Love Must Not Be Forgotten

by Zhang Jie, Gladys Yang (Translator)

San Francisco 1986 1st China Books. ISBN 0-8351-1699-9. Introduction by Gladys Yang. Hardcover. Octavo, 207pp., cloth. Fine in VG DJ, a bit wrinkled.

Genres: Short Stories, Chinese Literature, China

207 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1986

About the author

Zhang Jie (simplified Chinese: 张洁; traditional Chinese: 張潔; pinyin: Zhāng Jié; Wade–Giles: Chang Chieh, born 1937) is a Chinese novelist and short-story writer. She is one of China's first contributors to feminist fiction.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Ramona Cantaragiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A powerful transgenerational tale about women's suffering at the hands of men and a society which is adamant at condemning love outside marriage. The story of the main character is told in beautiful prose and the ending when she finally decides to break free of the love that brought her only suffering is a breath of fresh air after reading a lot of Romanian novels about women who could not escape from relationships with men that place them in a subordinate position.

[Cornelia DeDona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic gifted writing--I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys and appreciates Chinese fiction

[Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant ! masterful language and a robust and revolutionary female perspective. I particularly loved An Unfinished Record.

[Chris Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would love to see this retranslated because there's some great stuff here that the English rephrasing often doesn't seem to do justice. There are strange, inexcusable grammatical errors in the least competent of the translations, and even the ones that seem to capture Jie's voice have punctuation mistakes and instances where it seems as though the translator reverts to cliche for lack of an ability to find an analagous English phrase. I see a lot of warm, human storytelling potential in stories like "Emerald" and "The Time Is Not Yet Ripe," but there's so much aggravation to claw through to get there.

It pains me to see obscure international works receive such shoddy treatment on the rare occasion they make it to the English language and I can only hope some talented, diligent archivists are picking up the slack.

[Judith Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful insight to the real China during this period

[Always2014 · Rating 4 out of 5]

don't remember anything about this book... maybe I read it in my chinese literature class?

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very straightforward story concerning the thoughts of an unmarried woman in China choosing to put her own happiness first in a society that values sacrifice.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

good and nice. fascinated with chinese texts translated into english rn because the rhythm is very different.

[Hannah Bidus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very sad and thought provoking read. Challenges traditional social constraints relating to marriage and gives insight into a society where social classes trumped love for centuries.