SOURCE: Lovett, Robert Morss. “Face, Fate and Favor.” New Republic 84, no. 1090 (23 October 1935): 308-09.

In the following review, Lovett offers a positive assessment of Lin's My Country and My People, which reveals much about the Chinese character, mind, and way of life.

My Country and My People is a book in which charm is touched with pathos. Mr. Lin sees the Chinese as an old people come to the autumn of its natural life, “in which green is mixed with gold and sadness is mixed with joy, and hope is mixed with reminiscence.” The tragedy is that this ancient people, repository of the richest experience, culture and art in the world, has become the prey of new forces and younger races, in the face of which its old philosophy of good nature, moderation and sweet reasonableness in the use of life becomes futile. The Chinese civilization was realistically humanistic...