包天笑

Bao Tianxiao is a name hard to overlook in the popular literature and journalistic writing of modern China; public information is limited, and his dates of birth and death and native place remain unverified. Judging from the five works held in the collection, his writing spans documentary literature, social fiction, mystery and detective stories, and prose miscellany, showing considerable breadth of subject matter. Reminiscences of the Chuan Ying Studio and its sequel, Anecdotes of the Oriental Hotel, are based on his firsthand experience and record the many faces of Republican-era journalists and urban society, combining historical value with literary charm. Shanghai Spring and Autumn turns its gaze on the social panorama of modern Shanghai, unfolding everyday urban life in the manner of social fiction. He also transplanted Sherlock Holmes into a Chinese setting, an attempt at Sino-Western grafting seen in The Chinese Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Another miscellany on a century of change in clothing, food, housing and transport shows his long attention to daily life. Overall, Bao Tianxiao's prose is plain and genial, strong in narrative and observation, and offers a vivid path to understanding Republican-era urban and newspaper culture.