In particular, Lattimore examines the effect ofthe region's frontier status on its history and development. The book is based on extensive travel and research throughout the region as well as on exhaustive reading in Chinese, Russian, Mongolian and English sources.

    His experience was practically confined to the household--more than thirty people--of which he was a member, occurring in these years being the Revolution of 1912, which caused the family to move into the country for a few monthes. Births, marriages and deaths were, apart from the many delightful festivals--the new Year, the Feast of Lanterns, the Birthday of the Flowers, the Ch'ing-ming (Ancestor) Festivals-- the only notable events of the year. The peacefulness of such country life of Mr. Chiang's grandfather were his aged birds and his chrysanthemums! The illustrations are a feature of the book. There are eight in full color, which Chiang Yee considers to be among his best work, and there are exactly 100 illustrations in pen and ink, mostly of Chinese street scenes remembered from the city and countryside of his childhood. there is also, on the front end paper, an interesting chart of the genealogy of the Chiang family for four generations. First published in England in 1940, and several times rprinted there, the book now includes a new concluding chapter, written especially for this American edition.

    It follows the eponymous cowardly layabout as he escapes his unhappy family life by going on the run to avoid the coming Japanese invasion. Just a step ahead of the destruction, bumbling his way from one poorly thought out situation to the next, Ma Bole’s comic journey mirrors that of China as a whole during this chaotic period of history.Incredibly well respected during her short, difficult lifetime, Xiao Hong’s final novel is an undiscovered masterpiece, a philosophical comedy in the vein of Bouvard and Pécuchet, finally available to English readers in Howard Goldblatt’s inventive rendering.