What do you think?
Rate this book
Traces of Love and Other Stories
Eileen Chang occupies a unique position in modern Chinese literature. She was a popular writer with enduring appeal whose work has inspired successive generations. As a young woman in her mid-twenties, she wrote her most acclaimed stories in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. The popularity of these works has seen major revivals in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and since the 19802, in the Chinese mainland where her work had been banned. When she died in 1995, she had achieved near-cult status. | Writing in 1961, Professor C.T. Hsia called Eileen Chang 'the best and most important writer in Chinese today [whose] short stories invite valid comparisons with, and in some respects claim superiority over, the work of serious modern women writers in English'.
142 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2000
1 person is currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Eileen Chang
85 books674 followersEileen Chang is the English name for Chinese author 張愛玲, who was born to a prominent family in Shanghai (one of her great-grandfathers was Li Hongzhang) in 1920.
She went to a prestigious girls' school in Shanghai, where she changed her name from Chang Ying to Chang Ai-ling to match her English name, Eileen. Afterwards, she attended the University of Hong Kong, but had to go back to Shanghai when Hong Kong fell to Japan during WWII. While in Shanghai, she was briefly married to Hu Lancheng, the notorious Japanese collaborator, but later got a divorce.
After WWII ended, she returned to Hong Kong and later immigrated to the United States in 1955. She married a scriptwriter in 1956 and worked as a screenwriter herself for a Hong Kong film studio for a number of years, before her husband's death in 1967. She moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1972 and became a hermit of sorts during her last years. She passed away alone in her apartment in 1995.
She went to a prestigious girls' school in Shanghai, where she changed her name from Chang Ying to Chang Ai-ling to match her English name, Eileen. Afterwards, she attended the University of Hong Kong, but had to go back to Shanghai when Hong Kong fell to Japan during WWII. While in Shanghai, she was briefly married to Hu Lancheng, the notorious Japanese collaborator, but later got a divorce.
After WWII ended, she returned to Hong Kong and later immigrated to the United States in 1955. She married a scriptwriter in 1956 and worked as a screenwriter herself for a Hong Kong film studio for a number of years, before her husband's death in 1967. She moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1972 and became a hermit of sorts during her last years. She passed away alone in her apartment in 1995.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 12, 2017
This is a lovely little collection of short stories by Eileen Chang or Zhang Ailing. The book was a gift by a Taiwanese friend of mine, a lovely woman who loves reading as much as I do. I think she also feels that I really should know more about great Chinese writing, even if I have to read them in translation.
Admittedly, there was once I did try reading Eileen Chang's work in the original Chinese. My friend had given me Red Rose, White Rose, also in English translation. When I found that the work was available online in the original I just had to try but I gave up after four paragraphs when I had to look up every other word. When I told her this, she told me not to bother. Apparently, Eileen Chang writes in a kind of elegant, formal Mandarin that needs a fair amount of classical education to understand. This is far beyond what an education in Chinese as a second-language will equip you with even if I’d scored A’s in my language classes and I was more of C-student in that regard.
You may have seen the movie by Ang Lee, Lust, Caution, based on her short story of the same name. The tension between the inner lives of the hero and heroine and the behaviour demanded by society—both its norms as well as exigencies demanded from living under Japanese occupation—are here in these stories too. The characters are mostly educated Chinese living in the city, not rural peasant folk, and belonging as they do to the upper middle classes come under enormous constraints to behave in the right way even if it kills them. The mood is that of American Beauty or Revolutionary Road: the quiet desperation of the middle-class, Chinese style.
Her stories are also about relations between men and women, and Ms Chang casts a very jaundiced eye on these indeed: The happiest relationship is that in “Traces of Love” (留情) between a wealthy man and his second wife who married him for his status and money. A similar note is struck in “Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn” (桂花蒸•阿小悲秋) where the heroine is a maidservant to a Westerner who has to spend her days tending to his needs rather than to her husband’s.
In “Stale Mates” (五四遗事) and “Great Felicity” (鸿鸾禧), the happiness prior to marriage is placed in sharp contrast to the dullness and resentment after marriage. “Great Felicity” has some particularly scathing portraits of the shallowness of the characters, more concerned with appearance than with living. There is a telling line when Mrs Lou observes that without the servants in the house, her husband would have no need to treat her with any consideration as there would be no one to put a display on for:
Admittedly, there was once I did try reading Eileen Chang's work in the original Chinese. My friend had given me Red Rose, White Rose, also in English translation. When I found that the work was available online in the original I just had to try but I gave up after four paragraphs when I had to look up every other word. When I told her this, she told me not to bother. Apparently, Eileen Chang writes in a kind of elegant, formal Mandarin that needs a fair amount of classical education to understand. This is far beyond what an education in Chinese as a second-language will equip you with even if I’d scored A’s in my language classes and I was more of C-student in that regard.
You may have seen the movie by Ang Lee, Lust, Caution, based on her short story of the same name. The tension between the inner lives of the hero and heroine and the behaviour demanded by society—both its norms as well as exigencies demanded from living under Japanese occupation—are here in these stories too. The characters are mostly educated Chinese living in the city, not rural peasant folk, and belonging as they do to the upper middle classes come under enormous constraints to behave in the right way even if it kills them. The mood is that of American Beauty or Revolutionary Road: the quiet desperation of the middle-class, Chinese style.
