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Old Madam Yin: A Memoir of Peking Life
By the author of the classic A Daughter of Han , this is an affectionate, revealing portrait of an old, wealthy widow and her family in the Peking of the 1920s and early 1930s. Through the daily life and the memories of shrewd, forthright Lao Tai-tai, we are given an intimate glimpse into centuries-old way of life that was fast coming to an end. We explore the inner workings of an upper-class urban the relations between husbands wives and between wives and concubines, the interactions among brothers, the activities and family concerns of a widowed matriarch, and more generally the role of women in such a family. We go behind the high walls surrounding the family compound, and see how the houses, gardens, and courtyards are constructed according to precise rules derived from religious and aesthetic beliefs, and how the layouts of the rooms are closely related to their occupants' status and role in the family. We learn the enormous importance to the Chinese of protocol, etiquette, and reciprocal obligation, and we learn also of Peking's pleasures―traveling in rickshaws, eating in restaurants, visiting parks. Above all, the book captures the essence of prewar Chinese cultural and social values in the busy life and strong, complex personality of the memorable Lao Tai-tai.
- GenresHistoryChinaNonfiction
144 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1979
27 people want to read
About the author
Ida Pruitt
12 booksIda Pruitt (1888 – 1985), bi-cultural social worker, author, speaker, interpreter and 20th century contributor to Sino-American understanding.
Ida Pruitt was the daughter of North China Southern Baptist missionaries Anna Seward Pruitt and C.W. Pruitt. Born in 1891 in the coastal town of Penglai on the Shandong peninsula, her childhood was spent in the small inland village of Sung-ch’iat’an, where for many years the Pruitts were the only Western family.
After attending Cox College in College Park, Georgia (1906–1909), Ida Pruitt received a B.S. from Columbia University Teachers' College in New York (1910). When her brother John died, Ida returned to China to be with her family and became a teacher and principal of Wai Ling School for Girls in Chefoo (1912–1918). In 1918, she came back to the United States and studied social work in Boston and Philadelphia until hired by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York as head of the Department of Social Services at the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) where she remained until 1938.
During the Japanese occupation of China (1937–1945), Ida assisted Rewi Alley as he organized the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. The CIC was formed to organize cooperative factories throughout the countryside to support China's industry. Schools were built to train the Chinese (often crippled or orphaned) to work in and manage the factories. Indusco, the fundraising arm of the CIC in the United States, was formed, and Pruitt served as its executive secretary from 1939 to 1951.
A keen observer and student of Chinese history, society, and paleo-anthropology, Pruitt was a prolific writer and the author of a number of books, stories, and articles, including several autobiographies: A China Childhood (1978), The Years Between, and Days in Old Peking: May 1921-October 1938 as well as several biographies – Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman (1945, 1967), Old Madame Yin: A Memoir of Peking Life, 1926-1938 (1979), and Tales of Old China. She also translated and edited many works, including Yellow Storm by Lao Tse (1951), The Flight of an Empress by Wu Yung (1936), Little Bride by Wang Yung, and Beyond China's City Walls by George A. Hogg, et al.
In addition to her writing, Ida filled her retirement years with travel, talks, and political activism. She returned to China twice (1959, 1972) despite a State Department ban and remained a strong proponent for U.S.-China relations throughout her life.
(from Wikipedia)
Ida Pruitt was the daughter of North China Southern Baptist missionaries Anna Seward Pruitt and C.W. Pruitt. Born in 1891 in the coastal town of Penglai on the Shandong peninsula, her childhood was spent in the small inland village of Sung-ch’iat’an, where for many years the Pruitts were the only Western family.
After attending Cox College in College Park, Georgia (1906–1909), Ida Pruitt received a B.S. from Columbia University Teachers' College in New York (1910). When her brother John died, Ida returned to China to be with her family and became a teacher and principal of Wai Ling School for Girls in Chefoo (1912–1918). In 1918, she came back to the United States and studied social work in Boston and Philadelphia until hired by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York as head of the Department of Social Services at the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) where she remained until 1938.
During the Japanese occupation of China (1937–1945), Ida assisted Rewi Alley as he organized the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. The CIC was formed to organize cooperative factories throughout the countryside to support China's industry. Schools were built to train the Chinese (often crippled or orphaned) to work in and manage the factories. Indusco, the fundraising arm of the CIC in the United States, was formed, and Pruitt served as its executive secretary from 1939 to 1951.
A keen observer and student of Chinese history, society, and paleo-anthropology, Pruitt was a prolific writer and the author of a number of books, stories, and articles, including several autobiographies: A China Childhood (1978), The Years Between, and Days in Old Peking: May 1921-October 1938 as well as several biographies – Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman (1945, 1967), Old Madame Yin: A Memoir of Peking Life, 1926-1938 (1979), and Tales of Old China. She also translated and edited many works, including Yellow Storm by Lao Tse (1951), The Flight of an Empress by Wu Yung (1936), Little Bride by Wang Yung, and Beyond China's City Walls by George A. Hogg, et al.
