Based on first-hand experience, this entrancing narrative of daily life in Peking in the first decades of this century makes vivid the milieu of a fictional family--the traditionally-minded, lower middle- class family of Wu. The author uses experiences of the Wu family's son from birth to marriage to convey in rich detail a vanished way of life, including children's games, nursery rhymes, and education; flowers and foods; street entertainers, folk amusements, and acrobatics; religions; jokes and poems; and a great deal more. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Translated by: Derk Bodde