practices such as publishing open
research, campaigning for open access, encouraging scientists to prac-
tice open notebook science, and generally making it easier to publish
and communicate scientific knowledge”. From a more methodological
and computer science perspective, one could say that open science is
an umbrella term for a technology and data driven systemic change
in how researchers (and computers) work, collaborate, share ideas, dis-
seminate and reuse results, by adopting the core values that knowledge
should be optimally reusable, modifiable, and re-distributable.
The reuse aspect of open science is mostly undervalued in the most
common definitions. Open science is so much more than open access of
research articles. It is a new paradigm in the scientific method where
meta-research over massive amounts of distributed data reveals myri-
ads of patterns. A major new challenge in the data-rich era is to discern
meaningful patterns and extract actionable knowledge from them. So,
data publication, data stewardship, and reusable workflows to process
these data in many different combinations are key prerequisites for
open science.
Open science cannot develop without machine-readable
data and good data stewardship.
Therefore, the printed version of this book serves only one purpose:

To make you fully aware of the importance of good data

stewardship in open science.
 Introduction  5

In other words: this is mainly an awareness-raising tool, not

a detailed methodological handbook with lists of detailed procedures.
Actual procedures for good data stewardship frequently do not even
exist yet, and will be continuously developed and described in online
resources, protocols, and reference books. It has been a conscious choice
of the author to keep the introductory part of this book short and
hopefully valuable for many years in a field where new technologies,
data types, analytical methods, standards, and best practices improve
and develop on a weekly basis. The average life span of write and read
technologies (remember VHS and the floppy disc?) and web services is
on the order of years rather than decades.
Reading this book will make you aware of the complicated issues
that make data stewardship a key professional skill in data-driven sci-
ence, regardless of the phase or status of your scientific career. Con-
sequently, training in data stewardship for years to come will have an
important learning-by-doing element. Thus, this book and the associ-
ated online tool will be as much a learning tool as it is a broad practical
guide to make conscious and responsible choices in data stewardship
led by the now widely adopted FAIR principles.
Before reading this book, there are a few short animations to watch
and a key paper to read that should convince you of the value of proper
data stewardship for improved discovery.

1. “What Is Open Science All About, and how does it relate to data
stewardship?”1

2. “Why Open Science Matters”, a sci21 movie.2

3. “Why is Linked Open Data Critical?”3

4. “Why Are the FAIR Guiding Principles Crucial in Good Data

Stewardship?”4

5. “What Are the FAIR Guiding Principles in Practice?”

[Wilkinson et al., 2016]
1
http://www.dtls.nl/5825-2/
2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7˙9y3wbUgzU
3
http://www.apple.com
4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWutnWBfUSw
6  Data Stewardship for Open Science: Implementing FAIR Principles

1.2 INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR

WHY THIS BOOK?
Hi, I am an ageing molecular biologist who happens to find himself in
the midst of the top-league of data scientists and computer specialists
lately. I did not ask for that, my research ambitions led me into this
cultural jungle. Many of these strange data-analytics people, while first
appearing to speak a foreign language if not coming from a different
planet altogether, now have become my friends and highly respected
colleagues. Together, we have been able to do some amazing research
that we would certainly not have been able to do (or even conceived
of) if we had not developed what I consider to be the most important
social-methodological skill of the modern scientist:

Open science needs respectful collaboration of specialists.

Still, I meet experimental researchers all the time (many of them

much younger than I am) who are largely unaware of the enor-
mous value of this collaboration between domain specialists (biologists,
chemists, social scientists, you name them) and data specialists. Your
data colleagues may frequently have little clue about what your data
might actually mean, but they can magically understand the emerging
properties and patterns from your data by combining them with hun-
dreds of other datasets you were not even aware of and visualise them
in graphical artwork that you would almost put on the wall in your
living room. But what do these beautiful pictures actually tell you, or
are they effectively ridiculograms (see Figure 1.1)?
That said, without your data specialist colleagues, you would prob-
ably still be ploughing through your spreadsheets, switching to another
screen (if you know how to do that), and typing keywords in the liter-
ature or database search interfaces you happen to know. You probably
miss more than 80% of what is out there in the Internet of Data (wish
we had that?) and actually manage to republish in a so-called top sci-
entific journal what was already explicitly provided as evidence in a
database, unbeknownst to you and apparently also escaping the atten-
tion of your reviewers. This is not a joke, I come across these examples
almost on a weekly basis in my current work.
However, what do these impressively visualised patterns mean, that
magically emerge from your data, once they are combined with many
other datasets and curated data resources through multiple computer
 Introduction  7

Figure 1.1This picture is composed of several screen shots from the open
science animation mentioned before. Two levels should be clearly dis-
tinguished in open science: Pattern recognition in big and sometimes
noisy data requires very different technologies and methods as com-
pared to fine-grained search for mechanistic explanations and causal
relationships. The former process is compared to a drone spotting pat-
terns on the ground that remain just patterns (or ridiculograms) until
a digging phase has revealed the actionable knowledge derived from
the patterns.

algorithms, the names of which you cannot even pronounce, and where
a new one is coined as the best thing since sliced bread every month? No
idea; that is where your domain expertise comes to the table. Your data
specialist colleagues would obviously not start reading deep biology,
chemistry, and sociological textbooks to become half-baked domain
experts, would they?

SO WHY WOULD YOU READ BOOKS LIKE THIS ONE?

To become a half-baked data expert? Well, you should not. As said, this
book is not meant to make you a half-baked data expert at all. It will
not teach you much of the basics of data science or computer science
(my computer and data scientist colleagues would have a good laugh
8  Data Stewardship for Open Science: Implementing FAIR Principles

if I tried). Instead, this book is aimed at the middle ground between

the domain expert and the data expert. Any domain specialist in open,
data-driven science should pay due respect to, and work closely with,
data experts. This is far from trivial and a frequent reason for failure
of projects, or even entire e-infrastructures (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2A prerequisite to conduct open and data intensive science is

the respectful collaboration of domain specialists with data and com-
puter scientists. However, these two expert communities do not nec-
essarily communicate easily and are driven by very different reward
systems and incentives.

Other people’s data and services (OPEDAS): Whether you

are an experimental scientist trying to interpret the data you just gen-
erated or a researcher in the humanities using data from social media,
 Introduction  9

nowadays you will find yourself quickly using other people’s data and,
if you are clever, other people’s analytical services. In fact you will
more often than not use other people’s data as well as other people’s
software, tools and computers.
The famous statement that every scientist stands on the shoul-
ders of giants 5 , is rapidly gaining a new connotation. Traditionally it
mainly meant that we base our insights on knowledge we derived from
prior scholarly communications (mostly talks at conferences, narrative,
tables, and figures) but now it is applicable to founding our new discov-
eries on other people’s prior research objects [Bechhofer et al., 2010].
As stated earlier, let’s loosely define them as: any artefact produced
or used in the scientific process. So, research objects comprise indeed
data, algorithms, workflows, code, slides, video instructions, websites,
tools, reference datasets, annotations, curated databases, and, yes, even
narrative, and tables and figures. Here we will refer to this container
concept as other people’s data and services: OPEDAS.
A key feature of proper science is the reproducibility of studies,
results, and conclusions. There are many reasons why study results
may not be reproducible entirely and exactly the same in different ex-
perimental or social settings. Not being trivially reproducible does not
automatically mean the conclusions drawn by the original conductors
of the study were wrong. However, optimal care should be taken to
make results as reproducible as possible, and good data stewardship
is the very basis of such good research practice. In a recent Ameri-
can study [Freedman et al., 2015], it was shown that 25% of the non-
reproducibility problem in pre-clinical research was related directly to
problems in data analysis and reporting.(see Figure 1.3).
We will explain later how the other methodological aspects, refer-
ence materials, study design, and laboratory protocols are all of concern
to good data stewards. That is why data stewards (core data profes-
sionals) should be embedded in every modern research team. Not only
could the 28 billion dollar mentioned largely be saved, but also some
lives while we are at it. The loss of valuable data, combined with an ex-
ploding ability to generate data, discover patterns in them and produce
millions of correlations, has also contributed to the reproducibility cri-
sis. A rigorous quality check on the supporting data for any conclusion
in narrative is badly needed, and in many cases very difficult or even
5
Mostly attributed to a 1676 letter of Isaac Newton, because it was in English
but actually traceable back to the 12th century Bernard of Chartres
10  Data Stewardship for Open Science: Implementing FAIR Principles

Data stewardship problems today and the major reasons for

Figure 1.3
non-reproducibility, explained in the figure.

impossible, if only due to the sheer size of the data. Still, science should
not become like a fruit-machine of spurious correlations based on data
that are either lost, not accessible, or not reusable for replication or
for inclusion in new studies (Figure 1.4). The lack of possibilities to
rigorously check the sources and provenance of data has also led to
some very visible cases of fraud, damaging the image of science overall.
We must conclude from the above that one of the most disturbing
phenomena of the early 21st century is that while science transitions
to Science 2.0 or open science, where research objects and machines
that can operate them are increasingly used in many combinations to
study and discover more and more complex associations and interac-
tions, the scientific award and communication system is stuck in the
20th century and based on archaic and often misleading measures such
as the journal impact factor6 . This keeps narrative articles (designed
exclusively for human reading) centre stage and this situation severely
hampers the development of the data-driven science indexdata!driven
science method. The guilty guild are not only the funders or the pub-
lishers, but also the scientific community who keep each other in this
deadly ego-embrace.
From incidental surveys conducted under young PhD students, the
6
I would hope you will soon need a footnote here to remember what that historical
concept was.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 UH CHAI
UPLAND VILLAGE

