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ON September 8, 1995, the talented Shanghai-born writer Eileen Chang was found dead on a canvas bed in her apartment in Los Angeles. Her American landlord immediately called Lin Shitong, Chang’s will executor.

According to the medical examiner, Chang had been dead for three or four days. Apart from a copy of the will, which was mailed to Lin three years before her death, she left no word.

Chang did not foresee that her works — in both Chinese and English and largely undervalued in her lifetime — as well as the tragedies of her personal life, would spark so much interest among the literati in the years after her death.

She remains a fascinating figure for students of modern Chinese literature.

Chunzi is one of the leading experts on Chang in Shanghai. Over the past 20 years, she has been reading, questioning, collecting and giving lectures on Chang — walking the way she once walked, visiting the places where she used to live in Shanghai, Hong Kong and the United States, and knocking doors for interviews from those who claimed to know her.

“Every new discovery of Eileen Chang, be it a letter from her, a note she left or a piece of qipao she wore, has given me the thrill,” says Chunzi, an author, radio host and history researcher.

“Sometimes there is really no reason for liking someone. I guess it is my karma to piece together the whole life of Chang, to restore her place as one of the greatest modern Chinese writers in history.”

Last month, Chunzi embarked on a trip to Los Angeles again, where Chang spent her last days in seclusion. Carrying her books, “Eileen Chang: Blossom and Fall,” recently published by SDX Joint Publishing, Chunzi says the trip was her own way of paying her respects to Chang.

“It’s Chang’s pair of feet ‘in embroidery shoes’ that have accompanied me and led me this far. May her soul rest in peace now,” Chunzi says in a WeChat interview with Shanghai Daily.

Born into a distinguished family in 1920, Chang was raised in Beijing and Tianjin. In 1929, her family returned to Shanghai due to war and the social changes that followed the collapse of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). As descendants of the former court officials, both her parents made a living by doing nothing but selling family properties.

When Chang was 10, her parents divorced. Many sources have suggested that Chang suffered a great deal in her youth, much like many of the protagonists in her works, as a result of an abusive father who was hooked on opium.

Chang attended the University of Hong Kong from 1939 to 1942. There, she started writing short fictions and essays to make a living of her own.

Soon she became the most talked about writer in Shanghai. Within the next two years, she penned some of her most acclaimed works, including “Love in a Fallen City” and “The Golden Cangue.” Her literary maturity was said to be beyond her age.

“Eileen Chang to Shanghai is like Charles Dickens to London, James Joyce to Dublin, Victor Hugo and Balzac to Paris, and Pamuk to Istanbul. To get into Chang’s world, one has to know the city of Shanghai at that time very well,” Chunzi says.

After her short-lived marriage with Hu Lancheng between 1944 and 1947, who was later labeled a traitor for collaborating with the Japanese during World War II, Chang moved to Hong Kong in 1952 and cut off all ties with families and friends.

In 1955, she left China for the US where she wrote two English novels “Pink Tears” (1966) and “The Rouge of the North” (1967). Both the novels were brushed aside as “squalid” by publisher Knopf, according to Chunzi’s book.

In the US, Chang became involved with the American screenwriter Ferdinand Reyher. They got married in New York City in 1956. But Reyher became paralyzed and died in 1967 after suffering a series of strokes.

Chang eventually died — single and childless — in her Los Angeles apartment at the age of 74.

“What a life!” Chunzi sighs. “I mean I can’t help but be moved by Chang, whose life represented a new generation of women who emerged after the May 4th Movement. They fought hard to gain the ability to live independently, and to love freely.”

The May 4th Movement which originated in Beijing in 1919 spearheaded intellectual and sociopolitical reform in the country.

It led to calls for national independence, emancipation of the individual, and was seen as an effort to rebuild society and culture in China.

About the author

CHUNZI, whose real name is Li Chun, is a former SMG Radio presenter. Born and educated in Shanghai, she is deeply connected with the city.

In 2006, she published her first book on Eileen Chang, “Right Here in Shanghai: A Map of the Life of Eileen Chang.” She has not stopped following the footsteps of Chang in the hope of discovering more about her idol.

Q: How has Shanghai influenced Eileen Chang and her works?

A: To the Shanghai-born writer, the city is like the placenta to her works. Most of Chang’s stories are set in Shanghai. For example, “The Golden Cangue” was influenced in part by her family’s ties with the Qing Dynasty; the assassination in “Lust, Caution” took place in Nanjing Road W. during the Japanese occupation; and the room’s setting in “Heart Sutra” was exactly the same as in the Edinburgh House — today’s Changde Apartment — where Chang lived with her mother and aunt until 1948. One can still find the fire hydrant described in Chang’s story in front of the staircase.

Q: What’s your opinion on Eileen Chang and her works?

A: Eileen Chang is the only writer in modern Chinese literature, whose works retained the essence of the classical aesthetic and writing skills, surpassing the achievements of the new literature that followed the May 4th Movement.

Such a conscientious attitude and method of writing made her a misfit during her lifetime. However, many of her works survived the test of time.

Q: Describe the process of your writing on Eileen Chang.

A: You can say I’m totally addicted. My life is filled with Chang’s life, her passion, her pains, and her desires. It’s been 20 years since I first started following her steps in Shanghai, Hong Kong and the US, which you can see from my book that chronicles Chang’s life through a series of addresses and house numbers. Now I am 20 years older, and I am not yet done with her. I don’t know how to describe the feeling of despair in the process of my writing when nobody answers at each knock of the door.

Q: What’s the most precious thing you have gained for yourself?

A: I saw the other self of mine that has long been buried under the weight of life. I used to be afraid of being alone. However, in the process of writing about Eileen Chang, I learned to embrace the long nights of loneliness, with no fear of abandonment and criticism.

Eileen took to writing to redeem her life in her late years. I agree that one can find happiness in writing.