“I wanted to record the Chinese world, the cities, the fields, the farms, the soldiers, the students, the colours of an age, and what especially concerned me were the changing colours of the atmosphere, the shapes of the coming storm.”
Four years after the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted, Robert Payne left Singapore for China, a land which, until then, he had explored solely in his dreams. Posted to the British Embassy, in the turmoil following Pearl Harbor and the expanding Pacific War, he ended up teaching in the universities at Chungking and Kunming.
In this position, he bore witness to the effect of war on every level of Chinese society, particularly on students, and the divisions that were torn in the country itself. Recording his encounters and experiences in detail, Payne’s descriptions are a feast for the senses, weaving a tapestry of such vibrancy that you could almost reach out and touch it.
Filled with poignant memories, love and loss, Payne’s Chinese Diaries are more than just an ode to a country, but a window to the East and a way of life during this turbulent era.
‘An altogether extraordinary book, the best that I have read about China’ — The New York Times
'As gripping as the most imaginative novel!" — Book-of-the-Month Club News
‘Compulsive reading!' — Chicago Tribune
'...a rich book, and there is hardly a page in it that is not worth reading' - Times Literary Supplement
'He has seen things most of us could not perceive. China's eternal qualities are here portrayed with a knowledge only the artist could gain' - Christian Science Monitor
Robert Payne (1911-1983) was the author of many notable works, including The Rise and Fall of Stalin, The Life and Death of Lenin and The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. Born in England, he was a constant world traveller, a keen observer, but always the biographer, historian, novelist, poet and translator.
Four years after the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted, Robert Payne left Singapore for China, a land which, until then, he had explored solely in his dreams. Posted to the British Embassy, in the turmoil following Pearl Harbor and the expanding Pacific War, he ended up teaching in the universities at Chungking and Kunming.
In this position, he bore witness to the effect of war on every level of Chinese society, particularly on students, and the divisions that were torn in the country itself. Recording his encounters and experiences in detail, Payne’s descriptions are a feast for the senses, weaving a tapestry of such vibrancy that you could almost reach out and touch it.
Filled with poignant memories, love and loss, Payne’s Chinese Diaries are more than just an ode to a country, but a window to the East and a way of life during this turbulent era.
Praise for Robert Payne:
‘An altogether extraordinary book, the best that I have read about China’ — The New York Times
'As gripping as the most imaginative novel!" — Book-of-the-Month Club News
‘Compulsive reading!' — Chicago Tribune
'...a rich book, and there is hardly a page in it that is not worth reading' - Times Literary Supplement
'He has seen things most of us could not perceive. China's eternal qualities are here portrayed with a knowledge only the artist could gain' - Christian Science Monitor
Robert Payne (1911-1983) was the author of many notable works, including The Rise and Fall of Stalin, The Life and Death of Lenin and The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. Born in England, he was a constant world traveller, a keen observer, but always the biographer, historian, novelist, poet and translator.
Download the book Chinese Diaries: 1941-1946 for free or read online
Continue reading on any device:
Last viewed books
Related books
{related-news}
Comments (0)