In addition to her writing, Ida filled her retirement years with travel, talks, and political activism. She returned to China twice (1959, 1972) despite a State Department ban and remained a strong proponent for U.S.-China relations throughout her life.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 30, 2021
Bygone Chinese lifestyle seen through bygone American prism
I always feel suspicious of books that contain such sentences as----"The cook poured my second cup of coffee. I had never been able to get him to leave the coffee pot on the table. He seemed to feel that would lessen his dignity." The reason for my hesitation is the slightly wry humor aimed at someone the speaker might have asked, but didn't. However, on finishing OLD MADAM YIN, I have to conclude that it has some excellent points. I chose to read it thinking that it was an autobiography or an edited life story by an anthropologist. No, it is more the story of contact between an American hospital worker in pre-revolutionary China and a Chinese woman from an upper class family of the old school, Old Madam Yin. The Chinese lady has no voice, the whole book being the summary of Ida Pruitt's observations. As she, the author, spoke Chinese and knew China well, we find an interesting picture of a certain style of life, the manners and innuendoes of a bygone age in Beijing, family dynamics before Mao. It makes for fascinating reading, a useful source of social history.
This is a book which makes you ponder how much of Chinese culture survives into the present even if somewhat overshadowed by the now-capitalistic, all-powerful Communist Party, the Internet, vast movements of labor, a plethora of huge cities, enormous factories, the cementing over of vast areas, in a noisier age of nightclubs and cars. I would guess a lot does survive. It seems to me that a reader who wants to know what Chinese think would be wiser to look elsewhere, but if you are looking for acute observations by an old-style American lady, this is definitely the book. At 129 pages of non-academic prose, you can read OLD MADAM YIN quickly, but the atmosphere will remain with you for a long time.
I always feel suspicious of books that contain such sentences as----"The cook poured my second cup of coffee. I had never been able to get him to leave the coffee pot on the table. He seemed to feel that would lessen his dignity." The reason for my hesitation is the slightly wry humor aimed at someone the speaker might have asked, but didn't. However, on finishing OLD MADAM YIN, I have to conclude that it has some excellent points. I chose to read it thinking that it was an autobiography or an edited life story by an anthropologist. No, it is more the story of contact between an American hospital worker in pre-revolutionary China and a Chinese woman from an upper class family of the old school, Old Madam Yin. The Chinese lady has no voice, the whole book being the summary of Ida Pruitt's observations. As she, the author, spoke Chinese and knew China well, we find an interesting picture of a certain style of life, the manners and innuendoes of a bygone age in Beijing, family dynamics before Mao. It makes for fascinating reading, a useful source of social history.
This is a book which makes you ponder how much of Chinese culture survives into the present even if somewhat overshadowed by the now-capitalistic, all-powerful Communist Party, the Internet, vast movements of labor, a plethora of huge cities, enormous factories, the cementing over of vast areas, in a noisier age of nightclubs and cars. I would guess a lot does survive. It seems to me that a reader who wants to know what Chinese think would be wiser to look elsewhere, but if you are looking for acute observations by an old-style American lady, this is definitely the book. At 129 pages of non-academic prose, you can read OLD MADAM YIN quickly, but the atmosphere will remain with you for a long time.
November 19, 2016
Great book. Ida Pruitt knew this woman very well, and wrote up this story of her life, as told to her.
Re-read it 2016. This may have been the book Ida was working on when I knew her in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. Her apartment in West Philly was very near the home of her good friends the Ricketts, and near U Penn.
I see the SInology Library has two other books of Ida Pruitt's which I have not read:
A China childhood, 1978
Flight of an empress, told by Wu Yung, transcribed by Ida Pruitt, 1937
I want to try to get them. I have since acquired A China Childhood, excellent.
And I see now that Margery Wolf, who wrote an intro for Old Madam Ying, has now written a biography of Ida Pruitt. I have bought that one too.
A Daughter of Han, 1945, was the book that got the attention of China historians and sociologists. It is excellent. I think I have a copy. It is listed under NING as author.
Re-read it 2016. This may have been the book Ida was working on when I knew her in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. Her apartment in West Philly was very near the home of her good friends the Ricketts, and near U Penn.
I see the SInology Library has two other books of Ida Pruitt's which I have not read:
A China childhood, 1978
Flight of an empress, told by Wu Yung, transcribed by Ida Pruitt, 1937
I want to try to get them. I have since acquired A China Childhood, excellent.
And I see now that Margery Wolf, who wrote an intro for Old Madam Ying, has now written a biography of Ida Pruitt. I have bought that one too.
A Daughter of Han, 1945, was the book that got the attention of China historians and sociologists. It is excellent. I think I have a copy. It is listed under NING as author.
February 4, 2016
I read this for my Women in East Asia history class. Having never taken a class in Asian history nor read a significant amount of literature on the subject, I was surprised by how well I liked this book. It was interesting to see how Chinese culture was changing and the traditional values were being overhauled for more modern ideals. I also really liked Old Madam Yin herself. I felt she was a sassy, smart lady who liked out for the best interests of her family. If I had not had to read this for class, I probably would not have picked this up. That being said, it is a small read and a a fascinating history on how Old Chinese society functioned.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews