Geese over Lake of Chimney Farm, Nobleboro, Maine, Chiang Yee (Boston Athenaeum)

Chiang Yee: The Silent Traveller from the East

March 29--May 31, 2010

Artist, poet, and scholar Chiang Yee left China at age 30 for a brief period of study in England. However, revolution, wars, and a yearning for a meaningful life kept him away from home and family for four decades.    

During his exile, Chiang Yee wrote more than 20 books, including the popular Silent Traveller series.  

In a voice both philosophical and humorous, Chiang Yee’s Silent Traveller books offer an outsider’s observation of locations from London and Paris to Boston and Japan. They are generously illustrated with Yee’s watercolors and pen-and-ink drawings, which render scenes of the West in the Chinese manner.    

The Adams Gallery presents reproductions of illustrations from Chiang Yee’s 1959 book on Boston, offering a unique view of the city from the perspective of the Silent Traveller.     

The exhibit Chiang Yee: The Silent Traveller from the East was inspired by Suffolk University English Professor Da Zheng’s recently published cultural biography of the same title.

Zheng, like Yee, was born in China and has become an educator and author in the United States.    

Zheng will speak on “Chiang Yee, the Boston Athenaeum, and Cultural Understanding” at noon Thursday, April 15, 2010, at the Boston Athenaeum.

Images:

Chiang Yee's signature

Book cover, Chiang Yee: The Silent Traveller from the East, Da Zheng

Louisburg Square, Chiang Yee (Boston Athenaeum)

Pigeons in Front of Park Street Church, Chiang Yee (Boston Athenaeum)