L'Aurora di Spagna by Ba Jin, editor [Inscribed by Ba Jin as Li Pei Kan]; art by SIM [Rey Vila] - 1948

Shanghai: Edizioni de Propaganda Ping-Ming, 1948. [64p.], pamphlet bound into blue cloth-covered wraps with gilt title, inscribed by Ba Jin (as Li Pei Kan) to the Italian-American anarchist periodical L'Adunata dei Refrattari. An address label of L'Adunata dei Refrattari has been pasted inside the front cover. The booklet was later owned by UC Berkeley professor Robert Scalapino, an expert on Chinese anarchism among other topics, who added his ornate ownership stamp on the first internal page, right under Ba Jin's somewhat shaky Italian greeting, which reads "Ai compagni dell'Adunata dei Refrattari, fraternamente, Li Pei Kan." Chinese edition of a collection of black and white art with captions in Italian, Chinese text on facing pages. The images were originally published in color in the Spanish album "Estampas de la revolución española, 19 julio de 1936." The preface has been translated into Italian by Ba Jin. A short list of subscribers indicates that the booklet was printed for $36, of which most was contributed by a comrade in Chicago, with the remainder coming from two Chinese comrades in San Francisco. Ba Jin was the most prominent culturally active anarchist of pre-revolutionary China. Born Li Yaotang, he wrote under the pen name Li Pei Kan in much of his correspondence with westerners. His most well-known pen name is Ba Jin, taken from the first and last Chinese characters in the names of Bakunin and Kropotkin.