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Lust, Caution
A major motion picture (2007) from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain ): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II.
In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai’s tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime—and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair.
In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai’s tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime—and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair.
68 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
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3016 people want to read
About the author
Eileen Chang
84 books668 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 235 reviews
April 11, 2018
I watched this film 3 times. A different version for everytime since it was heavily edited and censored (as we all know). The action almost ruined the whole thing. When finally got round to director's cut I was blown away. Dumbstruck. It took me a while to grasp the cruelty of it and still I get shivered whenever I think about the protagonist's final decision.
As quoted by Ang Lee “To me, no writer has ever used the Chinese language as cruelly as Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang), and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as “Lust, Caution.”
A rare case where I like both the story and the film.
As quoted by Ang Lee “To me, no writer has ever used the Chinese language as cruelly as Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang), and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as “Lust, Caution.”
A rare case where I like both the story and the film.
May 7, 2013
Just one word. Uttered almost in whisper, by a woman. She told her lover: "Run." I paused, staggered, heartbeat quickening as I raced towards the ending. Then I went back to the page where this word was, eleven pages earlier.
""Run,' she said softly."
They are inside a jewelry store. A rich, married, powerful politician working for the Japanese occupying Hongkong during the war and his young, beautiful mistress secretly working for the resistance. They are choosing a diamond ring, his gift to her. Her colleagues at the resistance are outside waiting to ambush him. She was their willing bait, they had set him up for an assassination.
You will wait for an explosive finish. A shootout, guns ablaze, a violent dramatic end. Instead, you'll get one word, almost imperceptible, like a light feather that silently drops to the ground on a windless day. And that word, "run," that solitary word, three letters, a plea, perhaps a cry, creates stories within the story, hidden sequels, questions needing to be asked, uncertainties over facts erstwhile laid plain.
""Run,' she said softly."
They are inside a jewelry store. A rich, married, powerful politician working for the Japanese occupying Hongkong during the war and his young, beautiful mistress secretly working for the resistance. They are choosing a diamond ring, his gift to her. Her colleagues at the resistance are outside waiting to ambush him. She was their willing bait, they had set him up for an assassination.
You will wait for an explosive finish. A shootout, guns ablaze, a violent dramatic end. Instead, you'll get one word, almost imperceptible, like a light feather that silently drops to the ground on a windless day. And that word, "run," that solitary word, three letters, a plea, perhaps a cry, creates stories within the story, hidden sequels, questions needing to be asked, uncertainties over facts erstwhile laid plain.
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November 10, 2024Я колись давно дивилася екранізацію Енга Лі - деталей, звичайно, вже не пам'ятаю, але навіть за 10+ років по тому пам'ятаю драму і надрив, які можна очікувати від Енга Лі. Нарешті дісталася до першоджерела, і хоча популяризував це оповідання саме Енг Лі, в виданні навіть он обкладинка кіношна + його післямова (дуже тепла і гарна, "авторка поверталася до цього оповідання, як злочинець повертається на місце злочину", етц.), але враження від двох творів якісь протилежні.
