BOOK REVIEWS
209
be churlish to be pedantic and ask how this rating is measured. Surely Eric does not think so poorly of Hong Kong girls? We know the author's enthusiasm for their natural beauty, their dress (especially the Cheong Sam) continually pops out in this selection of comments, definitions and descriptions.
Best of Every Thing
Oh, that this marvellous idea of collecting and presenting this sparkling miscellany about life, love, labour and lore in Hong Kong could have presented the best of everything. But we have the author's assurance that this is the first of a series, garnered from his vast collection of bits and pieces about Shanghai and Hong Kong. So, if some of the items are not up to standard, perhaps this is the cook's device not to give us indigestion.
Accuracy
Although there are a lot of facts, considered and unconsidered in this encyclopaedia of Hong Kong, historical accuracy is not particularly the author's strong line. A few years, here or there, will not matter to many readers who will sample the wide varieties of these verbal cocktails listed here. Historians, of course, will not be so happy with several statements "Chinnery started off (his career as an artist) in Macao.” What of his Indian period which preceded his fruitful stay in Macao? Hong Kong did not officially become a colony until 1843. But it would be tedious to go through this book like a school essay.
e.g.
Gallimaufry
This is not a Hong Kong word, but one, I think, of Ivor Brown, the lexicographer. Anyway I offer it in a sense of gratitude to Eric Cumine for this idiosyncratic but absorbing gallimaufry (what a marvellous bedside book it makes.) Ironically I find myself asking my Chinese wife about these 'things Chinese'. It takes a lot to excite her curiosity; but Eric does it.
-
John Warner, Hong Kong Illustrated Views and News 1840-1980 (Hong Kong, 1981)
By comparison with the other publications under review this is a distinguished book. Put together by John Warner, former Curator of Hong Kong's Art Museum, it is, as one would expect, a sensitive and effective collection of line engravings, and lithographs, taken mainly from two British periodicals, The Illustrated London News and The Graphic. The selection of pictures beautifully reproduced and well set-out with accompanying extracts from the letter-press of the period
BOOK REVIEWS
209
be churlish to be pedantic and ask how this rating is measured. Surely Eric does not think so poorly of Hong Kong girls? We know the author's enthusiasm for their natural beauty, their dress (especially the Cheong Sam) continually pops out in this selection of comments, definitions and descriptions.
Best of Every Thing
Oh, that this marvellous idea of collecting and presenting this sparkling miscellany about life, love, labour and lore in Hong Kong could have presented the best of everything. But we have the author's assurance that this is the first of a series, garnered from his vast collection of bits and pieces about Shanghai and Hong Kong. So, if some of the items are not up to standard, perhaps this is the cook's device not to give us indigestion.
Accuracy
Although there are a lot of facts, considered and unconsidered in this encyclopaedia of Hong Kong, historical accuracy is not particularly the author's strong line. A few years, here or there, will not matter to many readers who will sample the wide varieties of these verbal cocktails listed here. Historians, of course, will not be so happy with several statements "Chinnery started off (his career as an artist) in Macao.” What of his Indian period which preceded his fruitful stay in Macao? Hong Kong did not officially become a colony until 1843. But it would be tedious to go through this book like a school essay.
e.g.
P
Gallimaufry
This is not a Hong Kong word, but one, I think, of Ivor Brown, the lexicographer. Anyway I offer it in a sense of gratitude to Eric Cumine for this idiosyncratic but absorbing gallimaufry (what a marvellous bedside book it makes.) Ironically I find myself asking my Chinese wife about these 'things Chinese'. It takes a lot to excite her curiosity; but Eric does it.
-
John Warner, Hong Kong Illustrated Views and News 1840-1980 (Hong Kong, 1981)
By comparison with the other publications under review this is a distinguished book. Put together by John Warner, former Curator of Hong Kong's Art Museum, it is, as one would expect, a sensitive and effective collection of line engravings, and lithographs, taken mainly. from two British periodicals, The Illustrated London News and The Graphic. The selection of pictures beautifully reproduced and well set-out with accompanying extracts from the letter-press of the period
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