Golden Lilies: Letters by Kwei-Li

This book consists of two series of letters written by a traditional Chinese lady called Kwei-Li. The first series are written shortly after her marriage when her husband is posted overseas as an offical and she writes of home life to him. They are notable for the poetry of their writing and are very evocotive of old China. The second series of letters are written to her mother-in-law 25 years later and are very different in tone. They deal with the problems she has with a rapidly changing China and how the new, western style, education her children have received has changed their expectations in life - not in a positive way in her view. This book is essentially a reprint of a book that was published in 1914 called 'My Lady of the Chinese Courtyard' as a series of letters that was given to the author to translate for publication. Unfortunatley the original letters have been lost and we can never know how much 'clarfication' of ordinary Chinese customs in the letters have been added to what we read now. Despite this, these letters give an inside glimpse of a fairly ordinary Chinese family dealing with the changes that swept China in the late 19th and early 20th century. They are also easy to read and beautifully written. If you have an interest in China these are worth reading even though it is doubtful that they could ever be used as historical documents and I should note that visually this is a beautiful book with commissioned woodcuts to illustrate the letters.