310
BOOK REVIEWS
"Behind Barbed Wire" is a very self-centred account. With Leiper, one senses a greater compassion and a more generous nature. He is unstinting in his praise of the junior bank staff for their courage and determination, right down to the Number One Coolie's ability at organising refugee accommodation. There is the extraordinary loyalty of his domestic servants, one of whom died of starvation, and there is the unhappiness of the Japanese bankers with the brutal treatment meted out by the military. Not all is black or white. Also, where Jean Gittens merely notes the internees' ability to laugh at themselves, Leiper leavens the whole of his account with delightfully humorous anecdotes, which bring the story vividly alive.
Above all, it is in Leiper's account that the plight of the local population is given due recognition. Perhaps it is because of the greater variety of his experiences and the period spent outside the camp, but the broader impression of conditions in the rest of the colony and the sufferings of the ordinary people of Hong Kong lend to the book a greater balance and perspective: "Even more distressing than these scenes of brutality was the unforgettable sight which we witnessed daily, of Chinese men, women and children lying on the pavement or huddled in doorways dying gradually of starvation, and looking at passers-by, who were powerless to assist, out of eyes from which all expression had already gone." Of the 2,300 interned at Stanley, 130 did not survive, but of Leiper's one hundred Chinese bank staff, fully one fifth could not be accounted for after the war. In the absence of a first-hand account from Chinese sources, Leiper has done much to improve our perspective.
J. A. MILLER
Pan Ling, In Search of Old Shanghai, Joint Publishing Company, Hong Kong, 1982, n.p.
I wish I had known about this admirable historical guide to Shanghai when I made a research trip there last year. (In fact, I am led to believe that the present issue is an English translation of an earlier Chinese edition, although clearly, the author, whilst having the familiarity with the city which can only come through having lived there, is now a British resident.)
310
BOOK REVIEWS
Behind Barbed Wire" is a very self-centred account. With Leiper, one senses a greater compassion and a more generous nature. He is unstinting in his praise of the junior bank staff for their courage and determination, right down to the Number One Coolie's ability at organising refugee accomodation. There is the extraordinary loyalty of his domestic servants, one of whom died of starvation, and there is the unhappiness of the Japanese bankers with the brutal treatment meted out by the military. Not all is black or white. Also, where Jean Gittens merely notes the internees' ability to laugh at themselves, Leiper leavens the whole of his account with delightfully humorous anecdotes, which bring the story vividly alive.
Above all, it is in Leiper's account that the plight of the local population is given due recognition. Perhaps it is because of the greater variety of his experiences and the period spent outside the camp, but the broader impression of conditions in the rest of the colony and the sufferings of the ordinary people of Hong Kong lend to the book a greater balance and perspective: "Even more distressing than these scenes of brutality was the unforgettable sight which we witnessed daily, of Chinese men, women and children lying on the pavement or huddled in door- ways dying gradually of starvation, and looking at passers-by, who were powerless to assist, out of eyes from which all expression had already gone." Of the 2,300 interned at Stanley, 130 did not survive, but of Leiper's one hundred Chinese bank staff, fully one fifth could not be accounted for after the war. In the absence of a first hand account from Chinese sources, Leiper has done much to improve our perspective.
J. A. MILLER
Pan Ling, in Search of Old Shanghai, Joint Publishing Company, Hong Kong, 1982, n.p.
I wish I had known about this admirable historical guide to Shanghai when I made a research trip there last year. (In fact, I am led to believe that the present issue is an English translation of an earlier Chinese edition, although clearly, the author, whilst having the familiarity with the city which can only come through having lived there, is now a British resident.)
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