| The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai | |||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 海上花列傳 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 海上花列传 | ||||||||||||
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The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai,also translated as Shanghai Flowers [1] or Biographies of Flowers by the Seashore, [2] is an 1892 novel by Han Bangqing. [2]
The novel,the first such novel to be serially published, [2] chronicles lives of courtesans in Shanghai in the late 19th century. [1] Unlike most prostitution-oriented novels in Wu Chinese,specifically the Suzhou dialect,all dialog in this novel is in Wu. [3]
The acclaimed writer Eileen Chang translated the book into Mandarin,published in two parts under the titles "海上花開" and "海上花落" (lit. The Flowers of the Sea Bloom / Fade" or "The Flowers of Shanghai Bloom / Fade"). She also translated the book into English, [4] which was not discovered until after her death. [5] Eva Hung revised and edited the English translation before its publication.
Wilt L. Idema,who wrote a book review of The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century in T'oung Pao ,wrote that the novel Shanghai Flowers included the use of Wu in dialogs,a "doomed to failure" protagonist,and a consciously crafted plot,therefore the book "already showed many of the characteristics of a typical Late Ch'ing novel". [2]
A film adaptation called Flowers of Shanghai was made in 1998. [5]
Hu Shih,Lu Xun,and other Chinese literary figures critically acclaimed Shanghai Flowers. However,the novel did not sell very well. [3] Lesley Downer of The New York Times wrote that few people read the novel in China as of 2005. [5]
Hu Shih's thesis is that because the novel had such a strong usage of Wu,readers had difficulty understanding it. [3] Donald B. Snow,author of Cantonese as Written Language:The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular,wrote that generally the sales of other novels outperformed Shanghai Flowers because their limited usage of the Wu made them easier to read. [3] David Der-wei Wang argued that the main usage of Wu in the novel was only by the courtesan characters and therefore the original novel would be fairly understood by other Chinese speakers. Wang concluded that the language would not be the reason for the novel's continued unpopularity since Chang had written her Mandarin translation. Instead,Wang argued that Han Bangqing's "matter-of-fact" way of describing things,which opposes opulent descriptions of events and food;and the general lack of sensationalism and "sentimental narcissism" contribute to "the fact that it does not read like the courtesan novel we generally know." [4]
Hua Mulan is a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era of Chinese history.
Eileen Chang (traditional Chinese: 張愛玲; simplified Chinese: 张爱玲; pinyin: Zhāng Àilíng; Wade–Giles: Chang1 Ai4-ling2；September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), also known as Chang Ai-ling or Zhang Ailing, or by her pen name Liang Jing (梁京), was a Chinese-born American essayist, novelist, and screenwriter. She was a well-known feminist woman writer of Chinese literature, known for portraying life in 1940s Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The history of the Chinese literature, some scholars prefer the term "Sinophone literature", extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature vernacular fiction novels that arose during the Ming dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese. The introduction of widespread woodblock printing during the Tang dynasty (618–907) and the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Song dynasty (960–1279) rapidly spread written knowledge throughout China. In more modern times, the author Lu Xun (1881–1936) is considered an influential voice of baihua literature in China.
Water Margin is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as Outlaws of the Marsh and All Men Are Brothers.
The Book of Han or History of the Former Han is a history of China finished in 111 AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. It is also called the Book of Former Han.
Qian Qianyi was a Chinese historian, poet, and politician during the late Ming dynasty. Qian was a famous author and poet; and along with Gong Dingzi and Wu Weiye was known as one of the Three Masters of Jiangdong.
Flowers of Shanghai is a 1998 Taiwanese drama film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. It is based on the novel The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (1892) by Han Bangqing, which was originally written in the Wu language (吳語) and translated into Mandarin Chinese by Eileen Chang. The film stars Tony Leung as a wealthy patron and Hada Michiko, Annie Shizuka Inoh, Shuan Fang, Jack Kao, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Michelle Reis, and Vicky Wei as "flower girls" in four high-end Shanghai brothels. It was voted the third best film of the 1990s in the Village Voice Film Poll conducted in 1999. The film was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards.
Sing-song girls, also known as flower girls, is an English-language term for the courtesans in China during the 19th century AD.
Hsia Chih-tsing 夏志清 or C. T. Hsia was a Chinese historian and literary theorist. He contributed to the introduction of modern Chinese literature to the Western world by promoting the works of once marginalized writers in the 1960s. Today, C. T. Hsia is considered one of the most important critics of Chinese literature.
The Peach Blossom Fan is a musical play and historical drama in 44 scenes that was completed in 1699 by the early Qing dynasty playwright Kong Shangren after more than 10 years of effort.
The Nine-tailed Turtle is a novel by Zhang Chunfan (?-1935), an author from Piling. The novel centres around the life of a scholar named Zhang Qiugu, who leaves his wife to spend time with famous courtesans in China's pleasure districts.
Gods and demons fiction or Shenmo fiction is a subgenre of Chinese fantasy fiction that revolves around the deities, immortals, demons and monsters of Chinese mythology. The term shenmo xiaoshuo, coined in the early 20th century by the writer and literary historian Lu Xun, literally means "gods and demons novel". Classical works of shenmo fiction include the novels Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods.
Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades is a novel by Wu Jianren. The novel was serialized in Xin Xiaoshuo, a magazine by Liang Qichao. In 1909 the novel was completed and published in book form.
A Flower in a Sinful Sea is a novel by Jin Tianhe and Zeng Pu. First published in serial installments beginning in 1904, the work is a roman à clef. The work was partially translated to English by Rafe de Crespigny and Liu Ts'un-yan in 1982. It was also translated to French and Russian.
Sai Jinhua was a Chinese courtesan who became the acquaintance of Alfred von Waldersee. Her real family name was Cao. Sometimes she said her family name was Zhao. During her career as a courtesan she used the names Fu Caiyun (傅彩雲), Sai Jinhua, and Cao Menglan (曹夢蘭). Her art name (hao) was Weizhao Lingfei (魏趙靈飛). Some people referred to her as Sai Erye (賽二爺).
Han shi waizhuan, translated as Exoteric traditions of the Han version of the Songs, Illustrations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs, or "The Outer Commentary to the Book of Songs by Master Han", is a book written in the Western Han dynasty, attributed to Han Ying. It is a collection of some 300 anecdotes and stories chosen to highlight the poems of the Shi jing.
Han Bangqing, also known by the given name Ji (寄), courtesy name Ziyun (子雲), and pseudonyms Taixian (太仙), Dayi Shanren (大一山人), Hua Ye Lian Nong (花也憐儂), and Sanqing (三慶), was a late-Qing dynasty Chinese writer from Lou County, Songjiang Prefecture, Jiangsu.
Chuanqi is a form of fictional short story in Classical Chinese first formed in the Tang dynasty. The term often refers specifically to fictions written in the Tang dynasty, in which case the fictions are also called Tang chuanqi or chuanqi wen. Chuanqi originated from the Zhiguai xiaoshuo of the Six Dynasties, was first formed in Early Tang dynasty, became popular in Middle Tang and dwindled in the Song dynasty. Chuanqi has four main themes: love, gods and demons, xiayi and history. Well known works of chuanqi include The World Inside a Pillow and Renshi zhuan by Shen Jiji, Yingying's Biography by Yuan Zhen, The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu by Jiang Fang, The Tale of Li Wa by Bai Xingjian, The Governor of Nanke by Li Gongzuo, Chang hen ge zhuan by Chen Hong, Hongxian zhuan by Yuan Jiao and The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest by Du Guangting. Unlike general Biji xiaoshuo and Zhiguai xiaoshuo, most chuanqi stories have a complicated plot with twists and detailed descriptions and are meaningful literary creations instead of mere recordings of factual events. They are some of the earliest Chinese literature written in the form of short stories and have provided valuable inspiration plot-wise and in other ways for fiction and drama in later eras. Many were preserved in the 10th-century anthology, Taiping Guangji.