Her stories are also about relations between men and women, and Ms Chang casts a very jaundiced eye on these indeed: The happiest relationship is that in “Traces of Love” (留情) between a wealthy man and his second wife who married him for his status and money. A similar note is struck in “Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn” (桂花蒸•阿小悲秋) where the heroine is a maidservant to a Westerner who has to spend her days tending to his needs rather than to her husband’s.
In “Stale Mates” (五四遗事) and “Great Felicity” (鸿鸾禧), the happiness prior to marriage is placed in sharp contrast to the dullness and resentment after marriage. “Great Felicity” has some particularly scathing portraits of the shallowness of the characters, more concerned with appearance than with living. There is a telling line when Mrs Lou observes that without the servants in the house, her husband would have no need to treat her with any consideration as there would be no one to put a display on for:
It wasn't as if she didn't realize that if the people who cared about her were all to die, leaving her and her husband to rattle around in the empty house alone, her husband would not bother about her at all. Why be a responsible husband when there's no one to see?The theme of moralistic preening is most evident in “Shutdown” (封锁), where a man on a tram strikes up a conversation with a young spinster. I understand that the English translation leaves out three rather crucial paragraphs that occur at the end of the original Chinese text. If you decide to read the story, I set these out in English below as described to me by my friend. They underline in particular the sense of the dead-end of smug self-satisfaction that his life has led towards.
October 2, 2018
An excellent book and very good translations of the short stories. Zhang's stories are always about urban men and women in relationships. This collection recounts people leaving the old, and entering the new China of 1940s with all its Western trappings.
Witty, sophisticated, and packing a punch at the end, the stories present detailed observations of men, women and the complexity of their lives and relationships. I started this book with goosebumps and ended it with a hearty laugh.
Witty, sophisticated, and packing a punch at the end, the stories present detailed observations of men, women and the complexity of their lives and relationships. I started this book with goosebumps and ended it with a hearty laugh.
September 20, 2020
Eileen Chang’s stories find universality in human relationships and the roots behind missed connections through specific stories of people in a specific time and place. Each story has the depth and lasting impression of many of the best novels.
June 23, 2018
pure as water from a mountain spring. Ms Chang had the gift
December 15, 2025
Un libriccino composto da due racconti che delineano la figura di due donne. Intrighi amorosi da un lato e scelte di vita dettate da mere considerazioni pratiche dall’altro in una Cina profondamente patriarcale e conservatrice.
August 10, 2024
Eileen Chang creates an amazing fabric out of tradition and new age influence of the western world in China. The intricate details of day to day lives and the descriptions of the Chinese lifestyle is quite refreshing.
The stories are extremely slow and each has some past trivia of its own. The elegant depiction of the Chinese social and domestic lives back in 1900's is beautiful. But, if you are looking for a general story, you may be disappointed but for having an emersive experience of a fleeting time of the past, you just can't miss this collection.
I loved reading A Good Earth despite the tone of writing wasn't very emotional as a non Chinese wrote about the natives of the country. So, when I picked this classic Chang, I was overwhelmed.
If you haven't tried anything in this #womenintranslationmonth , you can easily try this collection of short stories written in Chinese. Try to read this on a slow rain soaked day for reaping the meditative effect of this book.
The stories are extremely slow and each has some past trivia of its own. The elegant depiction of the Chinese social and domestic lives back in 1900's is beautiful. But, if you are looking for a general story, you may be disappointed but for having an emersive experience of a fleeting time of the past, you just can't miss this collection.
I loved reading A Good Earth despite the tone of writing wasn't very emotional as a non Chinese wrote about the natives of the country. So, when I picked this classic Chang, I was overwhelmed.
If you haven't tried anything in this #womenintranslationmonth , you can easily try this collection of short stories written in Chinese. Try to read this on a slow rain soaked day for reaping the meditative effect of this book.
November 26, 2021
A set of elegant, well-rounded prose that certainly proves Zhang's mastery in the use of language. Yet, I remain somewhat indifferent to this Austen-like kind of writing: all stories revolve around the high-class milieu of Shanghai, love, marriages (unhappy ones mostly), extramarital relations, there are some servants in the background, everyone observes strictly social conventions, women long for love, men pursue pleasures – all slightly sad, but also a bit boring.
November 20, 2019
Due racconti, due donne. Comune denominatore:le illusioni perdute e la scelta, del tutto consapevole, del dolore come moneta di scambio per l'amore nel primo caso o la sicurezza economica nel secondo. La Ailing è una scrittrice delicata ma pungente nel suo indagare la psiche femminile e le contraddizioni della società cinese. Leggerò altro di suo.
September 14, 2021
Chang's stories give me the feeling I'm watching them in a movie. Her work is so descriptive, capturing the subtleties that bring me into the scene and produce the sense that we know these characters very well. Chang's evocative writing has been admired by so many for so long, I am grateful to add my appreciation to that long list.
July 10, 2015
Questo libro non mi è piaciuto molto...a breve la recensione sul blog!
August 7, 2022
sad love stories
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews