What do you think?
Rate this book
Lust, Caution
'Dead, she was his ghost'
A gripping, intensely atmospheric story of love, espionage and betrayal in wartime Shanghai, Lust, Caution is accompanied here by four more shimmering tales of Chinese life.
A gripping, intensely atmospheric story of love, espionage and betrayal in wartime Shanghai, Lust, Caution is accompanied here by four more shimmering tales of Chinese life.
135 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
44 people are currently reading
1128 people want to read
About the author
Eileen Chang
84 books672 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 - 30 of 100 reviews
August 22, 2021
From the title novella alone, Chang seems a marvellously slippery writer trading in gaps and spaces, the unseen and the unspoken, but somehow deeply felt. Lust, Caution starts in media res and without the character list it would have taken me some time to catch up with the premise involving, as it does, a long-laid plot and a playing of roles. In that sense, the text itself is dependent on the paratext of dramatis personae which also includes pronunciation of the Chinese names and mini 'biographies' of the characters which serve to supplement the story as told - interestingly, though, this addition is added by the translator, Julia Lovell, not the author, so already there is a sort of writerly collaboration taking place before we've even read a word.
And Chang's opening is itself layered:
The vivid materiality of the scene with its sounds and sights is also full of ominous words whose more sinister sense charges the scene with a kind of dreadful foresight: 'hot lamp', 'full-beam', 'flashed', 'glare', 'tied down', 'blinding' - for this is Shanghai ruled by a wartime collaborationist government with the Japanese, and not everyone is prepared not to resist.
Set amidst the fraught politics is Jiazhi, young, beautiful, a student actress, and in the most dangerous, perhaps, role of her life...
This is a story where the on-page footprint is only a guide to the deeper, submerged narrative. So little happens - yet so much happens. I love the jittery instability of this text - definitely one for readers willing to pay close attention to the freight of words and the acute spaces between them. And what a feat of delicate translation - an excellent choice for Women in Translation month.
And Chang's opening is itself layered:
Though it was still daylight, the hot lamp was shining full-beam over the majong table. Diamond rings flashed under its glare as their wearers clacked and reshuffled their tiles. The tablecloth, tied down over the table legs, stretched out into a sleek plain of blinding white.
The vivid materiality of the scene with its sounds and sights is also full of ominous words whose more sinister sense charges the scene with a kind of dreadful foresight: 'hot lamp', 'full-beam', 'flashed', 'glare', 'tied down', 'blinding' - for this is Shanghai ruled by a wartime collaborationist government with the Japanese, and not everyone is prepared not to resist.
Set amidst the fraught politics is Jiazhi, young, beautiful, a student actress, and in the most dangerous, perhaps, role of her life...
This is a story where the on-page footprint is only a guide to the deeper, submerged narrative. So little happens - yet so much happens. I love the jittery instability of this text - definitely one for readers willing to pay close attention to the freight of words and the acute spaces between them. And what a feat of delicate translation - an excellent choice for Women in Translation month.
May 23, 2019
--Lust, Caution
--In the Waiting Room
--Great Felicity
--Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn
--Traces of Love
Editor's Afterword
A Guide to Pronunciation
--In the Waiting Room
--Great Felicity
--Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn
--Traces of Love
Editor's Afterword
A Guide to Pronunciation
October 6, 2024
Like the title story, and from having been exposed and read Eileen Chang's work before, her themes about the ambivalence of a unified China often occupied and ruled by radical political forces is a daunting puzzle. The stories in this collection are as complex yet spare as "Lust Caution".
July 16, 2019
Lust, Caution and Other Stories is a series of short stories set in 1940's in Shanghai, a port city that became the battleground between the Japanese and the Chinese leading to a socio political crisis that impacted lives. The tittle story of this collection has a film adaptation by Oscar Winning Director Ang Lee, which renewed interest in Eileen Chang’s writings. It is a story that looks at multiple layers: the elite social structure of Shanghai then, the student uprising against the Japanese forces, youth and marriages filled with social niceties.
There are four other short novellas in this collection, each one lush with sensuality and evocative narratives. I loved Chang’s other collection ‘Love in a Fallen City’ which too is set in Shanghai in the backdrop of war and the resulting fissures on the socio cultural fabric of Shanghai. The magic in her writing lies in the details that is captured with an economy of words and leaves one gasping with the effect. I can only say this: Go read Eileen Chang, read all her work if you can. A word of caution though: those looking for stories per se will not take to this, they should go for her 'Love in a Fallen City'. This one is for readers who love to submerge themselves in the narrative and the world it takes them to.