Коротше кажучи, Шанхай під японською окупацією. Студенти - юні довбні з театральними гуртками й гуманітарними захопленнями, яким не пощастило народитися саме в той час - вирішують боротися з окупацією, підсилають дівчину до місцевого колаборанта, щоб вона звабила його і виманила в руки вбивць. Але всі ці шпигунські пристрасті виписані максимально understated, на початку люди сидять, знічев'я грають у маджонг, планують, куди піти на вечерю і хто платить - і в кінці люди сидять, знічев'я грають у маджонг, планують, куди піти на вечерю і хто платить, десь поміж цим проливається кров, люди роблять найважливіші рішення свого життя, які нічого не міняють, усе це йде під воду, як камінь, зникає, як кола на плесі. Об'єктивно майстерклас, як впакувати максимально багато в мінімальний час (і фабули, й оповідний), але при цьому ще й нагрузити ретардації. Аж цікаво передивитися фільм, аби порівняти, але колись не зараз, бо клята Росія відняла навіть можливість невинно насолоджуватися кіном і літературою, адже цю ситуацію тепер примірюєш на український досвід, уявляєш пластунку, яка зваблює умовного Пушиліна, і думаєш: тю, дівчинко, та що ти вагаєшся, хай його завалять к хуям, колаборанта їбаного. Це дуже сильно заважає читанню))))
Коротше кажучи, Шанхай під японською окупацією. Студенти - юні довбні з театральними гуртками й гуманітарними захопленнями, яким не пощастило народитися саме в той час - вирішують боротися з окупацією, підсилають дівчину до місцевого колаборанта, щоб вона звабила його і виманила в руки вбивць. Але всі ці шпигунські пристрасті виписані максимально understated, на початку люди сидять, знічев'я грають у маджонг, планують, куди піти на вечерю і хто платить - і в кінці люди сидять, знічев'я грають у маджонг, планують, куди піти на вечерю і хто платить, десь поміж цим проливається кров, люди роблять найважливіші рішення свого життя, які нічого не міняють, усе це йде під воду, як камінь, зникає, як кола на плесі. Об'єктивно майстерклас, як впакувати максимально багато в мінімальний час (і фабули, й оповідний), але при цьому ще й нагрузити ретардації. Аж цікаво передивитися фільм, аби порівняти, але колись не зараз, бо клята Росія відняла навіть можливість невинно насолоджуватися кіном і літературою, адже цю ситуацію тепер примірюєш на український досвід, уявляєш пластунку, яка зваблює умовного Пушиліна, і думаєш: тю, дівчинко, та що ти вагаєшся, хай його завалять к хуям, колаборанта їбаного. Це дуже сильно заважає читанню))))
February 8, 2017
Eileen Chang's story is literary and precise; the film has more raw devastating power in some scenes, and fleshes out Mr. Yee's character better, but bloats itself to 2 1/2 hours on less important fare.
---- SPOILER ALERT: ----
If you haven't seen the movie or read the story, you probably don't want to read my review.
The short story better captures the materialistic mood of high society in occupied territories, and gives interesting insights into the characters' thoughts, but the story does not fully convey the emotional tragedy of Wang Jiazhi's 'carnal' sacrifice. It's a very good translation and non-Chinese readers shouldn't feel any FOMO, but if I had to complain about something it would be that the awful circumstances under which Jiazhi lost her virginity were glossed over in the story, especially in the English translation.
As for the story's powerful denouement, both the story and the film don't let us down. Lovell describes it perfectly in her Foreword: "Mr. Yee's return to the mahjong table brusquely exposes the true scale of Chia-chih's miscalculation: his ruthless, remorseless response, his warped sense of triumph."
* As Ang Lee points out in the Afterword, the "chang" is in folklore the ghost of someone who is killed by a tiger or by drowning. After death, this spirit serves to lure other humans to the tiger or to the water, to become its next victims. You can see why this spirit is so despised, a traitor to its own kind like both Mr. Yee and Jiazhi are, and why the concept of "chang" is difficult to translate succinctly.
Linguistic cavils aside, my final word is that it's a beautiful story and I look forward to reading more of Chang's work.
全文: http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2007-0...
---- SPOILER ALERT: ----
If you haven't seen the movie or read the story, you probably don't want to read my review.
The short story better captures the materialistic mood of high society in occupied territories, and gives interesting insights into the characters' thoughts, but the story does not fully convey the emotional tragedy of Wang Jiazhi's 'carnal' sacrifice. It's a very good translation and non-Chinese readers shouldn't feel any FOMO, but if I had to complain about something it would be that the awful circumstances under which Jiazhi lost her virginity were glossed over in the story, especially in the English translation.
English (Julia Lovell):
"Apparently, Liang Jun-sheng is the only one who has any experience, " Lai Hsiu-chin, the only other girl in the group, told her.
Liang Jun-sheng.
Of course. He was the only one who had been inside a brothel.
But given that she was already determined to make a sacrifice of herself, she couldn't very well resent him for being the only candidate for the job.
Chinese (roughly translated by me):
“听他们说，这些人里好像只有梁闰生一个人有性经验，”赖秀金告诉她。除她之外只有赖秀金一个女生。
偏偏是梁闰生！
当然是他。只有他嫖过。
既然有牺牲的决心，就不能说不甘心便宜了他。
"The guys say that Liang Jun-sheng is the only one who has any sexual experience," Lai Hsiu-jin, the only other girl in the group, told her.
