Chinese Diaries

‘An altogether extraordinary book, that best that I have read about China’ — The New York Times

“I wanted to record the Chinese world, the cities, the fields, the farms, the soldiers, the students, the colors of an age, and what especially concerned me were the changing colors of the atmosphere, the shapes of the coming storm.”

Four years after the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted, Robert Payne left Singapore for China, a land which, until then, he had explored solely in his dreams.

Posted to the British Embassy, in the turmoil following Pearl Harbor and the expanding Pacific War, he ended up teaching in the universities at Chungking and Kunming.

In this position, he bore witness to the effect of war on every level of Chinese society, particularly on students, and the divisions that were torn in the country itself.

Recording his encounters and experiences in detail, Payne’s descriptions are a feast for the senses, weaving a tapestry of such vibrancy that you could almost reach out and touch it.

Filled with poignant memories, love and loss, Payne’s Chinese Diaries are more than just an ode to a country, but a window to the East and a way of life during this turbulent era.