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227
points out, that they have sometimes had interests in the twentieth century homeland which chimed with those of the secular patriot: notably in anti-Japanese activities, but in contrast to the messianic organizations there are no long-range idealistic goals. Like these groups however, messianic organizations have tended to splinter, as indeed have many kinds of Chinese association. And the coordination of the lodges and halls of the two kinds of grouping appears to have been weakened by the various ecological and sub-cultural differences between the regions they tried to encompass. This is itself an interesting matter which cannot be pursued here. But it is one that should perhaps have engaged the author rather more.
As an introduction to a vast, intriguing and complex subject, this book certainly deserves attention, and the specialist will welcome some of the more contemporary material. It has some fascinating illustrations and photographs and is well translated from the original French. But it is too ambitious. The material is just too heterogeneous, the social and historical context too broad, and the theoretical context too narrow, to warrant some of the more generalized assertions and suggestions that are made.
Hong Kong, 1972.
MARJORIE TOPLEY
CHINESE VILLAGE PLAYS FROM THE TING HSIEN REGION (YANG KE HSUAN), a collection of forty-eight Chinese rural plays as staged by villagers from Ting Hsien in Northern China, tr. from the Chinese by various scholars after the original recordings and edited with a critical introduction and explanatory notes, SIDNEY GAMBLE, Research Secretary of the Chinese National Association of the Mass Education Movement, Amsterdam, Philo Press, 1970, (xxix+762p.).
This is a translation of the Choice of "Yang ke" from Ting Hsien district, Ting Hsien Yang ke hsuan Akif, published by Li Ching-han and Chang Shih-wen in the early nineteen thirties. Unfortunately the few photographs of the original have here been omitted. A copy of the Chinese text is in the Fung P'ing-shan Library of Hong Kong University, and Professor Lo Tzu-k'uang has just reprinted it in his marvellous series of reprints on folklore.
BOOK REVIEWS
227
points out, that they have sometimes had interests in the twentieth century homeland which chimed with those of the secular patriot: notably in anti-Japanese activities, but in contrast to the messianic organizations there are no long-range idealistic goals. Like these groups however, messianic organizations have tended to splinter, as indeed have many kinds of Chinese association. And the coordina tion of the lodges and halls of the two kinds of grouping appears to have been weakened by the various ecological and sub-cultural differences between the regions they tried to encompass. This is itself an interesting matter which cannot be pursued here. But it is one that should perhaps have engaged the author rather more.
As an introduction to a vast, intriguing and complex subject, this book certainly deserves attention, and the specialist will welcome some of the more contemporary material. It has some fascinating illustrations and photographs and is well translated from the ori gina! French. But it is too ambitious. The material is just too heterogenous, the social and historical context too broad, and the theoretical context too narrow, to warrant some of the more genera- lized assertions and suggestions that are made.
Hong Kong, 1972.
MARJORIE TOPLEY
CHINESE VILLAGE PLAYS FROM THE TING HSIEN RE- GION (YANG KE HSUAN), a collection of forty eight Chinese rural plays as staged by villagers from Ting Hsien in Northern China, tr, from the Chinese by various scholars after the original recordings and edited with a critical introduction and explanatory notes, SIDNEY GAMBLE, Research Secretary of the Chinese National Association of the Mass Education Movement, Amsterdam, Philo Press, 1970, (xxix+762p.).
This is a translation of the Choice of "Yang ke" from Ting Hsien district, Ting Hsien Yang ke hsuan Akif, published by Li Ching-han and Chang Shih-wen in the early nine- teen thirties. Unfortunately the few photographs of the original have here been omitted. A copy of the Chinese text is in the Fung P'ing- shan Library of Hong Kong University, and Professor Lo Tzu- k'uang has just reprinted it in his marvellous series of reprints on folklore.
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