Eileen Chang is a legendary woman writer in the 20th century in Shanghai China because of her extraordinary life experience and unique writing style. Her works is considered among the best Chinese literature of the period. And she is like a mystery that attracted me and millions of other readers.
Eileen was born in a family where traditional Chinese culture conflicted with western culture in 1920. Her father was a typical Chinese man while her mother was deeply influenced by western culture. Her happy childhood did not last long because of the divorce of her parents, and her father treated her badly after he married another woman. This is believed to contribute to her unique writing style which expresses advanced and open western ideas in a typical Chinese way. Alongside, she gained the chance to study in Hong Kong university. However, she came back to Shanghai before she could finish her degree due to the war and that was the time she experienced a true but heart broken love with Hu Lancheng, a minister worked for Japan who invaded China. Although many people blame Hu for his overflow love towards women that hurt Eileen seriously, I feel grateful to him for his appearance that brought Eileen’s career into the highest peak. After their divorce, Eileen moved to America and never came back again. Meanwhile, she did not come up with works as outstanding as she did before.
Eileen’s literature is full of rich and gorgeous words with amazing imagination that demonstrates the very relationship between men and women. Negative but incisive. In her world, there was almost no permanent love and everything will came to an end because of money, mistress or social pressure. But there is one exception in Love in a Fallen City in which Liusu finally married Liuyuan though in price of a destroyed city. I think Eileen’s opinions are a bit too negative but many of her sayings are incisive and realistic in black humour. For example, she said: “A woman is doomed if she is cheated by a man; a woman is an intrigante if she provides chances for a man to cheat her; a woman is a stupid evil if she fails to provide a man the chance but finally is cheated by the man.” These saying always makes people first smile and then think about it deep meaning for a while.
I appreciate Eileen’s works and her life experience. Maybe there is no way for me to understand some of her ideas, but, as a woman, I can feel part of her soul singing long and low songs which are echoing in the history.
Yes,yes, Eileen Chang is a great admired Chinese writer with tough life... I think girls love her story,especially the Banshengyuan. For me, she inspires me because of her struggling to be an independent confident person.
ReplyDeleteI have read somrthing about Zhang Ailing's life, and I was moved. Her life is full of bitterness and challenge, and her writing is very beautiful. She is a unique woman, I admire her a lot.
ReplyDeleteEileen Chang is one of my favourate writers, I like her beautiful sentences and articles. When I read them, I always lose myself in it.I think it is a kind of enjoyment! But I feel very grieved to her tough life. No matter how, she is an excellent person that I admire.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with the idea that Eileen Chang came up with in his novel,and I think it impress me a lot since I learned something about love from that novel.
ReplyDeletei think eileen chang is a writer mostly for women. she is the typical example of women's complicated feelings that i find hard to understand .so i know almost nothing about her.by the way ,are you sure that the collocation "gorgeous words" is right?
ReplyDeleteOne thing about reading a book is that it is subjected to your own interpreatation based on your own life experiences. There is no way to find out if your interpretation is the same as the writer's unless you have the rare chance of having a face-to-face discussion with her.
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