There are four other short novellas in this collection, each one lush with sensuality and evocative narratives. I loved Chang’s other collection ‘Love in a Fallen City’ which too is set in Shanghai in the backdrop of war and the resulting fissures on the socio cultural fabric of Shanghai. The magic in her writing lies in the details that is captured with an economy of words and leaves one gasping with the effect. I can only say this: Go read Eileen Chang, read all her work if you can. A word of caution though: those looking for stories per se will not take to this, they should go for her 'Love in a Fallen City'. This one is for readers who love to submerge themselves in the narrative and the world it takes them to.
March 21, 2022
I expected something completely different from this book. It's neither gripping nor filled with "lust": these are slice of slife short stories without much of a narrative with an unusual setting for a Western reader. I felt a got a sense of ww2 Shanghai, and the writing was elegant (if a little bit too adjective-filled) but I found the stories quite confusing; after a few pages my mind would always start to wander and I had to force myself to pay attention. It's really interesting to me that this kind of writing was really selling well, because it seems like the antithesis of what "should" be commercially successful. I'm not racing to read more of Eileen Chang, but it was a nice reminder to read more authors from countries I usually neglect reading from.
April 26, 2020
I don't know whether to give this book 1 or 2 stars.
I thought it would be similar to the movie of the same name, but instead, it was a collection of short stories. And I enjoyed none of them.
The subjects of the short stories didn't resonate with me, the characters and dialogue were forgettable and flat and everything I read went completely over my head.
I would like to be in the position to give a more thorough review, but since this book was too small and the same problems were present throughout the whole thing, this isn't gonna be the case.
If you made it this far, congratulations! 'Till next time, take care :) :)
I thought it would be similar to the movie of the same name, but instead, it was a collection of short stories. And I enjoyed none of them.
The subjects of the short stories didn't resonate with me, the characters and dialogue were forgettable and flat and everything I read went completely over my head.
I would like to be in the position to give a more thorough review, but since this book was too small and the same problems were present throughout the whole thing, this isn't gonna be the case.
If you made it this far, congratulations! 'Till next time, take care :) :)
March 15, 2016
Literature in Republican-era China was dominated by concerns of "Nation", "Progress", and "Revolution"; themes that promised national salvation through literature by the like of noted authors such as Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Ding Ling, or Guo Moruo. Literature that deviated from this aim was often disparaged or looked down on for its "bourgeois" tendencies and its lack of concern for the future of China, the quality of the literature notwithstanding. Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing) was one such author looked down on by the May Fourth writers for her portrayals of love and life in wartime Shanghai or Hong Kong.
However, in this collection, it becomes evidently clear that Chang's literary worth was understated by her peers during her lifetime and that she is a noted artist of the human condition. The highlight of the collection is of course "Lust, Caution" - both a taught, atmospheric spy story and a powerful story of love and betrayal. "Lust, Caution" is typical of Chang's work in that the major historical events of the period serve primarily as a backdrop to a much more personal and revealing story of human emotions heightened by the historical setting. This is also seen in "Sealed Off" and "Love In A Fallen City", both of which use the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and the fall of Hong Kong respectively to further the emotional and human stories. In a few sentences, Chang captures perfectly the sights and sounds of 1940s Shanghai, the struggles of occupation and collaboration, and the psychological drama to which a double agent is subjected. Jiazhi, the spy in question, is tasked with luring Mr Yi, a noted collaborator to his death, but her feelings interfere and ultimately spare him. Immediately, the difference between Chang and certain "patriotic" writers becomes clear: the war is not so black and white, there is too much ambiguity, too many complications for the story to resolve itself in a patriotic way.
Chang then is able to firmly respond to her contemporary political critics with this short story, as Julia Lovell writes in the afterword to this edition, for "In 'Lust, Caution', the loud public questions - war, revolution, national survival - that Chang had for decades been accused of sidelining are freely given centre stage, then exposed as transient, alienating, and finally subordinate to the quiet, private themes of emotional loyalty, vanity and betrayal." Chang's continued development and exploration of these private themes are further showcased in the four further stories accompanying "Lust, Caution". All of them are set against the familiar backdrop of Republican Shanghai, that heady, crazy city half foreign and half Chinese but the characters are distinctively Chang's creations.
Of them, the highlights are possibly "Steamed Osmanthus Flower" and "Great Felicity" - both of which focus not only on women's roles in Republican China but also provide a window into life at the time. In "Steamed Osmanthus Flower", Ah Xiao swelters in an Indian Summer while she contends with the difficulties of being employed by a foreigner. "Great Felicity" highlights the tensions between the generations during this time of great upheaval in China as a wedding between a New Style family and one of the old gentry class.
In all of the her stories presented here, Eileen Chang refutes her peers' criticism that she was a "banal boudoir realist" and instead proves herself to be a powerful writer and one who was more than able to portray the struggles of human life regardless of the historical setting. Reality was never as clearcut as the May Fourth and revolutionary writers would have hoped, instead Chang captures the true clamour and complications of life in all its forms.
