 Zhang Ailing (also known as Eileen Chang) was born in Shanghai in 1921. She spent her childhood in Beijing and Tianjin, but returned to Shanghai in 1929. Since her parents were divorced, she first lived with her father and then ran away to her mother’s home. She studied at Hong Kong University. In 1942 when Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese, she returned to Shanghai before completing her education. At the age of 23, she married Hu Lancheng, a traitor. After the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, they were divorced. In 1952, she moved to Hong Kong again, and three years later she moved to the U.S. where she married a friend of Bertold Brecht and managed to publish three novels including “The Rice Sprout Song,” (1955) and “Naked Earth” (1956) about the life under communist rule. Her works are known for their skeptical portrayal of Europeans, Eurasians and upper-class Chinese, as is her famous early novella “The Golden Cangue” (1943) which she later developed into a full-length novel titled “The Rouge of the North”. |