MADE IN CHINA
By
Presumably this is an addition to the series Knopf has been publishing for some years, but it is in no sense juvenile in appeal or handling. The author of one of the biographies of the Soong Sisters -- Three Sisters (John Day) writes from a profound love and admiration and knowledge of China a book which makes an admirable introduction to a wide range of China's contribution to the civilized world. It makes one pause to realize in how many fields China was centuries ahead of us -- ""To China we are indebted for the beginning of man's expression of beauty, for the robust appreciation of living, thinking, philosophy, eating and drinking; for the beginnings of medicine and printing and astronomy; for the roots of democracy. And from these roots today springs a new growth."" And she goes on to show the trends in music and drama and art and poetry and philosophy -- some muted to conform to the practical needs of the world today. In format the book is one of the loveliest of the year -- appropriate setting for the story and legend and facts about silk, tea, poetry, music, drama food, painting, sculpture, jade, screens, lacquer, porcelain. Line drawings by Kurt Wiese; full page, full color plates of objects of art; a lovely binding cloth.