An American in China 1936-1939: A Memoir

by Thomas, Gould H.

• ISBN13: 9780975880005
• ISBN10: 0975880004
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-05-30
• Publisher: Willys J Thomas

Summary

An account based on journals written from 1936 to 1939 by a young Yale graduate working for Texaco in Tsingtao, Chungking and Canton. The author not only describes life in the various "Treaty Ports" but also life of the Chinese poor in the backcountry of Shantung. The author was in China during the first years of the Sino-Japanese War and was able to give a first-hand account of the fall of Tsingtao in 1938. The book contains over 180 photograph, some in color; 13 maps and an index. Most of the photos were taken by the author at the time.

Author Biography

Gould H. Thomas, born in New York City in 1912, was brought up in Hempstead, L.I. He graduated from Yale University in 1934 with a B.A. in English literature. After his three years in China, from 1936-39, Thomas served in Naval Intelligence during the war, mostly in India, Ceylon and Chungking After the war, he became assistant naval attache in Nanking and left the Navy with the rank of commander. From 1947-49 he worked for Caltex in Tientsin and Canton. Subsequent tours of duty for Caltex included managing director posts in Okinawa, Tokyo, Bangkok, Australia and New Zealand. At the end of his career he worked for Chevron in the Hague, and Brussels. He died in 1975.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

The Use of Wade-Giles

List of Maps

Preface

I THE VOYAGE OUT

1 New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal

2 San Francisco to Yokohama

II IN JAPAN

3 Tokyo, Atami and Nikko

4 Kamakura, Gifu and Kyoto

III PEKING

5 Peking Language School/College of Chinese Studies

6 Peking to Shanghai via Hankow and Nanchang

7 Stranded in Shanghai

IV TSINGTAO

8 Tsingtao, Starting a Career

9 Shantung Peninsula and Dairen

10 Railway Points in the Heart of Shantung

11 The Coronation Ball

12 Tsinan, Floods and the Outbreak of War

13 Waiting While the Japanese Advance

14 The Japanese Take Tsingtao

15 Destination Chungking, via Hong Kong

V CHUNGKING

16 War-Torn Capital of China

17 Long Hot Summer on the South Bank of Chungking

18 From Chungking to Hong Kong via Hanoi

VI CANTON

19 In Occupied Canton

20 Back to Peking and the Voyage Home

APPENDIX

Lily Lee

Excerpt From China to Me by Emily Hahn

Interview

China History: Chronology

Illustration Credits

On the Calligrapher

Pinyin Equivalents

Index