Intimate China
The Chinese as I Have Seen Them

Published in 1899, Little's book provides a vivid account of life in China at the end of the nineteenth century.

Alicia E. Neva Little (Author)

9781108014274, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 June 2010

636 pages, 120 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3.6 cm, 0.79 kg

Part memoir, part travelogue, part crusade, Intimate China details the exploits of Alicia Little (Mrs Archibald Little), who first arrived in China as a new bride in 1887. Little was already a prolific writer before her marriage, and this narrative is both compelling and refreshingly frank. Published in 1899, her account of life in late nineteenth-century China is arranged eclectically, with chapters on 'Superstitions', 'Current coin in China' and 'Hindrances and annoyances' interlaced with descriptions of trips to Tibet and up the Yangtze. The latter third of the book is devoted entirely to politics. Fuelled with a determination to represent the Chinese 'as I have seen them', Little spares no details, supplying descriptions of the complications arising from foot-binding, a practice she found abhorrent and against which she actively campaigned. Extending to over six hundred pages and lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, this is an extraordinary book.

First impressions
1. On the Upper Yangtse
2. A land journey
3. Life in a Chinese city
4. Hindrances and annoyances
5. Current coin in China
6. Footbinding
7. Anti-footbinding
8. The position of women
9. Births, deaths, and marriages
10. Chinese morals
11. Superstitions
12. Our missionaries
13. Up-country shopping and up-country ways
14. Soldiers
15. Chinese students
16. A father's advice to his son
17. Buddhist monasteries
18. A Chinese ordination
19. The sacred mountain of Omi
20. Chinese sentiment
21. A summer trip to Chinese Tibet
22. Arts and industries
23. A little Peking pug
Affairs of State: Prelude: Part I. Getting to Peking
Part II. The Sights of Peking
1. The Chinese Emperor's magnificence
2. The Empress, the Emperor, and the audience
3. Solidarity, co-operation, and imperial federation
4. Beginnings of reform
5. The coup d'état.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]