Why did it have to be Liang Jun-sheng!
Of course. He was the only one who had been to a brothel.
If she was determined to sacrifice herself for the cause, then she had to shake off her resentment that he would gain this advantage from her.
As for the story's powerful denouement, both the story and the film don't let us down. Lovell describes it perfectly in her Foreword: "Mr. Yee's return to the mahjong table brusquely exposes the true scale of Chia-chih's miscalculation: his ruthless, remorseless response, his warped sense of triumph."
"Now that he had enjoyed the love of a beautiful woman, he could die happy––without regret. He could feel her shadow forever near him, comforting him. Even though she had hated him at the end, she had at least felt something. And now he possessed her utterly, primitively––as a hunter does his quarry, a tiger his kill. Alive, her body belonged to him; dead, she was his ghost."
“得一知己，死而无憾。他觉得她的影子会永远依傍他，安慰他。虽然她恨他，她最后对他的感情强烈到是什么感情都不相干了，只是有感情。他们是原始的猎人与猎物的关系，虎与伥*的关系，最终极的占有。她这才生是他的人，死是他的鬼。”
"Having had her as a confidante, he could die without regrets. Her shadow would always stay beside him, comforting him. Although she had hated him at the end, she had felt so strongly about him that it didn't matter what emotion it was, only that she had felt it. With the primeval connection of hunter to game, of tiger to accomplice*, he possessed her utterly. Now she really was his woman in this life; his ghost in death."
* As Ang Lee points out in the Afterword, the "chang" is in folklore the ghost of someone who is killed by a tiger or by drowning. After death, this spirit serves to lure other humans to the tiger or to the water, to become its next victims. You can see why this spirit is so despised, a traitor to its own kind like both Mr. Yee and Jiazhi are, and why the concept of "chang" is difficult to translate succinctly.
Linguistic cavils aside, my final word is that it's a beautiful story and I look forward to reading more of Chang's work.
全文: http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2007-0...
February 24, 2010
The story was amazing, but I feel that I missed out on a lot of the beauty of the author's writing due to translation.
February 20, 2011
In one word, “dense” is the best way to describe Eileen Chang’s ‘Lust, Caution’. In a 60-paged novella, the storyline weaves in and out of memories, struggling thoughts with identity and the plot of a young woman who has to get close to a, with the Japanese collaborating, politician in order to get him killed by the Chinese resistance of which she is a part in 1940’s Hong Kong and Shanghai.
But even underneath this story, ‘Lust, Caution’ is filled with subliminal explorations and reminiscing. The book reads like a fever dream, where hidden messages can still be discovered by the reader after finishing the last page. Where some writers would need 300 pages to tell a similar plot, Chang manages to do in 60, without sacrificing her elegant writing style and eye for detail.
‘Lust, Caution’ is a sensual, thrilling and ultimately tragic story, where the unsaid matters just as much as what is being said. A wonderful way to spend an evening reading.
But even underneath this story, ‘Lust, Caution’ is filled with subliminal explorations and reminiscing. The book reads like a fever dream, where hidden messages can still be discovered by the reader after finishing the last page. Where some writers would need 300 pages to tell a similar plot, Chang manages to do in 60, without sacrificing her elegant writing style and eye for detail.
‘Lust, Caution’ is a sensual, thrilling and ultimately tragic story, where the unsaid matters just as much as what is being said. A wonderful way to spend an evening reading.
February 27, 2020
A short story stretched into a novelette, probably better in the movie version than the original text is.
Pros: it manages to effectively build an immersive and believable atmosphere of occupied modern China and the danger glinting lazily through apparently quiet afternoons full of games and luxury. The cruelty of the male character and his pride of possession devoid of empathy are not surprising but make a dramatic twist nonetheless.
Cons: the characters' motivations are not expanded enough to feel authentic or relatable.
Pros: it manages to effectively build an immersive and believable atmosphere of occupied modern China and the danger glinting lazily through apparently quiet afternoons full of games and luxury. The cruelty of the male character and his pride of possession devoid of empathy are not surprising but make a dramatic twist nonetheless.