All the trees were beginning to bud, and the birds to sing and
mate, although it was only the end of January. As we neared
Tungchwan Yun we saw various new species of birds, and especially
large numbers of cranes, mainly grey, but some white, and one
solitary black one standing alone on the edge of the stream, as their
habit is. The first view of the city is picturesque, as it is seen from the
high hills overlooking the plain full of rice-fields. The city nestles
under the farther hillside and looks as if it could be reached in an
hour or so, whereas it takes at least three times as long. In a village
at the foot of the hill the preparations for the New Year were in full
swing. Every door was being cleaned for the new gods to be pasted
up together with mottoes and other decorations. Great washing was
going on in a large puddle in the middle of the village; clothes, bowls,
cooking utensils, fowls for the feast, vegetables, &c. Close by were
large flocks of wild ducks, teal, and other birds, which made one’s
mouth water to see, now that we had reached a part of the country
where the residents can rarely get anything except pork and fowls in
the way of meat. Tungchwan is quite pretty, owing both to its
situation and to the number of trees in it. Also it looked remarkably
clean and bright with its decorations, red, orange, blue, and gold, on
all the doors; but that may have been merely because it was New
Year’s Eve (January 31st). There was much less noise of crackers
all night than we had expected, and we were told that the custom of
keeping New Year’s Day is much less formally observed than it used
to be. Nothing would have induced our coolies, however, to travel
that day, and all the shops were closed, and people were walking
about in their new clothes and cleanly shaven. We went to see a
Confucian temple on the outskirts of the town, which had evidently
been visited by the scholars of the place, and in which there were
little heaps of offerings, each consisting of five oranges in front of
every tablet. There were a number of courtyards and some fine trees
in them, especially some interesting specimens of the sensitive tree.
—If you scratch the trunk every twig quivers. There are a great many
insect trees throughout the whole district, in which the white wax
insect is bred. Before they come out of the trunk little bunches of
straw about the size of two fingers are tied to it, in which the larvæ
are afterwards found. We were very sorry that lack of time prevented
our making an excursion into the neighbouring district, which is
inhabited by aboriginal tribes. The Wesleyan missionaries have been
civilising some of these people, and one of their number has
successfully reduced the Miao language to writing by an ingenious
adaptation of Pitman’s shorthand system. The tribesmen are able to
read and write in a few weeks, and have taken to writing letters to
one another like ducks to water. There are many different tribes
among the mountains, some very shy and unapproachable, and with
curious customs of their own. A member of the mission described to
us a curious race that takes place in Bábú land where the Manzas
live, but which had never been visited before by European women.
The course is strewn with the feathers of fowls, and the men wear
very full, short, circular dark capes, and a sort of crest on their
heads. Then they put their ponies at full gallop, and extend their
arms so that they look like eagles with extended wings as they
sweep round the course ventre à terre, enveloped in a cloud of
feathers and dust. Some of the tribes are very wild; not infrequently
the Lolos or Ibien, as they prefer to be called, kidnap the Chinese
and make them pay a heavy ransom, so that little towers of refuge
are built in this district. The number of these aboriginal tribes is
probably unknown to any one; we always heard conflicting accounts
of them, and until recently no systematic attempt has been made to
approach them. Hosie describes how difficult it was even to catch a
glimpse of any of them when they were close beside the road, as
they lurk in the bushes to try and see others, themselves unseen.

YÜNNAN HAT LOLO WOMAN

When we left Tungchwan the following morning we passed a

temple at the entrance of which the tutelary gods and horses, larger
than life-size, stand on either side in heavily barred halls, looking
most ferocious. The gentry of the place have recently erected a new
temple to the God of Riches, which we only saw from a distance.
This has been done by means of a lottery, and perhaps the choice of
a god is due to the great poverty of the district, where the people are
always on the verge of starvation, and where a poor harvest means
utter ruin to a large number. The result of this state of things shows
itself in a repulsive way, for infanticide is extremely prevalent. In one
hamlet near which we passed no fewer than thirty-three baby girls
were thrown out recently in a single year; though it looked such a
small place that I should not have imagined so many babies had
been born in it altogether in the time. We were told that it was by no
means uncommon to see such babies lying in the fields, and we
were dreadfully exercised to know what we should do if we found
one alive. Happily, our sense of humanity was not put to the test. We
travelled through a long valley all day under a very hot sun, and
longed for thinner clothing.
Next day we climbed the greater part of the way up precipitous
hills in a cold, wet mist, longing for warmer winter clothes. Soon our
hair was white like the bushes with rime, and we were truly thankful
to be saved from the piercing wind which is usually found on these
particular heights. The coolies are extremely superstitious about this
wind, and would not dare to say anything in the way of complaint for
fear the spirits should hear, even if it blew a hurricane. They are
often obliged to turn round and wait till the fierce blasts are over; so
they told us. The ice was so thick on our hair that we had to take it
down before we could get it free from ice, and our clothes were
thoroughly wetted with it. For a couple of days the cold continued
somewhat severe; then we got into the hot sunshine again, and even
with a wind to refresh us we found travelling too hot. The hedges
reminded one more of home, and there was a flowering tree not
unlike hawthorn; also the hedges were full of cotoneaster, rose-
bushes, and clematis.
 FUNERAL PAGODA
BRIDEGROOM

The last three days of the journey to the capital are

comparatively uninteresting across the plain, but we saw a quaint
wedding journey as we left the hill country. First came four
musicians, making a noise extremely like a bad performance on the
pipes. Next rode the bridegroom, heavily adorned with scarlet and
pink rosettes and sashes; his pony also decorated with scarlet,
followed by a couple of men riding. Then came the scarlet wedding
sedan-chair, sadly dilapidated by age and neglect, conveying the
bride. She was followed by a finely dressed woman, riding, and one
or two other people. Lastly came the bride’s furniture—a very
meagre supply of two chests and small boxes. We reached her
destination before she did, and found the village awaiting her. In the
street was a table spread as an altar, on which were two vases full of
wild camellias, a vase of incense, and a tray containing three bowls
of rice, one bowl of pork, with chopsticks standing erect in it, and two
small bowls of spirit. In front of the table was a mat for prostration,
and at each side of the street a bench with a red mat over it. When
the cortège arrived we were among the onlookers, which seemed by
no means acceptable to the people. After waiting for a few minutes
and exchanging greetings, the whole party retired into the house, the
bride being most carefully lifted out of her chair in as secret a
manner as possible. We were much disappointed to see nothing of
the ceremony, but Mr. Ku told us that evidently they had no intention
of doing anything whilst strangers were looking on, so we had
reluctantly to withdraw. As we heard that the wedding lasts three
days, and that the guests are expected to sit and talk and eat each
day from about 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., we comforted ourselves with the
thought that it was better to see nothing than to endure that, and
went away to our two-storied inn (the second that we have met),
where we inhabited the attic with the fowls. This inn was so costly
that our coolies had to go elsewhere, as we paid the exorbitant price
of 2½d. each for board, bed, and bedding. Needless to say, the first
and last items were of no use to us.
In one village we saw an interesting tall paper pagoda meant to
be burnt at a funeral. It was painted mainly red. Throughout the
empire it is customary to see extraordinary paper horses, servants,
&c., as part of the requisites for a rich person’s funeral. They are
burnt at the grave, and are supposed to go to the other world with
the spirit of the deceased, for his use. It is only rich people, who
possess horses, servants, &c., for whom they are provided. As white
is the colour of mourning in China, these models are made of white
paper on light bamboo frames. Not infrequently I have seen a white
cock in a basket on a coffin that is being taken to the grave, as the
white cock is called a “spiritual” or “divine” fowl and is supposed to
guide the spirit of the dead. These customs are already being
superseded amongst the educated Chinese, and they are following
our European plan of having flowers at funerals.
In the Viceroy Chang Chih-Tung’s interesting book, “China’s
Only Hope,” he arrives at a curious conclusion upon this point. He
says: “Although they [Europeans] have no such things as ancestral
halls and tablets of deceased relatives, in lieu of these they place the
photographs of their dead parents and brothers [note the absence of
sisters!] on the tables in their houses and make offerings of them.
And while they make no sacrifices at the tombs of their ancestors,
they repair their graves and plant flowers upon them as an act of
worship.”
Ancestral worship is so much the most important part of religion
in China, that the foregoing account of our habits is meant to dispel
an injurious prejudice against us.
There was one compensation in leaving the mountains and
crossing the hot and dusty plain: the larks were singing as blithely as
in England, the cranes were thoroughly busy over their livelihood,
and squirrels were frisking in the trees. Villages are far more
plentiful, and there is much more traffic on the road as the capital is
approached. There are large fields of beans, and they are the
sweetest-scented harvest there is, to my thinking.
The day we reached Yünnan Fu was one long aggravation, as
the head coolie had made up his mind that we should not arrive that
day, declaring that one hundred li (about twenty-six miles) was too
far. We also had made up our minds that we should arrive, so we
started an hour earlier, or, more correctly speaking, we got up an
hour earlier. For the first time our men kept us waiting, and when at
last they were ready to start they crept like snails. In vain we urged
them on and held out promises of a pork feast in the evening. They
stopped perpetually, and out of the first seven hours of the day they
spent two hours resting. Finally, they were told that if they did not go
on immediately and quickly they would forfeit the feast entirely, and
then they almost ran, saying that the city gate would be shut. We
thought that this was their usual excuse, but as we neared the walls
in the fast-closing twilight a gun sounded which filled us with
misgivings. My friend’s chair had gone in front, contrary to our usual
custom, as she was much the lighter load, and her coolies were apt
to run away with her! When she reached the gateway she was in
time to see the big gates slowly swing to, and to hear the bolt shut,
after which the keys are at once carried to the magistrate’s office. By
the time we had all arrived we found that it would be possible to have
the gates reopened by sending in a visiting-card to the magistrate
along with our military escort. The power of a visiting-card is very
great in China, and we had the satisfaction of winning the day after a
great twelve hours’ tussle with our men. It would be hard to say
whether an Englishman or a Chinaman is the keener to get his own
way!
 CHAPTER XX
Yünnan Fu

