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二馬
Mr Ma and Son
Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei run an antiques shop nestled in a quiet street by St Paul's Cathedral in London, where, far from their native Peking, they struggle to navigate the bustling pavements and myriad social conventions of 1920s English society.
From their well-meaning landlady Mrs Wedderburn and her carefree daughter Mary, to the old China hands the Reverend Ely and his formidable wife, the Mas encounter all sorts in this story of unexpected love, crossed wires and antipathy.
A major contribution to the early twentieth-century conversation on Sino-British relations, Mr Ma and Son is a compelling, witty tale of cultural give-and-take from one of China's best-loved authors.
From their well-meaning landlady Mrs Wedderburn and her carefree daughter Mary, to the old China hands the Reverend Ely and his formidable wife, the Mas encounter all sorts in this story of unexpected love, crossed wires and antipathy.
A major contribution to the early twentieth-century conversation on Sino-British relations, Mr Ma and Son is a compelling, witty tale of cultural give-and-take from one of China's best-loved authors.
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
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1490 people want to read
About the author
Lao She
792 books121 followersLao She (Chinese: 老舍; pinyin: Lǎo Shě; Wade–Giles: Lao She; February 3, 1899 – August 24, 1966) was the pen name of Shu Qingchun (simplified Chinese: 舒庆春; traditional Chinese: 舒慶春; pinyin: Shū Qìngchūn; Manchu surname: Sumuru), a noted Chinese novelist and dramatist. He was one of the most significant figures of 20th-century Chinese literature, and best known for his novel Rickshaw Boy and the play Teahouse (茶館). He was of Manchu ethnicity. His works are known especially for their vivid use of the Beijing dialect.
(from Wikipedia)
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
November 21, 2022
Acclaimed Chinese author Lao She lived in London in the mid-1920s making a living teaching Chinese to an array of students including future missionaries and a young Graham Greene. Lao She hoped for a better grasp of the nature of British imperialism and its interaction with what he saw as a floundering China but what he encountered in England was virulent prejudice towards anyone Chinese. This intense racism was part of a period during which a moral panic represented the Chinese as part of a broader, malevolent ‘yellow peril’ an attitude fuelling, and fuelled by, a plethora of books, plays and films depicting Chinese characters as villains, murderers or rapists, at best child-like addicts, to be avoided at all costs by respectable white people.
Lao She’s novel gently satirises what it felt like to be Chinese in 1920s England through the experiences of a father and son newly arrived in London to take over a relative’s antique shop. Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei are introduced to the city by a clergyman, former missionary and "benevolent" racist. Once in London the two Mas rent rooms from the widowed Mrs Wedderburn, who lives with her daughter Mary. Mrs Wedderburn is a comical figure and a wonderful comment on English eccentricity and hypocrisy, happy to surround herself with Chinese vases and devoted to her Pekingese dog Napoleon, she prepares for her new lodgers by reading The Confessions of an Opium Eater.
Lao She uses Mr Ma and Ma Wei to probe issues around discrimination and blatant stereotyping, and he’s adept at conveying the homesickness and bewilderment of the displaced. But his narrative also probes deeper cultural divides, and promotes his own ideas about Chinese society, particularly the ways in which different generations envisioned China’s future. But although Lao She’s dealing with weighty subjects, his writing's often light, full of amusing and beautifully detailed scenes of English society and London life. Above all he’s an excellent storyteller, particularly skilled at incorporating small details, even down to the character of Mrs Wedderburn’s beloved dog. It’s not a desperately subtle piece, Lao She was strongly influenced by nineteenth-century writers like Dickens, but it's an entertaining, and illuminating story, a unique, atmospheric perspective on England in the 1920s. I was slightly disappointed by the abrupt ending but other than that I was completely immersed in Lao She’s world.
This Penguin edition comes with comprehensive notes and an introduction from historian Julia Lovell outlining the context for the work and providing an overview of Lao She’s life. Translated by William Dolby.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Penguin Modern Classics.
Lao She’s novel gently satirises what it felt like to be Chinese in 1920s England through the experiences of a father and son newly arrived in London to take over a relative’s antique shop. Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei are introduced to the city by a clergyman, former missionary and "benevolent" racist. Once in London the two Mas rent rooms from the widowed Mrs Wedderburn, who lives with her daughter Mary. Mrs Wedderburn is a comical figure and a wonderful comment on English eccentricity and hypocrisy, happy to surround herself with Chinese vases and devoted to her Pekingese dog Napoleon, she prepares for her new lodgers by reading The Confessions of an Opium Eater.
Lao She uses Mr Ma and Ma Wei to probe issues around discrimination and blatant stereotyping, and he’s adept at conveying the homesickness and bewilderment of the displaced. But his narrative also probes deeper cultural divides, and promotes his own ideas about Chinese society, particularly the ways in which different generations envisioned China’s future. But although Lao She’s dealing with weighty subjects, his writing's often light, full of amusing and beautifully detailed scenes of English society and London life. Above all he’s an excellent storyteller, particularly skilled at incorporating small details, even down to the character of Mrs Wedderburn’s beloved dog. It’s not a desperately subtle piece, Lao She was strongly influenced by nineteenth-century writers like Dickens, but it's an entertaining, and illuminating story, a unique, atmospheric perspective on England in the 1920s. I was slightly disappointed by the abrupt ending but other than that I was completely immersed in Lao She’s world.
This Penguin edition comes with comprehensive notes and an introduction from historian Julia Lovell outlining the context for the work and providing an overview of Lao She’s life. Translated by William Dolby.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Penguin Modern Classics.
October 26, 2022
My thanks to Penguin Press UK for a review copy of this book via NetGalley.
Lao She was an author I first ‘met’ when I read John Fletcher’s Wuhan last year where he was a character and one of the narrators, and that book had left me wanting to explore She’s writings, so when this book appeared on NetGalley, of course I had to request. Mr Ma and Son, first published in 1929, is Lao She’s third novel, a tragicomedy based on his own experiences in London. The edition I read is translated by William Dolby
In the book, Mr Ma a widower in his fifties, travels to London with his young son, Ma Wei (about twenty-one or twenty-two) where they have been left an antique shop that Mr Ma’s older brother ran. Reverend Ely, their former pastor in Beijing encourages them to travel, excited in a way to have one of his Chinese parishioners come to England. He undertakes to arrange lodgings for them, but the strongly racist attitudes prevalent in the country at the time, worsened by popular depictions of the Chinese in films and books, mean that people believe:
… every one of those five thousand yellow-faced demons will smoke opium, smuggle arms, commit murder … rape women … and commit an endless amount of crimes, all deserving, at the very least, gradual dismemberment and death by ten thousand slices of the sword.
No one will let them a place, and the few who do
… realise there’s money to be made and so bring themselves to put on a good face and make the best of dealing with a bunch of yellow-faced monsters.
Rev Ely does however manage to convince a widowed lady, Mrs Wedderburn who lives with her daughter Mary, and has rooms to let to at least give the Mas a chance. The Mas arrive and almost from the start face culture shock and outright racism, from being expected to pay for their meal when Rev Ely welcomes them at the railway station to the Wedderburns not allowing them to use their bathroom, to endless racist comments by Mary, for
It didn’t seem to occur to her that she could be insulting Ma Wei.
Father and son are both upset by these but take it quietly, Ma Wei angry internally, while Mr Ma trying harder and harder to please. Meanwhile, they take over the shop, where the assistant Li Tzu-jung has been managing things well. Mr Ma has false notions of grandeur, his ideal being a government job, and looks down on commerce, as a result almost divorced from what is needed to run the shop, not only expecting things to run by themselves, but many times creating obstacles when either Ma Wei or Li Tsu-jung suggest or try something. Alongside, Ma Wei is adjusting to life as a student, while also balancing the demands of the shop, and to add to his woes falls rather head-over-heels in love with Mary. We follow them as they navigate this new world, amidst acquaintances old and new, facing mostly every day, but also some different situations.
Mr Ma and Son is a tongue in cheek, slice of life novel, which through the premise of two immigrants arriving in London explores a rather wide canvas in terms of the themes and aspects it deals with, bringing out even its most severe critiques through humour or satire. Racism and relatedly colonialism are prominent among these, with their experiences ranging from casual insensitive comments from Mary, or young shouts of ‘Chink’ from young urchins on the street to slightly more serious encounters involving some violence. And the racist and colonial ‘superior’ attitudes mean that untoward incidents are interpreted against only one party or seen in a certain colour.
Through these encounters between the Mas and those they meet, She also brings out cultural difference for instance, strong individualism on the one side, and filial piety on the other;
So mother and daughter fought like cat and dog, in accordance with that English independence of spirit whereby each person must have his own idea and never yield to the other, which results as the argument proceeds in an ever-increasing distance of opinion between the two parties.
But his critique of English ways does not mean that She was blind to what was appreciable, for instance when Ma Wei, thinking back to his days protesting holding up a paper flag in China, realises
the strength and prosperity of England was in large measure due to the fact that the English don’t shout battle cries, but put their heads down and get on with it.
Or that it isn’t simply military strength but also knowledge that is relevant to Empire-building. Likewise, London, to him may be ‘noisy, bustling and chaotic’ but it has its ‘calm and beautiful’ parks ‘providing a refuge where people can take a breath of fresh sweet-scented air’.
She is also scathing when it comes to the shortcomings of his own country and people
All things Chinese bow down at the foot of face. As long as face can be maintained, who cares about reality?
Elsewhere:
One fears, though that our four hundred million compatriots are, like the elder Ma, both too ambivalent or too listless to fire up and take action. The attitude of just living and making do is the most useless of outlooks, and a disgrace to the human race!
But it isn’t just these broader issues and attitudes that are explored but personal equations and relationships as well; Mr Ma has conventional attitudes, attaches much to face, has a false sense of grandeur, and is always out to please unlike Ma Wei who is more practical, willing to do what it takes to make the business a success, but at the same time struggling with matters of the heart and also notions of filial piety he has been brought up with. There is a generational difference no doubt (also brought out amongst the English in terms of the changed social mores in the post-Great-War period, accepted if not welcomed by some while causing others much consternation), but also their own natures come into it, for the elder Mr Ma is one who seems to care for only grandeur and comfort, whether it was back home where he seemed to live on money sent back by his brother or here, where he expects this to magically keep appearing while he is lost in dreams of that idea government job!
The book through the interactions, and even threads of romance that develop between characters does also explore whether getting to really know each other as people changes things. We see that it does in a sense, at least the individual level, but more broadly the outlook remains more cynical (and sadly we see this continue to this day, so She is perhaps not wrong).
Mr Ma and Son isn’t a novel about any grand resolutions or answers, but one that paints a picture of a world at a time when She experienced it—interactions between two cultures, each of which had their problems (racism and the almost dehumanising of ‘weak’ nations whose people’s worth is equated with that of the places the belonged to being the worst)—but also of the immigrant experience, made up not only of these broader aspects but also much that is individual and personal.
