Film and TV Technician (1957)

170 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN December IBS'* Book Review CHINA TRANSFORMED NEXT STOP — PEKING, by R. J. about production and trade, will be Minney. Newnes, 25/-. Members had a glimpse of R. J. Minney's visit to China when he wrote on their film industry in disappointed. That is true in a way because it is not that kind of a book. But he does much better than that because, in a live, fascinating personal record of his ample, which were a curse of old China : " The next morning, while Lennox* and I sat talking in his room, we saw our first fly in China. We had not been forty-eight hours in the country. The fly crawled along Lennox's desk, stopped, saluted us cheekily with both front feet and trotted on gaily. We leapt out of our chairs to have a closer look. The fly stopped again and stared defiantly . . . Undoubtedly it was an event. Here at any rate was one fly . . In all, during the entire period of our stay, we saw eight flies in various part of China. The tally was carefully kept." Then he tells us how, with the help of Street Committees sanitation has been organised and cleanliness imposed, resulting in the virtual extermination of flies and other insect pests as one of the results of the exercise. In such fascinating ways " R.J." pictures the new China; the awakening of a giant, as he describes it, with vast agricultural and industrial development, rising living standards, and a people happy and imbued with hope. Not only have I been thrilled by Next Stop — Peking, it has left me Above: One of (he Rates of the Walled City, Peking. Bight: K. J. Mi film & TV technician some months ago. Now in Next Stop — Peking he tells the whole exciting story of his trip to lecture in Peking and elsewhere at Bernard Shaw Centenary Celebrations. Also, as behoves a good film man, he illustrates his book for good measure with numerous colour and monochrome photographs taken by himself. My first reaction on reading the book is to wish that R. J. Minney could be appointed perpetual secretary to the numerous delegations which visit Russia, China and Eastern Europe and return home with reports which are frequently as indigestible as they are statistical. in his preface "R.J." says that those who expect a political treatise, with comparative statistic nney in Peking. Cover still shows the tilming of an opera in colour in Shanghai. 16,000 mile journey through Russia, Siberia and China, he conveys to us the transformation which is happening in those countries, particularly China, much more vividly than most travellers have done using the more traditional reporting-back methods. But let " R.J." speak for himself. On disease-carrving flies, for ex itching, as I know it will other readers, to travel the same route and see for myself the rapid and beneficial strides being made along the road to accomplish one of the supreme achievements of the present-day world. q h E • Lennox the Irish play wright, was " U.J.'s " colleague on the trip.