ABSTRACT
I N Proust's 'overture' and 'Combray', bits ofthemes crackle,mingle, flicker into new ones; until finally a single long-breathed tune, swirling out of the rich tone that grounded it and announced it, leads into Swann's Way and the great theme of search. Sadly, that music, or anything like it, is fled from this account of modern Chinese history. But a theme is there, anticipated, quoted, in much that has gone before-waiting (like the reader) for release.