Lao She was an author I first ‘met’ when I read John Fletcher’s Wuhan last year where he was a character and one of the narrators, and that book had left me wanting to explore She’s writings, so when this book appeared on NetGalley, of course I had to request. Mr Ma and Son, first published in 1929, is Lao She’s third novel, a tragicomedy based on his own experiences in London. The edition I read is translated by William Dolby
In the book, Mr Ma a widower in his fifties, travels to London with his young son, Ma Wei (about twenty-one or twenty-two) where they have been left an antique shop that Mr Ma’s older brother ran. Reverend Ely, their former pastor in Beijing encourages them to travel, excited in a way to have one of his Chinese parishioners come to England. He undertakes to arrange lodgings for them, but the strongly racist attitudes prevalent in the country at the time, worsened by popular depictions of the Chinese in films and books, mean that people believe:
… every one of those five thousand yellow-faced demons will smoke opium, smuggle arms, commit murder … rape women … and commit an endless amount of crimes, all deserving, at the very least, gradual dismemberment and death by ten thousand slices of the sword.
No one will let them a place, and the few who do
… realise there’s money to be made and so bring themselves to put on a good face and make the best of dealing with a bunch of yellow-faced monsters.
Rev Ely does however manage to convince a widowed lady, Mrs Wedderburn who lives with her daughter Mary, and has rooms to let to at least give the Mas a chance. The Mas arrive and almost from the start face culture shock and outright racism, from being expected to pay for their meal when Rev Ely welcomes them at the railway station to the Wedderburns not allowing them to use their bathroom, to endless racist comments by Mary, for
It didn’t seem to occur to her that she could be insulting Ma Wei.
Father and son are both upset by these but take it quietly, Ma Wei angry internally, while Mr Ma trying harder and harder to please. Meanwhile, they take over the shop, where the assistant Li Tzu-jung has been managing things well. Mr Ma has false notions of grandeur, his ideal being a government job, and looks down on commerce, as a result almost divorced from what is needed to run the shop, not only expecting things to run by themselves, but many times creating obstacles when either Ma Wei or Li Tsu-jung suggest or try something. Alongside, Ma Wei is adjusting to life as a student, while also balancing the demands of the shop, and to add to his woes falls rather head-over-heels in love with Mary. We follow them as they navigate this new world, amidst acquaintances old and new, facing mostly every day, but also some different situations.
Mr Ma and Son is a tongue in cheek, slice of life novel, which through the premise of two immigrants arriving in London explores a rather wide canvas in terms of the themes and aspects it deals with, bringing out even its most severe critiques through humour or satire. Racism and relatedly colonialism are prominent among these, with their experiences ranging from casual insensitive comments from Mary, or young shouts of ‘Chink’ from young urchins on the street to slightly more serious encounters involving some violence. And the racist and colonial ‘superior’ attitudes mean that untoward incidents are interpreted against only one party or seen in a certain colour.
Through these encounters between the Mas and those they meet, She also brings out cultural difference for instance, strong individualism on the one side, and filial piety on the other;
So mother and daughter fought like cat and dog, in accordance with that English independence of spirit whereby each person must have his own idea and never yield to the other, which results as the argument proceeds in an ever-increasing distance of opinion between the two parties.
But his critique of English ways does not mean that She was blind to what was appreciable, for instance when Ma Wei, thinking back to his days protesting holding up a paper flag in China, realises
the strength and prosperity of England was in large measure due to the fact that the English don’t shout battle cries, but put their heads down and get on with it.
Or that it isn’t simply military strength but also knowledge that is relevant to Empire-building. Likewise, London, to him may be ‘noisy, bustling and chaotic’ but it has its ‘calm and beautiful’ parks ‘providing a refuge where people can take a breath of fresh sweet-scented air’.
She is also scathing when it comes to the shortcomings of his own country and people
All things Chinese bow down at the foot of face. As long as face can be maintained, who cares about reality?
Elsewhere:
One fears, though that our four hundred million compatriots are, like the elder Ma, both too ambivalent or too listless to fire up and take action. The attitude of just living and making do is the most useless of outlooks, and a disgrace to the human race!
But it isn’t just these broader issues and attitudes that are explored but personal equations and relationships as well; Mr Ma has conventional attitudes, attaches much to face, has a false sense of grandeur, and is always out to please unlike Ma Wei who is more practical, willing to do what it takes to make the business a success, but at the same time struggling with matters of the heart and also notions of filial piety he has been brought up with. There is a generational difference no doubt (also brought out amongst the English in terms of the changed social mores in the post-Great-War period, accepted if not welcomed by some while causing others much consternation), but also their own natures come into it, for the elder Mr Ma is one who seems to care for only grandeur and comfort, whether it was back home where he seemed to live on money sent back by his brother or here, where he expects this to magically keep appearing while he is lost in dreams of that idea government job!
The book through the interactions, and even threads of romance that develop between characters does also explore whether getting to really know each other as people changes things. We see that it does in a sense, at least the individual level, but more broadly the outlook remains more cynical (and sadly we see this continue to this day, so She is perhaps not wrong).
Mr Ma and Son isn’t a novel about any grand resolutions or answers, but one that paints a picture of a world at a time when She experienced it—interactions between two cultures, each of which had their problems (racism and the almost dehumanising of ‘weak’ nations whose people’s worth is equated with that of the places the belonged to being the worst)—but also of the immigrant experience, made up not only of these broader aspects but also much that is individual and personal.
May 21, 2023
Written in the late 1920's, at a time when the author was himself living in England. Mr Ma is a widow who comes to London with his son Ma Wei to take over the antiques shop left to him by his brother. It is a time of pretty virulent racism towards the Chinese, seen as the 'yellow peril' fuelled by books and films where they are invariably the villians, seen generally as murderers and opium addicts, (one of the 10 rules of the detection club was that the murderer couldn't be a Chinaman, not playing fair with the reader). The Reverend Ely, who he met as a missionary back in China, finds him lodgings at Mrs Wedderburn's house. She is unsure about letting her rooms to two Chinamen, but she can charge more rent. What follows is a highly readable, gentle satire on the culture clash between East and West. Mr Ma finds it harder to settle in and misses China, Ma Wei struggles to fit in, wanting to find love.
The depiction of London was fascinating and tells us a lot about the immigrant experience. It was funny and dad in equal measures, and while not exactly a page-turner, it was always good to get back to the story. I'd happily seek out more of his work.
The depiction of London was fascinating and tells us a lot about the immigrant experience. It was funny and dad in equal measures, and while not exactly a page-turner, it was always good to get back to the story. I'd happily seek out more of his work.
February 24, 2023
This book was a pleasant surprise, I knew nothing about it when I started. Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei arrive in London in the 1920s to run an antique store left to them after the death of Mr Ma’s brother. It was such an enjoyable read even though it depicts often quite nasty racism experienced by the Ma’s. There’s also the culture shock particularly for Mr Ma who finds the local customs much harder to get used to and he really has no head for business. They find accommodation with the help of the Reverend Ely, a former missionary. Mrs Wedderburn, a widow and her daughter Mary (and her Pekingese, Napoleon) gradually adjust and even to liking their Chinese tenants. (They can charge them higher rent because they are Chinese!) An entertaining read with clever humour and gentle satire, and well written characters.
August 24, 2022
This is not a grab you by the throat sort of book. It is a gentle tongue-in-cheek meander through life for the Chinese immigrants in London around the 1920's.
Mr Ma and his son, Ma Wei, come to take over the running of an antique shop after the death of Mr Ma's brother. However Mr Ma has absolutely no head for business and all his son wants to do is study. They are "helped" to find lodgings with Mrs Wedderburn and her daughter by Reverend Ely who purports to know more about China and its culture than most of the Chinese people he has encountered.
What follows is almost an essay on the trials and tribulations encountered by any immigrant. In other words we like the help, even admire the culture but all are considered inferior to an English man. The story could be transplanted to any time - the hatred reserved for the Irish after the famine forced them to leave their homes, the Windrush generation or any number of "colonials" who have sought to make Mother England their home.
Lao She is equally scathing about the Chinese - Mr Ma is all about saving face, young Ma Wei wants to fall in love and be accepted. In fact the only one who fits in is the wily shop assistant Li, who Mr Ma constantly belittles.
This is quite a dense book and the story is merely a recounting of incidents but it tells you a great deal about life for an immigrant and the Ma's disillusion with what they thought England would offer. All in all, a salutary tale fit both sides.
Recommended for anyone who is interested in the history of Chinese immigrants or merely enjoys a story of daily life and hardship for those who come to our shores seeking a different life.
Mr Ma and his son, Ma Wei, come to take over the running of an antique shop after the death of Mr Ma's brother. However Mr Ma has absolutely no head for business and all his son wants to do is study. They are "helped" to find lodgings with Mrs Wedderburn and her daughter by Reverend Ely who purports to know more about China and its culture than most of the Chinese people he has encountered.
What follows is almost an essay on the trials and tribulations encountered by any immigrant. In other words we like the help, even admire the culture but all are considered inferior to an English man. The story could be transplanted to any time - the hatred reserved for the Irish after the famine forced them to leave their homes, the Windrush generation or any number of "colonials" who have sought to make Mother England their home.
Lao She is equally scathing about the Chinese - Mr Ma is all about saving face, young Ma Wei wants to fall in love and be accepted. In fact the only one who fits in is the wily shop assistant Li, who Mr Ma constantly belittles.
This is quite a dense book and the story is merely a recounting of incidents but it tells you a great deal about life for an immigrant and the Ma's disillusion with what they thought England would offer. All in all, a salutary tale fit both sides.
Recommended for anyone who is interested in the history of Chinese immigrants or merely enjoys a story of daily life and hardship for those who come to our shores seeking a different life.
July 3, 2023
Tongue in cheek expose of racial divides and prejudices. Namely how Chinese were viewed in the 1920's in the United Kingdom and the West. How media including films and books were pushing the narrative of the 'bad' Chinese.
You may say that this was then and that now media is more balanced, I disagree. We still get the tropes, the stereotypes and ideas pushed oh so subliminally. The self justification of imperialism has changed to the self justification of the capitalism, trade wars and the resultant heroes and bad guys.
In a way this reminded me of A Room with a View.
An ARC kindly provided by publishers via Netgalley.
You may say that this was then and that now media is more balanced, I disagree. We still get the tropes, the stereotypes and ideas pushed oh so subliminally. The self justification of imperialism has changed to the self justification of the capitalism, trade wars and the resultant heroes and bad guys.
In a way this reminded me of A Room with a View.
An ARC kindly provided by publishers via Netgalley.
March 29, 2024
‘He was in London - why would he be bothered looking at it? Wasn’t it bad enough just being there?’
Going to miss Ma Wei, Mr Ma and their antique shop.
Going to miss Ma Wei, Mr Ma and their antique shop.
May 12, 2018
This is a well-written novel about the misadventures of the protagonists - the Ma's, Pere & Fils - in London in around the 1920s - as the senior Ma tries to make a go of being the owner of an antiques shop which specializes in imported Chinese goods, and Ma junior strives to obtain a college education. The process of their adjustment to life in London is what the book is about, and it pulls no punches in describing the anti-Chinese prejudice - racism, really - that was prevalent at the time.
Rather than go into the plot, which would spoil the book for anyone reading this review, I'll simply say that readers will be surprised by the emotional power of the novel - and probably never forget its gut-wrenching denouement. The social critique of the English characters by the author is trenchant - perhaps understandably, given the descriptions of anti-Chinese prejudice by the English. The reader should be prepared for a book that gives the Chinese perspective on Westerners - yet the characters aren't all stereotypes, or rather, the Chinese characters in the book are also mocked and their weaknesses also exaggerated or mocked for comic effect. The younger Ma (Ma Wei) is the long-suffering hero, or anti-hero, who is taken seriously by the author - a romantic hero who never quite adjusts to life in London. The book itself is a flashback from the opening scene in which we learn that Ma Wei is leaving England..
Lao She is considered a great Chinese writer and I can see why after reading this novel. Unfortunately, Lao later committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution after he was denounced by a crowd as having bourgeois tendencies. He couldn't take the humiliation and that night, jumped into a lake near the Forbidden City and drowned - an irreplaceable cultural treasure erased like many other treasures erased at that time as bourgeois. The book gives the Chinese perspective on Western anti-Chinese prejudice, but it also conveys what the Chinese abroad went through in dealing with Western negative attitudes toward the Chinese. The slights and insults were taken seriously - even though the insulted may have kept their mouths shut, the insults were a humiliation that was real. Unfortunately, Lao similarly couldn't tolerate the humiliation he received at the hands of the zealots in Beijing - the revolution had taken a horribly wrong turn with respect to this incisive author who obviously a Chinese patriot. He did mock everyone equally - but the hope voiced repeatedly in the book was that China needed to climb out of its backwardness, it's "mandarin" mentality and become perhaps more like the British, more practical, more willing to work hard to achieve goals such as successfully owning an antiques shop or completing college. The novel is one of manners and the foolishness of prejudice, a world that Ma Wei ultimately gets trapped in, but does finally manage to escape. It is truly a tragedy that the small-mindedness of the crowd that confronted Lao in Beijing couldn't see Lao's work as actually positive, and pro-Chinese - in favor of progress and so forth. Of course, I haven't read other works by Lao, but judging from this book, yes, he did mock traditional Chinese foibles, as much as he mocked the English, but he did so to underline what aspects of Chinese character needed to be dropped or at least modified or reformed. Lao was no nihilist - but maybe the crowd that confronted him in Beijing was utterly destructive, and couldn't see his work for what it was, a way of conveying a message that the Chinese did need to strive and work and maybe become a bit more like the English, become more pragmatic, future-looking and not focused on the past.
Here are the quotes:
From the Introduction by Julia Lovell:
"[Lao] ... was appalled not only by rapacious imperialists, but also by China's own 'reactionary forces': the corrupt warlords ('hobgoblins and devils') who had carved the country up between themselves after the collapse of the last dynasty in 1912, blocking the creation of a functioning republic."
"'Mr. Ma and Son' - his third novel, completed in 1929 - was probably the first Chinese novel to confront directly British racism towards China."
"Within its pages, resentment of imperialist bigotry mixes with curiosity about the West and self-disgust for China's failure to stand up for itself in the world."
From the novel:
"On Sunday afternoons, there's always a bustle and stir around Marble Arch... ... Right next to the red flag stands the Conservative Party with a Union Jack. There men there hold their heads very high, because they're wearing two-inch stiff collars and their necks have no chance whatsoever of slumping, and as they wave their big, fine, lily-white, hairy hands, they're shouting with might and main, 'Down with the socialists!', 'Down with the unpatriotic traitors!', heaping blame for all the world's wickednesses on the heads of the workers."
"[Miss Wedderburn's] ...aesthetic viewpoint held that, whatever it was, the newer the better, and that as long as a thing was new, it was good."
"...the year before [Ma Wei] ... came to England. Things were hotting up n the student world. headmasters were striking, teachers were striking, and students were striking. Not many knew what it was all about, but everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Even the church school downed bibles and joined the strikers."
"[Mr. Ma] ...remembered that his elder brother had been younger than sixty when he died. How would he fare himself? He was already heading for fifty! Life's but a dream with no meaning. Yes, a dream..."
"As long as the English have a got a newspaper to read, they don't feel any need to converse."
"[Li Tsu-Jung:] 'But let's not go on about that. If we can't sort ourselves out, it's no good blaming others.'"
"...mother and daughter fought like cat and dog, in accordance with that English independence of spirit whereby each person must have his own idea and never yield to the other, which results, as the argument proceeds, in an ever-increasing distance of opinion between the two parties."
"When they teach history at the average school in England, they don't teach anything about China."
"...China still hasn't produced any trailblazing scientists, literary figures or explorers."
"[Mrs. Ely's brother] Alexander [was] ...unable to comprehend the meaning of the word [beautiful] unless he knew how much "beauty" was worth per pound. He knew that the big coloured vases in the antiques shops were beautiful, and that the paintings in the art exhibitions were beautiful, because they all had price tags on them."
"[Catherine Ely to Ma Wei:] If others see you as weak, they'll take advantage of you, and if you have a revolution they'll mock you. Relations between countries are all about one-upmanship, and unless China becomes stronger without outside help, nobody's going to respect the Chinese, and nobody's going to be friendly to you."
"[Catherine Ely to Ma Wei:] In my view, there only two really satisfying things in life: using your knowledge and gaining more knowledge."
"...the cornerstone of this terribly busy, terribly chaotic, and terribly noisy society is an icy-cold, cruel, calculating little wretch - the pendulum of the clock. This economy of time has considerably reduced face-to-face communication, making the telephone and the letter the two treasured talismans of these civilised peole."
"The matter gave Mr. Ma much food for thought. The postman would make four or five deliveries a day, and he'd knock on virtually every door. Where did so many letters come from?"
[Mrs. Wedderburn to her daughter, Mary:] "Money! Can't the clever people in the this world come up with a better idea? Can't they find a way of getting rid of money? There's no fun in life unless you're rich!"
[Mrs. Wedderburn thinking:] "Life... Oh, well, everybody's got to get through it. Am I getting old? Of course not. Just look at those rich ladies over fifty, still in the very bloom of life."
[Ma Wei thinking:] "Love wasn't something to be understood with the spirit but something to be enjoyed or suffered with the body. It was no good trying to suppress it, either."
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "These foreign devils! No sense of the proper social distinctions! No notion of rank!"
"All things Chinese bow down at the foot of face. As long as face can be maintained, who cares about the reality?"
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "Some day I'll take Ma Wei back to China -- there's nothing good to be learnt abroad. Just look at Li Tzu-jung, brazen and shameless. You tell him to go, and what does he do but talk about the law and drag friendship into it, the glib rogue!"
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "The eyes of the lovesick lover shine bright, while the eyes of the lonely and lovelorn are overcast. Being lovesick for one who loves you, has a certain sweetness of flavour. But yearning alone and unloved is naught but bitter pain."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "What branch of learning do the Chinese particularly excel in? None whatsoever!"
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "Their morals are social ones, communal ones. that's one way we Chinese ought to imitate the foreign devils!"
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "No job'll come to you unless you go looking for it, but if I go job-hunting everyday, something's bound to turn up isn't it?"
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "...who wants to go to the foreign devils' theaters! They haven't got any gongs or drums, and they don't paint make-up patterns on their faces either. It's nothing but a handful of men and women babbling a load of endless nonsense; nothing of interest."
[Rev. Ely to Mr. Ma:] "My only hope to obtain a post as professor of Chinese in some university. But I'll have to write a book first, to make myself something of a reputation."
"The Reverend Ely had never held Mr. Ma in any high regard, and his reason for suggesting that Ma write a book was purely so that he might have Ma help him."
"Like other English people, the Reverend Ely was fond of the older people of China, because these older types never utter the word 'nation.'"
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "Ah, what's the joy in living? ... Nothing survives forever in this world, and some foreign devils even say that the sun'll die one day..."
"This attitude of taking life as it comes, the good with the bad, is one reason why China's only half alive."
"[Ma Wei] ...tried constantly to forget her, but how could he? Love's the hardest thing to get rid of, as it sprouts in the heart's deepest recesses."
"A large part of the evening paper is devoted to horse racing and football results, and these people buy a copy - at nine o'clock in the morning - to check whether they've won or not."
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "There's nowhere here you can lay a charge of 'obstreperousness and uniliality' against your child!"
"[Ma Wei] ...was one of the new youth, and the new youth's highest aspiration was to achieve something for their nation and society."
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "...as long as she doesn't' serve me cold beef, I'll offer up thanks to Buddha..."
[Li Tzu-jung thinking:] "Don't imagine that by ignoring time and walking slowly, you'll avoid reaching life's end..."
[Ma Wei to Li Tzu-jung:] "I've never been able to forget her; I can't. I've been trying these last few months."
[Mary Wedderburn to her mother, Mrs. Wedderburn:] "Mum, you're always on about patience and trust. Why's it always the women who have to be patient and trusting while men can do as they like?"
[Mrs. Wedderburn thinking:] "Should she actually follow Mary's suggestion? When you feel lonely, just go and find a man?"
"Hero worship's an outstanding characteristic of Westerners: the winner of a fight can do no wrong."
"[Ma Wei]... sat there, staring, his thoughts as sombre as the wretched London fog, his soul as glum as if it were enclosed in a tiny box, deprived of all light, and doomed to gradually die."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "Love goes hand in hand with helping each other, with sympathy, with looking out for one another. I can't love a girl who can't help me or sympathise with me or look out for me. No matter how pretty she may be, nor how modern her outlook may be..."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "...the other day I found [Lady Simon]... an old squirrel-fur mandarin robe in Piccadilly."
"The Great War in Europe had not only shaken the economic foundation of people's lives, but had also shaken people's ways of thinking. Many questioned the old ideas of morality and of the old concepts current in the world, and began to look at things in new ways."
"Others...reacted against the tide...seeking to cling to the broken fragments of old things that floated on the waves."
"[Catherine Ely] ...was for peace and freedom, against marriage and religion, and wanted nothing of narrow patriotism, nor an aristocratic form of representative government."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "Yes, they're real dab hands at making money, really terrific. And that's the only reason that their fine arts, music and literature can flourish as they do, because if money's in short supply you don't have time for the sort of mental luxury that creates the arts."
"London was a huge place, but Ma Wei felt very alone. There were seven million peole in the city, but who among them was even aware of his existence? Who had nay sympathy for him? His own father didn't understand him... .... ...and he hadn't got any real friends who understood and appreciated his way of thinking. He felt terribly miserable and lonely, even though London was such a bustling, busy place. He had nowhere to go, even though there were four hundred cinemas in London, sixty-odd theatres, so many museums and art galleries, tens of thousands of shops and countless houses. He had nowhere to go. Everything looked so bleak and desolate. Everything he heard made him feel weepy. He'd lost the greatest treasure of humankind: love."
[Ma Wei thinking:] "There's never any system, never any certainty The world's just one big net, trapping us all. Everybody wants to break out trying to slip through it, but we all end up dying in the net. There's no way out. Human beings are feeble creatures, and our aspirations are useless!"
"...students from China proper are forever trying to make foreigners understand China without having realized that while China's so feeble, there's no way foreigners will respect it or its people."
"Humans abuse the weak and fear the strong."
Rather than go into the plot, which would spoil the book for anyone reading this review, I'll simply say that readers will be surprised by the emotional power of the novel - and probably never forget its gut-wrenching denouement. The social critique of the English characters by the author is trenchant - perhaps understandably, given the descriptions of anti-Chinese prejudice by the English. The reader should be prepared for a book that gives the Chinese perspective on Westerners - yet the characters aren't all stereotypes, or rather, the Chinese characters in the book are also mocked and their weaknesses also exaggerated or mocked for comic effect. The younger Ma (Ma Wei) is the long-suffering hero, or anti-hero, who is taken seriously by the author - a romantic hero who never quite adjusts to life in London. The book itself is a flashback from the opening scene in which we learn that Ma Wei is leaving England..
Lao She is considered a great Chinese writer and I can see why after reading this novel. Unfortunately, Lao later committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution after he was denounced by a crowd as having bourgeois tendencies. He couldn't take the humiliation and that night, jumped into a lake near the Forbidden City and drowned - an irreplaceable cultural treasure erased like many other treasures erased at that time as bourgeois. The book gives the Chinese perspective on Western anti-Chinese prejudice, but it also conveys what the Chinese abroad went through in dealing with Western negative attitudes toward the Chinese. The slights and insults were taken seriously - even though the insulted may have kept their mouths shut, the insults were a humiliation that was real. Unfortunately, Lao similarly couldn't tolerate the humiliation he received at the hands of the zealots in Beijing - the revolution had taken a horribly wrong turn with respect to this incisive author who obviously a Chinese patriot. He did mock everyone equally - but the hope voiced repeatedly in the book was that China needed to climb out of its backwardness, it's "mandarin" mentality and become perhaps more like the British, more practical, more willing to work hard to achieve goals such as successfully owning an antiques shop or completing college. The novel is one of manners and the foolishness of prejudice, a world that Ma Wei ultimately gets trapped in, but does finally manage to escape. It is truly a tragedy that the small-mindedness of the crowd that confronted Lao in Beijing couldn't see Lao's work as actually positive, and pro-Chinese - in favor of progress and so forth. Of course, I haven't read other works by Lao, but judging from this book, yes, he did mock traditional Chinese foibles, as much as he mocked the English, but he did so to underline what aspects of Chinese character needed to be dropped or at least modified or reformed. Lao was no nihilist - but maybe the crowd that confronted him in Beijing was utterly destructive, and couldn't see his work for what it was, a way of conveying a message that the Chinese did need to strive and work and maybe become a bit more like the English, become more pragmatic, future-looking and not focused on the past.
Here are the quotes:
From the Introduction by Julia Lovell:
"[Lao] ... was appalled not only by rapacious imperialists, but also by China's own 'reactionary forces': the corrupt warlords ('hobgoblins and devils') who had carved the country up between themselves after the collapse of the last dynasty in 1912, blocking the creation of a functioning republic."
"'Mr. Ma and Son' - his third novel, completed in 1929 - was probably the first Chinese novel to confront directly British racism towards China."
"Within its pages, resentment of imperialist bigotry mixes with curiosity about the West and self-disgust for China's failure to stand up for itself in the world."
From the novel:
"On Sunday afternoons, there's always a bustle and stir around Marble Arch... ... Right next to the red flag stands the Conservative Party with a Union Jack. There men there hold their heads very high, because they're wearing two-inch stiff collars and their necks have no chance whatsoever of slumping, and as they wave their big, fine, lily-white, hairy hands, they're shouting with might and main, 'Down with the socialists!', 'Down with the unpatriotic traitors!', heaping blame for all the world's wickednesses on the heads of the workers."
"[Miss Wedderburn's] ...aesthetic viewpoint held that, whatever it was, the newer the better, and that as long as a thing was new, it was good."
"...the year before [Ma Wei] ... came to England. Things were hotting up n the student world. headmasters were striking, teachers were striking, and students were striking. Not many knew what it was all about, but everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Even the church school downed bibles and joined the strikers."
"[Mr. Ma] ...remembered that his elder brother had been younger than sixty when he died. How would he fare himself? He was already heading for fifty! Life's but a dream with no meaning. Yes, a dream..."
"As long as the English have a got a newspaper to read, they don't feel any need to converse."
"[Li Tsu-Jung:] 'But let's not go on about that. If we can't sort ourselves out, it's no good blaming others.'"
"...mother and daughter fought like cat and dog, in accordance with that English independence of spirit whereby each person must have his own idea and never yield to the other, which results, as the argument proceeds, in an ever-increasing distance of opinion between the two parties."
"When they teach history at the average school in England, they don't teach anything about China."
"...China still hasn't produced any trailblazing scientists, literary figures or explorers."
"[Mrs. Ely's brother] Alexander [was] ...unable to comprehend the meaning of the word [beautiful] unless he knew how much "beauty" was worth per pound. He knew that the big coloured vases in the antiques shops were beautiful, and that the paintings in the art exhibitions were beautiful, because they all had price tags on them."
"[Catherine Ely to Ma Wei:] If others see you as weak, they'll take advantage of you, and if you have a revolution they'll mock you. Relations between countries are all about one-upmanship, and unless China becomes stronger without outside help, nobody's going to respect the Chinese, and nobody's going to be friendly to you."
"[Catherine Ely to Ma Wei:] In my view, there only two really satisfying things in life: using your knowledge and gaining more knowledge."
"...the cornerstone of this terribly busy, terribly chaotic, and terribly noisy society is an icy-cold, cruel, calculating little wretch - the pendulum of the clock. This economy of time has considerably reduced face-to-face communication, making the telephone and the letter the two treasured talismans of these civilised peole."
"The matter gave Mr. Ma much food for thought. The postman would make four or five deliveries a day, and he'd knock on virtually every door. Where did so many letters come from?"
[Mrs. Wedderburn to her daughter, Mary:] "Money! Can't the clever people in the this world come up with a better idea? Can't they find a way of getting rid of money? There's no fun in life unless you're rich!"
[Mrs. Wedderburn thinking:] "Life... Oh, well, everybody's got to get through it. Am I getting old? Of course not. Just look at those rich ladies over fifty, still in the very bloom of life."
[Ma Wei thinking:] "Love wasn't something to be understood with the spirit but something to be enjoyed or suffered with the body. It was no good trying to suppress it, either."
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "These foreign devils! No sense of the proper social distinctions! No notion of rank!"
"All things Chinese bow down at the foot of face. As long as face can be maintained, who cares about the reality?"
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "Some day I'll take Ma Wei back to China -- there's nothing good to be learnt abroad. Just look at Li Tzu-jung, brazen and shameless. You tell him to go, and what does he do but talk about the law and drag friendship into it, the glib rogue!"
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "The eyes of the lovesick lover shine bright, while the eyes of the lonely and lovelorn are overcast. Being lovesick for one who loves you, has a certain sweetness of flavour. But yearning alone and unloved is naught but bitter pain."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "What branch of learning do the Chinese particularly excel in? None whatsoever!"
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "Their morals are social ones, communal ones. that's one way we Chinese ought to imitate the foreign devils!"
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "No job'll come to you unless you go looking for it, but if I go job-hunting everyday, something's bound to turn up isn't it?"
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "...who wants to go to the foreign devils' theaters! They haven't got any gongs or drums, and they don't paint make-up patterns on their faces either. It's nothing but a handful of men and women babbling a load of endless nonsense; nothing of interest."
[Rev. Ely to Mr. Ma:] "My only hope to obtain a post as professor of Chinese in some university. But I'll have to write a book first, to make myself something of a reputation."
"The Reverend Ely had never held Mr. Ma in any high regard, and his reason for suggesting that Ma write a book was purely so that he might have Ma help him."
"Like other English people, the Reverend Ely was fond of the older people of China, because these older types never utter the word 'nation.'"
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "Ah, what's the joy in living? ... Nothing survives forever in this world, and some foreign devils even say that the sun'll die one day..."
"This attitude of taking life as it comes, the good with the bad, is one reason why China's only half alive."
"[Ma Wei] ...tried constantly to forget her, but how could he? Love's the hardest thing to get rid of, as it sprouts in the heart's deepest recesses."
"A large part of the evening paper is devoted to horse racing and football results, and these people buy a copy - at nine o'clock in the morning - to check whether they've won or not."
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "There's nowhere here you can lay a charge of 'obstreperousness and uniliality' against your child!"
"[Ma Wei] ...was one of the new youth, and the new youth's highest aspiration was to achieve something for their nation and society."
[Mr. Ma thinking:] "...as long as she doesn't' serve me cold beef, I'll offer up thanks to Buddha..."
[Li Tzu-jung thinking:] "Don't imagine that by ignoring time and walking slowly, you'll avoid reaching life's end..."
[Ma Wei to Li Tzu-jung:] "I've never been able to forget her; I can't. I've been trying these last few months."
[Mary Wedderburn to her mother, Mrs. Wedderburn:] "Mum, you're always on about patience and trust. Why's it always the women who have to be patient and trusting while men can do as they like?"
[Mrs. Wedderburn thinking:] "Should she actually follow Mary's suggestion? When you feel lonely, just go and find a man?"
"Hero worship's an outstanding characteristic of Westerners: the winner of a fight can do no wrong."
"[Ma Wei]... sat there, staring, his thoughts as sombre as the wretched London fog, his soul as glum as if it were enclosed in a tiny box, deprived of all light, and doomed to gradually die."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "Love goes hand in hand with helping each other, with sympathy, with looking out for one another. I can't love a girl who can't help me or sympathise with me or look out for me. No matter how pretty she may be, nor how modern her outlook may be..."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "...the other day I found [Lady Simon]... an old squirrel-fur mandarin robe in Piccadilly."
"The Great War in Europe had not only shaken the economic foundation of people's lives, but had also shaken people's ways of thinking. Many questioned the old ideas of morality and of the old concepts current in the world, and began to look at things in new ways."
"Others...reacted against the tide...seeking to cling to the broken fragments of old things that floated on the waves."
"[Catherine Ely] ...was for peace and freedom, against marriage and religion, and wanted nothing of narrow patriotism, nor an aristocratic form of representative government."
[Li Tzu-jung to Ma Wei:] "Yes, they're real dab hands at making money, really terrific. And that's the only reason that their fine arts, music and literature can flourish as they do, because if money's in short supply you don't have time for the sort of mental luxury that creates the arts."
"London was a huge place, but Ma Wei felt very alone. There were seven million peole in the city, but who among them was even aware of his existence? Who had nay sympathy for him? His own father didn't understand him... .... ...and he hadn't got any real friends who understood and appreciated his way of thinking. He felt terribly miserable and lonely, even though London was such a bustling, busy place. He had nowhere to go, even though there were four hundred cinemas in London, sixty-odd theatres, so many museums and art galleries, tens of thousands of shops and countless houses. He had nowhere to go. Everything looked so bleak and desolate. Everything he heard made him feel weepy. He'd lost the greatest treasure of humankind: love."
[Ma Wei thinking:] "There's never any system, never any certainty The world's just one big net, trapping us all. Everybody wants to break out trying to slip through it, but we all end up dying in the net. There's no way out. Human beings are feeble creatures, and our aspirations are useless!"
"...students from China proper are forever trying to make foreigners understand China without having realized that while China's so feeble, there's no way foreigners will respect it or its people."
"Humans abuse the weak and fear the strong."
January 23, 2023
my book is lost after i exit from reading it in NetGalley so i will be DNF.
as what i understand about the messages delivered in this book are clear and loud.
as the author was creating a light humour story but it came with heavy themes. the prejudice & discrimination towards Asian especially Chinese was highlighted throughly in this book. As in 1920s, China was a part of British Empire, Chinese were looked down by these British when some of Chinese migrated to England during the colonialization era. Not just simply looked down, British people also were educated by British Empire themselves that Chinese was a barbarian and savage race through media at those time, books, magazine and newspaper. They will be needing White people to civilize. And British has this senses of "White Man's Burden" to "teach" Chinese to be civilize in their way of life.
There were 2 characters of Chinese were written which were Mr Ma and his son, Ma Wei. From their characters, there are differences attitude that we can learn from them. Mr Ma was obviously desperate of wanting British to like him and thus he was willing to embrace western culture and willing to lower his honor. While Ma Wei still has a strong sense of nationalisme towards his country and as well as willing to defend his culture. He wants to see China to rise above from their colonizers. He cared a lot about his country. He also did not simply influence with western cultures. As they were migrating from their country, they encountered culture shock. As western cultures are opposite from their cultures, they were a bit of confuse and this cause two path has created. Either been influence or standing strong. I definitely appreciate the culture shock scene appeared as it is a normal thing to face when migrating to a new country.
There were so many negative perceptions towards Chinese has been written and Western do really thought the world only revolved around them only. Such a good book to read on how the point of view of westerners towards other culture and people. Not forget to mention, the author also provide long term solutions to solve the problem of colonizations. he tried to imply that Chinese should learn and study the knowledge from western and apply in their country without the help from western.
these characters were also depicted genuinely and it did not repressed nor soften the writings. english characters appealed the best because of their repulsion towards chinese were mercilessly created. however as it was written in 1920s, i found its time setting to be lacking or i might be missed out. it doesn't make me felt in 1920s instead i felt i was reading the time setting backwards rather than 1920s. probably the racism idea has gotten me felt this way.
In the end, I realized that as the differences of culture and lack of good governance has caused Westerners to take advantages towards other country. They had this sense to educate non-western people in order to be civilized as per the western ways of life. It was this "White Man's Burden" sense was heavily criticize in this book. It was a wake up call book towards his people under this satirical story.
as what i understand about the messages delivered in this book are clear and loud.
as the author was creating a light humour story but it came with heavy themes. the prejudice & discrimination towards Asian especially Chinese was highlighted throughly in this book. As in 1920s, China was a part of British Empire, Chinese were looked down by these British when some of Chinese migrated to England during the colonialization era. Not just simply looked down, British people also were educated by British Empire themselves that Chinese was a barbarian and savage race through media at those time, books, magazine and newspaper. They will be needing White people to civilize. And British has this senses of "White Man's Burden" to "teach" Chinese to be civilize in their way of life.
There were 2 characters of Chinese were written which were Mr Ma and his son, Ma Wei. From their characters, there are differences attitude that we can learn from them. Mr Ma was obviously desperate of wanting British to like him and thus he was willing to embrace western culture and willing to lower his honor. While Ma Wei still has a strong sense of nationalisme towards his country and as well as willing to defend his culture. He wants to see China to rise above from their colonizers. He cared a lot about his country. He also did not simply influence with western cultures. As they were migrating from their country, they encountered culture shock. As western cultures are opposite from their cultures, they were a bit of confuse and this cause two path has created. Either been influence or standing strong. I definitely appreciate the culture shock scene appeared as it is a normal thing to face when migrating to a new country.
There were so many negative perceptions towards Chinese has been written and Western do really thought the world only revolved around them only. Such a good book to read on how the point of view of westerners towards other culture and people. Not forget to mention, the author also provide long term solutions to solve the problem of colonizations. he tried to imply that Chinese should learn and study the knowledge from western and apply in their country without the help from western.
these characters were also depicted genuinely and it did not repressed nor soften the writings. english characters appealed the best because of their repulsion towards chinese were mercilessly created. however as it was written in 1920s, i found its time setting to be lacking or i might be missed out. it doesn't make me felt in 1920s instead i felt i was reading the time setting backwards rather than 1920s. probably the racism idea has gotten me felt this way.
In the end, I realized that as the differences of culture and lack of good governance has caused Westerners to take advantages towards other country. They had this sense to educate non-western people in order to be civilized as per the western ways of life. It was this "White Man's Burden" sense was heavily criticize in this book. It was a wake up call book towards his people under this satirical story.
March 15, 2016
Mr Ma and Son arrive in London to take over a relative's antiques shop and make a life in the city, far from their home in Beijing, where everyday means a new challenge trying to navigate not only London's bustling streets but also the social conventions of 1920s English society. Mr Ma and his son, Ma Wei, must not only deal with the trials of running a business (especially since traditionally merchants were looked down upon by Chinese society) but also the established sinophobia in British society that infects every aspect of their dealings with their neighbours and associates.
Lao She's novel is at its heart a piercingly-accurate satire not only of comedies of manners in which crossed wires and misunderstandings plague the protagonist, but also of Chinese and British attitudes towards each other. It is in satirising the latter that Lao She succeeds - he is able to deftly caricature how the Chinese were received and treated in the UK and indeed in the West during the pre-war days, well before "China stood up". His portrayal of his Londoners is perfect evidence of this: the crude and profiteering merchant, the bumbling and unaware missionary, and his terrifying wife. These three caricatures of Western involvement in China, and Lao She's bitterness towards how Chinese people are treated in the West, stand alongside his own disillusionment with the Chinese themselves. Mr Ma is obsessed with becoming an imperial official, working for a government that no longer exists, his son is besotted with the landlady's daughter, while the leader of the student activists is nothing more than a boorish chauvinist. Lao She's despair at how the Chinese are treated abroad is matched by his despair at the deficiencies his countrymen show.
William Dolby's translation is able to capture the spirited dialogue that would make Lao She a noted playwright and combined with Lao She's own experiences in London as a lecturer at what is now SOAS, 1920s London comes alive. This novel then continues in the tradition of Lao She's satire (for example, Cat Country) but also plays an important role in understanding Sino-British (and by extension Sino-Western relations) during the early twentieth century, something perhaps still important today.
Lao She's novel is at its heart a piercingly-accurate satire not only of comedies of manners in which crossed wires and misunderstandings plague the protagonist, but also of Chinese and British attitudes towards each other. It is in satirising the latter that Lao She succeeds - he is able to deftly caricature how the Chinese were received and treated in the UK and indeed in the West during the pre-war days, well before "China stood up". His portrayal of his Londoners is perfect evidence of this: the crude and profiteering merchant, the bumbling and unaware missionary, and his terrifying wife. These three caricatures of Western involvement in China, and Lao She's bitterness towards how Chinese people are treated in the West, stand alongside his own disillusionment with the Chinese themselves. Mr Ma is obsessed with becoming an imperial official, working for a government that no longer exists, his son is besotted with the landlady's daughter, while the leader of the student activists is nothing more than a boorish chauvinist. Lao She's despair at how the Chinese are treated abroad is matched by his despair at the deficiencies his countrymen show.
William Dolby's translation is able to capture the spirited dialogue that would make Lao She a noted playwright and combined with Lao She's own experiences in London as a lecturer at what is now SOAS, 1920s London comes alive. This novel then continues in the tradition of Lao She's satire (for example, Cat Country) but also plays an important role in understanding Sino-British (and by extension Sino-Western relations) during the early twentieth century, something perhaps still important today.
April 27, 2017
A very interesting read, especially since it's about the inverse of what I have done, as I have moved from the UK to Beijing and the Mas moved the other way. However the prejudices and problems that they face, and indeed many early 20th century Chinese immigrants faced, make any slight problems I have seem like nothing worth mentioning.
Foreigners like me who emigrate to China often have "bad China days" and bemoan our lot. However if I walk down the street with a Chinese girl I wont attract more than a few stares and perhaps a curse from a jealous guy that "foreign devils are just here to steal our Chinese women". The prejudice's the Mas face are much worse, and mean that their happiness ends up being unobtainable simply down to the attitudes they face.
Lao She writes very well, and I'm given to understand that the Chinese is even wittier than the English translation. However he is prone to preachyness on occasion, with several chapters and monologues from characters clearly voicing his political opinions on the faults with Chinese and British society and how they can be remedied. It wouldn't be so bad except that each time he starts to do this it is strikingly obvious and slightly jarring. This fact almost cost the book a star, but I was generous and gave it back for the characterisation, wit and observation with which he describes London and the interactions between the characters, especially between the Mas and the Wedderburns whom they live with. I do really hope that poor Ma Wei went on to achieve something, and wasn't killed during the political turmoil that swept China a few decades after this novel was set, as Lao She was himself to later suffer at the hands of the red guards.
Foreigners like me who emigrate to China often have "bad China days" and bemoan our lot. However if I walk down the street with a Chinese girl I wont attract more than a few stares and perhaps a curse from a jealous guy that "foreign devils are just here to steal our Chinese women". The prejudice's the Mas face are much worse, and mean that their happiness ends up being unobtainable simply down to the attitudes they face.
Lao She writes very well, and I'm given to understand that the Chinese is even wittier than the English translation. However he is prone to preachyness on occasion, with several chapters and monologues from characters clearly voicing his political opinions on the faults with Chinese and British society and how they can be remedied. It wouldn't be so bad except that each time he starts to do this it is strikingly obvious and slightly jarring. This fact almost cost the book a star, but I was generous and gave it back for the characterisation, wit and observation with which he describes London and the interactions between the characters, especially between the Mas and the Wedderburns whom they live with. I do really hope that poor Ma Wei went on to achieve something, and wasn't killed during the political turmoil that swept China a few decades after this novel was set, as Lao She was himself to later suffer at the hands of the red guards.
July 14, 2024
A compelling, humorous novel that is, in many ways, just as relevant today as it was in the 1920s.
There's so much to love here - the wry humour, the great characters, the beautiful descriptions of London through the seasons. I think this would've 100% been a five star read for me except I felt that the end rather fizzled out.
I'd highly recommend this to anyone.
There's so much to love here - the wry humour, the great characters, the beautiful descriptions of London through the seasons. I think this would've 100% been a five star read for me except I felt that the end rather fizzled out.
I'd highly recommend this to anyone.
November 21, 2022
I read the edition published in 1984 by Joint Publishing, Hong Kong. The sympathetic and very readable translation is by Kenny K. Huang and David Finkelstein. The introduction by Hu Jieqing (Madame Lao She) provides context. Review: A strong narrative and robust character development combine with stunning results in this novel of the Chinese diaspora in London, post World War 1. A Chinese father and son inherit a London curio store from an uncle. They find, after some effort and negotiation with a Reverend, lodging in the house of a woman and her daughter. The interactions between the little quartet and amongst the ancillary characters give us a strong story with cutting commentary, still relevant today, on the imperialist attitudes and actions of the English - as well as the angst of the Chinese. We feel empathy and pathos for all the characters, who are likeable and dislikeable, often at the same time. The author employs much interior monologue as a device for character self-criticism and greater commentary on (both Chinese and British) morals, values and biases of the time.
December 24, 2023
3.5*. This is a sharply witty satire about Chinese migrants in jazz age London. The humour is precise and bittersweet with buffoonish but absolutely real representations of the “benevolent” and “well meaning” British characters doing many racisms. It offers a fascinating antidote to Wodehouse.
October 17, 2024
Although not necessarily my cup of tea, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys Dickensian satire.
March 19, 2017
This should be made recommended reading for anyone planning to move to China. The reason being that it may help to put into persepective some of the difficulties in living in such a different culture. Granted this was written about 100 years ago but many of the social aspects of a foreigner living in a foreign land still apply, especially between the West and China.
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January 22, 2023my favourite quote from this : "the Chinese are fond of rice"
November 24, 2024
It’s rare to find a historical fiction based in Britain written from a Chinese author’s POV. An accessible way to appreciate the (blatantly) structural racism in the UK of 100 years ago
August 27, 2024
A essential book to read 🏃🏻♀️
June 21, 2024
“Mr. Ma and Son” is a brilliant social critique of 20th C. sinophobia, British-Chinese relations and Orientalism, neatly packaged in a novel of only ~300 pages that traces the story of a father and son, Mr. Ma and Ma Wei, as they traverse the struggles of immigrating from Shanghai to London in the 1920s. Reading this book reminded me of what a 5 star rating means to me. I liked “Mr. Ma and Son” so much that I demoted My Brilliant Friend by Ferrante. Not to pit two queens against each other 😶🌫️ but….this is real 5 star material in my mind. It's witty and cutting, laugh out loud funny, but also made me cry in its more heartfelt moments, and is able to tactfully present every side of a story or perspective with an equally scornful yet empathetic weight. It also made “La Casa y el Mundo” by Tagore sit worse with me in hindsight, as "Mr. Ma and Son" is able to successfully balance more philosophical political theory with plot line without feeling like any one rhetoric is being shoved down your throat. This is a timeless classic and I am so glad that Penguin Press picked it up for a new edition that is marketed for wider audiences who should !! read this !! I think it's easy to feel as though the ages of yellow face and more explicit forms of hate are behind us, but truly we are not so far ahead of the book's circumstances as many may believe. Even just this week someone said "ni hao" at me in a weird way, even though I speak no Mandarin and my family is Cantonese/Toizanese anyways, and another person called me either "china" or "chink" in......not so nice a way. That's just the world we live in. For someone like myself who feels very ambiguous in the world, these moments sit very strangely, too... to be seen and hated or seen and othered can be surprising when your default expectation is to be either wholly undecipherable or on the periphery.
I picked this up at the airport as I was heading back to America from London and man I am so glad that I did. Throughout my trip I found myself very curious about Chinese diaspora (and Asian diaspora more broadly), coming to find that my perspectives are more marked by an Asian-American view of things than I had previously thought. “Mr. Ma and Son” answered many of my lingering questions and got me to reflect on many of my own experiences and those of the communities I consider myself a part of. I often forget how recently the British colonial empire is to our present, that my dad was born a British citizen as a result of this history. When I was in London, I was very struck by how British Asians, unlike Asian Americans, are more directly confronted with colonialism and empire in a pedagogical sense. I think that the public education system in America, as well as the general conscience, lags slightly behind in many cases. I don't want to overgeneralize here, but I think that there are some really frank conversations happening in England amongst POC that we aren't having yet in America. Of course, we have a different sociopolitical context so that is to be expected, but fr... I think that here it's almost like you need to convince people that colonialism is real in the first place, which adds an extra hurdle to making change, but there it's just so obvious and accepted (as it should be).
Something that came up for me a lot as I was reading "Mr. Ma and Son" was how Orientalism often manifests itself through capitalism. Yikes!!! Even the cover of the book speaks well to this idea. We see what I presume is a white woman, dressed in Asian-influenced goods, blissfully relaxing, oblivious in a sense to all other things. The orientalism is a stylish costume and nothing more. For instance, Mr. Ma is forced to run this Chinese goods store and take on a merchant role for white people who purchase these goods as a status symbol but in reality do not care about the Chinese. I've always been really unsettled by this idea that people's cultures are shown love, while the people who created these things are dehumanized. Being in Mexico right now, I have seen a lot of this history of material culture in ceramics. I was kind of surprised to see the overlap and collaboration between Chinese artisans's work in porcelains and indigenous ceramic practices. It makes a lot of sense!! but at this point in time the influence of Chinese culture has become so integrated into Mexican culture that it is just seen as Mexican....and all because of the colonialism of the Manila Galleon dating back to the 17th c etc. Even some of the food here, like tacos al pastor, are Chinese in origin, but then Chinese people are low-key still seen as dirty and disruptive and permanent foreigners, at the same time that our culture is packaged into marketable trinkets and socially acceptable symbols of trendiness or whatever. Slight aside but I saw the UGLIEST looking baos of my life this week. They were basically neon. And below them was a sign drawn in sharpie of what's supposed to be a Chinese guy, but is actually just a stick figure with slits for eyes and a triangular hat..... So is this what our culture boils down to? a hollow image and oversaturated product, with not a Chinese vendor in sight??? To what extent can a culture be exported and adapted until it's so diluted that it becomes meaningless? It's hard sometimes to not feel pessimistic about globalization, even with all the beautiful fusion its given us, but I digress XD the drawing at the end of the day honestly made me laugh because of how ridiculous it was, but it got my wheels turning too.
Ok here I go with some quotes now:
“Miss Wedderburni's anxiety was drawn from a long creative history; and had something about it that was akin to religious faith. Muslims don't eat pork, and, as everyone knows, the Chinese poison people. Yes, a kind of faith.” 49
I was struck by this comparison between faith and prejudice... there exists a sort of religious devotion to hatred that I think Lao She describes very well. The religious aspects of this novel are also worth further investigation.
“Before his eyes, water flowed, birds flew and flowers moved in the wind. The water, the birds, the flowers. Maybe they were all more beautiful than her, but people are people, things of the flesh. Love wasn't something to be understood with the spirit, but something to be enjoyed or suffered with the body. It was no good trying to suppress it, either.” (159)
I liked these more flowery, philosophical digressions being interspersed in the majority social realism and also comedy of the book. With Lao She himself being an expat, I also picked up on these moments where it was obvious that a Chinese perspective was being impressed onto an English reality, rather than the other way around, which is what I'm used to and tired of lol. #todesireistosuffer
“If someone abandons all his sacred ambition, duty and vocation, gratuitously discards his golden life simply because he cant kiss someone's cherry-sweet lips - such a person is a fit hero for a novel, but a social criminal. Real society and novels are two quite different things. To drop the paper flags to study and work, and to quiet one's sad wails of disappointed love and take a look at one's ambition, duty and vocation; those would be two salutary doses of medicine for the youth of China, of shattered China, decrepit but charming China.
When in China, Ma Wei had held up a paper flag and shouted battle cries along with the rest of them. But now he'd come to realise that the strength and prosperity of England was in large measure due to the fact that the English don't shout battle cries, but put their heads down and get on with it. The English are passionately committed to freedom, but oddly enough their university students have no right of free speech with regards to their school authorities. The English are passionately committed to liberty, but oddly enough there's order everywhere. When several million workers went on strike, it could be done without the firing of a rifle, and without the death of a single person.”
When Lao She returned to China, he was demonized by the Communist Party, even though he had become more staunchly nationalistic in his time away. I like hearing his comparisons between the political realities of both countries and the youth that will inherit them. Sometimes I feel like Ma Wei, waving a paper flag and shouting in the face of someone or something that reasons though violence and is thus impervious to this logic.
I picked this up at the airport as I was heading back to America from London and man I am so glad that I did. Throughout my trip I found myself very curious about Chinese diaspora (and Asian diaspora more broadly), coming to find that my perspectives are more marked by an Asian-American view of things than I had previously thought. “Mr. Ma and Son” answered many of my lingering questions and got me to reflect on many of my own experiences and those of the communities I consider myself a part of. I often forget how recently the British colonial empire is to our present, that my dad was born a British citizen as a result of this history. When I was in London, I was very struck by how British Asians, unlike Asian Americans, are more directly confronted with colonialism and empire in a pedagogical sense. I think that the public education system in America, as well as the general conscience, lags slightly behind in many cases. I don't want to overgeneralize here, but I think that there are some really frank conversations happening in England amongst POC that we aren't having yet in America. Of course, we have a different sociopolitical context so that is to be expected, but fr... I think that here it's almost like you need to convince people that colonialism is real in the first place, which adds an extra hurdle to making change, but there it's just so obvious and accepted (as it should be).
Something that came up for me a lot as I was reading "Mr. Ma and Son" was how Orientalism often manifests itself through capitalism. Yikes!!! Even the cover of the book speaks well to this idea. We see what I presume is a white woman, dressed in Asian-influenced goods, blissfully relaxing, oblivious in a sense to all other things. The orientalism is a stylish costume and nothing more. For instance, Mr. Ma is forced to run this Chinese goods store and take on a merchant role for white people who purchase these goods as a status symbol but in reality do not care about the Chinese. I've always been really unsettled by this idea that people's cultures are shown love, while the people who created these things are dehumanized. Being in Mexico right now, I have seen a lot of this history of material culture in ceramics. I was kind of surprised to see the overlap and collaboration between Chinese artisans's work in porcelains and indigenous ceramic practices. It makes a lot of sense!! but at this point in time the influence of Chinese culture has become so integrated into Mexican culture that it is just seen as Mexican....and all because of the colonialism of the Manila Galleon dating back to the 17th c etc. Even some of the food here, like tacos al pastor, are Chinese in origin, but then Chinese people are low-key still seen as dirty and disruptive and permanent foreigners, at the same time that our culture is packaged into marketable trinkets and socially acceptable symbols of trendiness or whatever. Slight aside but I saw the UGLIEST looking baos of my life this week. They were basically neon. And below them was a sign drawn in sharpie of what's supposed to be a Chinese guy, but is actually just a stick figure with slits for eyes and a triangular hat..... So is this what our culture boils down to? a hollow image and oversaturated product, with not a Chinese vendor in sight??? To what extent can a culture be exported and adapted until it's so diluted that it becomes meaningless? It's hard sometimes to not feel pessimistic about globalization, even with all the beautiful fusion its given us, but I digress XD the drawing at the end of the day honestly made me laugh because of how ridiculous it was, but it got my wheels turning too.
Ok here I go with some quotes now:
“Miss Wedderburni's anxiety was drawn from a long creative history; and had something about it that was akin to religious faith. Muslims don't eat pork, and, as everyone knows, the Chinese poison people. Yes, a kind of faith.” 49
I was struck by this comparison between faith and prejudice... there exists a sort of religious devotion to hatred that I think Lao She describes very well. The religious aspects of this novel are also worth further investigation.
“Before his eyes, water flowed, birds flew and flowers moved in the wind. The water, the birds, the flowers. Maybe they were all more beautiful than her, but people are people, things of the flesh. Love wasn't something to be understood with the spirit, but something to be enjoyed or suffered with the body. It was no good trying to suppress it, either.” (159)
I liked these more flowery, philosophical digressions being interspersed in the majority social realism and also comedy of the book. With Lao She himself being an expat, I also picked up on these moments where it was obvious that a Chinese perspective was being impressed onto an English reality, rather than the other way around, which is what I'm used to and tired of lol. #todesireistosuffer
“If someone abandons all his sacred ambition, duty and vocation, gratuitously discards his golden life simply because he cant kiss someone's cherry-sweet lips - such a person is a fit hero for a novel, but a social criminal. Real society and novels are two quite different things. To drop the paper flags to study and work, and to quiet one's sad wails of disappointed love and take a look at one's ambition, duty and vocation; those would be two salutary doses of medicine for the youth of China, of shattered China, decrepit but charming China.
When in China, Ma Wei had held up a paper flag and shouted battle cries along with the rest of them. But now he'd come to realise that the strength and prosperity of England was in large measure due to the fact that the English don't shout battle cries, but put their heads down and get on with it. The English are passionately committed to freedom, but oddly enough their university students have no right of free speech with regards to their school authorities. The English are passionately committed to liberty, but oddly enough there's order everywhere. When several million workers went on strike, it could be done without the firing of a rifle, and without the death of a single person.”
When Lao She returned to China, he was demonized by the Communist Party, even though he had become more staunchly nationalistic in his time away. I like hearing his comparisons between the political realities of both countries and the youth that will inherit them. Sometimes I feel like Ma Wei, waving a paper flag and shouting in the face of someone or something that reasons though violence and is thus impervious to this logic.
May 21, 2023
Candid and beautiful. I love Chinese literature , always makes me contemplate life and it’s always poetical, rich, and eclectic …..tad bit sorrowful, but not too much at all. Perfect balance , lovely !!!!!!! I recommend to all
April 21, 2018
Reading this, I was struck by the perceptions of British people towards Chinese. This was written in 1929; the U.S.'s gift of their jobs to China is decades in the future, so China is a poor country with an undistinguished military or industry. Britons (and no doubt Americans) discriminated against Chinese and made fun of them. At the time of this review, China is the next world power and holds the debt of our country in their hands. Revenge, much?
The characterization of Mr Ma and his son is a bit undeveloped, nevertheless I sympathized with Ma Wei, and hated Mary and Mrs. Evans for their shallowness (Lao certainly knows how to characterize the shallow, hypocritical Briton.
The characterization of Mr Ma and his son is a bit undeveloped, nevertheless I sympathized with Ma Wei, and hated Mary and Mrs. Evans for their shallowness (Lao certainly knows how to characterize the shallow, hypocritical Briton.
December 15, 2022
This never quite took off for me: the satire was too gentle and I didn't really care about the characters, who meandered through life in a way that I never really connected with. There are moments of sharpness and some flashes of interesting perspective but overall it felt insubstantial. It's me not the book, though, I think - I am not the reader this book wants.
January 11, 2024
This book is not for me. I don’t think it’s a bad book, I just could not get hooked in it, neither from the prose or the plot. This book took me about 8 months to finish in all. It was funny and interesting at times and I think the characters are well done. Just not for me!
December 2, 2017
A rather poor imitation of Western Literature by a Chinese author, its only reason for existence being to prove the world that Chinese can do it nonetheless. Has some original observations though.
Read
August 19, 2025Lao She was the pen name of Shu Qingchun, a writer of novels and plays, who taught Chinese at the University of London for several years in the 1920s. In this novel, a minor government official in Peking finds that his brother, who emigrated to London years ago and set up an antique shop near St. Paul’s Cathedral, has died and left him the business. Mr. Ma and his son, Ma Wei, sail to England to take up the inheritance, and find that confusion, disdain and prejudice go both ways. Lao She (always apparently referred to by both names) is, unsurprisingly, a thorough chronicler of anti-Asian racism: the Mas struggle to rent because few English people are willing to have Chinese men in their homes. When they eventually do find a place to stay, the landlady Mrs. Wedderburn and her daughter Mary still see them as dirty and stupid. One of the great points of interest in the novel is how Mrs. Wedderburn—whom a reader might initially assume is the more close-minded of the two women—comes to feel first appreciation, then affection and eventually sexual attraction, towards Ma père. They share interests (flower growing; her small yappy dog), and are fundamentally similar people: lazy, old-fashioned, widowed, lonely.
“Lazy”, you say – but wait, aren’t we meant to like Mr. Ma? Isn’t he meant to be our downtrodden, racially abused hero? Well, no, not really. Lao She is critical of his Chinese characters, too: there are three major ones, and the titular two both serve as points on a generational spectrum of behaviour and values that Lao She dissects pitilessly. Mr. Ma is set in his ways, failing to understand that businesses require effort to run and that basic decency to your employees is important; instead, he overspends and pines for the status historically afforded to government officials back in Peking, ignoring the reality that the imperial system collapsed in 1912. Ma Wei is more sympathetic, enthusiastically taking the advice of Li Tzu-jung, the long-standing assistant at the antiques shop, and juggling studies in business with actual work and caring for his father, but he falls hopelessly in love with the landlady’s coarse, racist daughter. There’s a lot of discussion, both authorial and within these characters’ dialogue, of what afflicts China: it’s a “weak country”, with little military might or intellectual prowess to show on the world stage, so no one respects it. Ma Wei and Li Tzu-jung both agree that China must rectify this—build up its army, become the best in the world at something (chemistry, maybe, Li suggests)—in order for Chinese nationals to receive better treatment abroad. From a twenty-first century perspective, this is quite unexpected (whatever one makes of China now, it cannot be described as militarily weak or intellectually unimpressive), and a fascinating glimpse into the thought processes that would drive Chinese expansionist policies almost from the moment of this book’s publication into the present day.
On a pure language level, Mr. Ma and Son is not very exciting. It’s always hard to know if this is a translator’s responsibility or if they simply reflect qualities present in the original language; in this case it might very well be the latter, and those qualities might very well be efforts at characterisation. The novel is full of symmetrical stock phrases: “spick and span”, “scrimping and saving”, “fought like cat and dog”. This is legible as free indirect discourse. The Mas both think in cliché because English and its idioms are relatively new to them, and also, in the case of Mr. Ma, because he is the kind of person for whom a cliché is deeply comforting, a reliable method of self-expression. Li Tzu-jung seems to use phrases like “old chap” and “old lad” almost ironically (he also describes a lucrative former job as “a good wicket”), out-Englishing the English while, perhaps, laughing at the Mas too. The English characters speak and think in cliché because they are defined by their mental complacency. On the other hand, because everyone articulates themselves like this, there’s no differentiation, no levels, no light and shade. The book has a few very funny scenes, but the shopworn language works against it. It’s enjoyable, and interesting to think about, but it is absolutely not on the level of Dickens, or even particularly Dickensian in flavour, despite the claims of the critical introduction. Few things are, though. Fun, bittersweet (what to make of that ending?), glad I read it. Source: local public library #LoveYourLibrary
“Lazy”, you say – but wait, aren’t we meant to like Mr. Ma? Isn’t he meant to be our downtrodden, racially abused hero? Well, no, not really. Lao She is critical of his Chinese characters, too: there are three major ones, and the titular two both serve as points on a generational spectrum of behaviour and values that Lao She dissects pitilessly. Mr. Ma is set in his ways, failing to understand that businesses require effort to run and that basic decency to your employees is important; instead, he overspends and pines for the status historically afforded to government officials back in Peking, ignoring the reality that the imperial system collapsed in 1912. Ma Wei is more sympathetic, enthusiastically taking the advice of Li Tzu-jung, the long-standing assistant at the antiques shop, and juggling studies in business with actual work and caring for his father, but he falls hopelessly in love with the landlady’s coarse, racist daughter. There’s a lot of discussion, both authorial and within these characters’ dialogue, of what afflicts China: it’s a “weak country”, with little military might or intellectual prowess to show on the world stage, so no one respects it. Ma Wei and Li Tzu-jung both agree that China must rectify this—build up its army, become the best in the world at something (chemistry, maybe, Li suggests)—in order for Chinese nationals to receive better treatment abroad. From a twenty-first century perspective, this is quite unexpected (whatever one makes of China now, it cannot be described as militarily weak or intellectually unimpressive), and a fascinating glimpse into the thought processes that would drive Chinese expansionist policies almost from the moment of this book’s publication into the present day.
On a pure language level, Mr. Ma and Son is not very exciting. It’s always hard to know if this is a translator’s responsibility or if they simply reflect qualities present in the original language; in this case it might very well be the latter, and those qualities might very well be efforts at characterisation. The novel is full of symmetrical stock phrases: “spick and span”, “scrimping and saving”, “fought like cat and dog”. This is legible as free indirect discourse. The Mas both think in cliché because English and its idioms are relatively new to them, and also, in the case of Mr. Ma, because he is the kind of person for whom a cliché is deeply comforting, a reliable method of self-expression. Li Tzu-jung seems to use phrases like “old chap” and “old lad” almost ironically (he also describes a lucrative former job as “a good wicket”), out-Englishing the English while, perhaps, laughing at the Mas too. The English characters speak and think in cliché because they are defined by their mental complacency. On the other hand, because everyone articulates themselves like this, there’s no differentiation, no levels, no light and shade. The book has a few very funny scenes, but the shopworn language works against it. It’s enjoyable, and interesting to think about, but it is absolutely not on the level of Dickens, or even particularly Dickensian in flavour, despite the claims of the critical introduction. Few things are, though. Fun, bittersweet (what to make of that ending?), glad I read it. Source: local public library #LoveYourLibrary
October 27, 2023
Was quite intrigued when I saw this in Heathrow Terminal 2. This is a story about a father (Mr Ma) and his son (Ma Wei) who migrate from China to London to run an antiques shop, and the prevailing attitude of racism in the UK at that time. This attitude is explained by racist caricatures of Chinese people who are reproduced in popular media, the British colonial mindset of superiority, and the falling behind of China’s economy in the early 1900s.
In the story we learn more about the Wedderburns, a mother and daughter pair who rents their house to the Mas, who fall in love with them. Ma Wei and his friend Li Tzu-Jung, who runs the antique shop on behalf of the Mas, are the only two decent people in the entire novel. Mr Ma is portrayed as a self-absorbed, lazy, cowardly father who only cares about his needs and panders to others to be likeable, while the rest of the cast of characters — the Wedderburns and Elys — are all out racist. The story ends in despair: .
While this novel is satirical, and thinly disguises the author Lao She’s personal philosophy — his uncharitable views of China and a scathing criticism of the reproduction of racism through mass media — there was something too blunt about his commentary that didn’t feel wholly satirical and humorous. Evocative descriptions of London are mixed with dark humour are mixed with serious critiques. Still I think this novel is essential reading, maybe one of the few books that openly examines Asian discrimination in that time (and how the Japanese were ranked higher than the Chinese).
Excerpts:
Every one of those five thousand yellow-faced demons will smoke opium, smuggle arms, commit murder - hiding the corpses under their bed - rape women — regardless of age — and commit an endless amount of crimes. […] Authors, playwrights and screenwriters are prompt to base their all who see the play, watch the film or read the novel - the young girls, the old ladies, the little children and the King of England - firmly imprint these quite unfounded pictures upon their memories.
Thus are the Chinese transformed into the most sinister, most foul, most loathsome and most degraded two-legged beasts on earth. In this twentieth century, people are judged according to their nation. The people of a powerful nation are people; the people of a weak nation are dogs.
People of China, open your eyes and take a look around. Yes, it's time you opened your eyes and straightened your backs. Unless, that is, you wish to be dogs forever.
“You can’t imagine that I would allow two Chinese men to cook rats in my house?”
Wherever the Japanese go, there are Japanese brothels. Wherever the Chinese go, there are little restaurants and laundries. The difference is that besides the brothels the Japanese have also got steamships, banks and big businesses. The Chinese haven't got any industry apart from cuisine and clothes-washing. That's why the Japanese are forever looking smug while we never dare to straighten our shoulders! But the Europeans and Americans look down on the Japanese and Chinese equally. The only difference is that they call the Japanese "Japs" behind their backs and flatter them to their faces, while they say nasty things about the Chinese directly to them; it’s downright uncivil.
In the story we learn more about the Wedderburns, a mother and daughter pair who rents their house to the Mas, who fall in love with them. Ma Wei and his friend Li Tzu-Jung, who runs the antique shop on behalf of the Mas, are the only two decent people in the entire novel. Mr Ma is portrayed as a self-absorbed, lazy, cowardly father who only cares about his needs and panders to others to be likeable, while the rest of the cast of characters — the Wedderburns and Elys — are all out racist. The story ends in despair: .
While this novel is satirical, and thinly disguises the author Lao She’s personal philosophy — his uncharitable views of China and a scathing criticism of the reproduction of racism through mass media — there was something too blunt about his commentary that didn’t feel wholly satirical and humorous. Evocative descriptions of London are mixed with dark humour are mixed with serious critiques. Still I think this novel is essential reading, maybe one of the few books that openly examines Asian discrimination in that time (and how the Japanese were ranked higher than the Chinese).
Excerpts:
Every one of those five thousand yellow-faced demons will smoke opium, smuggle arms, commit murder - hiding the corpses under their bed - rape women — regardless of age — and commit an endless amount of crimes. […] Authors, playwrights and screenwriters are prompt to base their all who see the play, watch the film or read the novel - the young girls, the old ladies, the little children and the King of England - firmly imprint these quite unfounded pictures upon their memories.
Thus are the Chinese transformed into the most sinister, most foul, most loathsome and most degraded two-legged beasts on earth. In this twentieth century, people are judged according to their nation. The people of a powerful nation are people; the people of a weak nation are dogs.
People of China, open your eyes and take a look around. Yes, it's time you opened your eyes and straightened your backs. Unless, that is, you wish to be dogs forever.
“You can’t imagine that I would allow two Chinese men to cook rats in my house?”
Wherever the Japanese go, there are Japanese brothels. Wherever the Chinese go, there are little restaurants and laundries. The difference is that besides the brothels the Japanese have also got steamships, banks and big businesses. The Chinese haven't got any industry apart from cuisine and clothes-washing. That's why the Japanese are forever looking smug while we never dare to straighten our shoulders! But the Europeans and Americans look down on the Japanese and Chinese equally. The only difference is that they call the Japanese "Japs" behind their backs and flatter them to their faces, while they say nasty things about the Chinese directly to them; it’s downright uncivil.
September 28, 2024
London through Yatsenist eyes. Supposedly the first depiction of anti-Asian racism (in 1920s Britain, apparently stronger than anti-Blackness). But more than that; a Dickens obsessive updating his teasing of Londoners with immigrant freshness.
We open with a lovely portrait of Speaker's Corner in its heyday. Impotent, ridiculous, cancelling itself out - and yet historically unusual. Such things were soon stamped out forever in Beijing.
The satire is saved, as it is always saved, by being universally applied: the immigrant characters get it too.
The author's biography makes the ending particularly painful. (He returned home in '48 and as a cosmopolitan intellectual was forced to degrade himself and join mobs to survive - and it still didn't save him. I can imagine throwing away my values to survive; but to chuck them and be killed anyway is the worst fate. I hope I would at least flee.)
But he has a bad habit of repeating everything 3 times in a paragraph, which dulls the satire's effect. This is recognisably the serialised writer's vice, which carries him straight to his beloved Dickens after all.
We open with a lovely portrait of Speaker's Corner in its heyday. Impotent, ridiculous, cancelling itself out - and yet historically unusual. Such things were soon stamped out forever in Beijing.
The satire is saved, as it is always saved, by being universally applied: the immigrant characters get it too.
Foreign women! he grumbled to himself. Such haughty natures! Mr Ma felt rather sad. His woman was wilful, his son was uncouth, he himself had met with no success in his quest for a government career, and the traffic was racing round him like mad. What can an old fellow like me do? Nothing at all – nothing at all. Just have to put up with it.
‘Shop assistant!’ (This time he even omitted the ‘Li’.) ‘Do you mean to tell me that if the manager of a shop wishes to drink a cup of tea, he is required to pull out his own money? And there are numerous teapots and cups on the shelves, yet without any thought you declare that we have none!’
‘You may feel I’m a bit direct, but we’re in England now. The English way is that business is business, and nothing personal. We’ve got to do things the same way.’
‘Yes,’ said Ma Wei in a small voice, not daring to look at his father.
As she looked at him, Mary felt a bit resentful of his actually having dared to fight Paul. But she rather admired him too – not only for having dared to fight, but for having won. Hero worship’s an outstanding characteristic of Westerners: the winner of a fight can do no wrong. And as Mary looked at Ma Wei, she couldn’t help finding him quite adorable. His collar was crooked, there were spots of blood on his tie and his hair was tousled, all of which tugged most powerfully at her heartstrings. It was all so extraordinary, so fine, so heroic, such a striking revelation of his masculinity, his strength, his courage, his brutishness and his real flesh-and-bloodedness, all of which served to inspire a girl’s faith in a man, and to heighten her warmth of feeling towards him.
Human nature’s inherently selfish, and its greatest indulgence is to build a little family.
The author's biography makes the ending particularly painful. (He returned home in '48 and as a cosmopolitan intellectual was forced to degrade himself and join mobs to survive - and it still didn't save him. I can imagine throwing away my values to survive; but to chuck them and be killed anyway is the worst fate. I hope I would at least flee.)
But he has a bad habit of repeating everything 3 times in a paragraph, which dulls the satire's effect. This is recognisably the serialised writer's vice, which carries him straight to his beloved Dickens after all.
October 3, 2022
First of all, I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of the novel in return for an honest review.
The book tells the story of the epynomous Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei, newly arrived in 1920s London from China to inherit an antiques business from Mr Ma's deceased brother. The story follows the protagonists as they navigate racism and bigotry towards Chinese, while not failing to spare them in the depiction of their own shortcomings. The story is clearly a satire, and a notable one at that, but despite this the characters come across as highly plausible rather than just carticatures (which they clearly are).
Reading the novel nearly 100 years after its publication is quite special. One almost feels it's a contemporary creation (due to tone and wit), with immense historical accuracy. The story brings to life what London felt like to immigrants during those years, and how the racism that these immigrants experienced was ingrained in society and the day to day experiences of Brits. It's hard to ignore how much of this still persists, albeit perhaps less overt and not aimed at Chinese immigrants.
What is particulary smart is how the author doesn't put the immigrants on a pedestal, and actually highlights their own faults (again via caricaturistic descriptions, especially of Mr Ma). At the same time, the novel deconstructs some of the more gaudy stereotypes about English society itself, and while some bring a smile to one's lips, there is something powerful in highlighting faults on both sides. This seems to make the point that exactly because neither the immigrants nor their hosts are perfect, racism has no leg to stand on. The continued relevance of this analysis is quite striking.
The story is also well written and well paced (mostly). It's a book that is (very) suprisingly hard to put down. At times the author did go into rabbit holes describing some quaint aspects of English life during that time (hats, the collecting business, restaurants). This broke the pace, and was frankly a bit on the boring side.
I personally found the satire form of the novel a bit hard to relate to. Nothing wrong in the form or its execution (I can appreciate the artform while not liking it), but I found it hard to get excited about. I also found the story to be rather simplistic. More like an episode in a sitcom, without a clear point and with nothing really happening. I also found none of the characters likeable in the least - they were all very flawed and frankly disturbing. Again, these aspects are not objectively problems. Rather they made it difficult for me (personally, subjectively) to fall in love with this book.
I'm glad I read it, and would recommend it quite broadly though.
The book tells the story of the epynomous Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei, newly arrived in 1920s London from China to inherit an antiques business from Mr Ma's deceased brother. The story follows the protagonists as they navigate racism and bigotry towards Chinese, while not failing to spare them in the depiction of their own shortcomings. The story is clearly a satire, and a notable one at that, but despite this the characters come across as highly plausible rather than just carticatures (which they clearly are).
Reading the novel nearly 100 years after its publication is quite special. One almost feels it's a contemporary creation (due to tone and wit), with immense historical accuracy. The story brings to life what London felt like to immigrants during those years, and how the racism that these immigrants experienced was ingrained in society and the day to day experiences of Brits. It's hard to ignore how much of this still persists, albeit perhaps less overt and not aimed at Chinese immigrants.
What is particulary smart is how the author doesn't put the immigrants on a pedestal, and actually highlights their own faults (again via caricaturistic descriptions, especially of Mr Ma). At the same time, the novel deconstructs some of the more gaudy stereotypes about English society itself, and while some bring a smile to one's lips, there is something powerful in highlighting faults on both sides. This seems to make the point that exactly because neither the immigrants nor their hosts are perfect, racism has no leg to stand on. The continued relevance of this analysis is quite striking.
The story is also well written and well paced (mostly). It's a book that is (very) suprisingly hard to put down. At times the author did go into rabbit holes describing some quaint aspects of English life during that time (hats, the collecting business, restaurants). This broke the pace, and was frankly a bit on the boring side.
I personally found the satire form of the novel a bit hard to relate to. Nothing wrong in the form or its execution (I can appreciate the artform while not liking it), but I found it hard to get excited about. I also found the story to be rather simplistic. More like an episode in a sitcom, without a clear point and with nothing really happening. I also found none of the characters likeable in the least - they were all very flawed and frankly disturbing. Again, these aspects are not objectively problems. Rather they made it difficult for me (personally, subjectively) to fall in love with this book.
I'm glad I read it, and would recommend it quite broadly though.
May 31, 2023
Typical of Lao She's work, both Mr Ma and his son feel very put-upon by life, the people around them, and particularly each other. Mr Ma's ambition is to be paid for doing pretty much nothing at all, whether it be as a civil servant in the Chinese government or simply being supported by others. Son's ambition is to study and get ahead, but how can he when he has to drag Dad along? They somehow got the idea that London would be a better place to achieve their ambitions than Peking or Shanghai, though we are told at the beginning of the book how bad their English is.
And about that English. Somehow, in spite of little practical knowledge, we are expected to believe that they hold detailed conversations on abstract topics in English, from day one, with Londoners who are unused to dealing with outsiders. But then of course Lao She wrote in Chinese anyway, and this was published in 1920.
I was amused at how the author turns the tables on the insular British mindset of the time (and later) of living in a new country and yet considering its inhabitants "foreigners". All of his Chinese characters speak and think of the English as the foreigners here. I sometimes felt the reaction to Ma and Son that I had to English and American people who came to live in Spain in the 80s and proceeded to complain about how different everything was. Well, sweetie--you came here of your own free will, you can always go home. Nobody sent for you! But going home would mean losing face, so they can't do that, it seems.
As others have said, there are long rambling disquisitions on one topic or another that have nothing at all to do with the text but simply give the author a chance to soapbox. Also the story is told end-foremost, a technique of which I am not overly fond. We know how it's going to end before it starts, only what we know makes no sense until we read it all. Personally I think it might have been more interesting if it had told the story of some of those Chinese workers from the East End, instead of these stultified middle-class wannabes who don't manage to actually do much of anything at all.
And about that English. Somehow, in spite of little practical knowledge, we are expected to believe that they hold detailed conversations on abstract topics in English, from day one, with Londoners who are unused to dealing with outsiders. But then of course Lao She wrote in Chinese anyway, and this was published in 1920.
I was amused at how the author turns the tables on the insular British mindset of the time (and later) of living in a new country and yet considering its inhabitants "foreigners". All of his Chinese characters speak and think of the English as the foreigners here. I sometimes felt the reaction to Ma and Son that I had to English and American people who came to live in Spain in the 80s and proceeded to complain about how different everything was. Well, sweetie--you came here of your own free will, you can always go home. Nobody sent for you! But going home would mean losing face, so they can't do that, it seems.
As others have said, there are long rambling disquisitions on one topic or another that have nothing at all to do with the text but simply give the author a chance to soapbox. Also the story is told end-foremost, a technique of which I am not overly fond. We know how it's going to end before it starts, only what we know makes no sense until we read it all. Personally I think it might have been more interesting if it had told the story of some of those Chinese workers from the East End, instead of these stultified middle-class wannabes who don't manage to actually do much of anything at all.
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