A Woman in China

“I had reached China, the land of blue skies and of sunshine; the land of desperate poverty and of wonderful wealth; the land of triumph, and of martyrdom, and of mystery. What was it going to hold for me?”

As an Australian author best known for her travel books and fiction writing, Mary Gaunt’s account of her travels in China is both entertaining and informative. The story details the countless struggles she faced as a single woman traveling alone knowing little of the local language as well as the compassion of those she encountered. From her chagrin over traveling in a “Peking cart” to her horror about the continuing practice of feet binding in young girls in rural areas, Gaunt documents her feelings (and judgements) throughout this tale, providing readers with a greater understanding of the emotions a “woman of the times” would have felt during such an adventure. She regularly compares the China of the early 1900s to Babylon, regaling the reader with comments about the similarities in architecture, nobility, and the interactions among the common people.

Gaunt’s experience as a writer shines through in a text that is at once a memoir and a genuine account of the geography and history of the region, including glimpses of the echoes of the Boxer Rebellion and vivid descriptions of the Great Wall, the “hut’ungs” of Peking, the Forbidden City, and numerous rural temples. Her words are sure to delight any avid reader of Chinese history and literature.