The Life and Works of Zhang Ailing
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THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ZHANG AILING: A CRITICAL STUDY by CAROLE H. F. HOYAN B. A. (Hons.), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990 M. Phil., The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FUIJFJ1LMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Asian Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August 1996 © Carole H. F. Hoyan, 1996 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University . of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission .for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of _/<- 'a. The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date 3» /\/,rv. (f<lA Abstract This dissertation is a study of Zhang Ailing's life and works and aims to provide a comprehensive overview of her literary career. Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang %. jf; 5£% 1920-1995) is a significant figure in modern Chinese literary history, not only because of her outstanding artistry and modernist vision, but also because of her diverse contributions to the course of Chinese literature. The study follows the conventional chronological order of her life and is divided into eight chapters, together with an introduction and a conclusion. The first and the second chapters examine how Zhang's family experiences and wartime impressions contributed to the formation of her anti-romantic vision and how they influenced her subsequent creative writings. The third and fourth chapters analyze the significance and implications of her early works, written before she embarked on her literary career, and of her English-language cultural critiques and film reviews published in The Twentieth Century. Chapters five and six focus on the two major genres of Zhang's creative writing: short stories and informal essays. Her short stories, with their exploration of the individual psyche in a modern urban context and their sense of disengagement and irony, can be considered as one of the earliest manifestation of modernism in China. Her essays show a strong sensuality and sympathetic understanding, as well as an identification with femininity and with everyday life. Showing a similarity to other modern Chinese women writers in her concern for detail, Zhang sets herself off by a uniquely witty and humorous tone. Her use of poetic diction and splendid imagery also serves as a striking contrast to the insipid style of most of her contemporaries. Chapter seven traces the development of Zhang's novels, which in turn reflects changes in her life and personal psychology. Chapter eight examines Zhang's career as a screenplay writer, translator and academic scholar. The concluding chapter deals with Zhang's contribution to the course of modern Chinese literature, through an investigation of her legacy in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of contents iv Acknowledgment vii Introduction 1 Chapter one: Family Background 10 Chapter Two: Impression of Wartime Hong Kong 30 Chapter Three: Early Writings 50 Chapter Four: Cultural Critiques and Film Criticism 78 Chapter Five: Short Stories 97 Chapter Six: Informal Essays 159 Chapter Seven: Novels 190 Chapter Eight: Scripts, Translation and Academic Annotations 247 Conclusion 303 Bibliography 318 V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I have many people to thank for their assistance and support in the preparation of this dissertation. I would first like to thank my supervisor, Professor Michael S. Duke, for his guidance and encouragement. He patiently went through my rough, disorganized drafts and helped to shape this dissertation as it is today. I owe much to Professor Catherine Swatek, who gave me detailed advices. She not only pointed out stylistic problems, but proposed alternative wordings, some of which yielded, besides greater clarity, insights I had not discovered before myself. I am also indebted to Professor Fred Stockholder, who spent the summer 1993 with me in a guided study of Modern British Novel. His warm encouragement and advices on my dissertation are much appreciated. Professor Jeffrey Kinkley, Professor Patricia Merivale, Professor Derek Carr and Professor Edward Mornin raised challenging questions which helped to improve my work. I am grateful to the staff in the Asian Library of the University of British Columbia, and would like to express my thanks to the Inter-library loan section, which helped with efficient access to materials across Canada and the United States. I am also thankful to Professor Wong Kai Chee, Professor Lin Xingqian and Miss Chan Kit Yee for providing materials from Hong Kong. I owe much to the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship Plan and the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship Fund in Hong Kong, which generously supported my studies in Vancouver from 1992-1996.1 also thank my friend John Major for proof-reading my work and providing insightful comments. Finally my hearty thanks go to my husband, Anthony Kwok Wing Yeung, who took up most of the household chores during my research, despite the fact that he himself also had a Ph.D. dissertation to work on. I am most grateful to his love, advices and support. 1 Introduction This dissertation is a study in English of Zhang Ailing's life and works, with the aim of providing a comprehensive overview of her literary career. Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang ^ 1920-1995), was one of the most significant figures in modern Chinese literature. Her modernist insight into human nature, as well as her stylistic and formal inventiveness, set her apart from most of her predecessors and contemporaries. She was almost unique in going against the trend of social criticism that largely dominated the Chinese literary scene from the May Fourth era onwards. While most modern Chinese writers, in what C. T. Hsia terms their "obsession with China,"1 viewed fiction as a tool to "save the nation" and believed that all social evil could be eradicated by a perfect political system, Zhang focuses on the blindness, vanity and greed lying deep inside the human heart. In contrast to her contemporaries' neglect of literary artistry in their eagerness to get their messages across, her works excel in psychological sophistication and in the use of poetic diction and splendid imagery. Despite her isolation from the literary trends of her time, Zhang became one of the most original writers in modern Chinese literature. ' "What distinguishes this 'modern' phase of Chinese literature alike from the traditional and Communist phases is rather its burden of moral contemplation: its obsessive concern with China as a nation afflicted with a spiritual disease and therefore unable to strengthen itself or change its set ways of inhumanity." C. T. Hsia, "Obsession with China: the moral burden of modern Chinese literature," in A history of modern Chinese fiction, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971,533-534. 2 Zhang enjoyed great popularity in Shanghai in the forties, right after the publication of her first collection of short stories, Romances. Her rise to prominence can be partly explained by the exodus of "progressive" writers from the foreign concessions to the north, which led to a vacuum in the literary scene that was filled by the leisurely Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies School of popular romance. Zhang's works, with their sophistication and artistry, appealed to an educated, urban readership who found in them a more satisfying alternative to these sentimental stories. Another significant factor was that the Japanese government, as demonstrated by Edward Gunn's detailed study of the occupation period, was never strict in their literary control. They accepted all kinds of literature as long as it was not anti-government, and in fact promoted literary activities with the hope to make the city more prosperous. In his "To Zhang Ailing from Afar," Ke Ling (jffl 2» ) comments, The fact that Zhang Ailing rapidly reached a splendid peak in her literary career and managed to win wide popularity in Shanghai made me happy on the one hand, and worried on the other. The reason was that the situation then was so peculiar that one couldn't tell day from night. It was not worthwhile displaying dancing skills . [However,] when I hold up my fingers and count, there was actually no place at all for Zhang in all stages of modern Chinese literature, despite its scope. It was not until the fall of Shanghai that she was granted a chance . The fact that the most splendid days of Zhang Ailing's literary career lasted merely two years 2 Edward Gunn, Unwelcome muse: Chinese literature in Shanghai and Peking 1937-1945, New York: Columbia Press, 1980, 11-56. 3 (1943-1945) was predestined. It was one chance in a thousand years, "pass this shop and you won't find another ahead." Whether it was a lucky chance or not, is really difficult to say. - *t#x# *4 (-A,^——yuwi) » o)3 As Ke Ling indicates, Zhang's initial popularity lasted only a short time, and the main period of her creative life was also relatively brief. In fact, although in the sixties Zhang was able to produce such an important work as The Rice-sprout Song, her most productive period ended with the war. From the mid-forties to the mid-fifties, she basically remained silent. She was either neglected as a non-progressive writer lacking revolutionary zeal, or treated as controversial for publishing under the Japanese regime.