Sujets de compositions données aux examens de langue chinoise à Hanoi et Saigon de 1930 à 1940

[Hanoi? Saigon? : Commission centrale d’examens de langues orientales, c.1940]. Quarto, original quarter blue calf over marbled papered boards (lightly rubbed), spine lettered in gilt ‘Examens de langues orientales’ and initials ‘P. D.’, patterned endpapers, rear pastedown with binder’s ticket of P. Nguyen-Van-Chau (Saigon and Phnom-Penh), title leaf + 132 ff, rectos of odd-numbered leaves with neat manuscript Chinese translations from the French, rectos of even-numbered leaves with corresponding roneo-printed French compositions, versos blank; clean throughout; loosely enclosed at rear is a second collection of French compositions and Chinese translations in identical format, but from the year 1942, in original stitched paper wrappers, approximately [30] ff; fine.

This unique, locally bound collection of French compositions and sample translations into Chinese, set for the examinations of the Commission centrale d’examens de langues orientales, presumably belonged to one of the Commission’s language instructors (‘P. D.’). A fascinating relic of the French colonial administration in Indo-China.