BOOK REVIEWS
181
appendices. The first, Appendix A, is on the Chinese calendar, with a table of the twenty-four fortnightly periods,
The only criticism of this is the third column giving the approximate date in the Chinese calendar. This presumes New Year to fall on 20th February, the last possible day, throwing forward everything on an average by a fortnight.
Appendix C, furnishing a list of the names of Fireworks, Pigeons, Popular forms of entertainment, Melons, Crickets, and Chrysanthemums is most intriguing. Valuable varieties of pigeons are the "Toad-eyed grey," "Square-edged unicorn", and "Wild duck of the Great Dipper". Poets have similarly exercised their ingenuity in finding epithets for the Flower of the Ninth Moon for they include "Purple Tiger whiskers", "Concubine of the Hsiao and Tsiang Rivers," and "Wild Goose settling on level sand."
In short, Tun Li-ch'en has left us a vivid picture of life as it must have been lived in the capital for centuries before the violent impact of the western world. It was to change soon after. Within twelve years the Imperial fishpond, Wang Hai Lou, had filled up and was a snipe marsh, whilst in another decade it was walled-in as an experimental agricultural establishment. Again, the emancipation of women through the abolition of foot binding, and their escape from the purdah of the mud-walled compound killed all those forms of entertainment which could only be enjoyed in the home. The famous Shadow play, which he describes as bringing tears to women's eyes, was virtually extinct thirty years later, smothered by the cinema.
Tun's study of the human side of the ancient capital is an admirable supplement to the work of two foreigners who spent the best part of their lives there, namely — Arlington and Lewisohn's In search of old Peking.
Hong Kong, 1966,
N DU BREUIL
As noted in the President's Report earlier in this volume Madame du Breuil, former Peking resident and a member of our Council, died in 1966.
PRELUDE TO HONGKONG, Austin Coates. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966, pp. xi, 232. 40/-.
In view of the recent events in Macao and Hong Kong this book has a certain topical relevance. It covers the period from
BOOK REVIEWS
181
appendices. The first, Appendix A, is on the Chinese calendar, with a table of the twenty-four fortnightly periods,
The only criticism of this is the third column giving the approximate date in the Chinese calendar. This presumes New Year to fall on 20th February, the last possible day, throwing forward everything on an average by a fortnight.
Appendix C, furnishing a list of the names of Fireworks, Pigeons, Popular forms of entertainment, Melons, Crickets, and Chrysanthemums is most intriguing. Valuable varieties of pigeons are the "Toad-eyed grey," "Square-edged unicorn”, and “Wild duck of the Great Dipper". Poets have similarly exercised their ingenuity in finding epithets for the Flower of the Ninth Moon for they include "Purple Tiger whiskers", "Concubine of the Hsiao and Tsiang Rivers," and "Wild Goose settling on level sand."
In short, Tun Li-ch'en has left us a vivid picture of life as it must have been lived in the capital for centuries before the violent impact of the western world. It was to change soon after. Within twelve years the Imperial fishpond, Wang Hai Lou, had filled up and was a snipe marsh, whilst in another decade it was walled-in as an experimental agricultural establishment. Again, the eman- cipation of women through the abolition of foot binding, and their escape from the purdah of the mud-walled compound killed all those forms of entertainment which could only be enjoyed in the home. The famous Shadow play, which he describes as brining tears to women's eyes, was virtually extinct thirty years later, smothered by the cinema.
Tun's study of the human side of the ancient capital is an ad- mirable supplement to the work of two foreigners who spent the best part of their lives there, namely — Arlington and Lewisohn's In search of old Peking.
Hong Kong, 1966,
N DU BREUIL
As noted in the President's Report earlier in this volume Madame du Breuil, former Peking resident and a member of our Council, died in 1966.
PRELUDE TO HONGKONG, Austin Coates. London, Rout- ledge and Kegan Paul, 1966, pp. xi, 232. 40/-.
In view of the recent events in Macao and Hong Kong this book has a certain topical relevance. It covers the period from
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