I read this book for the Mount
TBR 2018 Reading Challenge.
My Country and My People – Lin Yutang
This book was released in 1936, yet another tumultuous year for the Chinese people. In the Suiyuan Campaign, two puppet forces founded and supported by Imperial Japan fought to wrest control of the Suiyuan province from the Republic of China. Late in the year a crisis came about when Chiang Kaishek, the leader of the Nationalist government, was kidnapped by his subordinates Chang Hsueh-liang and Yang Hucheng to persuade Chiang to change his policies toward imperial Japan and the Chinese Communist Party. Chiang believed Japan was a disease of the skin, but saw the Communists as a disease of the heart so he didn’t want to ally his party with the CCP.
China thus was an object of interest in the US, due to its problems and the attention brought to it by Pearl Buck with her best-seller The Good Earth. Lin Yutang was also an explainer of Chinese life and culture. He must have been popular because publishers released many of his books, which were easy to read, wise, and daring.
Daring because he grouped in “culture” not only political, artistic, or literary pursuits but also the ordinary doings of everyday life. Dr. Lin blames China’s parlous state on two influences: Confucius and the difficult written language. Confucius, he says, forgot to include “a person and a stranger” in the list of important human relationships, so the Chinese never developed a strong civic sense of duty to the community. Second, if the written language were not so formidable to learn in ancient days, education would have been possible for all and ordinary people would have been able think more independently and force change in society more readily. Thus, China in 1936 would have been very different.
Granted, the chapter on the place of women does not pass muster in our day. And, of course, events and change have rendered much of the information of only limited interest. But for readers interested in traditional China and looking for general information about national character and wonderful translations of Chinese poems and light writing, this is a good book.
This book was released in 1936, yet another tumultuous year for the Chinese people. In the Suiyuan Campaign, two puppet forces founded and supported by Imperial Japan fought to wrest control of the Suiyuan province from the Republic of China. Late in the year a crisis came about when Chiang Kaishek, the leader of the Nationalist government, was kidnapped by his subordinates Chang Hsueh-liang and Yang Hucheng to persuade Chiang to change his policies toward imperial Japan and the Chinese Communist Party. Chiang believed Japan was a disease of the skin, but saw the Communists as a disease of the heart so he didn’t want to ally his party with the CCP.
China thus was an object of interest in the US, due to its problems and the attention brought to it by Pearl Buck with her best-seller The Good Earth. Lin Yutang was also an explainer of Chinese life and culture. He must have been popular because publishers released many of his books, which were easy to read, wise, and daring.
Daring because he grouped in “culture” not only political, artistic, or literary pursuits but also the ordinary doings of everyday life. Dr. Lin blames China’s parlous state on two influences: Confucius and the difficult written language. Confucius, he says, forgot to include “a person and a stranger” in the list of important human relationships, so the Chinese never developed a strong civic sense of duty to the community. Second, if the written language were not so formidable to learn in ancient days, education would have been possible for all and ordinary people would have been able think more independently and force change in society more readily. Thus, China in 1936 would have been very different.
Granted, the chapter on the place of women does not pass muster in our day. And, of course, events and change have rendered much of the information of only limited interest. But for readers interested in traditional China and looking for general information about national character and wonderful translations of Chinese poems and light writing, this is a good book.
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