Product Description
This Elibron Classics edition is a facsimile reprint of a 1899 edition by Fleming H. Revell Company, New York - Chicago - Toronto. ... Read more

Book Description
Written by a highly observant British missionary after living fifteen years in the country,and first published in 1890 in China, this book presents the social life and personal character traits of the typical Chinese. In spite of the drastic changes in the past 110 years, the patterns of behavior and social mores of the people is probably much the same as when this book was written. ... Read more

Product Description
This is vol. 3 titled Happy Days in Twinkie Town. Beautiful color drawings by Arthur Henderson. Very Unique and enjoyable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wish I could give it SIX stars!
I'd been living in China about a year when I came across this extraordinary book.Actually, I think the word "stunning" better describes it for me, if for no other reason than the sheer elegance of the language.

For clarity of thought and depth of insight I'd rank the author with de Tocqueville, and as an observer of daily life, I'm not sure I've ever come across a better or more interesting one.

The author possesses a scholarly sensibility and a genuinely humane nature that, when combined with his other gifts, allows him to draw conclusions based on his observations that are, for someone reading the book while actually living in the country, remarkably enduring.

What a pleasure!

If that weren't enough, since he wrote in the 19th Century, the author is blessedly free of all the cultural relativism, or political correctness, or whatever you want to call it, that renders so many modern Westerners incapable of saying anything interesting, or accurate, or thoughtful at all about China.

Mr. Smith is honest and even-handed (and, therefore, a true friend of China); his observations are blunt, which, while sometimes uncomfortable to a modern sensibility, is ...well...very Chinese.

craig [at] projectusa.org ... Read more

Book Description
This critical study of three intrepid travelers to Southeast Asia -- Bird (1831-1904), Dauthendey (1867-1918), Wu (1904-1992) — combines detailed analysis of travel literature with carefully researched historical background and argues that any travel narrative is inevitably a product of the traveler's own cultural and social background. Thus travel narrative is never an objective account -- the reader must take into consideration the traveler's own history. By juxtaposing the views of a Chinese with those of two Western travelers, this book shows that prejudice and racism can exist in both the West and the East.

In choosing a Victorian traveler, a German poet, and a Chinese writer, Ng's study encompasses a geographical area that includes Britain, Germany, China, as well as Southeast Asia and an historical span from the Victorian era to the twentieth century. Three Exotic Views of Southeast Asia is theoretically informed by postcolonial and poststructural criticism. But it also details particular historical contexts, thus evoking the glamour and magic of traveling in a bygone era.

Apart from an examination of a broad range of literature by, among many others, Henry Mayhew, Somerset Maugham, Thomas Mann, and Ba Jin, this groundbreaking study also discusses architecture, fine arts, philanthropic culture, and the rise of mass tourism. Original translations from the German and the Chinese are by the author. ... Read more