CHINA TO ME

by Emily Hahn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 22, 1944

The tremendous success of The Soong Sisters will give this an impetus the a ""partial autobiography"" of an individual might otherwise not achieve. This is a feminine, fulsome and thoroughly absorbing account of life in China through the critical war years, and life as experienced by Emily, her British Major Charles Boxer, and Carola, their baby. Independent, individualistic, Emily Hahn went to China in 1935 on a visit, stayed to correspond for various vehicles (some of this material has appeared in The No Yorker), learned to know China from the inside, from her literary leftists down to her prostitutes. She did the authorised biography of the Soong sisters; she also went through the legalforms of marriage with a Chinese friend. Shanghai -- Chungking .. Hong Kong, in the years before the war broke out between Japan and the U.S. -- and in Hong Kong she reached her deliberate decision to have a baby via Charles, unorthodox, reserved, but compliant, as he was unable to marry her. Then comes the birth of Carola, and war, and the siege of Hong Kong, during which Charles was wounded and hospitalised. Emily claimed Chinese citizenship in order to say out of Stanley, and refused repatriation, -- playing both ends against the middle in order to be fair to small Carola, she took the opportunity, after two years, to bring her back to the U.S. An unusual personal history, generously detailed; an observant report on China.

Pub Date: Nov. 22, 1944

ISBN: 0759240604

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday, Doran

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1944

Categories: NONFICTION