In The Land Of The Laughing Buddha - The Adventures Of An American Barbarian In China (Paperback)

In the Land of the Laughing Buddha The Adventures of An American Barbarian in China By Upton Close Josef Washington Hall Correspondent, Member Explorers Club Lecturer on Pacific Asia, University of Washington Illustrated G. P. Putnams Sons XewYork London 33 e Knickerbocker rei 1924 Copyright, 1924 by G. P. Putnams Sona Made m the United States of America Dedicated to Newspapermen who follow the Hunch All of which I saw and part of which I was. VIKGIL Mneid, t Dryden t Book II THE author thanks his sister, Mrs. Louise Roberts, formerly of Shanghai, China, who has been his encourager from child hood his wife, Nettie Lipkaman Hall, whose bravery is in separably bound up with these adventures Professor William A. Spieer of Washington, D. C., collaborator in the work of preparation Mr. Louis D. Proelick, Editor of Asia Magazine, who has read the manuscript and given invaluable suggestions Mr, George Palmer Putnam, friendly critic and wise adviser as well as publisher and the many other friends of various races, who have given aid in making and recording the story. That the reader may enjoy the tart euphony of Chinese names, proper names are spelled as pronounced, all systems of Romanization to the contrary notwithstanding, except where a certain spelling has become current, for which cases a key-spelling is given at the end of the book. THE MANNER OF THE PLAY THIS is a romance, not an historical or political treatise. However, it is a fact romance. Let all readers be enter tained and let him be instructed who will. The writer tells the story with a view neither to making the Chinese appear ridiculous, nor to making out a case for their superior way of doing things. He tells the story for thestorys sake with a sympathy born of sharing the elations and reverses of its actors. He has taken an occasional r61e himself in the acting, yet he regards himself as a super rather than a principal. A white barbarian may be in the Chinese world, but he never becomes of it. He may be an onlooker, an adviser, or a highly-flattered lackey, but he never becomes more than the utensil of the more cunning and sophisticated Chinese mind. The Chinese, who have been thought of as the most prosaic race in the world, are in some respects the most entertaining It is the laughter-loving Chinese mind which took the sober, introspective Buddha of India and made of him the merry genie, Mi-Do. History since the establishment of the Republic has xi