Old Madam Yin: A Memoir of Peking Life

I always feel suspicious of books that contain such sentences as----"The cook poured my second cup of coffee. I had never been able to get him to leave the coffee pot on the table. He seemed to feel that would lessen his dignity." The reason for my hesitation is the slightly wry humor aimed at someone the speaker might have asked, but didn't. However, on finishing OLD MADAM YIN, I have to conclude that it has some excellent points. I chose to read it thinking that it was an autobiography or an edited life story by an anthropologist. No, it is more the story of contact between an American hospital worker in pre-revolutionary China and a Chinese woman from an upper class family of the old school, Old Madam Yin. The Chinese lady has no voice, the whole book being the summary of Ida Pruitt's observations. As she, the author, spoke Chinese and knew China well, we find an interesting picture of a certain style of life, the manners and innuendoes of a bygone age in Beijing, family dynamics before Mao. It makes for fascinating reading, a useful source of social history, and is a book which makes you ponder how much of Chinese culture survives into the present even if somewhat overshadowed by the decaying but still-powerful Communist Party, the Internet, vast movements of labor, the cementing over of vast areas, in a noisier age of nightclubs and cars. I would guess a lot does survive. It seems to me that a reader who wants to know what Chinese think would be wiser to look elsewhere, but if you are looking for acute observations by an old-style American lady, this is definitely the book. At 129 pages of non-academic prose, you can read OLD MADAM YIN quickly, but the atmosphere will remain with you for a long time.

This book is a personal account of friendship that developed between an American woman raised and working in China and a Chinese woman raised in the pre-cultural revolution period. Madame Yin is a strong, intelligent person who is an individual of her time. Ida describes Madame Yin with a great respect and love as well as the curiousity of one culture for another. I came away from the book with a much greater appreciation for Chinese family values and traditions. This is a quick but very informative read. Ida writes in he first person narrative and, although her writing is only occasionally stilted (a product of its time as well), she is an excellent story teller.