T
HE approach to Yünnan Fu is really lovely, and pagodas and
tall temples surmounting the walls give it an imposing air. It is
much the most important city in the province, and is following
hard in the wake of Chengtu in the matter of progress. As regards
improvements, new schools, barracks, a mint, and a railway station
have sprung up within the last few years, not to mention street lamps
and foreign-looking police, a French hospital and a French post-
office. The French have been gradually pushing their way here, but
not altogether successfully. The railway station exists, but no railway.
According to the contract it ought to have been already completed,
but owing to the extreme unhealthiness of the districts through which
it passes a great many of the engineers have either died or been
incapacitated for work, so that the railway is not likely to be
completed for several years to come. In fact, they can only work on it
at certain times of the year, in consequence of malaria. The French
post-office also exists, but has been shut by order of the authorities,
and the relations between French and Chinese authorities are
decidedly strained. The presence of the French in the city has sent
up the price of everything. In fact, many ordinary commodities are
double the price they were a few years ago.
We were much disappointed to find nearly all the shops closed,
owing to its being the Chinese New Year, but we managed to find a
few small things of interest to buy. What particularly charmed us was
a set of painted scrolls. There was a whole series of different
designs of birds, some of them beautifully coloured, which we bought
for the modest sum of 10s. for the set of eight. Throughout China
scrolls are hung on the walls for decorative purposes as we use
pictures, and sometimes you find quite charming designs either hung
up or painted on the walls of unpretentious inns. When we were in
the main street standing chatting together at a short distance from
our host, who was making a bargain for us, a woman came along
and eyed us up and down attentively. She then began to speak to
us, and although we did not understand anything she said, the
subject was very obvious, as she pointed at her own waist (or rather
the place where it should be visible) and then at ours, after which
she made a small circle with her fingers and said, pointing at us,
“Very pretty.” Who would have dreamt that such a thing could have
happened in China, where a visible waist is considered so extremely
improper!
We found the most amusing time to be in the streets, however,
was in the evening, when there were nightly exhibitions of Chinese
lanterns, as ingenious as they are effective. A tiny lady’s shoe made
of coloured paper, with half an egg-shell for the heel and a few drops
of oil to hold the floating wick in it, makes a charming little lantern.
Large fishes with movable heads and tails look extremely pretty, and
grotesque lions are made to promenade above the heads of
passengers with life-like palpitations. Their eyes are also made of
egg-shells, which were effectively used in many other lanterns also.
Some of the more elaborate lanterns were hung outside the shops;
others were for sale. For a few “cash” you can get little toy theatres,
within which the warmth of the candle sets in motion revolving
figures whose shadows are thrown on the front of the stage. There
was an infinite variety of lanterns exhibited, and we much regretted
that they were too flimsy to carry home; for they are all made on the
lightest bamboo frames with thin coloured paper. Later on we saw
the most interesting of all the lanterns, a large dragon which is many
yards in length and of which the sections are carried by men; but as
there had been considerable disturbances lately when this had been
carried about the city, the authorities refused to allow it for the time
being. It is at the time when people are holiday-making that they
seem difficult to manage, but their vices are not such as to make
them troublesome to travellers. Opium-smoking and gambling are
certainly the worst of these vices, and they are the curse of this
place.
TEMPLE OF THE GOD OF LITERATURE
 Yünnan is surrounded by pretty places for excursions, so we set
off one fine morning in our chairs to visit a metal temple about five
miles distant, called “Gin Tien”—namely, “Golden Temple.” As we
passed through the sweet-scented bean-fields we saw many
children enjoying swings, a sight we had not met before in any other
part of the country. Soon we reached the foot of the hills and
ascended through woods filled with a delicious aromatic scent; but
the trees were quite unfamiliar to us, and whether it was from them
or the brushwood that the scent came we could not determine. The
temple was beautifully situated on the hillside, and the courts rose
one above the other, with long flights of steps leading from one to
another. At the top of the first flight was an archway surmounted by a
temple containing a small wooden “god of literature.” The design on
the cover of “The Face of China” is the god of literature: in one hand
he holds the brush and in the other a tablet, and he stands on one
foot on a fish. Doolittle explains it thus: “There are two stars which
the Chinese profess to have discovered to have the supervision of
the affairs of this world relating to ‘literature and the pencil.’ One of
these, Kue Sing, is said to be the fifteenth star of the twenty-eighth
constellation, answering to parts of Andromeda and Pisces.”
A miscellaneous collection of gods lined the sides of the court in
open corridors, but they were much neglected and in a ruinous-
looking condition. At the top of the steps was a terrace on which was
a fine camellia tree in full bloom, and other shrubs, while chattering
groups of white-and-black starlings lent animation to the scene.
Another flight of steps led to a court in which was the fine copper
temple, painted black and gold, standing on a platform made of the
celebrated Tali marble. A metal flag and bells that tinkled in the wind
hung from an adjoining flagstaff, and another camellia tree was a
sheet of pink blossom standing in glorious contrast behind the
temple close to a gateway. This gateway led into another courtyard,
where there were rooms which could be hired by any one who
wishes to spend a few days there. Europeans often make use of
these hill temples in the hot weather, even inhabiting sometimes the
same rooms as the gods, of whom a new use is made as pegs on
which to hang clothes in lieu of wardrobes—a proceeding which in
nowise shocks the Chinese worshippers.
 We were by no means the only visitors to the temples. There
was quite an array of chairs waiting in the courtyards. Some of the
people were gambling, others having their midday meal, others lying
on couches smoking opium or admiring the view; but of worship
