The new East Asian Library is remarkably photogenic, inside and out. The length of the building intensifies the sense of linear perspective, so I feel like the entire building is rushing forth to welcome me when I stand in the open length that bisects each floor. Mostly natural lighting, recessed ceiling lights, wood floors, and textured wall surfaces give it a gallery feel, so refreshing compared to some of the dark and cramped Asian libraries I can recall.

To celebrate its opening and the beginning of spring break, I checked out a copy of one of the books that got me excited about this field to begin with, J.I. Crump's Chinese Theater in the Days of Kublai Khan (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1980).

No, I was never fixated on the Middle Kingdom proper, which is perhaps why the events of the brief, "barbaric" rule of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty appealed to me. But my fond memories of this book admittedly stem just as much, if not more, from style than content. Crump received his PhD from Yale University, after which he taught at the University of Michigan, which is where I first read parts of this book as an undergraduate (though long after Crump's tenure). His jovial writing style and absolutely ridiculous footnotes won me over. This was NOT the kind of writing I thought was permissible on academic presses, but he had paragraphs and paragraphs of footnotes like this:

"Reader (and I hope I am still talking to the same one I addressed in my Important Notice [what we would call the Preface in blander books]), this little nosegay of asterisks will be used throughout the book to indicate an attack of the digressions. The same mark, but with its stem pointing up instead of down, indicates the end of a spasm. When a simiar device was used on other occasions, the more unkind among my critics insisted that it was a cross marking the place where my train of thought had died. In a sense, perhaps, they were right; I have always loved and fallen easy prey to digressions. I enjoyed them by lecturers when I went to college and by authors when I read, and find I perversely remember digressions long after I've forgotten the main thrust. [...] However, I know that digressions are not everyone's cup of tea, so I feel called upon to signal those who are impatient with them. If you wish to get directly to the resumption of the argument instead of dawdling here with me, run your eye over the next couple of pages until you see the upside-down bouquet and begin" (8n.).

Passages like this just meant that I got giddy everytime I got to one of the "nosegayed" sections, sprinkled throughout the book with enough frequency to keep me plugging along at a pace brisk. The book definitely didn't encourage an evenly sustained or concentrated mode of reading, as his digressions frequently fell outside of the marked text. This footnote, for instance, comments on the ecological devastation of the Mongols eager to clear forests for pastures on which to raise their horses:

Regarding cultivated trees, the Chinese had early taken to planting dense groves of trees in sensitive border areas to slow down the horsemen from the steppes. The nomadic invaders often responded by cutting down the trees and dragging them with them to fill in city moats or defense works [He gives a citation...]. Trees, alas, are always early victims of war, both ancient and modern. (20n.)

Such lively, spirited, personality-laden writing, back in the days when Sinologists could get away with it! I can only imagine the fun that students must have had in his classes, though in some ways I can imagine that Professor Rolston, who took up the role of Chinese theater specialist during my time there (and is still there, as far as I know), retains traces of the quirkiness that must have animated Crump's lectures.

One last reason as to why I felt compelled to check this book out of the library, aside from a little jaunt down memory lane -- this copy came from the personal library of Cyril Birch, esteemed translator of many key editions of canonical Chinese classics still in common circulation in the field and long-time professor here. The book is also inscribed with a note from the author. "For Cyril: Who has impeccable taste in books and said kind words for the jacket of this one. Jim." No doubt a number of books in the library come from Birch's personal collection, but for now, this one graces my home library with a little of its own, special aura.