Harry Franck died in 1962. This latest edition of his work consists of a few excerpts from his original Roving Through Southern China published in 1925. The original much larger book described two years of roving that took Franck as far as Yunnan, but these excerpts focus on the few months he and his family spent living in Canton in the winter of 1924. The excerpts are supplemented with some very useful footnotes from Paul French explaining some of the things Franck mentions that are no longer familiar to the modern reader.
Franck was unusual in that he lived with his family among Canton’s ordinary citizens rather than in the isolated housing offered to the employees of foreign firms in those days. Indeed, Frank wasn’t employed by anyone at all, and he apparently spent much of his time wandering the streets observing everyday life. Much of Canton’s business was carried on in the streets in those days, and Franck describes the practice of some crafts now long forgotten. He has much to say also about architecture and public infrastructure, though he avoids much discussion of Sun Yat Sen’s rule and his plan to resume control of and modernise the nation.
Frank also visited Hong Kong and Macau and mentions a few highlights. The highlights haven’t much changed: reclamation and the Peak Tram in Hong Kong; gambling and prostitution in Macau.
The book itself, though, does have something important to say about modern Hong Kong. The excerpts are portions of just two chapters of what was a 188-page book. Together the excerpts barely total 25,000 words. The entire book is just a couple of hours’ reading. The cover is such that it’s unlikely to be a big seller. But with the rents in today’s Hong Kong, the publisher and the booksellers must collect that kind of revenue to make any book, however long, a product worth stocking.
Frank would be fascinated.