BOUCHOT (Jean). Scenes from the life of the Hutungs. Sketch of Pekingese manners. Preface by Albert Nachbaur Director of the Peking Newspaper. Peking: Albert Nachbaur, 1926. - In-8, paperback, two printed labels stuck on the first cover. Third rare edition of one of the most picturesque books published on China and the Chinese. It is the work of the archivist and paleographer Jean Bouchot (1886-1932) who, after a three-year stay in Peking in the 1920s, paints a most instructive and amusing portrait of this city and its hutungs. This term is defined as follows in the introduction: "Meander and labyrinth, feculent streams, dung holes, paved with filth and tarred with dung, such is the Pekingese hutung" (p. b). Thus Bouchot depicts us the Chinese popular life at the time, such as he saw it, "with as much precision, safety, exactitude, observation, in an impeccable, elegant and rich language" (p. c). The edition is illustrated with numerous sketches in red outside and inside the text, as well as two large folding plates in color representing respectively the procession of a Chinese wedding and that of a funeral. Cover repaired with tape. Tear without missing, restored, to the second folding plate. Some soiling inside.