CHINA AND JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

CHINA AND JAPAN

Vivid Pictures of Eastern Life “The Green Edge of Asia,” by Richard Pyke (London: Allen and Unwin). Part of the material of this book has already appeared in “The Listener," but the original has been altered and revised partly to meet certain criticisms made by Chinese residents after the articles first appeared. Mr. Pyke’s writing is vividly descriptive, his pictures of various aspects of everyday Chinese and Japanese life clear-cut and subtly distinguished. His point of view is not that of the passing tourist, nor is it that of the seasoned dweller in the land; Rather that of an open-minded pilgrim who fries to read, in the play and interplay of the foreign life around him, the meaning of the writing on the wall. A sharp distinction is drawn between the Chinese and the Japanese mentality, and yet between these neighbours there must some day, in a shrinking world, be a compromise, a reckoning of some sorf. The most fascinating feature of this book lies in the pictures suddenly flashed on the eye, the theatre with its performance so queer to western ideas going on in its gorgeously coloured traditional way in the midst of chatter, fftinily life, eating, deafening noise, occasional applause, and dirt; the Hall of the Four Temple Guardians of LingYin ; a funeral procession—or is it a ■wedding?-—passing along a narrow street; or possibly the surprising first sign of Fujiyama from the sea. There is the question of the double life, the old eastern life running parallel with the encroaching -western side. How long will it last? There are little pictures like this :— I put my hand in my socket as I heard above me the professional moan of a blind woman sitting In the middle of the path, who had heard my approach. My softness induced a child selling Budhist rosaries to try his luck, but my smile provoked his laugh, and he bundled the necklaces back into his basket. He tried me with an apple: I put my hand in my pocket and showed him one: he tried not to smile and offered me an orange. I drew out two; he laughed again and gave up. Economy of words; but for the moment one is in the sunshine on the path which leads up past Tao Kuang, Temple of the Bamboo Grove, to the Monastery of Secluded Light.

BOOKS RECEIVED Books as listed hereunder have been received from the following publishers: Angus and Robertson: “Legend for Sanderson,” by Vance Palmer. Arnold: “Chemistry Matter and Life,” by Stephen and L. M. Miall. Cambridge University Press: “This Freedom of Ours,” by Frank Birch. “The Golden Sovereign,” by Laurence Housman. “The Cruise of the Teddy,” by Erling Tambs. Chatto and Windus: “Tlie Complete Works of Isaac Rosenberg,” by D. W. Harding and Gordon Bottomley. Constable: / “A Lamp on, the Plains,” by Paul Horgan. Dent: “Clouds of Glory,” iby John Moore. “Angel Pavement,” by J. B. Priestly. “The Grammar of Science,” by Karl Pearson. Gollancz: “Cradle of Life,” by Louis Adamic. “The Affair of the Scarlet Crab,” by Clifford Knight. “Two Thousand Million Man-Power,” by G. E. Trevelyan. “The Post-War History of the British Working Class. 1918-1937,” by Allen Hutt. “Women Must Choose,” by Hilary Newitt. “Out of Order,” by Phoebe Atwood Taylor. “Swastika Night,” by Murray Constantine. “The Crimson Hair Murders,” by Baron von Kaz. “Hitler's Conspiracy Against Peace,” by T. Erckner. Hamilton: “The Defence of the Empire,” by Norman Angell. Hodder and Stoughton: “Unlucky Farm,” by F. E. Mills Young. “White Africa,” by L. S. B. Leakey. “Matthew Silverman,”-by Victor Canning. ‘The Scent of Water,” by Susan Buchan. Joseph: “So Far, So Good,” by Leonard Mosley. Lovat Dickson: “Forgive Us Our Trespasses,” by Lloyd C. Douglas. Macmillan: “Plato’s Conception of Philosophy,” by H. Gauss, Ph.D. World’s Work: “Death of an Eloquent Man,” by Charlotte Murray Russell. BOOKS IN DEMAND The chief librarian of the Wellington public libraries has furnished the following list of books in demand:— GENERAL. “Seven,” by R. Landau. “Characteristics,” by S. Graham. “The Rape of Africa,” by L. Middleton. FICTION. “The Happier Eden,” by B. K. Seymour. “Star Begotten,” by IT. G. Wells. “They Crossed the Reef,” by W. . Towncnd.