Bøger af Eileen Chang

Hun så rundt, værelset virkede provinsielt, men provinsielt på en raffineret måde. Madame Liang sad henslængt i en lænestol med det ene ben op over armlænet, en højhælet guldtøffel dinglede yderst på tåen og kunne falde på gulvet med et smæld når som helst. Fasterens hat var lagt bort og erstattet af et papegøjegrønt hovedtørklæde til dagligbrug, og Weilong kunne ikke lade være med at spekulere over, hvordan håret så ud indenunder, og om det mon var farvet. Weilong blev stående foran fasteren, men det var, som om fasteren slet ikke bemærkede hende, hun var dybt koncentreret om palmebladsviften, som hun holdt foran ansigtet, det så ud, som om hun sov.Eileen Chang (1920-1995) var blot 24 år, da hun steg som en komet på den litterære stjernehimmel. I 1941 måtte hun afbryde sine studier i Hongkong, da byen blev bombet af japanerne. Herefter vendte hun tilbage til sin fødeby, Shanghai, og skrev i 1943/44 en lang række noveller og novellaer, der blev udgivet i tidsskrifter og siden samlet i debuten Romancer (1944). Romancer, kalder vi dem, og det er vel også den mest korrekte oversættelse af samlingens titel chuanqi. Men for en moderne læser knytter ordet romance sig måske mere til kærlighed, flirt og romance – selvom den brug af ordet først kom frem i midten af 1950’erne. Den egentlige litterære betydning af romancer på dansk er ”et (længere) fortællende digt med lyriske indslag og med replikker – stilistisk inspireret af folkevisen”, og en mere direkte oversættelse af det kinesiske begreb chuanqi ville være ’overleveringer af det forunderlige’. Det er vigtigt at have in mente, når man oversætter titlen på Eileen Changs debutsamling, for Eileen Chang var bestemt ikke bleg for at lege med denne klassiske kinesiske genre, og der er mere dybde på spil i romancerne end det blotte og bare kærlighedsforhold.Dette andet bind af Shanghairomancerne indeholder de to novellaer Det første røgelseskar og Det andet røgelseskar samt novellen Jasminte

Hun spærrede øjnene op og stirrede frem for sig, de solide, små guldvedhæng i hendes ører var som kobbersøm, der naglede hende til døren – en sommerfugl i en glasæske, farvestrålende og fortvivlet.Eileen Chang (1920-1995), der i dag betegnes som en af Shanghaimodernismens helt centrale figurer, var blot 24 år, da hun steg som en komet på den litterære stjernehimmel. I 1941 måtte hun afbryde sine studier i Hongkong, fordi byen blev bombet af japanerne. Herefter vendte hun tilbage til sin fødeby, Shanghai, og skrev i 1943/44 en lang række noveller og novellaer, der blev udgivet i tidsskrifter og siden samlet i debuten Romancer (传奇 Chuanqi (1944)). Romancer blev en øjeblikkelig succes og var udsolgt i løbet af få dage. De novellaer, der her præsenteres, stammer fra denne første udgivelse – en tid, hvor Eileen Chang syntes ekstraordinært produktiv.Dette første bind (bind 2 er under forberedelse) af Shanghairomancerne indeholder to af Changs mest ikoniske værker, novellaerne Kærlighed i en faldende by og Den gyldne lås, samt novellen Afspærring.Fra efterordet:Opium, undtagelsestilstand, bombardementer, flugt, opløsningen af de klassiske kinesiske idealer. Alt dette eksisterer som et bagtæppe for Eileen Changs novellaer og giver dem et præg af hastværk, af nuets forgængelighed. Meget ofte placeres fortællingen i en slags standset tid, hvor nostalgien for det forgangne nu er til stede endnu, før nuet forgår. Overalt i teksten ses denne rammesætning om fortællingen, der river øjeblikket ud af tiden, gør det til en historie, en romance, og samtidig placerer den, hvor den hører hjemme; som et unikt historisk øjeblik, der aldrig siden kunne genskabes. Det er denne modernitet, som den purunge Eileen Chang formår at skrive frem i et sprog, der er så smukt, at det kan gøre helt ondt at oversætte. Hun skriver på et tidspunkt, hvor moderniteten er akut til stede som en midlertidig (s)tilstand, hvor det klassiske kinesiske og det moderne eksisterer samtidig og lige levende og nærværende. Hun skriver på én gang tindrende moderne og altmodisch romantisk og kobler tingene og menneskene, stilstand og bevægelse, beskriver det indestængte og opbruddet, alt det, der lurer i tingenes – og sædernes – forfald/opløsning. Fanget i tiden, som et møl i skæret af en lampe.

