The Silent Traveller in New York

Distinguished author, artist, calligrapher, and poet Chiang Yee wrote and illustrated a dozen “Silent Traveller” books, from 1937-1972. The first to focus on an American city was The Silent Traveller in New York, originally published in 1950. The book captures Mr. Chiang’s charming and insightful observations on the life and scenery of New York, from Times Square to Chinatown, from Harlem to Greenwich Village, from the Bronx Zoo to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Mr. Chiang also travels up the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie and visits towns in New York’s Westchester and Dutchess counties.

Illustrated with 17 color and 120 black-and-white illustrations by Mr. Chaing, the words and pictures reveal New York through Chinese eyes, at once familiar, yet unfamiliar, but always strangely beautiful. Chiang Yee has been described as, “one of those rare foreigners who help us understand ourselves.”