SOURCE: Gull, E. M. “Chinese Undercurrents.” Spectator 176, no. 6135 (25 January 1946): 96, 98.

In the following review, Gull comments how Lin sets out to see and describe the daily behavior of Chinese men and women during war in The Vigil of a Nation.

A new book by Lin Yutang is an event of importance in the Far Eastern world, for he generally throws fresh lights on Chinese thought and life. When the American edition of this volume [The Vigil of a Nation] was published the light which attracted most attention was the one focused on the hostility between the Communists and the National People's Party, or Kuomintang. This was because the American Press had been showing a marked pro-Communist trend, whereas the author's views are decidedly pro-Government. Yet the writer had not set out to produce a political study. He had set out to see and describe the daily behaviour of Chinese...