The Last Mandarin - an interview with a Chinese Qing Dynasty scholar

When living in Hong Kong in the 1970's I interviewed a very elderly Chinese scholar official who had passed the Imperial Examination System which ended in 1905. There are also included here photographs, paintings, and a short article on the officials and their trials and tribulations during the exam. There may have been many drawbacks to such a system but at least the way to get ahead in China was through learning not by kicking a ball into a net or throwing a ball through a hoop. In fact, military mandarins were not nearly as respected as literary mandarins.