there was no sign whatever. While I sketched some women came to
look on, and had a little conversation (strictly limited, owing to my
ignorance). They carried beautiful orchids which they said they had
gathered in the mountains. In fact, Gin Tien is to Yünnan Fu what
Richmond is to London.
Another interesting excursion which we made was to the Rock
Temples above the lake of Yünnan. There is a canal, about two miles
long, leading directly from the city to the lake, and our host sent to
hire a boat the day previous to our excursion. The arrangement
made was that we were to have a crew of four men, in order to
convey us as rapidly as possible to our destination; but when we got
on board we found that our four men were represented by a woman
and her three boys, aged approximately sixteen, ten, and three. We
remonstrated, but it was so comic that we could do nothing but
laugh; and finally she hired a man to come and row, paying him
about twopence a day, whereas we paid her five shillings. Arrived at
the farther side, we had a steep climb through pine woods to the
temples, which are impartially Buddhist and Taoist. They must have
been hewn out of the cliffs with an immense amount of labour and
cost, for the approach to the upper ones was through winding
galleries cut in the solid rock. The gods themselves are in shrines cut
in the rock, and at the top of all is a little temple dedicated to the “god
of literature,” which was also carved out of stone; and there were
other gods carved above the entrance. From the little platform in
front of it there is a marvellous view of the lake and plain stretched
far below, where fishing-boats looked like insects, and over which
floated the shadows of the clouds.
On our way down our servant had prepared tea at a Buddhist
temple, where we sat on stools (on a platform) at a low table. At an
adjoining table there was a large family party of men and boys also
having a meal, the ladies and girls of the family taking theirs in an
inner room. We could not help admiring the charming sets of baskets
in which they had brought their provisions, and we found them very
friendly and talkative. They had many questions to ask of us, and
informed us that they were jewellers in the city, finally suggesting
that we should all go home together! We felt that this would be far
too slow a process when we saw the ladies with their tiny feet
laboriously toiling downwards, with the help of walking-sticks to
steady them. So we made our excuses and hastened back, as the
sun was already getting low.
We dedicated our last day at Yünnan to shopping, for the shops
were beginning to reopen after their long inaction for the New Year.
This place was in former times a happy hunting-ground for bronzes,
but there are not many to be had now, and none of any value, while
all the prices have gone up, many of them a hundred per cent.
Copper work is the special industry of Yünnan, though all the copper
is supposed to go direct to Peking. There are two families who for
many generations have had the monopoly of making beautiful little
copper boxes inlaid with silver. The work is very fine, and some of
the designs are particularly attractive. Skin boxes are a speciality of
this place, and we found it necessary to get some in which to carry
our purchases; we also added a coolie to our party, as the loads
carried here are not allowed to exceed eighty pounds per man. If we
could fly, how quickly should we reach Bhamo!—only 360 miles
through the air, instead of 967 miles by the road, with a total ascent
of 26,000 feet. This is a computation in Hosie’s book, “Three Years in
Western China,” but I think the distances are decidedly over-
estimated. When we left Yünnan Fu our party numbered twenty-four,
and our chairs looked much more dignified than on arrival. The poles
were all carefully bandaged with bright-blue cotton like a mandarin’s
chair, because of the winds, as our head coolie informed us that
otherwise the poles were apt to crack. We were told to expect high
winds all the rest of our journey through this province, for they are
prevalent at this time of year. The prospect sounded discouraging,
for the sun was hot, and we were obliged to wear large hoods, as the
sun and the wind together had nearly skinned our faces. However,
like all our previous information about the journey, the difficulties
proved much less serious than we expected. In fact, so far we had
had nothing to complain of beyond the inevitable disagreeables one
encounters on travelling away from the beaten track. As we left the
city we noticed a curious mingling of the past and present at the city
gate: on the one side a dismantled cannon made by, or under the
direction of, the French Jesuit Fathers, and stamped with the
Christian symbol; on the other side of the gate, a notice-board
warning passengers to keep to the right side of the road.
Leaving the city, we soon reached the mountains, and day by
day skirted the upper part of them; sometimes plunging down deep
into the valleys, especially for our resting-places at night. The people
seem a sturdy, solid race, but through the greater part of the
province which we have traversed, and especially round the capital,
they are greatly disfigured by goitre. Every day we see scores of
people (even quite young children) suffering from this disease. The
women do a large share of all the hard work, carrying heavy loads,
despite their small feet; the loads are fastened on by broad bands
passed round the forehead, like those of Newhaven fishwives. These
bands are frequently run through holes in a big wooden collar worn
both by men and women. Some of these collars have pretty little bits
of carving on them.
On the roads we met innumerable droves of pack-animals,
mostly laden with blocks of salt. The pack-men have special inns
where they put up, which are nothing more than stables, and scores
of animals can be accommodated in them. Despite the badness of
the roads and the rough way in which they are hustled along, we
have not seen a single beast with broken knees. They are allowed to
rest free from loads or saddles at midday, and to roll in the dust at
pleasure. The loads are fastened on to a framework which fits into
the saddle and so avoids the necessity of being adjusted on the
animal itself. There are regular camping grounds for the pack-
animals all along the road, and they seem the best tempered beasts
imaginable. The leaders usually wear bright red rosettes on their
heads, often with mirrors in them, and also the Government loads
have brilliant flags attached, which give them a picturesque look.
Some of them wear the long tails of the Amherst pheasant fastened
between their ears, and look as proud of themselves as a
fashionable London lady with the huge plumes now in fashion. Some
of them wear bells, which are necessary so as to herald their
approach on these narrow, winding, and precipitous highways.

