Ebook On a Chinese Screen, by W. Somerset Maugham
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On a Chinese Screen, by W. Somerset Maugham
Ebook On a Chinese Screen, by W. Somerset Maugham
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Maugham spent the winter months of 1919-20 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze River. Always more interested in people than places, he gave full rein to a sensitive and philosophical nature. On a Chinese Screen is the refined accumulation of the countless scraps of paper on which he had taken notes. Within the narrow confines of their colonial milieu, missionaries, consuls, army officers and company managers are all gently ridiculed as they persist obliviously with the life they know.
- Sales Rank: #709283 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-01-08
- Released on: 2015-01-08
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"A fascinating volume - vivid, thoughtful, full of colour." - The New York Times
From the Inside Flap
Maugham spent the winter months of 1919-20 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze River. Always more interested in people than places, he gave full rein to a sensitive and philosophical nature. On a Chinese Screen is the refined accumulation of the countless scraps of paper on which he had taken notes. Within the narrow confines of their colonial milieu, missionaries, consuls, army officers and company managers are all gently ridiculed as they persist obliviously with the life they know.
From the Back Cover
"A fascinating volume - vivid, thoughtful, full of colour." - The New York Times
Most helpful customer reviews
41 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Notes of an Englishman in China
By Boris Bangemann
William Somerset Maugham was 45 years old when he went on a trip to China in the winter of 1919. Always an astute observer, he jotted down notes, elaborated them, and finally had them published as a book in London. Fortunately, this small volume is now available again as a Vintage Classics paperback in the UK (and in the reviewer's favorite Shanghai bookstore). "On a Chinese Screen" is an appropriate title for the book because it depicts mostly English people against the backdrop of China at the beginning of the century. In 58 short sketches, the longest of which fits on just nine printed pages, Maugham portrays English missionaries, officials, army officers, adventurers and company managers. Maugham gently mocks their narrow-mindedness and indifference towards the country in which they spend a major part of their lives. "On the whole," he remarks, "it made little difference to them in what capital they found themselves, for they did precisely the same things in Constantinople, Berne, Stockholm, and Peking . . . China bored them all, they did not want to speak of that; they only knew just so much about it as was necessary to their business." Their attitude towards the Chinese was one of "mistrust and dislike tempered by optimism," and they did not bother to learn the language.
Whereas Maugham is agreeably malicious in his portraits of the English and their wives, he can get outright scathing and sarcastic when he describes the hypocrisy of protestant missionaries. The Catholics have a better standing with him, which explains why Graham Greene calls Maugham a writer of great dedication. Maugham has a healthy disregard of professedly religious people whose deeds do not live up to their words, no matter whether they are English missionaries who behave as if they were in the civil service or whether they are Chinese farmers who perform the rites "like an old peasant woman in France does her day's housekeeping." Maugham's depiction of the Chinese countryside leaves no lasting impression, yet sometimes he creates images of sheer beauty: "the yellow water in the setting sun was lovely with pale, soft tints, it was as smooth as glass." The focus of his observations are people. Maugham senses the human beings who peek out from behind the roles they play in the scheme of the British Empire. Though he appears to be detached from the hardships of the Chinese, one can feel the effort it takes him to stay aloof when he observes the coolies, the "human beasts of burden", and remarks that their "effort oppresses you. You are filled with a useless compassion." Maugham's most heart-wrenching piece is a story with the innocent title "The Sights of the Town" in which he tells of a so-called baby tower used by the peasants to drop unwanted babies to their deaths. Spanish nuns in the nearby town try to save at least some of the unwanted newborns by paying twenty cents for every one because, as they say, the peasants "have often a long walk to come here and unless we give them something they won't take the trouble."
Maugham, as skeptic and acerbic as he can be, also has a great sense of humor, freshness of observation and unconventionality of comparison. Summing up his impression of an opium den, he writes it reminded him "somewhat of the little intimate beerhouses in Berlin where the tired working man could go in the evening and spend an peaceful hour." Well, I would not compare opium so non-chalantly to beer but his tongue-in-cheek British snobbery is definitely enjoyable. As is his mockingly spiteful aside towards Americans whom he regards to be such extremely practical people "that Harvard is instituting a chair to instruct grandmothers how to suck eggs." My favorite funny piece in the book is Maugham's explanation why democracy gets flushed down by the Western sense of cleanliness. In his words, "it is a tragic thought that the first man who pulled the plug of a water-closet with that negligent gesture rang the knell of democracy." Just check it out. Even if he were not kidding, it would be a side-splitting theory.
Some of the things Maugham observed eighty years ago still apply. For example, "one of the peculiarities of China is that your position excuses your idiosyncrasies." And you can still see people getting their heads shaved on the sidewalk by old barbers. However, I can not report that "others have their ears cleaned, and some, a revolting spectacle, the inside of their eyelids scraped." In general, the life of the Chinese was as impenetrable to Maugham as were the Chinese houses with their monotonous expanse of wall broken only by solid closed doors. Only in the portraits of an old Chinese philosopher (who impotently dreams of the old and better China) and a young drama professor (who lacks any broader vision of China) we get a glimpse of the inner lives of the Chinese.
The back cover of the Vintage Classics paperback edition shows a photo of the middle-aged Maugham. Turning his head to the observer, he has a look of weary curiosity in his eyes and a tiny smile in the corners of his mouth - as if he wanted to say, "that is how it is. What do you think?"
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
A Classic Masterpiece of Travel
By Paul Sharpe
In "On a Chinese Screen" Maugham has written 58 beautiful yet astute caricatures of people he met and places he visited during his journey up the Yangtze River in 1919/20. Each small tale is a perceptive observation about a time of day, a person's character, a place or an event. Maugham's writing is eloquent and beautiful. He doesn't waste words. "For", according to Maugham, "in writing the important thing is less richness of material than richness of personality." The richness and perceptiveness of Maugham shines in each story. Each sketch holds you to the end.
Maugham's most astute observations in "On a Chinese Screen" are reserved for the people he meets. For example, when talking about consular employees and their indifference to their surroundings he observes "it made little difference to them in what capital they found themselves, for they did precisely the same thing in Constantinople, Berne, Stockholm, and Peking." And after speaking to a Chinese official who was lamenting the loss of China and traditional values in the youth, and the disrepair of the temples, Maugham notes that he (Maugham) "knew all the time that he [the official] was a rascal." And of an Italian missionary who had been in China for 50 years he writes "the passion of his eyes bespoke the battles long fought out in the uttermost depths of his heart, and his soul cried out in them, vanquished and bleeding, yet triumphant, and he exulted in the unclosed wound which he offered in willing sacrifice to Almighty God." Brilliant!
Maugham writes compassionately about the plight of the locals. He describes the bearers' burdens and notes that admiration for their strength and perseverance is not allowed. He writes compassionately about the foreigners who find themselves out of place and struggling to adapt. He writes with tragic sadness about the tower from which mothers throw their unwanted babies. Yes, with sadness, deep sadness. Without doubt Maugham is an astute observer of the world, of the people around him, of circumstance, of his time.
I am glad this book is available again. I first saw it in a bookstore in Taipei in 1999. At that time I didn't have money on me to buy and thought I could buy it the next day. Alas when I went back it had already been sold. I looked for it on Amazon but no copies were available and from that day forward, every time I went into a bookstore I asked them if they had a copy. In 2002 I remember asking a store in Hong Kong if they had it in stock. The assistant laughed at me saying they last had it in stock more than five years ago. I eventually found it at another store in 2004 on a brief visit to Hong Kong. It was worth the wait and I have not been disappointed. Needless to say, it never gets lent out.
If you are a lover of literature and a lover of travel then this is a must read. Very seldom are such deep perceptions captured by travel writers and very seldom do travel writers write with such depth, clarity and beauty. It's a small book, can be read in a day and can be re-read countless times. One never gets bored of the prose, of the ideas, of the thoughts, of the descriptions. One of the stories, "The Old Timer," describes the colorful life and travails of a 76 year old English Captain who had been in China for most of his life. At the end of the story Maugham writes: "The dying of the day made him think, he (the Captain) knew not why, of his long past and of his great age. He regretted nothing. `By George,' he muttered, `I've had a fine life.'" I'm sure Maugham could have said the same.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Phenomenal Book
By M. W. Kibby
W. Somerset Maugham is my favorite author, and I have read almost all of his books and every one of his short stories. But On a Chinese Screen is not only his best work [in my opinion], but also one of the ten best books I have ever read. I have to wonder why this book is not required reading in any 1st year college writing class.
The book is not a story, nor is it a short story. It is best described as a series of very short [1-5 pages] vignettes that describe some character, scene, setting, place, or event as Maugham travels through China c/1919. The writing is magnificent, and the insights are compelling. Any aspiring writer should read this book to catch a glimpse of a master story teller's ability to state succinctly the essence of a character, event, place or setting.
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