However, in this collection, it becomes evidently clear that Chang's literary worth was understated by her peers during her lifetime and that she is a noted artist of the human condition. The highlight of the collection is of course "Lust, Caution" - both a taught, atmospheric spy story and a powerful story of love and betrayal. "Lust, Caution" is typical of Chang's work in that the major historical events of the period serve primarily as a backdrop to a much more personal and revealing story of human emotions heightened by the historical setting. This is also seen in "Sealed Off" and "Love In A Fallen City", both of which use the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and the fall of Hong Kong respectively to further the emotional and human stories. In a few sentences, Chang captures perfectly the sights and sounds of 1940s Shanghai, the struggles of occupation and collaboration, and the psychological drama to which a double agent is subjected. Jiazhi, the spy in question, is tasked with luring Mr Yi, a noted collaborator to his death, but her feelings interfere and ultimately spare him. Immediately, the difference between Chang and certain "patriotic" writers becomes clear: the war is not so black and white, there is too much ambiguity, too many complications for the story to resolve itself in a patriotic way.
Chang then is able to firmly respond to her contemporary political critics with this short story, as Julia Lovell writes in the afterword to this edition, for "In 'Lust, Caution', the loud public questions - war, revolution, national survival - that Chang had for decades been accused of sidelining are freely given centre stage, then exposed as transient, alienating, and finally subordinate to the quiet, private themes of emotional loyalty, vanity and betrayal." Chang's continued development and exploration of these private themes are further showcased in the four further stories accompanying "Lust, Caution". All of them are set against the familiar backdrop of Republican Shanghai, that heady, crazy city half foreign and half Chinese but the characters are distinctively Chang's creations.
Of them, the highlights are possibly "Steamed Osmanthus Flower" and "Great Felicity" - both of which focus not only on women's roles in Republican China but also provide a window into life at the time. In "Steamed Osmanthus Flower", Ah Xiao swelters in an Indian Summer while she contends with the difficulties of being employed by a foreigner. "Great Felicity" highlights the tensions between the generations during this time of great upheaval in China as a wedding between a New Style family and one of the old gentry class.
In all of the her stories presented here, Eileen Chang refutes her peers' criticism that she was a "banal boudoir realist" and instead proves herself to be a powerful writer and one who was more than able to portray the struggles of human life regardless of the historical setting. Reality was never as clearcut as the May Fourth and revolutionary writers would have hoped, instead Chang captures the true clamour and complications of life in all its forms.
August 2, 2019
The title story in this collection promises to be ‘gripping’ and ‘intensely atmospheric’. I’m not sure those descriptors put readers in the right frame of mind for what they’re really going to get, which is five of the quietest, most understated slice-of-life stories I’ve ever read.
Set in post-war China, they all play out against the backdrop of political, financial, and social unrest, but these wider issues are never the focus of the narrative. Instead, Chang uses them as a catalyst to shine a light on the entirely domestic affairs of love, family, and friendship. By doing so, she examines the idea (albeit subtly) that it’s the quiet, mundane interactions of everyday life that occupy the greatest part of people’s focus and attention – even in times of great unrest.
As a collection, the stories do work well together, as each of them is concerned to a greater or lesser extent with the role of women within Chinese society, class divides, national identity, and the post-war shift from a traditional patriarchal society towards a more liberal, Westernised way of living. It was the translation itself that became a stumbling block, however. Given how many stylistic choices are necessary when converting prose from one language to another, I found it very odd that Penguin chose to compile stories that have all been translated by a different person. With six people in all having worked on the conversion from Chinese, there is a jarring inconsistency to the narrative voice, which reads as dry and pragmatic in one story, and evocative and flowery in the next. I strongly suspect that newly commissioned, cohesive translations would have worked better.
I can’t say I got a huge amount of enjoyment out of reading this book. With very little plot to grapple with, and an uneven writing style, it was difficult to feel any kind of emotional connection to the characters. That said, I was consistently intrigued by the themes Chang was touching on; there were some fantastic passages dotted throughout (with particularly good use of imagery); and I’m willing to give her some benefit of the doubt where the erratic translation is concerned. Perhaps I’d have better luck with one of her novels.
Set in post-war China, they all play out against the backdrop of political, financial, and social unrest, but these wider issues are never the focus of the narrative. Instead, Chang uses them as a catalyst to shine a light on the entirely domestic affairs of love, family, and friendship. By doing so, she examines the idea (albeit subtly) that it’s the quiet, mundane interactions of everyday life that occupy the greatest part of people’s focus and attention – even in times of great unrest.
As a collection, the stories do work well together, as each of them is concerned to a greater or lesser extent with the role of women within Chinese society, class divides, national identity, and the post-war shift from a traditional patriarchal society towards a more liberal, Westernised way of living. It was the translation itself that became a stumbling block, however. Given how many stylistic choices are necessary when converting prose from one language to another, I found it very odd that Penguin chose to compile stories that have all been translated by a different person. With six people in all having worked on the conversion from Chinese, there is a jarring inconsistency to the narrative voice, which reads as dry and pragmatic in one story, and evocative and flowery in the next. I strongly suspect that newly commissioned, cohesive translations would have worked better.
I can’t say I got a huge amount of enjoyment out of reading this book. With very little plot to grapple with, and an uneven writing style, it was difficult to feel any kind of emotional connection to the characters. That said, I was consistently intrigued by the themes Chang was touching on; there were some fantastic passages dotted throughout (with particularly good use of imagery); and I’m willing to give her some benefit of the doubt where the erratic translation is concerned. Perhaps I’d have better luck with one of her novels.
June 2, 2018
1940s Shanghai! Spies! A pink diamond!!!! The first story in this collection is Extremely Me and Exactly What I Wanted to read after a whole bunch of those other spy novels, especially the latter ones in which the girls seem to play increasingly smaller roles. Shanghai and Hong Kong keep cropping up in a bunch of things I enjoy lately, so it was a nice dovetail with that as well as all the stories I grew up hearing my grandmother (whose own father was a spy!) tell about living in mainland China and Taiwan after the war. The first story is deliciously atmospheric and perfect to get lost in. The rest have done really beautiful moments and I love the sense Chang conveys of sort of coming in to something that's already begun and slipping out before it's actually finished. I kept feeling like I was missing some cultural or linguistic contexts for things; I kept wondering about the possible significance of the way characters spelled their names in the original Chinese or mentions of what people bought or routes they traveled. Overall though, a really compelling and lovely collection of stories.
dnf
June 11, 2018Really wanted to like these stories, but the writing just did nothing for me. I found myself having to reread sentences because it wasn't going in. Each story had a different translator aswell, so maybe this had a jarring effect. On the surface the individual summaries of each of the stories sound like plots that I tend to enjoy. But although the stories are well written, the writing style just wasn't flowing for me.
August 1, 2017
Ein Stern weniger als fünf nur weil - wie der Nachwort es nochmals hervorhebt - keine Übersetzung die volle kulturelle Tiefe der Stories erfassen kann. Aber eine ganz arge Empfehlung ansonsten.
May 17, 2025
Reading can be like travelling . A complete Immersion in a new place with new people who share a part of their lives , their food and their concerns. If the journey is long it takes more effort and , of course, a good local guide helps .
With Chang as a guide I'm in Shanghai and Hong Kong in the thirties and forties . A long journey around the world to a place steeped in tradition and embarrassing modernity . A place where decades of colonialism has pulled the internal compass of centuries towards a more propulsive , more uncertain world. It 's an unsettled time with occupation and repression but the people we meet are mainly concerned with the usual preoccupations of life : money , status and intimacy .
Only the first story ,the titular Lust , Caution, explores the politics full on , with a classic sleeper spy story capsized by sudden emotion . But in all the other stories ; of servants , of bored concubines , of unhappy wives , the characters are thinking much like spies . Every encounter is larded with hidden traps and risks , every character has to perform one thing while thinking another . Much is held inside .
For an outsider like me , unused to the complex layering of Chinese values and customs of a hundred years ago , I need Chang to open this door .
Her writing is spare , her pacing accelerates then slows to a standstill . In the short story form it's the latter that works best for me , allowing a deep dive into a single moment or day as the past swirls around the scene like discordant music .And all the more poignant is that we readers know that this whole society will be swept away by what is to come.
With Chang as a guide I'm in Shanghai and Hong Kong in the thirties and forties . A long journey around the world to a place steeped in tradition and embarrassing modernity . A place where decades of colonialism has pulled the internal compass of centuries towards a more propulsive , more uncertain world. It 's an unsettled time with occupation and repression but the people we meet are mainly concerned with the usual preoccupations of life : money , status and intimacy .
Only the first story ,the titular Lust , Caution, explores the politics full on , with a classic sleeper spy story capsized by sudden emotion . But in all the other stories ; of servants , of bored concubines , of unhappy wives , the characters are thinking much like spies . Every encounter is larded with hidden traps and risks , every character has to perform one thing while thinking another . Much is held inside .
For an outsider like me , unused to the complex layering of Chinese values and customs of a hundred years ago , I need Chang to open this door .
Her writing is spare , her pacing accelerates then slows to a standstill . In the short story form it's the latter that works best for me , allowing a deep dive into a single moment or day as the past swirls around the scene like discordant music .And all the more poignant is that we readers know that this whole society will be swept away by what is to come.
