Tientsin - Softcover

Hulme, David C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843200120 ISBN 13: 9781843200123

Publisher: Iumix Ltd c, 2002

Synopsis

Saint Louis College, Tientsin (Tianjin) is a lens through which to view the complex tapestry of influences bearing down on North China, from every direction, in the first half of the 20th century. Its pupils were the children of Russian refugees, Chinese compradors, Japanese industrialists, British bankers and others thrown together to make the best of things in demanding and exciting times. These are tales of a world obliterated by revolution; the foreign concessions of Tianjin (Tientsin), North China, through the eyes of pupils at Saint Louis College. These were children destined to grow up knowing that history has no bystanders. Their Marist Brothers school welcomed all nationalities and all creeds. It was a lens through which the reader can view the complex tapestry of influences bearing down on North China in the first half of the 20th century. Its pupils were the children of Russian refugees, Chinese compradors, Japanese industrialists, British bankers, Italian soldiers, German restaurateurs and Parsee wool traders, thrown together to make the best of things in demanding and exciting times. Their lives were affected on a daily basis by such cataclysmic events as China's epochal collision with the western powers, the rise of Stalinism, machinations of warlords, the emergence of Chinese nationalism, Japan's disastrous attempt at colonialism and finally the triumph of Maoism. These children, their teachers and their families witnessed and experienced, in deeply personal ways, events and trends that post-revolutionary China deliberately forgot or revised. Drama abounds as fortunes are made and lost, empires rise and fall, dreams are fulfilled and lives are smashed. There is the saga of two doctors, both 1917 graduates, one conscripted by the Red Army, the other by the Whites, destined to separately battle for years across Siberia, to Manchuria and eventually to practise in Tientsin, where their children attend the same school. There is also rich characterisation in ebullient, individualistic Brother Konrad Bauer; sensitive, sharply observant Monica Wolf; and ambitious, determined Atsuo Tsukada and many others. Brother Konrad calls himself "Der Fuhrer of La Cuvette" as he rescues novitiates from the Marist Brothers retreat near Beijing, but other Brothers endure weeks as hostages of Chinese communist guerrillas. Little Monica Wolf is dismissed as a dreamer by adults who fear her account of tortures taking place at a nearby Japanese compound. Atsuo Tsukada must evade the fists and rocks hurled by Chinese ruffians in order to reach Saint Louis College, where many classmates have recently returned from a Japanese prison camp. A unique work, thoroughly researched and sensitively presented.

Edition details

• Publisher: Iumix Ltd c
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1843200120
• ISBN 13: 9781843200123
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 346