On a Chinese Screen

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

In the winter of 1919 Somerset Maugham, at the age of 45, undertook an arduous journey up the Yangtze River in China. Ever the astute observer of people and places, he wrote down his experiences and collected them into 58 exquisite vignettes which were subsequently published a few years later. No one is spared his searching intelligence, especially the company managers, salesmen, missionaries, bureaucrats, military officials and adventurers he encounters.

"On the whole it made little difference to them in what capital they found themselves, for they did precisely the same things in Constantinople, Berne, Stockholm, and Peking. China bored them all…they only knew so much about it as was necessary to their business." The title is apropos, as the Europeans treat Chinese civilization merely as a background on which their own lives are played out.

©1922 W. Somerset Maugham Royalty Trust (P)2013 Audio Connoisseur

Critic reviews

"A fascinating volume vivid, thoughtful, full of colour, picturesque, stimulating to the imagination." ( The New York Times)

A generational author.

Read W.S. Maugham, or you have not read at all. Peace, and deal the cards.

On a Chinese Screen

Delightful vignettes of life in China 100 years ago from an expat observer with a loving yet wicked pen.

No story, just 58 short accounts of people WSM met

Brilliantly performed, this is an interesting collection of short descriptions of people living in a world long gone. While there's limited information on the lives of the Chinese at that time, and no perspective on the British colonials from their side, it's a short book and each vignette has something of interest. Not one hint of romantic interest among the lonely souls encountered, which seems an obvious omission. Most chapters left me wanting more.

If you're interested in China in the era of Pearl S Buck you'll enjoy this easy listen.

A very Western view of post-imperial China

Set in China early in the 20th century, Somerset Maugham's book "On a Chinese Screen" is less about China than Westerners, colonialists, missionaries, and business men. Some of his anecdotes are interesting on a human and psychological level, but it doesn't provide much knowledge or insight in China as it emerges from the Imperial system. Also, it's kind of annoying that the vignettes are vague about what places the author visited.