November 28, 2017
3,5/5 stars. A good collection of five short stories. The story of the title didn't feel as smooth as the four others, which I think might be because of the translation. All the stories have a simple feel to them, despite the brutality in some of them they're never sentimental.
February 27, 2018
Eileen Chang makes me think of E. Annie Proulx, plucked out of the Appalachians and dropped in occupied Shanghai in the 1920s. She loves describing faces, and I love her descriptions.
November 14, 2021
Ailing Zhang (spesso anche traslitterata come Eileen Chang) era un'autrice cinese le cui opere furono bandite in Cina fino al, quando cominciarono a circolare legalmente nel suo paese natio, decretandone un enorme successo. Nei suoi racconti non c'è mai una parola di troppo, ma ogni frase è puntuale, priva di fronzoli, le protagoniste sono donne forti e determinate, piene di sfaccettature, che lottano per amore o per autoaffermazione. Pur racconti che si concentrano in periodi specifici della storia cinese, il focus è sulle relazioni.
Il primo racconto, "Lussuria", da' solo il titolo alla raccolta e da questo è stato tratto il film omonimo di Ang Lee uscito nel 2007. In "Lussuria", la narrazione è talmente elevata da avere l'impressione di leggere parole e frasi fluide come flutti del mare fino al suo epilogo. "I fiori di Yin Baoyan" è semi-autobiografico, dove la Zhang racconta la storia d'amore impossibile tra una sua amica e un professore. Nell'ultimo, "Quanto odio", una terza storia d'amore impossibile prende vita grazie ad una serie di coincidenze e malelingue.
Quello che emerge più di tutti è un'intensità della penna che cattura l'attenzione e non lascia scampo.
Il primo racconto, "Lussuria", da' solo il titolo alla raccolta e da questo è stato tratto il film omonimo di Ang Lee uscito nel 2007. In "Lussuria", la narrazione è talmente elevata da avere l'impressione di leggere parole e frasi fluide come flutti del mare fino al suo epilogo. "I fiori di Yin Baoyan" è semi-autobiografico, dove la Zhang racconta la storia d'amore impossibile tra una sua amica e un professore. Nell'ultimo, "Quanto odio", una terza storia d'amore impossibile prende vita grazie ad una serie di coincidenze e malelingue.
Quello che emerge più di tutti è un'intensità della penna che cattura l'attenzione e non lascia scampo.
November 15, 2020
These are the first works by Zhang Ailing that I read, yet, for many reasons, I already knew everything about this author beforehand. Needless to say, knowing her background, themes etc. greatly aided and bolstered my reading experience. That being said, I’m not a fan of novellas, and they often leave me quite lukewarm, so these three are not an exception. One thing that I like, though, and that was consistent in all three, was the female characters. I found them well portrayed, captivating, nuanced and with a very strong presence. They were also all very different from each other, which is not usually a given. Overall, I’ll have to read a full-length novel to make my own opinion on Zhang Ailing.
January 14, 2025
We read Lust, Caution for Paper 2, although regretfully not the other short stories in the collection. I found it so interesting that this one in particular took her years and years to write, and it’s very apparent in how rich each line is. Everything she chooses, the colours, street names, have such interesting meanings!!
I adored the setting of Shanghai yet also its threatening Westernisation. This is the most beautifully crafted espionage story and the film adaptation does a great job and communicating the tension.
Surprisingly, whilst cold and calculated, it also felt very emotional to me and it is so heart breaking to see how their extremely gradual love is too subtle to be realised.
I adored the setting of Shanghai yet also its threatening Westernisation. This is the most beautifully crafted espionage story and the film adaptation does a great job and communicating the tension.
Surprisingly, whilst cold and calculated, it also felt very emotional to me and it is so heart breaking to see how their extremely gradual love is too subtle to be realised.
February 10, 2019
Raccolta di racconti carina e scorrevole, merita la sufficienza e nulla più. A dispetto di quanto pensassi inizialmente, "Quanto odio", ossia l'ultimo racconto, è sicuramente quello che mi è piaciuto di più, una storia che riecheggia vagamente quella di Via col vento e che rimanda alla Cina moderna della prima metà dell'800. I personaggi femminili delle storie di Zhang Ailing sono tutti forti e determinati, e tutti, ognuno a modo suo, lottano per ciò che sentono e amano. Una raccolta interessante se la si vuole integrare allo studio della letteratura cinese moderna e contemporanea. 3 stelle.
