I found this in Browsers' Bookstore and decided to pick it up after flipping through a few pages and laughing. (would strongly encourage flipping through and bringing home old books- they can surprise you!)

I'd never heard of Lin Yutang before, and it's a shame I hadn't. With Love and Irony is a collection of his essays and satire that he wrote in English, some from various magazines he published in between 1930 and 1940. 80 years later, his sense of humor still reads sharp, and he remains relatively optimistic in spite of the Second Sino-Japanese War and occupation contemporary to his work. In "Mickey Mouse", he chides the college revolutionaries that sometimes art can just be for enjoyment and that not all literature needs to be political propaganda, recommending they take a break with comic strips. "The Coolie Myth" skewers Western perceptions on Chinese laborers. A lot of essays compare and contrast "traditional Chinese" culture to their English and American counterparts, in addition to the invading neighbors from Japan.

I felt sad reading "The Future of China", thinking about how he thought post-war nationalism would buoy future prospects only for the Chinese Civil War to resume and dash all those dreams.

Would recommend. It also makes me wonder what an equivalent would be today- like if someone in 2060 decided to read a Dave Barry collection? Would it age as well, or stymie the reader in temporally specific references and metaphor? ( )