Dr Joseph Needham's account of the Chinese achievement in science and technology will stand as one of the great works of our time. It has been acclaimed by specialists in both East and West and also by readers with wider and more general interests. The text, based on research of a high critical quality, is supported by many hundreds of illustrations and is imbued with a warm appreciation of China. Volume I is an introductory volume, in which Dr Needham prepares his readers for the study of a whole human culture. He begins by examining the structure of the Chinese language; he reviews the geography of China and the long history of its people, and discusses the scientific contacts which have occurred throughout the centuries, between Europe and East Asia.
Published in Tokyo in 1894, Mrs Little's diary of her summer stay at a local farmhouse in the Chinese interior near Chongqing provides a first-hand account of rural Chinese life in the nineteenth century from a European's perspective. Mrs Little was an accomplished author, having written numerous novels on women's social roles under her maiden name, Bewicke. In My Diary, she continues this theme of women's place in society. Her account also touches on the interactions between Christian missionaries and the local people. She was an active campaigner against the Chinese tradition of binding the feet of young girls, and helped to bring about its abolition. A limited run of only 500 copies of My Diary was originally printed. It contains 26 illustrations and is an invaluable historical source for studying rural life in nineteenth-century China.
