Welcome to Litsy!

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @puzzledbooks #beginswith challenge, day 4 #beginswith secrets, first selection: see my posts of quotes from the introduction.

“I hasten to add that I was never an old China hand, just a passerby. By the time I arrived on the scene, I was told that the past had already gone down the drain, the present was rushing after it, and future was in jeopardy.“

Oh man, even in this synoptic introduction---way too brief and breezy at 13 pages---with its cool history and crazy characters, makes want to get into James Clavell's Tai-Pan, more history on the mercantile rise of Shanghai and of the Opium Wars as context for China's 21st-century economic rise and dominance, and back into Jung Chang's magisterial expose-biography of Mao Tse-tung, horrific and genius in its own right---as Mao himself was!

“The Soongs pose special difficulties. Some creatures in the wilderness have such effective camouflage that it is difficult to be certain of their presence...It is characteristic of the Chinese, rich and poor, to be reserved and private---even secretive. The Soongs were the most Westernized of all Chinese, but the appearance of openness and accessibility was merely an acquired manner, not a total transformation.“

“Like the Cheshire Cat, the Soongs were visible only when they wished to be. They hid by being obvious. They had a public plumage that was so praiseworthy it dazzled the eye. Once this image was established, it became practically impossible to observe their actual movements, to record their true habits and personalities, or other aspects of character easily discernable in ordinary people.“

“Few families since the Borgias have played such a disturbing role in human destiny...The 'Soong Sisters'---Ai-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling---provoked a now-famous Chinese saying: 'Once upon a time there were three sisters: One loved money, one loved power, one loved China.' “