Join us on Monday, March 25, to discuss Lao She's Mr Ma and Son. We will meet at Garden Books on Changle Rd.

Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei arrived in London to take over his late brother's antique shop. The story gives us a unique account of what life was like for the Chinese in 1920s London, where they tried to make a living and struggled with money, misunderstandings and the ways of the English. Both a moving story of the Chinese immigrant experience and a bitingly funny satire on the English, Mr Ma and Son delicately portrays the dreams and disappointments of two Chinese men seeking a new life in a distant land.

Lao She (1899-1966) is one of the most important writers in modern China, best known for his novel Rickshaw Boy, which the Fiction Book Club had on its reading list last year, and his play Teahouse. The novel Mr Ma and Son draws largely on the writer`s own experience as he took up a post teaching Mandarin at the famous School of Oriental Studies in 1924.