Narrative
Love in a Fallen City
傾城之戀
Eileen Chang · 1943
Synopsis
In Shanghai, Bai Liusu, a divorcee from an old fallen aristocratic family, is living with her own family again, where her brother and sister-in-law treat her as a burden. A friend of the household arranges a meeting between her younger sister, Baoluo, and Fan Liuyuan, a rich bachelor back from England; yet it is Liusu whom he notices. Invited to Hong Kong, where he is staying, she goes in the hope of a marriage that would shelter her; he wants her as a mistress and not as a wife, and a tight game begins between them, each seeking to gain the upper hand.
Context
The text appeared in 1943 in the magazine Zazhi, where its author published more than twenty stories and essays between 1943 and 1945 according to Chen Zishan, and then entered the collection Chuanqi, a bookshop success in 1944. It is divided between Shanghai and Hong Kong, two cities that Zhang Ailing knew, and is inspired by a couple she had known in Hong Kong. She herself made a play of it, performed in Shanghai in 1944, and Ann Hui made it into a film in 1984 with Chow Yun-fat. Karen Kingsbury translated it into English in 2007; Emmanuelle Péchenart published it in French under the title Un amour dévastateur in 2005, then in a revised version at Zulma in 2014, under the title Love in a Fallen City.
Who it is for
A short narrative about a love game played coldly; two French versions by Emmanuelle Péchenart, the second revised.
Prizes and reception
Fu Lei, a critic of the time, praised the author's talent but found this story too taken up with banter.
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