Short stories
One Rainy Evening
梅雨之夕
Shi Zhecun · 1929
Synopsis
A married office worker in Shanghai walks home one evening in heavy rain, in the plum rain season, and slows his pace rather than hurrying. He notices a young woman left without an umbrella and ends up offering to shelter her under his own to see her home. The story takes place almost entirely in what passes through this man's mind during the walk: a desire he does not admit to himself, and the question of whether the stranger resembles the girl he once loved.
Context
The text appeared in August 1929 in Shangyuan deng, from Shuimo, then gave its title to another collection, published in 1933 by Xin Zhongguo. It belongs to the vein of psychological analysis that its author drew from his reading of Freud, and which links him to the neo-sensationists of Shanghai; the library of Tongji University stresses the attention it pays to the stream of consciousness. A selection of stories opened by this one appeared in English in 1994 under the title One Rainy Evening, translated by Rosemary Roberts. In French, Le goût de la pluie, a selection of fourteen stories translated by Marie Laureillard and Gilles Cabrero, appeared from Gallimard in 2011.
Who it is for
A brief short story, with almost no action, for those who like to follow a consciousness over the course of a walk; a selection of the author's work has existed in French since 2011.
Prizes and reception
It is seen as the best-known of Shi Zhecun's stories; Chinese criticism places it in his psychological vein.
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