July 29, 2020
This has to be the longest I've spent on such a short book. Chang has written some of the most delicate yet dense short stories I've ever read. The sort of stories that make your eyes flick back up the page to make sure you got everything. I'm not going into them one by one but some highlights include the brilliant gossip of In The Waiting Room, universal and hilarious. Also the final lines of Traces of Love stabbed me in the heart.
September 4, 2020
"Eine Frau, die in die Falle eines Mannes ging, war selber schuld, eine Frau, die dem Mann eine Falle stellen wollte, war schamlos; wenn nun aber eine Frau dem Mann diese Falle vergeblich stellte, nur um dann in seine Falle zu tappen, dann war das doppelt frivol. Eine solche Frau war das Messer nicht wert, mit dem man sie tötete." (Liebe in einer gefallenen Stadt)
Eine Meisterin, wunderbar übersetzt.
Eine Meisterin, wunderbar übersetzt.
March 3, 2023
I want more of these stories. The way I got so invested and then so heartbroken in one sitting is a testament to how good this book was. You learn so much more about Chinese culture and get so attached to characters that are deeply flawed and that have so much more than meets the eye!
March 26, 2024
ซื้อมาอ่านเพราะเคยดูหนังมาก่อน แต่เรื่องสั้นในเล่ม ชื่อตอนและเนื้อเรื่องมันไม่โยงเข้ากันเลย เนื้อหาบทสนทนาอ่านแล้วงงๆ คือแปลดีนะ แต่ต้นฉบับที่จะสื่อเราอ่านแล้วไม่เข้าใจเรื่องเลยว่าแต่ละเรื่องหมายถึงอะไร พยายามมากกว่าจะอ่านจบ
October 14, 2022
I still found Love in a Fallen City a stronger collection in comparison to this. That being said, Eileen Chang is a phenomenal writer.
December 3, 2024
Beste novellen var ikke Lust Caution❌ Det var Great Felicity✅ og den aller siste linjen i Traces of Love var best of all time
February 12, 2022
Lust, Caution is 41 pages adapted into a 2.5 hour film. Yet, just as the movie created such stretched tension, each paragraph of the story holds so much context. What an incredible author!
January 30, 2016
Review first published at: http://www.meexia.com/bookie/2015/10/...
I watched Lust, Caution the movie at the end of 2013. It was so good that shortly afterwards I was rushing to buy and read the short story it is based on.
The story is more compact than the movie -- Ang Lee took the liberation to add a few details, but the story is clearly Eileen Chang's, following her recurring themes of emotional loyalty, vanity, and betrayal with the backdrop of turbulent China.
I was very impressed at both the author and director, of how much the author managed to convey in the number of pages (only 30+ pages), and how much the director was able to read so acutely between the lines and regurgitated such a great film. It was hands down my favorite movie from Ang Lee, and possibly the best Chinese movie I have ever seen. I loved it that much.
After reading the main short story in this collection though, I left the book for a few months, and only picked it up again to finish the rest of the collection much later. Having read Eileen Chang's other short story collection Love in a Fallen City, in a way I knew what to expect. I liked her stories then, and I liked them now, but I'd put Lust, Caution above all the other stories in the book.
My edition is the Penguin Modern Classics (as pictured above), and I was curious whether the NYRB Classics version had the same stories in the collection. It seems that it doesn't -- weirdly the majority of the stories in the NYRB Classics are in the Love in a Fallen City and Other Stories Penguin Modern Classics version. Just something to keep in mind, if you're wondering which version to get.
The stories in Penguin version are: Lust, Caution; In the Waiting Room; Great Felicity; Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn, and Traces of Love.
In the Waiting Room gives us a peek into social dynamics in a simple setting of a doctor's waiting room. Great Felicity explores family dynamics of a soon to be married woman with her two future in-law sisters. Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn (curiously a mouthful of a title -- wonder how well the original title works) took us into the home of a foreigner living in China from the maid's point of view. Traces of Love follows an old couple, both married other people in the past, who are now married to each other, each for their own reasons.
Chang's themes felt familiar, in my opinion especially in her seemingly cynical views of love and marriage, and of the binds of society. Love the atmosphere and the settings of her stories. Love the impeccable insight into her characters. I'm curious about her novels now as I've only read her short stories so far. My next Chang will be one of her novels.
I watched Lust, Caution the movie at the end of 2013. It was so good that shortly afterwards I was rushing to buy and read the short story it is based on.
The story is more compact than the movie -- Ang Lee took the liberation to add a few details, but the story is clearly Eileen Chang's, following her recurring themes of emotional loyalty, vanity, and betrayal with the backdrop of turbulent China.
I was very impressed at both the author and director, of how much the author managed to convey in the number of pages (only 30+ pages), and how much the director was able to read so acutely between the lines and regurgitated such a great film. It was hands down my favorite movie from Ang Lee, and possibly the best Chinese movie I have ever seen. I loved it that much.
