Writer On China To Visit Christchurch

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32213, 4 February 1970, Page 20

Writer On China To Visit Christchurch

Han Suyin, the Eurasian author of “A Many Splendoured Thing,” will visit New Zealand in April. Here at the invitation of the New Zea-land-China Society, Dr Han will give a series of public lecturers on China. Described by Edgar Snow as “the most intelligent interpreter of her homeland at large in the world today,” Dr Han is tentatively expected to be in New Zealand from April 17 to April 24. Her itinerary includes a visit to Christchurch on April 19 and 20. The New Zealand-China Society will share costs with the Australia-China Society to bring Dr Han to this part of the world.

Among the author’s best known works of fiction'' are "The Mountain is Young,” “And the Rain My Drink,” and “Four Faces.” Dr Han’s "China in the Year 2001” is openly considered to be one of the best brief interpretations of modern China. Since 1949 Dr Han has travelled extensively in her native China, and has just completed a three-month stay there.

Much of her life has been written into her autobiography which so far includes “The Crippled Tree,” “A Mortal Flower” and “Birdless Summer.” As the daughter of a Chinese father and a Belgian mother Dr Han knows both the East and the West. It is expected that Dr Han will be accompanied to New Zealand by her husband, Mr Leonard Comber, a former British police officer in Singapore, who is a specialist on Chinese secret societies.