Rewi Alley

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33241, 2 June 1973, Page 10

Rewi Alley

Until 1949, a national hero for his educational and humanitarian work amongst the Chinese poor, then reviled for his espousal of the Communist cause there and. after the worst of the cold war was over, ignored, Rewi Alley has now been restored to public favour by vet another tum of the political wheel. In one of the two works by Mr Alley recently published the two periods in his life when he enjoyed general favour in New Zealand are linked. “Prisoners: Shanghai 1936” (printed by the Caxton Press, 58 pp.) is a grim little tale about political prisoners in Chiang Kai Shek’s gaols during his Anti-Communist Campaign of 1936. Sent abroad for publication. it did not appear because the Sian Incident and its aftermath resulted in an Anti-. Japanese Front linking the Kuomintang and Communists. Its appearance now is to be welcomed, for it is one of Mr Alley’s most powerful and accomplished pieces of work. Handsomely printed, and accompanied by a most appropriate woodcut (whose is it?), “Prisoners: Shanghai 1936” will delight the author’s many admirers, and make him new ones.

The second of Mr Alley’s books, “Chinese Children,” is a slighter and more ephemeral work. A collection of photographs taken by Mr Alley during vears of travel throughout China, it captures the young in poses which are sometimes peculiar to the Chinese situation but more often international in their nature. It cannot be said that there is anything special about Mr Alley’s photography: it is thoroughly competent, but no more. But then this is a book for those who love China and admire the author; for the converted rather than a wider audience. Like “Prisoners,” it is printed by the Caxton Press.