Cons: the characters' motivations are not expanded enough to feel authentic or relatable.
May 29, 2020
In an attempt to incorporate her theatre life in her real life, Chia-chih’s lines apparently become so blended that her performance becomes her real life, her truth. Working for the Resistance she has been assigned to trap and help assassinate Mr. Yen, a Chinese, and the head of the domestic intelligence working as a dummy for the then occupying Japanese government during WW II, and is considered a traitor.
I am happy I succeeded in reading something after so many days, even if it was just a short story. I had to read it because I wanted to watch the movie. I am not a movie reviewer. But while watching one based on a book or story I am always looking for how much the movie succeeds in living up to the nuances created by the book. Ang Lee, for whom I watched the movie, did a marvelous job in bringing the written words to life.
The movie and the book both are in Chinese, while the story is translated into English, movie is offering us English subtitles. There is an Afterward in the book written by Ang Lee, the Taiwanese director, who directed the movie, explaining how Eileen Chang used a particular phrase to create a story running deep on mataphors, strengthening my belief how much gets lost in the translation, for translation completely fails to come up with those metaphors.
I long to read stories or watch movies where women are not forced/expected to use their bodies as the best weapon to lure the enemy in any espionage business but their brains. Eileen Chang is doing the same. Using a woman’s body to mark the traitor. But it's been wrapped beautifuly with the dilemma of a 19-20 year old, who hadn't seen or known much of the world before life throws her face to face with so much ugliness that she broke before she could deliver on her assignment.
I am happy I succeeded in reading something after so many days, even if it was just a short story. I had to read it because I wanted to watch the movie. I am not a movie reviewer. But while watching one based on a book or story I am always looking for how much the movie succeeds in living up to the nuances created by the book. Ang Lee, for whom I watched the movie, did a marvelous job in bringing the written words to life.
The movie and the book both are in Chinese, while the story is translated into English, movie is offering us English subtitles. There is an Afterward in the book written by Ang Lee, the Taiwanese director, who directed the movie, explaining how Eileen Chang used a particular phrase to create a story running deep on mataphors, strengthening my belief how much gets lost in the translation, for translation completely fails to come up with those metaphors.
I long to read stories or watch movies where women are not forced/expected to use their bodies as the best weapon to lure the enemy in any espionage business but their brains. Eileen Chang is doing the same. Using a woman’s body to mark the traitor. But it's been wrapped beautifuly with the dilemma of a 19-20 year old, who hadn't seen or known much of the world before life throws her face to face with so much ugliness that she broke before she could deliver on her assignment.
January 24, 2024
I'm illiterate when it comes to reading Chinese names but I've done my best.
November 20, 2007
I 'discovered' the book when researching Ang Lee's then upcoming movie of the same title. It's a short story written by an apparently popular Shanghainese writer, Eileen Chang, about a young girl who sacrifices herself for her country by seducing the enemy and then trapping him to be killed by other team members.
I am no good with short stories as I find them confusing. This one included. Like Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee created a full-span movie from a thin material. It took me one hour flat to finish it, including the fore- and afterwords. Reading various reviews of the movie, I realize that there was a lot of padding, including the steamy scenes which prompted a warning from the Chinese government to its subjects that the scenes should not be tried at home and can only be done by flexible people (particularly female). Goodness!
Sadly, no such juiciness can be found in the book. The story is interesting, the characterization, too but I cannot find more between the lines unlike the film's producer, James Schamus, who discussed the issues at length in an essay. To me, it's a straight forward story, capturing a fleeting moment in the life of a girl who falls in love with her prey. What is there to discuss? Idealism vs. love? Literature 101? Why she did it?
I fully intend to watch the movie. Not for the scenes' sake but to see the visualization of things between the lines that perhaps only the literary type can see. I'm rather sure Ang Lee does a great job of spinning a great movie out of this very basic outline.
PS: I wonder if translation dilutes the delicate content. In Chinese the title of the book apparently has layers of meaning.
I am no good with short stories as I find them confusing. This one included. Like Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee created a full-span movie from a thin material. It took me one hour flat to finish it, including the fore- and afterwords. Reading various reviews of the movie, I realize that there was a lot of padding, including the steamy scenes which prompted a warning from the Chinese government to its subjects that the scenes should not be tried at home and can only be done by flexible people (particularly female). Goodness!
Sadly, no such juiciness can be found in the book. The story is interesting, the characterization, too but I cannot find more between the lines unlike the film's producer, James Schamus, who discussed the issues at length in an essay. To me, it's a straight forward story, capturing a fleeting moment in the life of a girl who falls in love with her prey. What is there to discuss? Idealism vs. love? Literature 101? Why she did it?
I fully intend to watch the movie. Not for the scenes' sake but to see the visualization of things between the lines that perhaps only the literary type can see. I'm rather sure Ang Lee does a great job of spinning a great movie out of this very basic outline.
PS: I wonder if translation dilutes the delicate content. In Chinese the title of the book apparently has layers of meaning.
Read
July 14, 2017A much shorter story than I would have expected, given the grand historical narrative of the film. Simple, well-crafted, minimally descriptive, and precise, it's the sort of thing that you would pass around in a college class on short fiction composition to show how motivations are implied. Not the sort of thing that's really fashionable anymore, but about as good a piece of realist short fiction as I've read lately -- better than most anything in the New Yorker, at least.
September 28, 2021
Manages to convey so much through implication & the careful accumulation of resonant details; the elegant economy of Chang's prose style continues to completely knock me out.
[Read #6 of "2021: My Year of (Mostly) Midcentury Women Writers"]
[Read #6 of "2021: My Year of (Mostly) Midcentury Women Writers"]
December 24, 2021
Quick read but somewhat unsatisfying. I don't know why I need to care about the main characters and the ending is predictable.
June 23, 2023
Eileen Chang's fiction has a way of lingering in my memory. She writes the kind of stories that bring to mind Wong Kar-Wai's exquisitely aesthetic moody scenes. I read her short fiction collection Love in a Fallen City last year, and it made me hyperaware of how I suddenly began wondering about the inner lives and hidden stories of anonymous strangers in random apartment buildings I passed on the street. There's an atmospheric, nostalgic quality to her writing that I can't quite articulate, but I hope to get closer to pinning it down as I read more of her books.
Chang's 1979 novella, "Lust, Caution", centers around a campaign of espionage in Shanghai and Hong Kong during the Japanese-occupied years of the 1930's, but it's not a story that focuses on the impacts of war or the politics at play. Rather, it gives us an intimate glimpse of the complex thoughts and feelings of a woman named Wang Chia-chih, a former drama student who poses as the young and bored wife of a wealthy businessman to lure a high-ranking government official into an affair as a part of an assassination attempt.
If you've seen the 2007 film by Ang Lee, you'll already know how it ends. But even if you do, you'll likely still find yourself drawn into Wang Chia-chih's insular world with its small-scale deceptions and betrayals in this quietly stirring drama. There are no virtuous heroes or evil villains in Chang's fiction, only deeply human individuals who can be fallible, careless, and naïve. The conflict here doesn't concern universal ideals or big questions of good and evil but rather the very personal tensions between people. This story made me want to read everything Chang ever wrote and just marinate in the wistful elegance of the bygone worlds she conjures up in her beautiful words.
Chang's 1979 novella, "Lust, Caution", centers around a campaign of espionage in Shanghai and Hong Kong during the Japanese-occupied years of the 1930's, but it's not a story that focuses on the impacts of war or the politics at play. Rather, it gives us an intimate glimpse of the complex thoughts and feelings of a woman named Wang Chia-chih, a former drama student who poses as the young and bored wife of a wealthy businessman to lure a high-ranking government official into an affair as a part of an assassination attempt.
If you've seen the 2007 film by Ang Lee, you'll already know how it ends. But even if you do, you'll likely still find yourself drawn into Wang Chia-chih's insular world with its small-scale deceptions and betrayals in this quietly stirring drama. There are no virtuous heroes or evil villains in Chang's fiction, only deeply human individuals who can be fallible, careless, and naïve. The conflict here doesn't concern universal ideals or big questions of good and evil but rather the very personal tensions between people. This story made me want to read everything Chang ever wrote and just marinate in the wistful elegance of the bygone worlds she conjures up in her beautiful words.
May 24, 2018
This novella is set in Shanghai, the Republic of China during WWII. The two main characters' lives become intertwined in this political thriller as they take part in tea parties and secret interrogations. Its main themes are feminism and individualism. It is very artfully written.
January 30, 2015
I thought it will be like a fanfiction, like the typical story. But. . .
Run. . .now.
My heart broke.
Run. . .now.
My heart broke.
January 5, 2024
For a 68-page story, this book managed to stir my emotions in ways I didn't anticipate. I came into this book having already watched the 2007 movie directed by Ang Lee and was curious about how the story would be captured in translated text & how much the film matched up to the book. This is also my first Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing) novel so I was very curious about her writing style & what her focus in her writing is.
I assumed Lust, Caution would be similar to the movie and be told in chronological order with extensive details about the plots of the resistant group of college students, the involvement Mr. Yee has with the Japanese occupational government, and more. Instead, this story takes place at the climax of the story as Mr. Yee is ring shopping with his young mistress.
As we follow the main character, Chia-Chih, as she waits for her lover to arrive and to go buy the ring, Eileen Chang skillfully weaves in context, character background, and history throughout the story to bring the reader up to speed. As the reader, you slowly realize how everything ties into this scene & the second time re-reading the book produces an almost haunting full-circle effect. I highly recommend reading this book at least twice to absorb everything (especially with how short it is). It's a story of political intrigue/espionage, of attempted assassination, of people being more nuanced and layered than how they appear to be.
On top of the story, I enjoyed the foreword by Julia Lovell describing Eileen Chang's personal history & how Chang focused her stories on individuals who were not the typical heroes or big figures as seen in other books published during her time, especially when her books took place in settings such as the Japanese occupation of China. Eileen Chang, herself, also once said: "Though my characters are not heroes, they are the ones who bear the burden of our age."
In the foreword, Lovell wrote the following about this novel: "In it, Chang created for the first time a heroine directly swept up in the radical, patriotic politics of the 1940s, charting her exploitation in the name of nationalism and her impulsive abandonment of the cause for an illusory love. 'Lust, Caution' is one of Chang's most explicit, unsettling articulations of her views on the relationship between tidy political abstraction and irrational emotional reality - on the ultimate ascendancy of the latter over the former. Chia-Chih's final, self-destructive change of heart, and Mr. Yee's repayment of her gesture, give the story its arresting originality, transforming a polished espionage narrative into a disturbing meditation on psychological fragility, self-deception, and amoral sexual possession." & "Afterward, we follow Chia-Chih on her sleepwalk out of the store, sharing her surreal confidence that she will be able to escape quietly for a few days to her relative's house, until we wake at the shrill whistle of the blockade and the abrupt braking of the pedicab. Mr Yee's return to the mahjong table brusquely exposes the true scale of Chia-Chih's miscalculation: his ruthless, remorseless response, his warped sense of triumph."
In the afterword by Ang Lee, Lee captured a lot of the raw emotions you feel reading this story: "To me, no writer has ever used the Chinse language as cruelly as Zhang Ailing, and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as 'Lust, Caution.'"
& James Schamus's "Why Did She Do It?" piece brought in one of my favorite analyses of Lust, Caution: "And so lust and caution are, in Zhang's work, functions of each other, not because we desire what is dangerous, but because our love is, no matter how earnest, an act, and therefore always an object of suspicion. If Chia-Chih's act at the end of the story is indeed an expression of love, it paradoxically destroys the very theatrical contract that made the performance of that love possible - in killing off her fictional character, she effectively kills herself. Her act is thus a negation of the very idea that it could acknowledged, understood, explained, or reciprocated by its audience."
I assumed Lust, Caution would be similar to the movie and be told in chronological order with extensive details about the plots of the resistant group of college students, the involvement Mr. Yee has with the Japanese occupational government, and more. Instead, this story takes place at the climax of the story as Mr. Yee is ring shopping with his young mistress.
As we follow the main character, Chia-Chih, as she waits for her lover to arrive and to go buy the ring, Eileen Chang skillfully weaves in context, character background, and history throughout the story to bring the reader up to speed. As the reader, you slowly realize how everything ties into this scene & the second time re-reading the book produces an almost haunting full-circle effect. I highly recommend reading this book at least twice to absorb everything (especially with how short it is). It's a story of political intrigue/espionage, of attempted assassination, of people being more nuanced and layered than how they appear to be.
On top of the story, I enjoyed the foreword by Julia Lovell describing Eileen Chang's personal history & how Chang focused her stories on individuals who were not the typical heroes or big figures as seen in other books published during her time, especially when her books took place in settings such as the Japanese occupation of China. Eileen Chang, herself, also once said: "Though my characters are not heroes, they are the ones who bear the burden of our age."
In the foreword, Lovell wrote the following about this novel: "In it, Chang created for the first time a heroine directly swept up in the radical, patriotic politics of the 1940s, charting her exploitation in the name of nationalism and her impulsive abandonment of the cause for an illusory love. 'Lust, Caution' is one of Chang's most explicit, unsettling articulations of her views on the relationship between tidy political abstraction and irrational emotional reality - on the ultimate ascendancy of the latter over the former. Chia-Chih's final, self-destructive change of heart, and Mr. Yee's repayment of her gesture, give the story its arresting originality, transforming a polished espionage narrative into a disturbing meditation on psychological fragility, self-deception, and amoral sexual possession." & "Afterward, we follow Chia-Chih on her sleepwalk out of the store, sharing her surreal confidence that she will be able to escape quietly for a few days to her relative's house, until we wake at the shrill whistle of the blockade and the abrupt braking of the pedicab. Mr Yee's return to the mahjong table brusquely exposes the true scale of Chia-Chih's miscalculation: his ruthless, remorseless response, his warped sense of triumph."
In the afterword by Ang Lee, Lee captured a lot of the raw emotions you feel reading this story: "To me, no writer has ever used the Chinse language as cruelly as Zhang Ailing, and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as 'Lust, Caution.'"
& James Schamus's "Why Did She Do It?" piece brought in one of my favorite analyses of Lust, Caution: "And so lust and caution are, in Zhang's work, functions of each other, not because we desire what is dangerous, but because our love is, no matter how earnest, an act, and therefore always an object of suspicion. If Chia-Chih's act at the end of the story is indeed an expression of love, it paradoxically destroys the very theatrical contract that made the performance of that love possible - in killing off her fictional character, she effectively kills herself. Her act is thus a negation of the very idea that it could acknowledged, understood, explained, or reciprocated by its audience."
January 18, 2023
Holy shit. This is very very good and very very dark. That ending…. I watched the Ang Lee adaption a couple years ago so I knew the gist but the way the story ended hit *even harder* than the movie did.
Actually Ang Lee writes in the Afterword to my edition, “To me, no writer has ever used the Chinese language as cruelly as Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang), and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as “Lust, Caution.” She revised the story for years and years - for decades - returning to it as a criminal might return to the scene of a crime, or as a victim might reenact a trauma, reaching for pleasure only by varying and reimagining the pain.”
Honestly drop everything and read this!
Actually Ang Lee writes in the Afterword to my edition, “To me, no writer has ever used the Chinese language as cruelly as Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang), and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as “Lust, Caution.” She revised the story for years and years - for decades - returning to it as a criminal might return to the scene of a crime, or as a victim might reenact a trauma, reaching for pleasure only by varying and reimagining the pain.”
Honestly drop everything and read this!
May 22, 2025
Translated by Julia Lovell.
I would disagree with the GR summary of this short story - no "intensely passionate story of love and espionage" on these pages; the Ang Lee movie adaptation yes, but not the source material.
The writing is sparse, there is no "tension of a political thriller" and yet Chang is able to set the scenes with cinematic color.
Would recommend the introduction by Julia Lovell and the Ang Lee adaptation.
I would disagree with the GR summary of this short story - no "intensely passionate story of love and espionage" on these pages; the Ang Lee movie adaptation yes, but not the source material.
The writing is sparse, there is no "tension of a political thriller" and yet Chang is able to set the scenes with cinematic color.
Would recommend the introduction by Julia Lovell and the Ang Lee adaptation.
November 1, 2025
zdecydowanie mniej pożądania, niż pamiętam z filmu + once again asking the question: kiedy kończy się to, co prywatne, a zaczyna to, co polityczne?
April 8, 2021
Alive, her body belonged to him ; Dead, she was his ghost.
- Eileen Chang, Lust Caution
.
.
A foreword by Julia Lovell definitely a big help in understanding the story. Of course, like others, i watched the movie first before reading this book. I was not impressed with the movie but probably because the subject matter is love and infidelity. The reason i bought this book is to understand the depth of the story, the subtlety of the plot and the complexity of the characters. Now that ive read it, i wish the story was a bit longer. When i am already invested in Wang Chia Chih, all of sudden i reached the end of the story. The writing is hauntingly beautiful and i figure it will be more beautiful in the original language. Overall, A short and enjoyable reading but if you are someone who always wanted to see details in the character of the story, probably this is not for you.
- Eileen Chang, Lust Caution
.
.
A foreword by Julia Lovell definitely a big help in understanding the story. Of course, like others, i watched the movie first before reading this book. I was not impressed with the movie but probably because the subject matter is love and infidelity. The reason i bought this book is to understand the depth of the story, the subtlety of the plot and the complexity of the characters. Now that ive read it, i wish the story was a bit longer. When i am already invested in Wang Chia Chih, all of sudden i reached the end of the story. The writing is hauntingly beautiful and i figure it will be more beautiful in the original language. Overall, A short and enjoyable reading but if you are someone who always wanted to see details in the character of the story, probably this is not for you.
July 9, 2012
Genious composition, something that is really need to be read again and again, with every read exposing more of the intricate details, which there are surely a lot, since this story has been revised for decades by Eileen Chang. It's feels like an unstoppable flow that bring the reader forward, and while glances over a lot of things, it also invites the reader to fill in the blanks - and it's not pretty what kind of imagination the backdrop of the war suggests.
Very powerful writing, deep effect.
Very powerful writing, deep effect.
March 11, 2020
Never have I read a book set in post WW2 Asia! This book opened my eyes to the espionage events of the time between China, Japan, and Hong Kong that I had never even thought about before, let alone read. While this is a fictional story, it gives light to the intense feelings of the time and how fragile everything was on a social, economical, and, of course, political level.
I would highly recommend this read to anyone interest in conspiracy, secrecy, and government coverups.
I would highly recommend this read to anyone interest in conspiracy, secrecy, and government coverups.
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December 26, 2021interesting look into the inseparability of the personal and the political.
"But now that he had enjoyed the love of a beautiful woman, he could die happy—without regret. He could feel her shadow forever near him, comforting him. Even though she had hated him at the end, she had at least felt something. And now he possessed her utterly, primitively—as a hunter does his quarry, a tiger his kill. Alive, her body belonged to him; dead, she was his ghost."
"But now that he had enjoyed the love of a beautiful woman, he could die happy—without regret. He could feel her shadow forever near him, comforting him. Even though she had hated him at the end, she had at least felt something. And now he possessed her utterly, primitively—as a hunter does his quarry, a tiger his kill. Alive, her body belonged to him; dead, she was his ghost."
May 25, 2011
A very powerful short story that, despite being the basis for Ang Lee's NC-17 film adaptation, is actually very understated and not the least bit racy. It's beautiful in a depressing kind of way, and manages to accomplish in about thirty-five minutes reading time what Lee's movie version took two-and-a-half hours to do.
December 6, 2016
Part of my twentieth-century spies-and-conflict obsession. Beautifully vivid writing and sympathetically drawn characters. I wish it was longer, but we have the Ang Lee adaptation for that. It's rare to find a book shorter than the film. Lovely experience reading/seeing both.
August 21, 2018
“Despite her fierce skepticism toward the idea, she found herself unable to refute the notion entirely; since she had never been in love, she had no idea what it might feel like.”
The theatrical presentation of love makes me feel a sort of way.
The theatrical presentation of love makes me feel a sort of way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2007
I just read the English version ... maybe there's something lost in the translation. I want to watch the movie to get a better understanding of the story.
June 3, 2019
Hardly a novella in length, this story packs a lot of power. Like most people, I learned about this work from the Movie.
October 15, 2020
The writing is gorgeous and the story will keep you on the edge of your seat. Brilliant!
I can't wait to read the rest of Eileen Chang's work.
I can't wait to read the rest of Eileen Chang's work.
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