REVIEWS OF RECENT ROOKS 275 



Peking, A Social Survey. By Sidney D. Gamble, m.a., assisted by 

 John Stewart Burgess, m.a. New York, George H. Doran Co., 

 1921. 



Of the making of books on Peking there is no end. To the student 

 of things Chinese, the artist, the post, the traveller, Peking has ever 

 been a source of inspiration. Practically every list of new books on 

 China contains another effort on Peking. The cause for this is found 

 in the charm and appeal of the ancient seat of Chinese culture. 



In the book before us, however, we have something different. 

 Not the art, history, poetry, politics of Peking confront us but the 

 humble facts that portray the nature of the society within the five 

 cities. This time the people themselves, their community, their social 

 organization, their ideals and efforts, their vices and failures are 

 presented in a simple straightforward manner. A picture of Peking 

 as it is, apart from its glory and its glamor. 



It is well sponsored, for it comes to us foreworded by G. Sherwood 

 Eddy, who represents the Christian forces and their modern attitude 

 toward the social problems of an ancient society, and Robert A. 

 Woods, author and social worker of Boston. The apparent aim of the 

 undertaking is well represented in the activities of these two men, 

 for Gamble's effort discloses no other more definite objective than 

 that of arousing the consciousness of the Christian missionary forces 

 to the need of providing for the Christian church a social service 

 program as an outlet for religious zeal. This aim is frankly stated 

 both in the early parts of the work as well as in the concluding 

 chapter that sets forth certain achievements of a group of Christians 

 who faced the social facts and the challenge of them, — the Peking 

 Community Service Group. 



The work must therefore, be judged from this point of view and 

 not on a professional or technical basis. Evaluating the results in 

 terms of their aim, they certainly have done well when one considers 

 the limitations of their staff of investigators and the amount of time 

 alotted to the discovery of the facts. They have put in 300 pages 

 a great mass of facts that give one certain rather definite impressions 

 of social conditions in the capital. These facts were not secured by 

 the usual professional methods of survey, for one hesitates to accept 

 as altogether reliable the census figures of the police when after years 

 of experience in census taking the United States government has not 

 yet solved the problem of reliability in census results. They did, 

 however, collect all the gatherable facts, analysed them and in text 

 and graph set them forth. 