After reading the main short story in this collection though, I left the book for a few months, and only picked it up again to finish the rest of the collection much later. Having read Eileen Chang's other short story collection Love in a Fallen City, in a way I knew what to expect. I liked her stories then, and I liked them now, but I'd put Lust, Caution above all the other stories in the book.
My edition is the Penguin Modern Classics (as pictured above), and I was curious whether the NYRB Classics version had the same stories in the collection. It seems that it doesn't -- weirdly the majority of the stories in the NYRB Classics are in the Love in a Fallen City and Other Stories Penguin Modern Classics version. Just something to keep in mind, if you're wondering which version to get.
The stories in Penguin version are: Lust, Caution; In the Waiting Room; Great Felicity; Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn, and Traces of Love.
In the Waiting Room gives us a peek into social dynamics in a simple setting of a doctor's waiting room. Great Felicity explores family dynamics of a soon to be married woman with her two future in-law sisters. Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao's Unhappy Autumn (curiously a mouthful of a title -- wonder how well the original title works) took us into the home of a foreigner living in China from the maid's point of view. Traces of Love follows an old couple, both married other people in the past, who are now married to each other, each for their own reasons.
Chang's themes felt familiar, in my opinion especially in her seemingly cynical views of love and marriage, and of the binds of society. Love the atmosphere and the settings of her stories. Love the impeccable insight into her characters. I'm curious about her novels now as I've only read her short stories so far. My next Chang will be one of her novels.
August 23, 2018
Although Eileen Chang (1920-1995) was born in Shanghai she moved around China throughout her life. Despite having immigrated to America in 1955, becoming an American citizen in 1960, and never returning to mainland China it would forever be 1940’s Japanese occupied Shanghai that she would be associated with. Lust, Caution is a collection of five short stories (Lust, Caution, In the Waiting Room, Great Felicity, Steamed Osmanthus Flower: Ah Xiao’s Unhappy Autumn, Traces of Love) set in 1940’s Shanghai during World War 2. What separates Chang’s writing from her counterparts of the time is her ability keep these stories largely devoid of political messages or acts of war.
In contrast to J.G. Ballard’s masterpiece Empire of the Sun (1984) Chang’s writing focuses on the mundane social interactions and daily events strictly between the Chinese people. Where Ballard takes us to the same place and time through the perspective of an outsider, Chang provides private insight to Chinese culture during an intrusive period. While Ballard focuses on soldiers, planes, and national identity through militarism and wartime politics, Lust, Caution shows the Chinese people’s cultural identity through perseverance and commitment to maintaining routine acts and conversations.
The strength of Chang’s writing is clearly in her use exposition and dialog. Her themes of each of these stories revolve around feminism, individuality, sexuality, and national identity. I felt the downfall of these stories was that it could be tedious and too focused on specific irrelevant events of a period when there were more important things going on. These themes and ideas could be addressed with more exposure what was happening on the outside.
As a westerner it is impossible for me to read and write about 1940’s Shanghai without referencing back to J.G. Ballard’s epic novel Empire of the Sun. Since Empire of the Sun focused on the war through the eyes of a British boy in an internment (not concentration!) camp it provided a kaleidoscope of views on both the Japanese and Chinese. I would recommend starting with Empire of the Sun and then moving to Lust, Caution. The first will provide a broad foundation of understanding for the period, and the latter a specific insight to one side.
B. Roderick
2018 Beijing
In contrast to J.G. Ballard’s masterpiece Empire of the Sun (1984) Chang’s writing focuses on the mundane social interactions and daily events strictly between the Chinese people. Where Ballard takes us to the same place and time through the perspective of an outsider, Chang provides private insight to Chinese culture during an intrusive period. While Ballard focuses on soldiers, planes, and national identity through militarism and wartime politics, Lust, Caution shows the Chinese people’s cultural identity through perseverance and commitment to maintaining routine acts and conversations.
The strength of Chang’s writing is clearly in her use exposition and dialog. Her themes of each of these stories revolve around feminism, individuality, sexuality, and national identity. I felt the downfall of these stories was that it could be tedious and too focused on specific irrelevant events of a period when there were more important things going on. These themes and ideas could be addressed with more exposure what was happening on the outside.
As a westerner it is impossible for me to read and write about 1940’s Shanghai without referencing back to J.G. Ballard’s epic novel Empire of the Sun. Since Empire of the Sun focused on the war through the eyes of a British boy in an internment (not concentration!) camp it provided a kaleidoscope of views on both the Japanese and Chinese. I would recommend starting with Empire of the Sun and then moving to Lust, Caution. The first will provide a broad foundation of understanding for the period, and the latter a specific insight to one side.
