Baotown (Penguin International Writers)

Literature & Fiction

WANG, Anyi

Contemporary

Penguin Books, Ltd.

Set in post-World War II Shanghai, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow follows the adventures of Wang Qiyao, a girl born of the longtong, the crowded, labyrinthine alleys of Shanghai's working-class neighborhoods. Infatuated with the glitz and glamour of 1940s Hollywood, Wang Qiyao seeks fame in the Miss Shanghai beauty pageant, and this fleeting moment of stardom becomes the pinnacle of her life. During the next four decades, Wang Qiyao indulges in the decadent pleasures of pre-liberation Shanghai, secretly playing mahjong during the antirightist Movement and exchanging lovers on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Surviving the vicissitudes of modern Chinese history, Wang Qiyao emerges in the 1980s as a purveyor of "old Shanghai"―a living incarnation of a new, commodified nostalgia that prizes splendor and sophistication―only to become embroiled in a tragedy that echoes the pulpy Hollywood noirs of her youth. From the violent persecution of communism to the liberalism and openness of the age of reform, this sorrowful tale of old China versus new, of perseverance in the face of adversity, is a timeless rendering of our never-ending quest for transformation and beauty.

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

Genre Fiction

Columbia University Press

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Fu Ping: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Nainai has lived in Shanghai for many years, and the time has come to find a wife for her adopted grandson. But when the bride she has chosen arrives from the countryside, it soon becomes clear that the orphaned girl has ideas of her own. Her name is Fu Ping, and the more she explores the residential lanes and courtyards behind Shanghai’s busy shopping streets, the less she wants to return to the country as a dutiful wife. As Fu Ping wavers over her future, she learns the city through the stories of the nannies, handymen, and garbage collectors whose labor is bringing life and bustle back to postwar Shanghai. Fu Ping is a keenly observed portrait of the lives of lower-class women in Shanghai in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. Wang Anyi, one of contemporary China’s most acclaimed authors, explores the daily lives of migrants from rural areas and other people on the margins of urban life. In shifting perspectives rich in detail and psychological insight, she sketches their aspirations, their fears, and the subtle ties that bind them together. In Howard Goldblatt’s masterful translation, Fu Ping reveals Wang Anyi’s precise renderings of history, class, and the human heart.

History & Criticism

When a crisis tests the friendship of a boy and an old man, an isolated Chinese farming village becomes a showplace for the Party, which is eager to put an unselfish act to political use

Baotown

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

A young married editor sent to cover a prestigious writers' conference has a liberating affair with a famous writer and finds a new sense of herself

Brocade Valley

McDougall, Bonnie S.

Chen, Maiping

New Directions

Lapse of Time

Stories deal with values and the quality of life in modern China

China Books & Periodicals

Stories deal with values and the quality of life in modern China

Anyi, Wang

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by WANG, Anyi. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by WANG, Anyi

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by WANG, Anyi. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Baotown (Penguin International Writers)

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Fu Ping: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Fu Ping: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Baotown

Brocade Valley

Lapse of Time

Lapse of Time