THE DRAGON SHEDS HIS SKIN. By Winifred Gal- braith. (Jonathan
Cape. 7s. 6d4—This is a collection of studies and sketches of present-day life in Central China by a lady who taught in a high school for girls founded by a modernist young Chinese woman of good family. The author firmly remained in the city of Changsai when the conflicts of North and South made it dangerous to do so. Perhaps her knowledge of the history of China might be more profound, and one doubts if she penetrated far into .the secrets of a ceremonial people. But she is tolerant and kindly, and evidently got on very well with her pupils. She certainly gives a vivid impression of a city where it is considered a crime to prune the rose-trees, go that they bleed, while headless corpses may appal in any. street Her accounts of the peculiar part played by the „Students' 'Unions in politics, of the pro- paganda of Dr. Sun, and the fluctuations of Left Wings and Right Wings, while not claiming to be more than fragmentary, provoke a keen cariosity concerning the seething Revolution of China. A few impersonal anecdotes convey tragic impres- sions with a stern brevity and a touch of style lacking to her purely descriptive chapters. " The Paper House," " Her Chinese:Heritage," and 'The Reactionary," carved from the dreadful-truth, form really remarkable conks. The photo- graphs are not worthy-of- this interesting book; which offers as a better gift a gem of a Chinese proverb, " Better be broken as jade than exist •as- earthenware."
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