B. Roderick
2018 Beijing
December 31, 2017
This collection of short stories focuses on life during the Second World War in Shanghai (and partly Hong Kong), including aspects of the Japanese occupation. Eileen Chang lived through this period in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and while many of the stories are about mundane everyday life, the issues of culture, imperialism, intrigue, gender roles and relations, class, and love provide an interesting ethnography of the times. The trajectory of the plots are noticeably different to male and western authors, with no noticeable climax and conclusions that peter out and fade away somewhat like a 1960s pop music hit. That is not to say that the stories are unresolved - they certainly are - but that the resolution occurs as a phase in the life that otherwise continues on. Yet each story projects a form of melancholy that I suppose reflects the wartime situation - somewhat like Hemingway's ever-present tragedy that is inescapable in almost all of his writing. While visiting Shanghai for the first time in 2016, I read W. Somerset Maugham's work
On A Chinese Screen
. Maugham tried to show a side of everyday life for local inhabitants that was otherwise ignored by the imperialists. Chang provides the inside story, and while the stories have all been translated into English, one does not feel that there is anything missing from the work. Chang was prolific, and I will try one of her novels in the near future.
January 19, 2018
This book has been on my shelves for so long, I can’t remember anymore what prompted my interest, not in the least because this is a collection of short stories - my least favourite fiction format (other than horror), which I never read. I prefer my fiction long. I prefer a complete story to snippets from life, no matter how well written. And these are well written.
Eileen Chang writes beautifully. Her descriptions and characterisations are on point and often incisive. She explores universal themes of love, jealousy, friendship, selfishness, disappointment, fear amongst others, set against a backdrop of Occupied Shanghai. The war and the occupation however are very much in the background and mentioned only rarely as a cause of rising costs of living and general hardship. Instead Chang concentrates primarily on human relationships and the human psyche that she effectively showcases in every story, whether it’s the lovers in Lust, Caution, a random gathering of villagers in The Waiting Room, family dynamics in Great Felicity or employee-employer interaction in Ah Xiao’s Unhappy Autumn.
Every story is well told although Lust, Caution is my favourite because it focuses on one event from start to finish and so feels complete to me. Even though I enjoyed the writing in the others, I was always left with a feeling of discontent at the end, mostly because I felt like each of them could easily have been a novella in itself! Hence the 2-star rating is more reflective of my own shortcomings as a reader than any issue with Chang’s storytelling.
I think readers who enjoy the short story format will enjoy this collection and do it far more justice that I did.
Eileen Chang writes beautifully. Her descriptions and characterisations are on point and often incisive. She explores universal themes of love, jealousy, friendship, selfishness, disappointment, fear amongst others, set against a backdrop of Occupied Shanghai. The war and the occupation however are very much in the background and mentioned only rarely as a cause of rising costs of living and general hardship. Instead Chang concentrates primarily on human relationships and the human psyche that she effectively showcases in every story, whether it’s the lovers in Lust, Caution, a random gathering of villagers in The Waiting Room, family dynamics in Great Felicity or employee-employer interaction in Ah Xiao’s Unhappy Autumn.
Every story is well told although Lust, Caution is my favourite because it focuses on one event from start to finish and so feels complete to me. Even though I enjoyed the writing in the others, I was always left with a feeling of discontent at the end, mostly because I felt like each of them could easily have been a novella in itself! Hence the 2-star rating is more reflective of my own shortcomings as a reader than any issue with Chang’s storytelling.
I think readers who enjoy the short story format will enjoy this collection and do it far more justice that I did.
December 4, 2018
This is a collection of short stories, all set in Second World War Shanghai. They are not complete stories as in where you follow characters through a problem and there is a solution in the end. These five stories give merely glimpses into the lives and burden of people in various ranks of society, showing what and - more importantly - how they are dealing with life during war. It is as if you were to just look in on various people's lives for just a few minutes and then move on.
What I found interesting is the way war is hardly ever mentioned. There are no bombs, no talk about what is happening on the front, advances of the enemy etc. The focus of the stories is solely on painting a thoroughly grey dull image of life as a citizen in a city, not itself at war, yet suffering from its consequences.
Frankly, given the title, I had expected something a little more upbeat along the lines of "love can overcome everything"-ish. However, the book rather shows a very - what I assume to be - realistic view of life during the glum times of war.
What I found interesting is the way war is hardly ever mentioned. There are no bombs, no talk about what is happening on the front, advances of the enemy etc. The focus of the stories is solely on painting a thoroughly grey dull image of life as a citizen in a city, not itself at war, yet suffering from its consequences.
Frankly, given the title, I had expected something a little more upbeat along the lines of "love can overcome everything"-ish. However, the book rather shows a very - what I assume to be - realistic view of life during the glum times of war.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews