Tales About China and the Chinese

Before Rudyard Kipling, there was Peter Parley, delighting his “young friends” with his fantastic fables of faraway lands and whimsical sense of humor. Published right after the first Opium War, this book reveals the chasm between the Marco- Polo inspired view of a mythically serene China and the harsh realities of the colonial era. A delightful mix of fact and fancy, Tales About China and the Chinese encapsulates the ethos of an era when the West saw China as a remote, and unspoiled empire—ripe for the picking.