A translation from the original Swedish of Goran Malmqvist's memoir of two years (1948-50) in Sichuan Province in southwest China, half of which was spent living in Baoguosi Monastery at the foot of Mt Emei while he conducted dialect research in the surrounding countryside. The author's reminiscences include an eyewitness account of the Chinese Communist "liberation" of the capital of Chengdu in December, 1949 and his subsequent interrogation by the authorities."