FELLOW-TRAVELLERS

Every day we were more enchanted with the beauty of the

country and the delights of spring. The banks are carpeted with
primulas, and the hill slopes bright with rose-coloured camellias,
scarlet azalea, white and crimson rhododendrons, yellow jessamine,
clematis, begonias, and numberless flowering shrubs, many of which
we have never seen before. This is the part of the world from which
the majority of our flowering shrubs have originally come. It would be
a paradise for botanists, and makes one long for more knowledge of
many subjects, so as to be able to enjoy the journey still more and
profit by it more thoroughly.
The second day after leaving Yünnan Fu, there was an
earthquake, and it is a mystery why the front of our room did not
entirely collapse. The inns here are really superior, but on this
occasion the outer wall of our room happened to be constructed in
sections at all sorts of angles, none of them what they were meant to
be, and with extensive gaps between. It was quite impossible to shut
the doors, and there was no pretence of a fastening, so we had put
up a curtain in order to obtain a small measure of privacy. Happily,
the people did not seem so inquisitive as they used to be when I was
travelling in China fifteen years ago. In fact, we rarely see eyes
peering through holes in the paper windows. Glass windows are still
unknown in the inns, except in an occasional one in Shantung.
At Lu Feng Hsien we had an amusing experience. As we were
resting after our evening meal there was suddenly a great noise of
drums, and we were told that the dragon lantern was in the street. It
turned out to be a sort of entertainment given by a cash shop next
door, and not only was there a very bedraggled-looking dragon about
twenty feet long, but also fish lanterns and sundry fireworks. The
men carrying the sections of the dragon leapt about like demons as
the shower of “golden rain” (fireworks) was turned full upon them,
and the dragon withed with unwonted energy. The drums never
ceased for a moment, so that it was rather a relief when the show
came to an end by the exhaustion of the internal illumination of the
dragon. We were stopping at an inn just outside the city wall, and
when we left the next morning we crossed a fine suspension-bridge
with an imposing archway at each end of it. The chief magistrate of
the district happened to be travelling on the same road with us, and
sent word ahead that we were to be accommodated in a charming
inn that day, having invited us to stop at his Yamen in the city the
previous night. When magistrates are travelling they always send to
engage an inn beforehand, and a little official flag is then hung
outside to show that the inn is full. Mr. Ku suggested that we should
go in for an official flag, but we feared lest complications should
arise.

