Traveller Without a Map

by Ch'ien Hsiao, Jeffrey Kinkley (Translator)

Hsiao, Ch'ien

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Maggie]

Insightful depiction of life in 20th century China, through the humbled writer Hsiao Chien. Through the tumult of the Second World War- which the author reported on from London- back to China through the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. The author was labeled a Rightist and spent over twenty years in hardship as punishment before finally being “rehabilitated” in 1979. I’ve never read an account of this period by an intellectual and it was certainly quite a terrible time if you were cast as an enemy. Very disturbing to see how people treat each other when they are encouraged to dehumanize each other. I’m so glad the author shared his story.

I wondered why he didn’t write it in English since he was also a translator of many works from English to Chinese. I appreciated that he included many photos.

[Eric Xia]

This memoir is split into five sections. The first section is a description of the author's poverty, and his cultural and religious influences. It recounts his piecemeal education in Peking (Beijing) and political activities in China under imperial British rule. The second section is rather extraordinary, detailing his life studying abroad at King's College in Cambridge, under the College of Oriental and African Studies. In the third section, he considers his major career accomplishments largely in being a journalist reporting for the *Dagongbao*, a newspaper originally established by the French as an independent reporter. Over the next decade, he covers events in Pre-communist China leading up to the Second World War.

The fourth section outlines his political reclassification as a member of the "Black Gang", and assignment to a forced labour camp. It describes his time spent living in squalor and separation from his family, and his final reconciliation after China's opening policies.

The description of his time in America during the founding of the League of Nations, and his subsequent return to family and Chinese society impacted me greatly. He writes eloquently and at length on his relationships within British literary circles; while in section IV he does a complete about-face on the value of letters and written communications, he considers the friendships and dialogue fostered (e.g, with E. M. Forester over his books on the class struggle) as central to his life as an intellectual.

Themes that appear throughout are the contrasts in relationships between nations and men, the absurd cruelties and inequality of the Cultural Revolution, and how best to approach truth in writing. He writes many short but impactful vignettes. On his way to the Sohai peninsula to do hard labor, he mentions an encounter with a traveling companion. They, knowing his status as a literary man, recounts his appreciation of Keat's "Ode to a Nightinggale". These examples reinforce the winnowing of his figure, from an exquisite level of sensitivity to a patriotic and responsible father.

What is incredible about the advertising blurb is how much his experiences after returning to China, a whole twenty years of his life, end up just being stripped for the sake of palatability. He endured decades of pain and misery which cannot be meaningfully acknowledged in diplomatic settings: he states his hopes for a museum on the Cultural Revolution, which ultimately may never come true.