Chiang Yee: The Silent Traveller

Chiang Yee (1903-1977) was an author, artist, poet and humanist who spent most of his life in England and the USA after he left China in 1933. He wrote books in English on Chinese art and calligraphy to try to increase Western understanding of Eastern culture. He wrote several children’s books that featured animals, particularly giant pandas, and was often called “The Panda Man”. Most famously, he wrote the twelve “Silent Traveller” books, which were notionally travel books, in which he described various places that he visited. In reality, these were his vehicle for writing about the similarities and differences between Western and Chinese culture. I first became aware of Chiang Yee when I found a 1948 reprint of his 1944 book The Silent Traveller in Oxford in a second hand bookshop in Oxford in the early 1970s. I have been a fan ever since.

My 1948 reprint of “The Silent Traveller in Oxford” by Chiang Yee

He called himself “The Silent Traveller”, in Chinese (哑行者), Ya Xingzhe: “mute walking man” might be the best literal translation. The name derives partly from his lack of English language skills when he started writing these books and partly due to his preference for silent and solitary travel. In the books, he makes many wry and unusual observations of Western culture, customs and behaviour that he sees in the places that he visits, and contrasts what he observes with his knowledge and experience of life and culture in China. The books are greatly enlivened by his art, expressed as simple line sketches, watercolour paintings, and pen and ink wash paintings in a traditional “Sung Dynasty” style. He also underscores his ideas with poetry expressed both in English and Chinese, some composed by himself, and others as examples of traditional Chinese poetry that he feels fit the thoughts that he is expressing. By this method, he introduces the English reader to poems by some of the great names of Chinese poetry such as Li Tai P’o, Qu Yuan and Su Tung P’o. The Chinese versions of Chiang Yee’s poems are presented using Chinese calligraphy, where Chiang Yee demonstrates several of the calligraphy styles that he has mastered.

I have listed the twelve “Silent Traveller Books below and will prepare one page about each of them in turn. This is followed by lists of all the other books by and about Chiang Yee that I have in my collection. I have prepared a brief biographical page about Chiang Yee’s childhood and early life in China which will be followed by accounts of his life in England and America.

The Silent Traveller books

  • The Silent Traveller in Lakeland (1937) Country Life, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in London (1938) Country Life, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in Wartime (1939) Country Life, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in the Yorkshire Dales (1941) Methuen, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in Oxford (1944) Methuen, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh (1948) Methuen, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in New York (1950) Methuen, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in Dublin (1953) Methuen, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in Paris (1956) Methuen, London.
  • The Silent Traveller in Boston (1959) Norton, New York.
  • The Silent Traveller in San Francisco (1964) Norton, New York.
  • The Silent Traveller in Japan (1972) Norton, New York.

These twelve books are augmented by two more autobiographical books by Chiang Yee.

  • A Chinese Childhood (1940), Methuen, London.
  • China Revisited After Forty-Two Years (1977), Norton, New York.

Children’s Books

The following are the main children’s books by Chiang Yee.

  • Chinpao and the Giant Pandas (1939) Country Life, London.
  • Chinpao at the Zoo (1941) Methuen, London.
  • Lo Cheng, The boy who wouldn’t keep still (1941) Puffin, London.
  • A Story of Ming (1944) Puffin, London.
  • Dabbitse (1944) Transatlantic Arts, London
  • Yebbin (1947) Methuen, London.

Other Chiang Yee books

  • The Chinese Eye (1935) Methuen, London.
  • Chinese Calligraphy (1938) Methuen, London.
  • Birds and Beasts (1939) Country Life, London.
  • Men of the Burma Road (1942) Methuen, London.
  • Some Chinese Words (1945) United Aid to China, London.
  • Chinese Painting (1953) Faber & Faber, London.

Books illustrated by Chiang Yee

  • Lady Precious Stream by SI Hsiung (1934) Methuen, London.
  • Chinese Cookery by MP Lee (1943) Faber & Faber, London.
  • The Pool of Chi’en Lung by Lady Hosie (1944) Hodder and Stoughton, London.

Books about Chiang Yee

I currently have copies of these two books on Chiang Yee.

  • Chiang Yee: Silent Traveller from the East by Da Zheng (2010) Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
  • Ching Yee and his Circle edited by Paul Bevan, Anne Witchard and Da Zheng (2022) HKU Press, Hong Kong.

Links from this page to individual pages on each of the books will be posted as I develop the material over the next several weeks. I am also searching for more material on Chiang Yee. All contributions and hints will be gratefully received and acknowledged.