Colonel Valentine Rodolphe Burkhardt D.S.O, O. B. E. was born in 1884. From Clifton he joined the Army and at 19 was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. He first came to China in the beginning of 1913 as a Language Student in Peking, and qualified as a First Class Interpreter in Mandarin. Recalled for the First World War he served in various Staff Appointments. He returned to China in 1923 as a General Staff Officer, and spent five years in Tientsin, traveling extensively in the interior during his tour of duty. After four years Regimental Service at home, he was appointed as Military Attache to the British Legation in Peking, where he spent two and a half years, before qualifying for promotion to Substantive Colonel by Commanding the Western Defences at Singapore. In 1936 he was appointed G. S. O. 1st Grade, China Command, and spent three years in Hong Kong, again travelling in the Interior. Retired in 1939, he was recalled for a further year as Military Attache to the British Embassy in China, till the Spring of 1941. On returning to England he was employed for the last part of the War as T. C. O. with the Admiralty. He made Chinese creeds and customs his hobby, and few are better qualified to write on the subject.

An encyclopaedic account of traditional Chinese festivals, customs and beliefs, lavishly illustrated with line drawings and paintings, this remarkable work by an Englishman who spent twenty years in China from the Imperial aftermath through the establishment of Communism, gives fascinating insights into a complex culture poised between past and present. Burckhardt's beautifully written and detailed work includes the rites practiced by the Manchu royal court and the rituals permitted under the Communist and Nationalist regimes, the festivals of working people and villagers as well as the ceremonies of the mandarins of Peking and Hong Kong, in all seasons of the year. He was especially close to the renowned Boat People of the former colony, and gives a unique account of life abroad the harbour junks and their sea-borne celebrations. Among the subjects dealt with are Chinese cuisine, the meaning of presents, secret societies, the Chinese calendar, cats (the Chinese prefer cats with yellow eyes), Chinese dress, jade carving, feng shui, etiquette, the hundreds of gods of house and wayside, temples and their guardians, and all the great festivals -- those of the Moon, the Dragon Boats, the Hungry Ghosts, the Magnolia, the New Year and many more. Chinese creeds and customs were Burkhardt's passion, and no better account of them will ever be written. Contains all three original volumes