A bad workman may blame his tools, but if his tools are inadequate or outdated, he can scarcely be expected to do a reasonable job. Good works of reference, fully researched, and kept up to date are essentials for anyone dealing with words and facts.

That is why the revised Encyclopedia of China Today by Frederic M. Kaplan and Julian M. Sabin is welcome. Published by Macmillan (ISBN 0 333 32447 1), in the three years since the first edition it has grown in scope and size from 336 to 446 pages. It includes an excellent, if necessarily brief chapter on the arts, crafts and archaeology, mentioning the work of the farmer-painters of Huainan (see Hemisphere, July 1997), one of whose works is illustrated at right. An important change is that the end-paper maps have their place-names in pinyin.

The sections of the book dealing with history and with geography are as packed with factual information as the rest of this wide-raging publication: international relations, agriculture (conventional tractor output up to 156, 000 in 1977 from 23000 in 1965), brief biographical notices about prominent political figures, the economy, education political figures, the economy, education, health, and the arts and culture generally. There’s a section giving information for travelers and another for businessmen, and the arts and appendices deal, among other things, with publications, transcripts of the Constitution and criminal legislation. A lengthy bibliography. In short, a workmanlike and thoroughly researched book, packed with information about all aspects of China that could interest the writer, the traveler, the businessman -or the reader.