With Love and Irony Author:Yutang LIN Lin Yutang was a popular writer in the 1940s, when Nationalist China was an ally of the US in WW2. Things Chinese were a hot topic and writers like Pearl Buck, Han Suyin, and Lin had a fistful of bestsellers. Lin was a keen observer and witty critic of the Chinese and American ways of life. This book of short essays that were originally publishe... more »d as newspapers columns. Like Orwell then and Tatyana Tolstoya now, Lin was an adept in the essay form. Tight writing. Merciless ridicule. Stinging criticism. Spicy humor. Love for Chinese literature and the arts. Fearless in the face of vintuperation from the right and the left. Assorted topics too: reasonable vegetarianism and nudism, poetic Chinese terms for making whoppee, mandarin, true meaning of coolie, pidgin, old Peking and Shanghai, Japanese vs Chinese traits, merits of gold digging women, Confucianism, Basic English, Mickey Mouse, English language, and many appreciations of traditional arts and letters.« less