KNOWN THE CHINESE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 5

KNOWN THE CHINESE

TWO GOOD GUIDES ... to Face with China. By Harold tn Rattenbury George G. Harrap Co. Ltd. 114 pp. Aina- Her Life and Her People. By ■ Mildred Cable and Francesca French. Hodder and Stoughton. 160 PPThose who wish to know China and J Chinese better are well served by authors of these two books. All have lived long in China—not 717 lived long in China, but lived worked among the Chinese. Their {ziLrience has made them excellent ftne-'es to the character nd extent the changes of perhaps the greatest Jansiticnal period in Cmna’s prodigirtishistory of change; and they are itnesses as well, to the character and Sfuence of much that remains, and Jni remain, constant in the Chinese Edition. AH three authors turn often J the past, and particularly to the Shitosophy and art, from which light J shed steadily on the present, and hey do this, not as those do who eke Ju-the clever observations of a year md a day with equally clever dips Jto the resources of a reference libbut as students who have brought ide and letters into steady focus and &uly recognise the modern Chinese as Lrs of their ancient civilisation. *The Rev. Mr Rattenbury’s book is in ko ways better furnished than the Cher and is better planned. It is accompanied by a superb series of holographs. taken by Mr Cecil Beaton C a recent visit to China. They are not onlv consistently brilliant as Lmera pictures, but have been chosen fed arranged with corresponding skill u illustrate such broad themes as Kuna’s immense geographic range and L n ic variety, aspects of community he industrial advance, and educaEonal and social progress What photography cannot do is done in a feries bf Isotype Charts, one or two of Ehich uerhaps slightly strain the limits 5 the graph as a means of presenting statistical and other facts summarily [nd with symbolic vividness to the eye, fee effect being rather too compliEted; but even these are to be praised ri’th that reserve, while the great Majority can hardly be praised too fauch. ' They are used, generally, to khibit fundamental geographic, ecoromic, social, cultural, and strategic facts or forces; and in particular they pe used, with great success, to illustrate Mr Rattenbury’s comparisons and Contrasts between the facts and forces feat have conditioned British history Bgnd those that have conditioned China's. For the rest, Mr Rattenbury interprets contemporary China by pur- , in his 20 chapters, such primary of inquiry as are opened in the age, literature, invasion and expansion, religion, education, the people, the home, and democracy. Bepuse Mr Rattenbury has seen, studied, and judged like a wise man and with St Paul’s charity, readers will find here no harsh judgment on the traditional Chinese view of marriage, for example, or on the singular domestic authority of the mother-in-law. They will learn, perhaps for the first time, how it is that Buddhism, Confucianism, end Taoism can be blent in the faith ci a Chinese. These are slight examples of Mr Rattenbury’s skill as an interpreter; but they are significant, for they show him going behind facts to causes and substituting enlightened Judgments for prejudiced ones. Miss Cable and Miss French have written their book specially for missionary students and generally for the ordinary reader. It is less elaborate, and less methodically designed to explain the forces at work in China to-day. Many of Mr Rattenbury’s themes are taken up here; much of his ground is covered. The principal difference is that Miss Cable and Miss French make fewer and shorter excursions into Chinese history, are less concerned in these than Mr Rattenbury is to trace the precess which has issued and is evolving in China’s political struggle, and draw a simpler but more detailed picture of the Chinese scene. This book, too, is well illustrated.