The Sawbwa and His Secretary

C.Y. Lee's fascinating account of three years spent as a junior official in Mangshih, a backwater county in China's Yunnan province that bordered British Burma that is now called Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. His rich description of life among the Kachin, Shan, and Lolo (now known as Yi) tribespeople in the early 1940s offers a thrilling window into a very different time and place.