Theme based question on the story 'The Chinese Statue .
Answers
Answer:
The Chinese Statue’ by Jeffrey Archer, published in his book ‘A Quiver Full of Arrows’ in 1980, revolves around a Chinese statue brought to London by sir Alexander Heathcote who was posted in China as a British Ambassador.
The story starts at Sotheby’s, a famous auction house. A porcelain Chinese statue was being auctioned off to a motley crowd and not-so-serious bidders. In order to grab the bidders’ attention, the auctioneer presented a fact sheet about the history of the statue. It said that the statue was brought from a place called Ha Li Chuan in China. To hide the owners’ identity, the word ‘gentlemen’ was used instead of his real name.
The narrator of the story, seated amidst the bidders, was intrigued by the statue’s history. He tried to delve deeper into its history and found that the statue was bought by Sir Alexander Heathcote, a diplomatic person of great acclaim. He also happened to be a very fastidious person. He would have breakfast at the same time every morning, with the same ingredients in the exact same quantity, reach his office desk at the Foreign Office at exactly 8:59 AM and leave for home at exactly 6 in the evening.
He perhaps got the punctuality habit from his father who had been a General. Alexander followed his father’s footsteps and became the His Highness in Peking (now Beijing). Alexander had been a sincere follower of Chinese art during the Ming dynasty. His interest in Chinese artisans is perhaps what made Mr. Gladstone offer him the position and Sir Alexander was more than delighted to accept it.