A L Crouch - China Sketchbook: A Book of U.S. Army Verse

The US military was there to sort out the withdrawal of the defeated Japanese troops left high and dry in China thanks to the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the war, and also to bolster the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek in the face of various problems, including the communist guerrillas and the Red Army under Mao Zedong, vastly strengthened thanks to the war. The Americans made themselves at home in Shanghai remarkably quickly. One example: in November 1945, only three months after the Japanese surrender, the road rules of Shanghai were swapped around from driving on the left - as is the rule in both England and Japan - to driving on the right. The US military lived largely in barracks, but they interacted with life in Shanghai in all sorts of ways, from bars and dance halls to cigarette sales girls on the streets. This little collection of poems - doggerel, really - was published by the US Army newspaper Stars and Stripes, and went into at least a second edition, indicating it resonated with many of the GIs stuck so far from home in a willow pattern world they hardly understood. The poems reflect China and Shanghai (as well as American military life) at the time through the prism of an American brain with none of the preconceptions or prejudices of the Old China Hand, and is a wonderful little window into a bygone era.

The drawings are also remarkably effective in conveying the moment, but unfortunately the artists are not mentioned by name. Many of them are signed Blew but I was not able to uncover anything about Blews identity. Such portraits of ordinary people and things have huge value in terms of transmitting a sense of the times, and they are particularly interesting in comparison to Sapajous work if a decade and more earlier. It is a pleasure to give such little gems from rich Chinas history another run in the sun. Graham Earnshaw August 2018 China Sketchbook COOLIE Under his load the bamboo bends, In answer to the riddle Of how the middle works both ends, And both ends work the middle. SCHOLAR He walks the earth with measured tread, As though, absorbed in thought. SCHOLAR He walks the earth with measured tread, As though, absorbed in thought.

Confucius fills his hungry head. His hungry stomach?Nought. SIKH His wife must have a lamp of patience That burns with steady wick: He comes home from his days gyrations, Not only tiredbut Sikh! RICKSHAW COOLIE A common, not a proper noun, A hack that pulls a hack, The rickshaw coolie goes to town He also brings you back. MERCHANT He gapes and grins, and grins and gapes, As though he always knew you; He scrapes and bows, and bows and scrapes Then throws the hooks into you. CHINA DOLL When memories dim, and fade, and soften Our hard years in the army, Well think about the coolie often More often still, the warmie. GUTTER SNIPE Through logic that is in reverse (He lives from hand to cup), His job may go from bad to worse But still its picking up! CHINESE DRIVER Under some evil star, alas! This maniac was born: He steers like mad, steps on the gas, And leans against the horn. SMOKE WAGON The driver grinds, and grinds, and grinds;
Throws in more wood; and stokes. SMOKE WAGON The driver grinds, and grinds, and grinds;
Throws in more wood; and stokes.

And all the while the driver winds,
It smokesand smokessmokes! BEGGARS It always makes us feel unhappy To hear em and to see em: Hey, Joe! No mammy and no pappy No whiskey.... no per diem. CHOPSTICKS Some use them like a pair of tweezers; Some use them like a shovel; But some, preferring tools to teasers, Get in the bowl and grovel. SUGAR CANE VENDOR Though he seems innocent of guile, His actions make it plain That he considers it worthwhile To keep on raising cane.