The Fall of the Pagoda, the first of two semi-autobiographical novels written originally by Eileen Chang in English, depicts in gripping detail her childhood years in Tianjin and Shanghai, while The Book of Change revolves around her wartime student days in Hong Kong. The Fall of the Pagoda introduces a young girl (called Lute) growing up amid many family entanglements with her divorced mother and spinster aunt during the 1930s in Shanghai’s International Settlement. Both novels shed light on the construction of selfhood in Chang’s other novels, through lengthy discussions of Chang’s difficult relationship with her selfishly demanding mother as well as of intricate dynamics in the extended families who emerged from aristocratic households of the late Qing Dynasty. While the main characters belong to the new Republican period, their worldviews and everyday life are still haunted by the shadows of the past.
Eileen Chang is now recognized as one of the greatest modern Chinese writers, though she was completely erased from official histories in chinese mainland. She was the most popular writer in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II, with English and Chinese stories focusing on human frailties rather than nationalist propaganda. For her non-committal politics and idiosyncrasies, she was boycotted by fellow writers after the war and forced to the margins of literary respectability.
"The Fall of the Pagoda begins as a comedy of manners and gradually evolves into a gothic thriller… Contradictions and aberrations are the norm in Lute’s family. This is a household immersed in a decaying grandeur amid the intoxicating smell of opium, but it never hesitates to pursue new and exotic things from automobiles to movies. Desolation and decadence rule. Lute’s father indulges himself in debauchery while her mother could not wait to become a Nora of New China. Nevertheless, both share the disposition to squander family fortune ruthlessly; children are their last concern. The Russian Revolution, the creation of Manchukuo, and the Second Sino-Japanese War take place one after another in the novel, but except for momentary disturbances, nothing affects the family which is already engulfed by its own corruption." — From the Introduction by David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University
Eileen Chang is now recognized as one of the greatest modern Chinese writers, though she was completely erased from official histories in chinese mainland. These previously unpublished, semi-autobiographical novels depict in gripping detail her childhood years in Tianjin and Shanghai, as well as her student days in Hong Kong during World War II, and shed light on the construction of selfhood in her other novels.
##看书的时候零敲碎打的,不过是想到点什么就写点什么。 以后有时间了,或许会系统地梳理梳理,尽管不过是外行人看热闹。 《小团圆》“她因为伯父没有女儿,口头上算是过继给大房,所以叫二叔二婶”,《雷峰塔》《易经》中并不提这一桩,显然是顾虑到外国人对中国人复杂的辈分...
评分 评分 评分##我记得第一次看《白娘子永镇雷峰塔》时,心下无比讶异,话本完全不现凄哀同情,反是路人看戏、冷嘲热讽的声口,末梢总结两行道貌训话。同我自小听闻十分两样。我还在张晓风的书里撞过《许士林的独白》,烫得流泪,万分哀叹生生别离,那种柔缓的痛是暖的,哪怕空破的愿望,也毕...
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