Mr Ma and Son

About

Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei run an antiques shop near St Paul's Cathedral in 1920s London, navigating the bewildering social conventions of English society with the bewildered grace of outsiders who understand more than they let on. From their well-meaning landlady to the old China hands at the church, the Mas encounter a full catalogue of British attitudes toward the Chinese — from patronizing affection to casual racism — and respond with a dignity that is never didactic. Lao She, one of modern China's greatest novelists, wrote this early work during his own years in London, and the observational precision of an outsider who is both fascinated and wounded by what he sees gives the novel its distinctive texture. The humor is warm but never toothless. A novel about being foreign in a country that thinks it knows everything about you — and the quiet resistance of simply continuing to be yourself.