Anyi Wang's Books

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

A Novel of Shanghai

By: Wang Anyi

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The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

A Novel of Shanghai

By: Wang Anyi

The classic story of a woman in post-World War II China. “[A] complex and penetrating portrayal . . . that best displays [Anyi’s] gifts as a novelist.”—The New York Times Infatuated with the glitz and glamour of 1940s Hollywood, Wang Qiyao—a girl born of the longtang, the crowded, labyrinthine alleys of Shanghai’s working-class neighborhoods—seeks fame in the Miss Shanghai beauty pageant. 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 Anti-Rightist 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. “A beautifully constructed cyclical narrative . . . ingenious . . . As the novel builds to its tragic conclusion, the manner in which character types and events recur against the city’s shifting backdrop is impossible to forget.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[A] literary masterpiece . . . The story is spellbinding, colorful, and sad; the writing is dense and thoughtful . . . a page-turner right up to the end.”—Historical Novel Society

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Page Count

451

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231513097

ISBN 13

9780231513098

I Love Bill and Other Stories

By: Anyi Wang

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I Love Bill and Other Stories

By: Anyi Wang

I Love Bill and Other Stories showcases the work of Wang Anyi, one of China's most prolific and highly regarded writers, in two novellas and three short stories. A young artist's life spirals out of control when she drops out of school to pursue a series of unfulfilling relationships with foreign men. A performance troupe struggles to adapt to a changing China at the end of the Cultural Revolution. The head of an isolated village arranges a youth's posthumous marriage to an unknown soldier, only to have the soldier's former lover unexpectedly turn up. A fun trip takes an unexpected turn when two young women are kidnapped and sold off as brides. A boy's bout with typhoid provides an intimate look at family life in Shanghai's longtang alleys. In this thoughtful translation by Todd Foley, I Love Bill and Other Stories offers poignant and nuanced portrayals of life during China's economic and cultural transition at the turn of the millennium.

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Page Count

260

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1501771086

ISBN 13

9781501771088

The Book of Shanghai

A City in Short Fiction

By: Wang Anyi,Xiao Bai,Chen Danyan,Shen Dacheng,Cai Jun,Chen Qiufan,Xia Shang,Teng Xiaolan,Fu Yuehui,Wang Zhanhei

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The Book of Shanghai

A City in Short Fiction

By: Wang Anyi,Xiao Bai,Chen Danyan,Shen Dacheng,Cai Jun,Chen Qiufan,Xia Shang,Teng Xiaolan,Fu Yuehui,Wang Zhanhei

As the end of the world arrives in downtown Shanghai, one man’s only wish is to return a library book... When a publisher agrees to let a star author use his company’s attic to write in, little does he suspect this will become the author’s permanent residence... As Shanghai succumbs to a seemingly apocalyptic deluge, a man takes refuge in his bathtub, only to find himself, moments later, floating through the city's streets... The characters in this literary exploration of one of the world’s biggest cities are all on a mission. Whether it is responding to events around them, or following some impulse of their own, they are defined by their determination – a refusal to lose themselves in a city that might otherwise leave them anonymous, disconnected, alone. From the neglected mother whose side-hustle in collecting sellable waste becomes an obsession, to the schoolboy determined to end a long-standing feud between his family and another, these characters show a defiance that reminds us why Shanghai – despite its hurtling economic growth –remains an epicentre for individual creativity.

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Page Count

183

Publisher

Comma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1912697378

ISBN 13

9781912697373

Brocade Valley

By: Anyi Wang,Maiping Chen,Bonnie S. McDougall

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Brocade Valley

By: Anyi Wang,Maiping Chen,Bonnie S. McDougall

One of a trilogy of novellas addressing the theme of women in extramarital affairs, Brocade Valley shocked China when it appeared in 1987, becoming a bestseller and effectively dynamiting the sexual puritanism of official Chinese writing. It is only in Brocade Valley, the third and most controversial of the series, that the sexually adventurous woman is not punished for her activities. On the contrary, she is awarded a highly modern prize: a new sense of self which enables her to author her own story, the story of a young married editor who has a passing but liberating affair with a famous writer. Wang Anyi brings to her heroine the device of a triple perspective - narrator, protagonist, projection. The special interior tone which results, pitched to Wang Anyi's delicately circling style, allows the reader an intimate, insider's eye-view of a surprising China and creates a resonant novella of unusual beauty.

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Page Count

123

Publisher

New Directions Publishing Corporation

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811212246

ISBN 13

9780811212243

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

A Novel of Shanghai

By: Anyi Wang

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The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

A Novel of Shanghai

By: Anyi Wang

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow follows the adventures of Wang Qiyao, a girl born of 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. After the Communist victory, Wang Qiyao continues to indulge in the decadent pleasures of the Shanghai bourgeoisie, secretly playing mahjong during the antirightist campaign and exchanging lovers on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. She reemerges in the 1980s as a purveyor of "old Shanghai," only to become embroiled in a tragedy that echoes the Hollywood noirs of her youth.

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Page Count

452

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231143427

ISBN 13

9780231143424

Fu Ping

A Novel

By: Anyi Wang

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Fu Ping

A Novel

By: Anyi Wang

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.

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Page Count

202

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231550200

ISBN 13

9780231550208

The Book of Shanghai

A City in Short Fiction

By: Wang Anyi,Xiao Bai,Chen Danyan,Shen Dacheng,Cai Jun,Chen Qiufan,Xia Shang,Teng Xiaolan,Fu Yuehui,Wang Zhanhei

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The Book of Shanghai

A City in Short Fiction

By: Wang Anyi,Xiao Bai,Chen Danyan,Shen Dacheng,Cai Jun,Chen Qiufan,Xia Shang,Teng Xiaolan,Fu Yuehui,Wang Zhanhei

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Page Count

183

Publisher

Comma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1912697378

ISBN 13

9781912697373

Red Is Not the Only Color

Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex between Women, Collected Stories

By: Patricia Sieber

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Red Is Not the Only Color

Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex between Women, Collected Stories

By: Patricia Sieber

The first English-language anthology of its kind, Red Is Not the Only Color offers a window into the uncharted terrain of intimate relations between Chinese women. As urban China has undergone rapid transformation, same-sex relations have emerged as a significant, if previously neglected, touchstone for the exploration of the meaning of social change. The short fiction in this volume highlights tensions between tradition and modernization, family and state, art and commerce, love and sex. These stories introduce an emerging generation of acclaimed, and at times controversial, women writers, including Chen Ran, Bikwan Wong, and Chen Xue. By presenting fiction from the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the collection deliberately maps the literary contours of same-sex intimacy in broadly cultural rather than purely political terms. The perceptive and informative introduction surveys the social evolution of female same-sex intimacy in twentieth-century China, examines how each author engages with her Chinese context, and discusses how the stories compare with earlier representations of Chinese same-sex intimacy in the United States. Compelling for its literary quality, the anthology will also spur reflection among scholars of modern Chinese literature as well as readers interested in questions of gender, sexuality, and cross-cultural representation.

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Page Count

212

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1461666120

ISBN 13

9781461666127

Book's by Anyi Wang

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

I Love Bill and Other Stories

I Love Bill and Other Stories

The Book of Shanghai

The Book of Shanghai

Brocade Valley

Brocade Valley

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

Fu Ping

Fu Ping

The Book of Shanghai

The Book of Shanghai

Red Is Not the Only Color

Red Is Not the Only Color

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