Grading CHP listeners, every one of you all over the world,

Lauslemont Gummary here, so happy you're tuning in.

Sometime last Christmas, I was chatting with Graham Ernst Shaw,

and he told me about this new book called Collidoscope

that was coming out on his fine publishing house

where you can get countless books about China and beyond.

What struck me first about this story of Uchiama Kanso was how,

well, you know, in all too many past CHP episodes,

especially those concerning topics of light-ching dynasty

and early republic, where Japan was always concerned

the nation and the people were always presented in a sinister

and negative light, occupiers of Manchuria and all the atrocities

and outrages of the Second Sino-Japanese War,

and even today there's the occasional frightful news story

concerning China-Japan relations.

So it isn't that often where history's concerned that is.

When we get anything uplifting and hopeful

that might run counter to that well-known narrative,

so rather than a discussion of Japanese and Chinese animosity

towards each other, here's a nice story that took place

in Shanghai during the warlord era,

up to the end of World War II.

...