346
BOOK REVIEWS
anything else known to me. This book is a real mine of information for all interested in traditional China. The second value of Things Chinese is the short bibliography attached to each major article: this makes the book an indispensable index to all other early European books on China a feature of great value.
The Hong Kong Guide 1893 and Kwang Tung, or Five Years in South China are much slighter, although both contain a wealth of comment on Hong Kong and its surrounding countryside at the turn of the century. The most interesting point from these books to me is not the “quaintness" of the picture given of Hong Kong a century ago, but its pride in itself, in its commercial drive and success, and in its modern and metropolitan facilities. It is obvious that much of modern Hong Kong's self-image is very deep-rooted in the city!
The only criticism of these volumes (with the exception of The Hong Kong Guide 1893 and Kwang Tung, or Five Years in South China) is their unwieldy and bulky format. The works are all long anyway, but become impossibly thick when printed on heavy paper and bound in boards. Things Chinese in this reprint is a good 3 inches thick - a full half inch thicker than the Concise Oxford Dictionary and awkward and cumbersome to use in consequence. Thinner paper and a less bulky book would surely be more desirable, even if this would result in a somewhat less "turn-of-the-century" feel.
-
These volumes are strongly recommended to all students of traditional China, they are still today of very great practical value, as well as being of unfailing interest. I for one await the next volumes in the series with eager anticipation.
P. H. HASE
Peter Y. L. Ng and Hugh D. R. Baker, New Peace Country: A Chinese Gazetteer of The Hong Kong Region, Hong Kong University Press, 1983
It has taken a long time to produce a work on the historical background to Hong Kong. Nearly 90 years ago, E. J. Eitel published his Europe in China. This was in fact a detailed history of British Hong Kong which gave scant notice to the
!
i
346
BOOK REVIEWS
anything else known to me. This book is a real mine of information for all interested in traditional China. The second value of Things Chinese is the short bibliography attached to each major article: this makes the book an indespensable index to all other early European books on China a feature of great value.
The Hong Kong Guide 1893 and Kwang Tung, or Five Years in South China are much slighter, although both contain a wealth of comment on Hong Kong and its surrounding countryside at the turn of the century. The most interesting point from these books to me is not the “quaintness" of the picture given of Hong Kong a century ago, but its pride in itself, in its commercial drive and success, and in its modern and metropolitan facilities. It is obvious that much of modern Hong Kong's self-image is very deep-rooted in the city!
The only criticism of these volumes (with the exception of The Hong Kong Guide 1893 and Kwang Tung, or Five Years in South China) is their unwieldy and bulky format. The works are all long anyway, but become impossibly thick when printed on heavy paper and bound in boards. Things Chinese in this reprint is a good 3 inches thick - a full half inch thicker than the Concise Oxford Dictionary and awkward and cumbersome to use in consequence. Thinner paper and a less bulky book would surely be more desirable, even if this would result in a somewhat less "turn-of-the-century" feel.
-
These volumes are strongly recommended to all students of traditional China, they are still today of very great practical value, as well as being of unfailing interest. I for one await the next volumes in the series with eager anticipation.
P. H. HASE
Peter Y. L. Ng and Hugh D. R. Baker, New Peace Country: A Chinese Gazetteer of The Hong Kong Region, Hong Kong University Press, 1983
It has taken a long time to produce a work on the historical background to Hong Kong. Nearly 90 years ago, E. J. Eitel published his Europe in China. This was in fact a detailed history of British Hong Kong which gave scant notice to the
!
i
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