On China's Rivers

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29170, 2 April 1960, Page 3

On China's Rivers

The Junkman Smiles. By G. R. G. Worcester. Chatto S. Windus. 254 pp.

In “The Junkman Srqjles” Mr Worcester has written a book that is both wise and unassuming. It is the fruit of a lifetime’s experience in China, where the author was a river inspector in the Chinese Maritime Customs. In the nature of things, his knowledge of the land and its people is encyclopaedic. In fact, there is something Chinese about his approach to life, for what he says ■seems to depend upon’a settled habit of thought, perhaps upon an ancient wisdom. Not that Mr Worcester’s career in China has been tranquil. He has had to perform his duties while surrounded by warring armies; the incursions of bandits were too frequent to cause much remark; and when the Japanese came they shut him up in an internment camp. Nevertheless through all these trials Mr Worcester preserved his equanimity and continued his studies of Chinese life and art with quiet persistence. As he remarks, “If one likes things Chinese, there is always something interesting to be seen on the narrow steps of Golden Duck Lane.”

As might be expected, there is much in this volume about boats and river navigation. The junkmen, their picturesque craft and the great water-ways make fascinating reading. The author’s attitude to his subject is summed up in a short paragraph. “There never was a Chinese Nelson; there never was a Chinese yachtsman; no Chinese child ever plays with a toy ship, and there is a Chinese proverb which says, ‘To ride a horse or travel in a ship is attended with 75 per cent, risk.’ Nevertheless the Chinese as a race are probably the most amphibious people in the world. No land animal, not even the duck, takes more kindly to the art of navigation than they do.”

Mr Worcester is an old sailor himself and is proud, as he says, to have served with the Chinese in peace and in war. “I can say without the slightest hesitation that the Chinese sailor by and large is the most hospitable, goodtempered, brave and efficient in the wcrld.” It is to make good this claim that “The Junkman Smiles” was written. It will be agreed - that Mr Worcester goes a long way towards proving his assertions.