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Light on China
Two Kinds of Time
Graham Peck (1914-1968) made his first trip to China in 1935 and served with the U.S. Office of War Information in China throughout the 1940s. His memoir, Two Kinds of Time, first published in 1950, is witty and eloquent in both its words and the drawings with which it is lovingly illustrated. Long out of print in its unabridged version, this engagingly written eye-witness narrative of China on the eve of revolution remains an important source of historical and political information. Robert A. Kapp's new Introduction analyzes the book's original contribution and highlights its relevance to issues in the twenty-first century world.
752 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 7, 2017
I started with the Sentry abridged reissue; I will continue with the U. Washington Press reprint of the whole work.
The first half of the book documents life in Chongqing under the rule of the corrupt and semi-despotic Kuomintang. A constellation of characters appear, relief workers, boorish businessmen, educated Chinese bohemians and dandies from the comprador class, peasants worn down by disease and malnutrition. The New Zealander Rewi Alley, director of the industrial cooperatives in unoccupied territory (who later lived in the PRC at the invitation of the Communists), lends the author a loess cave inhabited by two puppies and an eagle. He demystifies the exoticism of the land and exposes the true nature of the social relations. It's an object lesson for the intentions of U.S. foreign policy (our current Afghanistan commitment should come to mind). The concrete and vivid descriptions of the elegant prose are sometimes assisted by the sketches, but a contemporary audience could be offended by what it perceives as an array of stereotypes.
In the second half of the book, the author describes the collapse of the Kuomintang front below the Yangtse, when the Japanese chose to isolate and starve South China. He describes an existence divorced from the realities of the war; architects at universities who hopefully describe a world to build after the victory are shot with their students; the nightlife and the unusual yet vibrant mixture of cultural and nationality is wiped away by the Japanese offensive taking place at the same time as D-Day, the collapse of Fascist Italy, and the Soviet victories over Germany. Famine visits the landscape yet the peasants are bled dry by the government's and their middlemen's exactions. Meanwhile the propaganda machine depicts a China opposite the grim reality on the ground. No doubt as today some politician or high-ranking officer was bruiting fake news about nonexistent progress.
His analysis of US foreign policy, as governed by businessmen and amateurs, makes sobering reading, and can be easily applied to our current debacles.
The first half of the book documents life in Chongqing under the rule of the corrupt and semi-despotic Kuomintang. A constellation of characters appear, relief workers, boorish businessmen, educated Chinese bohemians and dandies from the comprador class, peasants worn down by disease and malnutrition. The New Zealander Rewi Alley, director of the industrial cooperatives in unoccupied territory (who later lived in the PRC at the invitation of the Communists), lends the author a loess cave inhabited by two puppies and an eagle. He demystifies the exoticism of the land and exposes the true nature of the social relations. It's an object lesson for the intentions of U.S. foreign policy (our current Afghanistan commitment should come to mind). The concrete and vivid descriptions of the elegant prose are sometimes assisted by the sketches, but a contemporary audience could be offended by what it perceives as an array of stereotypes.
In the second half of the book, the author describes the collapse of the Kuomintang front below the Yangtse, when the Japanese chose to isolate and starve South China. He describes an existence divorced from the realities of the war; architects at universities who hopefully describe a world to build after the victory are shot with their students; the nightlife and the unusual yet vibrant mixture of cultural and nationality is wiped away by the Japanese offensive taking place at the same time as D-Day, the collapse of Fascist Italy, and the Soviet victories over Germany. Famine visits the landscape yet the peasants are bled dry by the government's and their middlemen's exactions. Meanwhile the propaganda machine depicts a China opposite the grim reality on the ground. No doubt as today some politician or high-ranking officer was bruiting fake news about nonexistent progress.
His analysis of US foreign policy, as governed by businessmen and amateurs, makes sobering reading, and can be easily applied to our current debacles.
July 9, 2023
Might be my favorite book on China to date. Peck is a remarkably keen observer who elevates his firsthand accounts of living and working in (mostly Nationalist) China during World War II into a sweeping historical opus. Some of the prominent themes include the incompetence of the KMT government under Chiang Kai Shek, the plight of the peasants under China's feudal land system, the surprisingly entangled relationships between the KMT, Japanese occupiers, and puppet coastal elite...
Of course Peck writes about the Flying Tigers, Nanjing Massacre, and other (in)famous events of the Chinese theatre, but he does so with a fresh take. For example, instead of focusing on the heroic stories of the Flying Tigers, Peck highlights the interaction between the Chinese coolies building the 14th Air Force airfields and American servicemen, the complacence in the KMT armed forces caused by the arrival of "miracle" American machines, and how the strategic disagreements between Chennault and Stilwell manifested on the ground. He convincingly cuts through all the propaganda of the era and presents a refreshingly clear view of wartime China.
Two Kinds of Time deserves the full five stars because it completely opened my eyes to this period in history. From bribing pirates for passage into China to experiencing Japanese bombings to meeting with Madame Chiang, Peck has really written a living history. It's a shame that Peck wasn't around for the pivotal developments in China during the latter half of the 20th century. I have no doubt that a sequel to Two Kinds of Time would have been as timeless a work of history.
Of course Peck writes about the Flying Tigers, Nanjing Massacre, and other (in)famous events of the Chinese theatre, but he does so with a fresh take. For example, instead of focusing on the heroic stories of the Flying Tigers, Peck highlights the interaction between the Chinese coolies building the 14th Air Force airfields and American servicemen, the complacence in the KMT armed forces caused by the arrival of "miracle" American machines, and how the strategic disagreements between Chennault and Stilwell manifested on the ground. He convincingly cuts through all the propaganda of the era and presents a refreshingly clear view of wartime China.
Two Kinds of Time deserves the full five stars because it completely opened my eyes to this period in history. From bribing pirates for passage into China to experiencing Japanese bombings to meeting with Madame Chiang, Peck has really written a living history. It's a shame that Peck wasn't around for the pivotal developments in China during the latter half of the 20th century. I have no doubt that a sequel to Two Kinds of Time would have been as timeless a work of history.
January 28, 2023
第一次看到「工合」組織的名字是這本書，
作者淡然自若地描述了工合成員的日常生活。
並對他們熟練地在早晨起床使用牙刷刷牙表達了嘲弄的欽佩之情。
作者淡然自若地描述了工合成員的日常生活。
並對他們熟練地在早晨起床使用牙刷刷牙表達了嘲弄的欽佩之情。
June 17, 2025
And a materiel view of the world hasn’t left the us or its state since peck pointed it out
October 6, 2020
Graham Peck first went to China just out of Yale in the mid 1930s. "Two Kinds of Time" is the follow-on volume to "Through China's Great Wall" which was published in 1940. A fine sketch artist, Peck illustrates his book with impressions of the people and places that he saw in the last decade of Republican China.
December 27, 2015
The Pacific theater of World War II and the Chinese civil war seen by a US writer living in Kuomintang China. Vivid depiction of what it was like for ordinary Chinese. Chiang Kai-shek comes out looking very bad indeed.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews