ZHANG AILING

Also known as Eileen Chang. Nationality: Chinese. Born: Shanghai, 30 September 1920 (some sources say 1921). Lived in Beijing and Tianjin as a child; returned to Shanghai in 1929. Education: The University of Hong Kong, 1939-42. Career: Returned to Shanghai in 1942 because of war; worked for The Times and Twentieth Century, Shanghai; moved to Hong Kong in 1952; worked for The World Today; moved to the United States in 1955; associated with Chinese Study Centre, University of California, Berkeley, from 1955; visiting writer, Cambridge University, 1967; visiting writer, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; associate scholar, Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Died: 1995.

Publications

Short Stories

Jin suoji [The Golden Cangue]. 1943.

Chuanqi xiaoshuoji [Selected Romances]. 1944.

Xiaoshuoji [Selected Short Stories]. 1954.

Qingcheng zhi lian: duanpian xiaoshuo xuan [Love in a FallenCity: Short Stories]. 1985.

Novels and Novellas

Chenxiangxie [Bits of Incense Ashes]. 1943.

Moli xiangpian [Jasmine Tea]. 1943.

Xinjing [Heart Sutra]. 1943.

Qingcheng zhi lian [Love in a Fallen City]. 1943.

Fengsuo [Sealed Off]. 1943.

Liuli pian [Glazed Tiles]. 1943.

Deng [Waiting]. 1943.

Hongyingxi [Happiness]. 1943.

Hua diao [Withered Flowers]. 1943.

A Xiao bei qiu [A Xiao's Sad Autumn]. 1943.

Lianhuan tao [Chain of Rings]. 1944.

Nianqing de shihou [Time of Youth]. 1944.

Hong meigui bai meigui. 1944; as Red Rose and White Rose, 1978.

Yinbao yan song hualouhui. 1944.

Liu qing [Mercy]. 1945.

Chuang shiji [Genesis]. 1945.

Chuanqi [Romances]. 1947.

Yang ko. As The Rice Sprout Song, 1955.

Jidi zhi lian. As Naked Earth, 1954.

Wu si yi shi [Remnants from May 4th Movement]. 1958.

Yuan nu [The Embittered Woman]. 1966.

The Rouge of the North. 1967.

Wang ranji [Disappointment]. 1968.

Liu yan [Gossip]. 1969.

Zhang kan [Zhang's View]. 1976.

Xiao tuanyuan [Reunion]. 1976.

Se jie [Threshhold of Eroticism]. 1979.

Haishanghua liezhuan [Biography of Prostitutes]. 1981.

Zhang Ailing juan [Zhang Ailing]. 1982.

Lian zhi bei ge. 1983.

Yin Bao Yan kan Hualouhui. 1983.

Sheng ming de yue zhang [Music of Life], with Lin Haiyin. 1983.

Chuanqi [Romance]. 1986.

Si yu [Whispers]. 1990.

Other

Sanwenji [Selected Prose]. 1945.

Shi ba chun [Spring of 18]. 1948.

Translator, Fool in the Reeds, by Chen Chi-ying. 1959.

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Critical Studies:

in A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, 1917-1957, 1961, and Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas: 1919-1949, 1981, both by C. T. Hsia; "Eileen Chang's Bridges to China" by Jeannine Bohlmeyer, in Tamkang Review 5(1), 1972; "Themes and Techniques in Eileen Chang's Stories" by Stephen Cheng, in Tamkang Review 8(2), 1977; "Fiction and Autobiography: Spatial Form in The Gold Cangue and The Woman Warrior " by Lucien Miller and Hui-chuan Chang, in Tamkang Review 15(1-4), 1984-85; "Moon, Madness and Mutilation in Eileen Chang's English Translation of The Golden Cangue " by Shirley J. Paolini and Chen-Shen Yen, in Tamkang Review 19(1-4), 1988-89.

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Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang) was an eminent writer of fiction and translator. In Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas: 1919-1949 (1981) the critic C. T. Hsia called her the most talented Chinese writer of the 1940s. Because she was proficient in both Chinese and English, she was able to translate her own works. Among Zhang's major works is the brilliant 1943 novella "The Golden Cangue" ("Jinsuo ji"), modeled on the Dream of the Red Chamber, a classic Chinese novel . "The Golden Cangue" in turn spawned two further versions of the story: The Embittered Woman (Yüan-nü; 1966) and The Rouge of the North (1967), an English version. Zhang's Nightmare in the Red Chamber (Hung-lou mengyen; 1967) discusses the classical source of "The Golden Cangue."

Zhang's tragic political novel, The Rice-Sprout Song (Yangko), which departs from classical tradition, is set in China during the period of land reform in the 1950s. On a similar note The Naked Earth (Jidi zhi lian) chronicles communist rule in China from the period of land reform through the Korean War. Both works were published in 1954, with English versions in 1955. Broader in scope than The Rice-Sprout Song, The Naked Earth deals with adversity, friendship, and love.

Besides her novels Zhang mastered the short story form. Her stories include "Little Finger Up," which deals with the issue of concubines and the distress of the legitimate wife and her powerless position in marriage, and "Stale Mates," in which divorce and remarriage cause problems. "Stale Mates" relates a tale of ill feeling and marital pride, but it does so in a lighter vein than the author's usual mode. "Shame Amah" tells of a maid in Shanghai whose employer is a foreigner and man-about-town.

Universal themes in Zhang's fiction include survival and suffering, the elusiveness of romantic love, the importance of family, and the clarification of individual identity with respect to the group. Self-fulfillment and self-indulgence rankle against duty and convention. In her works Zhang presents generational clashes between mothers and daughters-in-law and conflicts between spouses and brothers and sisters. She shows the hierarchical structure of Chinese families, whether they are mandarins or farmers. She depicts the world of servants, concubines, and slaves. Her stories often use Shanghai or its environs as their locale.

In The Rice-Sprout Song, for example, Zhang creates the predicament of village folk in the countryside outside Shanghai. In simple, direct language she relates the tale of Chinese villagers who suffer from poverty and hunger because of Mao Tse-tung's policies. Zhang gives an authentic picture of Chinese villagers and of their familial and social interactions. She demonstrates the interrelationships between generations, mothers-in-law and new brides, spouses, and parents and children. She lifts the veil of lies perpetuated by Comrade Wong, the village official of the Communist party. Events reach crisis proportions when Moon Scent, the heroine, having earned money working in Shanghai, is forced by Wong to part with her nest egg and to donate food for the families of the Peoples' Liberation Army. When Comrade Wong asks for further sacrifices from the peasants, Gold Root, Moon Scent's spouse, leads the resistance, and a riot ensues. When Gold Root and his daughter are killed, Moon Scent burns down a government storehouse in retaliation, but she loses her life in the fire. Ironically, the filmmaker Ku finds inspiration in the couple's story for his new film, but he will alter the story so as to conform to party dictates. The truth of the villagers' revolt, which was precipitated by hunger and rage, will be altered for political expediency. Zhang powerfully exposes the hypocrisy and lies. She uncovers the reality under the party rhetoric, which officially proclaims the government's achievements in the countryside while the people starve.

While The Rice-Sprout Song focuses upon the poor, "The Golden Cangue" illustrates the decadence of the mandarins. Set in Shanghai, the novella reveals the situation of Ch'i-ch'iao, who marries into a wealthy family despite her lowly origins. The golden cangue symbolizes the destructiveness of the protagonist who, while metaphorically bearing the frame used to hold prisoners in old China, is both imprisoned and imprisoning.

Developed from the story of "The Golden Cangue," The Rouge of the North is a more detailed study of the heroine Yindi (Ch'i-ch'iao). The third-person narration focuses on the consciousness of Yindi, a woman of lowly origins who marries into the rich Yao family and who documents her struggles as a daughter-inlaw vis-à-vis the old mistress and her constant battle for acceptance. After a brief liaison with her brother-in-law, she unsuccessfully attempts suicide. (No suicide attempt occurs in the short story.) Like the heroine of "The Golden Cangue," Yindi falls victim to her opium habit, and she manipulates the life of her only son after her invalid spouse dies and she achieves independence. Contrary to the original story, there is no daughter in The Rouge of the North, but the sufferings inflicted by Yindi upon her son's wife are detailed in both works.

Similarities occur in both stories when the heroines fail to find fulfillment in love or marriage and when they dominate their sons and daughters-in-law. Compared to "The Golden Cangue," The Rouge of the North is more fully fleshed out with details of the characters' habits and backgrounds and offers more information on family social structure, styles of living, and conversation. While focusing on the theme of love lost, The Rouge of the North lacks the symbolism and brevity of "The Golden Cangue," which paints a more devastating picture of its protagonist's destructiveness.

Zhang's body of work succeeds in revealing family relationships, especially the plight of her female protagonists as they attempt to work out their conflicts. In her works the world of women and extended households is rife with problems such as loveless arranged marriages and friction between daughters-inlaw and mothers-in-law and between wives and concubines. Her heroines are strong, memorable characters who may also be schemers and manipulators. When her characters err, Zhang maintains a moral neutrality that avoids direct condemnation of the protagonists. Whether mandarins or villagers, her characters are drawn in sharp, deft strokes, and she captures conversation with a practiced ear in a realistic and descriptive style.

Zhang is remembered as an accomplished writer of short fiction who ranks with Eudora Welty, Katherine Mansfield, and Katherine Anne Porter. "The Golden Cangue" is not only one of the finest contemporary Chinese novellas, but it is also a blend of Chinese classical tradition and modern consciousness. Zhang left a legacy of Chinese stories and English translations. She rendered her translations into excellent and occasionally colloquial English while keeping Chinese words and phrases in the text. The author-translator thus internationalized her Chinese works, making them more accessible through the use of English.

—Shirley J. Paolini

See the essay on "The Golden Cangue."