AFFAIRS IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 22526, 19 December 1936, Page 11

AFFAIRS IN CHINA

COUNTRY'S HISTORY AND TRADITIONS DISPLAY AT PUBLIC LIBRARY Once more Chiiia becomes a country of popular interest. The books displayed in the reference and lending departments of the Public LiOrary enable one to have a very good knowledge ot modern China. , , , Any study of modern China would necessarily be incomplete without a knowledge of Chinese history and traditions.' 1 A Pageant of Chinese History,’ by Elizabeth Seeger, is ‘a simply-written account of Chinese history from 3,000. 8.0. to the founding of the republic.” The author tells the story of China in a highly animated fashion, and is never dull. ‘ A Short History of China,’ by E. T. 'Williams, gives an account of Chinese history from the times of Confucius till 1927. ‘Genghis Khan,’ by Ralph Fox, “is the lire story of the Mongolian leader, Temujin, known ip world history as Genghis Khan.” After several preliminary chapters giving a survey of Mongolian history down to the twelfth century, the book relates the story of Temujin’s early years of poverty and humiliation, the gradual growth of his power, and the years of conquest and dominion when his empire eventually included nearly all Asia. The author writes with a certain sympathy and admiration for his subject, him one of the greatest military geniuses of all time, and seeing his conquests as “not wholly evil.” Such reputable journals as the New Statesman ’ and 1 Nation ’ describe the book as “ remarkable ” and as “ the best biography of Genghis Khan which has yet appeared.” ‘ The Travels of Marco Polo ’ is an able and well-known description of the Chinese empire of his time. Moving on to modern China, the ‘ Chinese Revolution, 1926-27,’ by H. Owen Chapman, gives an able description of those stormy years. In ‘ I Change Worlds,’ Anna Louise Strang records her impressions of Canton before the revolutionary outbreak there in 1927. ‘ The Conquerors,’ by Andre Malraux, is a description in diary form of the China he came to know after landing there when strikes and uprisings were plentiful. An unforgettable picture of modern China is obtained from reading 4 Chinese Testament,’ the autobiofraphy of Tan Shih-Hua. as told by S. retiakov. Agnes Smedley, writing of this book in 4 Books,’ describes it as 4 ‘the most enlightening picture that has yet been written of the intellectual class in China. Only a brilliant and disciplined writer such as Tretiakov could have presented such a work within the scope of one volume. , . . ‘ Chinese Testament ’ . is of infinite value to all students of China, and it reveals more of Chinese Society than any book so far published.” ‘ Secret China,’ by Egon Erwin Kisch, and 4 Chinese Destinies,’ by Agnes Smedley, are each a series of sketches on contemporary Chinese life. The latter work is particularly graphic. It provides “ moving pictures of the miseries of human beings under present-day conditions in China: Hsu Mei-ling, an old-fashioned girl, married to a man who worships modernity; Shan-fei, dauughter of a rich landowner, who became a Communist and married a peasant leader; Hsiao Meng, the bandit; Hunan miners in. revolt; the ‘silk peasants ’ of Kwangtung; child slave workers in a Peking match factory; and pictures of indescribable poverty everywhere.” 4 My Country and My People ’ by Lin . Yutang, is described by Pearl Buck in her introduction as 41 the truest, the most profound, the most complete, the most important book yet written about China. And best of all. it is written by a Chinese, a modern whose roots are firmly in the past, but whose rich flowerings are in the present.” 4 China Changes,’ by Gerald Yorke, who, as Reuters’ correspondent, spent several months with the Chinese armies, mixing freely with all ranks, is not merely a record of adventures. “ Mr Yorke covers the whole field, political, social, industrial, and philosophical.”

‘ Land and Labour in China,’ by RH. Tawney, is “ a brief account of certain features of Chinese economic life which strike a Western observer. The book analyses the characteristics of the agricultural and industrial systems traditional in China, the causes which lower the standard of life of the peasant and craftsman, and the problems created by the progress of capitalist industry of a Western type in parts of the country. In its concluding chapter it describes the progress of modern education in China, and discusses some of the conditions necessary to the establishment of a stable political system in that country.” Three good books on Sino-Japanese relations are ‘ Manchuria, Cradle of Conflict,’ by Owen Latimore, ‘ Militarism and Fascism in Japan,’ by O. Tanin and E. Yohan, who pay considerable attention to the Tanaka Administration when most of Japan’s programme in China was planned, and ‘ The Problem of the Far East,’ by Sobei Mogi and H. Vere Redman, which has a good chapter, * The Problem of Modern China.’ Marxist analyses of the economic and political affairs of China are provided m articles by Lenin and Stalin to be found in a ‘ Handbook of Marxism,’ compiled by Emile Burns. An interesting play is ‘ Roar China,’ by Tretiakov, a play aimed against the manipulations of Imperialism in China. Two interesting novels are ‘ Peking Picnic,’ by Ann Bridge, and ‘ Storm in Shanghai.’ by Andre Malraux,' which won the Gonoourt prize. ■ A further selection of books on China may be seen in tho reference room.