TOMB OF A PHILOSOPHER AMONG RICE-FIELDS

The fresh New Year mottoes put up on the doorposts of our

room stated encouragingly that “all cultured people inhabit this
room,” and “the courtyard is full of chairs and carts,” but, true to
Chinese incongruity, our coolies filled one of the rooms and the pigs
occupied the background!
Day after day new flowers and birds appear on our pathway—
white camellias, daphne, dog-roses, a flight of brilliant green parrots,
long-tailed tits, seagulls; though what they are doing out here we
cannot imagine. At one village where we spent a night the magistrate
sent word that the people were in a somewhat disturbed condition,
so he would send a special watch to guard us. We strolled out into
the fields to try and get a sketch of the large flocks of cranes feeding
in the rice and bean fields, but they seemed disturbed and would not
let us get anywhere near them, flying away screeching loudly. As we
got back to the village everything looked as peaceful as possible,
and the guard had duly arrived. They seemed to think it part of their
duty to share our room, one settling down to a comfortable smoke,
the other helping to shell the beans for our evening meal. When we
thought they had sufficiently studied us and our surroundings we
invited them to go outside, and they soon had a cheerful fire blazing
in the courtyard, where they remained all night. We got infinite
amusement out of the naïve ways of our coolies and the soldiers. A
heavy storm of rain, for instance, came on while we were halting at a
village, and immediately one of my carriers came and sat upon the
ground beside my chair in order to share the benefit of my umbrella.
He had not the slightest idea, of course, that I might not wish for his
close neighbourhood, for fear of participating in more than the
shelter of an umbrella.
One thing seems strange as one travels day by day from one
end of this great empire to the other, and that is the utter absence of
any landed gentry; never a country seat or any house larger than a
farmer’s, and never a garden of any kind for the cultivation of flowers
except within the cities; cottage gardens are unknown here. Pots in a
courtyard show a certain love of flowers, and the poorest coolie will
stop to gather a handful of camellias to decorate his load, or a flower
to stick behind his ear. Rich people all love to live in big towns,
where they are close to their associates.
One day the head coolie came in with our suit-cases in a state of
great agitation, dragging with him a frightened-looking creature
whose horse he said had pushed the luggage into the stream. To our
dismay, the luggage was dripping with water, and the culprit had
been hauled along to see the extent of the damage. Our usual good
luck, however, had followed us; though a new silk dressing-gown
was soaked with mud and water, my sketches (next to it) had only
mud traces on their backs, and nothing else was hurt. The man said
he was very sorry, and evidently expected we should charge
damages. He protested that he was only a poor farmer and had no
means of payment. No doubt the head coolie, who is responsible for
any loss and is bound to make good any breakage caused by the
carelessness of the carriers, would have extorted damages from
him, but as we did not, he told him to kotow; our servants sternly
repeated the command, and an interested crowd of spectators
watching the show added their injunctions, so that when the man
grovelled in the dust and knocked his forehead on the ground, we
were sorely tempted to laugh. The tragi-comic effect was irresistibly
funny. It was necessary, however, to impress our men with the
heinousness of the offence, lest our curios should come into greater
danger. A diversion was caused by the entrance of several coolies
begging me to look at their sprains, gatherings, &c., so we dismissed
the poor farmer and set to work with our out-patient department. At
this stage of the journey the coolies were very apt to give out a little,
as the strain began to tell upon them. The weather grew warmer
daily, and the crops seemed almost to grow visibly before our eyes.
Fields of mustard in the plains were dazzlingly yellow and sweet-
scented, and the poppies and wild roses were coming into bloom.
We were struck with the beauty of various kinds of wild vines and the
enormous leaves of Senecio wilsonianus. There are a great many
varieties of these vines and of the roses, and on the eastern side of
Yünnan we found particularly sweet-scented white banksia roses.
Mr. Wilson, who spent a considerable time in studying the flora of
China, discovered no fewer than 2000 new varieties of plants, and
Messrs. Veitch of Chelsea have a most interesting collection of the
plants which he brought back. The fact that he was able to bring
back over 5000 specimens seems almost incredible to any one who
knows the difficulties of transport. But perhaps the most striking of all
the flowers that we met growing profusely in this region was the
Jasminum primulinum, a large, brilliant jasmine of which there were
the most magnificent hedges. If only we could have stayed a little
longer we should have been able to see far more of the shrubs in
blossom, as everywhere we noticed they were full of promise.
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