420
appreciated, especially in China itself.
JAMES HAYES
Frank Ching, Ancestors, 900 Years in the Life of a Chinese Family. London, Harrap, 1988, pp. 528.
Frank Ching is a journalist. He has the journalist's eye for the dramatic and unusual. He knows a good story when he sees one, and how to put it across. These gifts have served him well in his first book, an account of his own family over nearly a millennium.
The book comprises a series of studies of eminent persons of the Ching lineage from whom he is directly descended. In such studies, motivated by the desire to get at one's roots, there is always the danger that we shall get hagiography rather than history, but there are few signs of this. The author has set himself high standards. Starting, as he tells us in the prologue, from scratch in as complex and difficult a field as Chinese historiography, it is remarkable that he has achieved such a tour de force. The book is of great and absorbing human interest, perhaps heightened for readers by the fact that there is a direct connection with a living person. It has been assiduously researched, in person and using the best authorities, and is well organized and beautifully written.
Once one has read the prologue, and absorbed the author's background and motivation, derived from having been an exile (in Hong Kong) from his native place at intervals during the early part of his life, it does not really matter whether one reads the book from start to finish or (as I did) takes up those chapters that appeal most. All are of equal interest. If I have to make a selection, I liked the account of his father (1888-1959), a bitter-sweet and, it seemed to me, quintessentially Chinese individual who lived in trying times; a brilliant man who perhaps deserved to have had a more favourable arena for his talents, certainly after he left Shanghai to rejoin his family in Hong Kong in 1949. There were so many years of enforced idleness in both places. Personal accounts like this tell us more than the historical record, and illuminate the times more effectively.
I liked the author's notes to the chapters: over 40 pages between pp. 471-511. They are not only a guarantee that he has done a good job: they also help interested readers to look into books and sources of which
420
appreciated, especially in China itself.
JAMES HAYES
Frank Ching, Ancestors, 900 Years in the Life of a Chinese Family. London, Harrap, 1988, pp. 528.
Frank Ching is a journalist. He has the journalist's eye for the dramatic and unusual. He knows a good story when he sees one, and how to put it across. These gifts have served him well in his first book, an account of his own family over nearly a millennium.
The book comprises a series of studies of eminent persons of the Ching lineage from whom he is directly descended. In such studies, motivated by the desire to get at one's roots, there is always the danger that we shall get hagiography rather than history, but there are few signs of this. The author has set himself high standards. Starting, as he tells us in the prologue, from scratch in as complex and difficult field as Chinese historiography it is remarkable that he has achieved such a tour de force. The book is of great and absorbing human interest, perhaps heightened for readers by the fact that there is a direct connection with a living person. It has been assiduously researched, in person and using the best authorities, and is well organized and beautifully written.
Once one has read the prologue, and absorbed the author's background and motivation, derived from having been an exile (in Hong Kong) from his native place at intervals during the early part of his life, it does not really matter whether one reads the book from start to finish or (as I did) takes up those chapters that appeal most. All are of equal interest. If I have to make a selection, I liked the account of his father (1888-1959), a bitter-sweet and it seemed to me quintessentially Chinese individual who lived in trying times; a brilliant man who perhaps deserved to have had a more favourable arena for his talents, certainly after he left Shanghai to rejoin his family in Hong Kong in 1949. There were so many years of enforced idleness in both places. Personal accounts like this tell us more than the historical record, and illuminate the times more effectively.
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I liked the author's notes to the chapters: over 40 pages between pp. 471-511. They are not only a guarantee that he has done a good job: they also help interested readers to look into books and sources of which
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