THE BREACH IN THE WALL: A Memoir of the Old China

by Enid Saunders Candlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1973

Enid Candlin country is the China That We Lost, or perhaps Never Really Knew. There's a focus on places (Shanghai, Peking, Nanking) more than people, on shops, smells and scenery; digressions on art, literature and legend which an erudite guide might make when shepherding a group of tourists. Her childhood and working-gift life in the International Settlement were opulent and easy, and although she tried to learn the language ""her"" Chinese were servants (""wonderful, faithful, intelligent'), an occasional colleague or the masses whose obvious misery was ""beyond amelioration."" Aware of the precariousness of her world which she fled in 1939 when the Japanese invaded -- despite hopes for Chiang Kai Shek -- the author observed and enjoyed it while she could; she defends it when possible in this nostalgic memoir which itself reads like a product of a vanished era.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION