A book overshadowed by the casual racism of the western world toward eastern cultures that was prevalent in England at the time. We did have some of the common racist terminology of the time used in previous books, but this is the first book that really feels uncomfortable in how clearly they see foreign cultures as primitive and frankly inferior. The continued mockery of the pronounciation of English when certainly all the Chinese people speaking English are much better at it than the English are at speaking Chinese (spoiler alert: they can't at all) is embarrassing.

Another book that also did not happen, according to the reality of the Swallows and Amazons world. We presume that this one was made up in the winter of 1932/1933 by the Walkers and Blacketts (and Captain Flint). As with Peter Duck, since it didn't actually happen in their timeline, I'm not documenting ages or dates.

What really happened is that Arthur Ransome took a trip to China as a foreign correspondent and wanted to write a book with that setting, and unfortunately decided to shoehorn the Swallows and Amazons into the setting.

It's an entertaining read, but it's also the Swallows and Amazons equivalent of a comic book about superheroes. Far too unbelievable for me to really appreciate. I feel that people who love the S&A books do so because of how much of their adventures are practical, possible, but with the glow of the imaginations of kids painted over the top. Peter Duck and Missee Lee are just too fantastical for me, at least within the context of the series.