From one of twentieth-century China's greatest writers and the author of Lust, Caution, this is an unforgettable story of a love affair set in 1930s Shanghai. Manjing is a young worker in a Shanghai factory, where she meets Shujun, the son of wealthy merchants. Despite family complications, they fall in love and begin to dream of a shared life together - until circumstances force them apart. When they are reunited after a separation of many years, can they start their relationship again? Or is it destined to be the romance of only half a lifetime? This affectionate and captivating novel tells the moving story of an enduring love affair, and offers a fascinating window onto Chinese life in the first half of the twentieth century.Eileen Chang was born in Shanghai in 1920. She studied literature at the University of Hong Kong but returned to Shanghai in 1941 during the Japanese occupation, where she established her reputation as a literary star. She moved to America in 1955 and died in Los Angeles in 1995.Karen S. Kingsbury taught and studied in Chinese-speaking cities for nearly two decades, and currently lives in Pennsylvania, USA. She has translated Love in a Fallen City for Penguin Classics, as well as other essays and stories by Chang.'A giant of modern Chinese literature' The New York Times'Eileen Chang is the fallen angel of Chinese literature' Ang Lee'A dazzling and distinctive fiction writer' New York Times Book Review'Chang's world is a stark and mysterious place where people strive to find their way in love but often fail under the pressures of family, tradition, and reputation' New Yorker

Shanghai, 1930s. Shen Shijun, a young engineer, has fallen in love with his colleague, the beautiful Gu Manzhen. He is determined to resist his family's efforts to match him with his wealthy cousin so that he can marry her. But dark circumstances-a lustful brother-in-law, a treacherous sister, a family secret-force the two young lovers apart. As Manzhen and Shijun go on their separate paths, they lose track of one another, and their lives become filled with feints and schemes, missed connections and tragic misunderstandings. At every turn, societal expectations seem to thwart their prospects for happiness. Still, Manzhen and Shijun dare to hold out hope-however slim-that they might one day meet again. A glamorous, wrenching tale set against the glittering backdrop of an extraordinary city, Half a Lifelong Romance is a beloved classic from one of the essential writers of twentieth-century China.

A best-selling, autobiographical depiction of class privilege, bad romance, and political intrigue during World War II in China.Now available in English for the first time, Eileen Chang’s dark romance opens with Julie, living at a convent school in Hong Kong on the eve of the Japanese invasion. Her mother, Rachel, long divorced from Julie’s opium-addict father, saunters around the world with various lovers. Recollections of Julie’s horrifying but privileged childhood in Shanghai clash with a flamboyant, sometimes incestuous cast of relations that crowd her life. Eventually, back in Shanghai, she meets the magnetic Chih-yung, a traitor who collaborates with the Japanese puppet regime. Soon they’re in the throes of an impassioned love affair that swings back and forth between ardor and anxiety, secrecy and ruin. Like Julie’s relationship with her mother, her marriage to Chih-yung is marked by long stretches of separation interspersed with unexpected little reunions. Chang’s emotionally fraught, bitterly humorous novel holds a fractured mirror directly in front of her own heart.

This novel portrays the horror and absurdity that the land-reform movement brings to a southern village in China during the early 1950s. Contrary to the hopes of the peasants in this story, the redistribution of land does not mean an end to hunger.

This is the story of Yindi, a beautiful young bride who marries the blind, bedridden son of a rich and noble family. Yindi is pressed beneath the weight of an existence that offers no hope of change and she experiences the slow suffocation of passion, moral strength and physical vitality.

Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang's achievement is her short fiction tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when she was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. Love in a Fallen City, the first collection in English of this dazzling body of work, introduces readers to the stark and glamorous vision of a modern master.

In 1940s Shanghai, beautiful young Jiazhi spends her days playing mahjong and drinking tea with high society ladies. But China is occupied by invading Japanese forces and things are not always what they seem in wartime. Jiazhi s life is a front. A patriotic student radical, her mission is to seduce a powerful employee of the occupying government and lead him to the assassin s bullet. Yet as she waits for him to arrive at their liaison, Jiazhi begins to wonder if she is cut out to be a femme fatale and coldly take Mr Yi to his death. Or is she beginning to fall in love with him?A passionate tale of espionage, deception and love, Lust, Caution is accompanied here by four further dazzling short stories by Eileen Chang.