BOOKS mem | Simone de Beauvoir portrays great panorama of New China HEN a stupendous subject W is treated in literary fashion by a top flight author and commentator of world esteem, it is not surprising to find the resulting work than ex- ceeding hopeful anticipation. The author of The Long March, Beauvoir, needs no promotion of her unquestioned talent and gift for literary de- piction. Again, subject, New China, needs no embroid- ery and build up. more Simone de her Not only the author but readers also will regret that her visit and stay in China was all too Faced then with this- observational hazard, she was compelled to dig deep into and documented fact. which she brief. research he extent to able to'do this and the ultimate gestation of it all into pleas- ing and readable form, is posi- tively amazing. It is a sweep- ing panorama with no subject of significance omitted. was are envel- picture their At the outset, we oped in the massive of the Chinese peasantry, mode of life and production, their history and outlook and the impact of revolutionary change and social transforma- tion. What they are doing as a re- sult of liberation will be deci- sive for all humanity, because by a -quirk of mathematical certainty the Chinese peasant people is the greatest single mass of all humanity. The revolution has moved them into action; ening, fa cation arrived. The giant has awakened and broken his shackles and your world and mine will not be the gain. Modern backs are straight- ces are uplifted, edu- and the machine have same a industry came to part of China in the 19th cen- tury. But with it came an ac- companiment of human ex- ploitation, surely without precedent anywhere. The for- eign masters exacted their toll with sadism and linding cruelty. All this is now finished for ever. New machines, new plants and new healthy people; this is the norm of the indus- trial base now being -created. How profound must be the image of this hew sun, beam- ing over the whole of Asia. xt xt $e Some say that China will be forever in debt to the USSR for. goods and plants advanced by the Soviet Union. And fur- ther, because of this imbalance, China will be a vassal of the USSR. Poppycock, says the author. If all the trains in the world ran continucusly be- ween Peking and Moscow, carrying raw materials to re- pay the original outlay, they would have to run forever. The relations between the two states are fraternal and cooperative. By helping to build a socialist China, the the USSR is building a social- ist world and this is the bene- fit the USSR will receive when the task is completed. A tremendous section is de- voted to culture, and to follow the spiritual pattern and ex- pression of this country over thousands of years is no mean accomplishment. The discourse on language alon would fill many volumes of assent and dissent. Simone de Beauvoir is justly critical of some Chinese writers who have erred in imi- tating some of the not too good Soviet novelists. Mechanical writing and stultified form is harmful. This however, is but a passing phase. Already works of creative depth are being thoughtfully and cooperatively reviewed. it bes xt There is a tremendous rich- ness to this book and for that reason no tentative review can be justly adequate. Not all reviewers, of course, acknowledge this. The New York Times has dismissed the author as being a captive crea- ture of communist propaganda. An academic simian whose habitat appears to be Dal- housie University, has found the book to be both tiresome and unreal. It is significant that such viewpoints indicate a fear of People’s China and also a studied desire to squelch any attempt by anyone, however brilliant, famous or gifted they may be, to enlighten the world on what is really taking place. What is happening is best put in the author’s*own words, an epilogue in prose, which is elegance itself: Pgs ee tS China em- bodies a particularly exciting moment in history: that in which man, so long reduced to dreaming of what humanity might be, is setting out to be- come it. Toiling in order to eat, eating in order to toil, excrement to fertilize little field where he grew the little millet he fed on, the Chinese peasant turned within the agonizingly hopeless circle of an animal existence. The Revolution split the circle apart; it liberated a shock of energy, still tiny, but which hag begun its own chain re- action. Life in China is. still hard, its roots show: if they do not take hold, if they wither, then all will die. But in this morning’s early light, the prospect ahead is clearly visible; and it is limitless.” Let the scoffing and cynical new using the his critic ponder these words. I suggest that they cannot be refuted. The Long March is obtain- able here at the People’s Co-op Bookstore, 307 West Pender Street, Vancouver 4. LIONEL EDWARDS From the Soviet magazine Krokodil One of the outstanding books on fall publicatior biography-of Paul Robeson by Marie Seton, word by Sir Arthur Bryant. Here Robeson i Soviet workers in Moscow during his recent visit to Anti-war films mar best current movies F SEVERAL worthy films 0 currently showing around town, the best are two British films: Henry V and Orders To Kill. Laurence Olivier’s 1944 Shakesperean epic is a wel- come revival, despite being cropped fore and aft into wide- dimensions never in- Henry V_ was in filmed went on screen tended: for it. Olivier’s first essay Shakespeare — he to more effective treatments in Hamlet and Richard II — but still first class Shakespeare and filmcraft. 30 ot 5 © Orders To Kill, directed by Anthony Asquith, is a cloak and dagger story with a fero- cious anti-war theme. Al- though Paul Dehn’s script re- sorts to obvious plot con- trivances which weaken the total effect, this is a well told story with devastating com- ments on the Peart 101 killing. “noble a 503 om Me And The Colonel, also set during the Second World War, .is characterized by a satirical whimsy instead of the Orders To Kill. Based on Jacobowsky and the Colonel, 1944 Broadway ver- sion of a play by Franz Werfel, grimness of f. October 24, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE ts BP n li jot it concerns a polish i. anti-Semetic Polish si a ficer and a French in ing before the Naz of France in 1940. di Witty dialogue annie! tions, some sharp anti-SeSmitism 2? gat humanity add uP ing 110 minutes. N. 5. B.C. history oy i c=] = A PANEL of ariel