wp-1585498321703.jpgWelcome to my stop on the China in Another Time blog tour sponsored by Suzy Approved Book Tours! Thank you to Suzy for the invitation!

 

About the Book:

The daughter of a missionary doctor, Claire Malcolm Lintilhac was born in China, became a nurse there, and lived and worked through China‘s whole momentous first half of the 20th century. Opening a unique window into the making of the world’s newest yet oldest superpower, China in Another Time — with over 160 photos and drawings — is Claire’s own story.

A remarkable true story that opens a window on the dramatic decades that

made today’s China. Born in China‘s interior as the daughter of a Canadian medical missionary, Claire Malcolm Lintilhac learned fluent Chinese, became a traveling nurse and lived through the whole momentous first half of China‘s 20th century. After her family barely escaped the bloody Boxer Rebellion of 1900, Claire witnessed firsthand the years of civil war that followed China‘s short-lived Nationalist Revolution of 1911. In the 1930s — as Claire cared for patients both Western and Chinese, fell in love and started a family — she survived Japan’s two horrific attacks on Shanghai, and her British husband Lin was interned by the Japanese in a Shanghai camp during World War II. In 1949 Claire watched as China‘s greatest city fell to the Communist Party, and in 1950 she, Lin and

their son Philip finally left the country they loved. Illustrated with over 160 photos and drawings, China in Another Time is Claire’s vividly personal account of China‘s struggle to become its own modern nation, from the last imperial dynasty to the advent of Communist rule. With an introduction by eminent China scholar Nicholas Clifford, professor emeritus at Middlebury College. https://www.chinainanothertime.com

Blurbs & Reviews:

“This memoir of a Western woman who was born in China in the time of the Boxers and lived there throughout most of the next half-century, part of it as a traveling nurse, offers a fascinating window on a country undergoing a series of dramatic transformations. China in Another Time is enlivened by firsthand details, enriched by sidebar materials that help orient readers unfamiliar with the setting and the history, and filled with evocative visual materials.” —Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom  co-author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know

Born in 1899 to a Canadian medical missionary and his wife in a rural Chinese village, the author lived through the Boxer Rebellion, the first national government takeover and collapse, a decade-long period of warlord rule, a successful national government takeover in 1928, and finally, the Communist takeover in 1949. Throughout her narrative, she focuses on how such instability affected the Chinese people.” —Kirkus Reviews

My Thoughts:

I always say the book that made me fall in love with historical fiction was The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I read it in the seventh grade, and I’ll never forget the experience of traveling to China in a different time than the present.

Much like The Good Earth, China in Another Time transported me, except this time, I was reading a memoir of the late Claire Malcolm Lintilhac. It was easy to read, thoughtful, descriptive, enlightening, and reads as intriguingly as fiction. Lintilhac described the changes in government during her lifetime and how they shaped the landscape of China.

Overall, this thin memoir is rich in thoughtfulness. I immensely enjoyed my time with it.

I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

About the Author:

Author Claire Malcolm Lintilhac (1899-1984) was born in rural China, the daughter of a Canadian physician. She became a traveling nurse, then began a family in Shanghai — and except for the World War II years she lived in China until 1950, when Claire, her British husband and their young son left after witnessing the first year of Communist rule.

Claire spent the rest of her life in the U.S., and in the late 1970s she wrote a memoir of her China years and recorded 15 hours of storytelling. Vermont author Doug Wilhelm wove those accounts into China in Another Time, with brief historical sidebars and an introduction by an eminent China scholar. This is her story.

Have you read China in Another Time, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR