Novel
Memories of Peking: South Side Stories
城南舊事
Lin Haiyin · 1960
Synopsis
In the south of Beijing, during the 1920s, little Yingzi tells what she grasps of the world of adults, from the age of seven, in 1926, to the age of thirteen. The stories, which can be read separately or as a novel, advance with her growth and bear titles such as L'Auberge Huian, Allons voir la mer or Lan Yiniang. The nanny Song, an illiterate woman, runs through them all with her wisdom and dignity, while the events of the family serve as a frame for what the child gradually comes to understand.
Context
The book appeared in 1960 and was an immediate success, with more than thirty printings according to the preface of the English edition, which sees in it a collection that can also be read as a lyrical novel. The author drew on her own childhood in Beijing, years after leaving the mainland. In 1982, Wu Yigong made a film of it in Shanghai, produced without her official approval according to the same preface. Nancy C. Ing and Chi Pang-yuan translated it into English in 1992 under the title Memories of Peking: South Side Stories. In French, the BnF records in 1995 Les histoires du vieux Pékin, three volumes published by Ifrane, co-signed with Guan Weixing.
Who it is for
Short tales seen at a child's height; they can be read in English, and a French edition of 1995 remains to be examined.
Prizes and reception
In 1999 Asia Weekly ranked the film that Wu Yigong made from it among the hundred best Chinese-language films.
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