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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the film adapted from the novel, see Flowers of Shanghai.
The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai
Traditional Chinese 海上花列傳
Simplified Chinese 海上花列传
Transcriptions
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]
Reception
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]
English translation
Han Bangqing (2005) [1892]. The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai. Translated by Eileen Chang and Eva Hung. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231122689.
See also
flag China portal
icon Novels portal
Nine-tailed Turtles
References
Forbes, Andrew. Shanghai (National Geographic Traveler Beijing & Shanghai). National Geographic Books, 2007. ISBN 1426201486, 9781426201486.
Idema, W. L. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). T'oung Pao, ISSN 0082-5433, 01/1982, Volume 68, Issue 4/5, pp. 352 – 355
Snow, Donald B. Cantonese as Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular. Hong Kong University Press, 2004. ISBN 962209709X, 9789622097094.
Wang, David Der-wei. "Foreword." In: Han Bangqing (2005). The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231122689.
Notes
Forbes, p. 240.
Idema, p. 355
Snow, p. 34.
Wang, David Der-wei, Google Books PT10.
Downer, Lesley. "Pleasure Houses." The New York Times. November 20, 2005. Retrieved on March 27, 2015.
Further reading
Cheng, Stephen (Spring–Autumn 1982). "Sing-song Girls of Shanghai and Its Narrative Methods" (PDF). Renditions. Vol. 17–18. pp. 111–136 – via Chinese University of Hong Kong. - See profile page
External links
Han, Pang-ch'ing (Spring–Autumn 1982). "The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai" (PDF). Renditions. Vol. 17–18. Translated by Eileen Chang. pp. 95–110 – via Chinese University of Hong Kong. - See profile page
(in Chinese) 海上花列傳 - Wikisource
(in Chinese) 海上花列傳
===
The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai,
The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai,
Kindle Edition
by Bangqing Han (Author), Eileen Chang (Translator), Eva Hung (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
Desire, virtue, courtesans (also known as sing-song girls), and the denizens of Shanghai's pleasure quarters are just some of the elements that constitute Han Bangqing's extraordinary novel of late imperial China.
About the Author
Han Bangqing (1856-1894) founded China's first literary magazine and is considered one of the most important writers of modern China.
Eileen Chang (1920-1995) was a legendary figure in Chinese literature and the author of the essay collection Written on Water (Columbia, 2005) and the novels The Rogue of the North and The Rice-Sprout Song: A Novel of Modern China.
Eva Hung is the editor of the journal Renditions and the translator, editor, and author of more than two dozen books, including Contemporary Women Writers: Hong Kong and Taiwan.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.
Product details
ASIN : B008PDBP08
Publisher : Columbia University Press; Revised edition (30 November 2007)
Language : English
File size : 2463 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 593 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 820,781 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)73 in History & Criticism of Chinese Literature
556 in Chinese History (Kindle Store)
1,709 in Asian Literature (Books)Customer Reviews:
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
About the author
Top reviews from Australia
There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from Australia
Top reviews from other countries
Westonjm
5.0 out of 5 stars Sing Song Flowers of Shanghai
Reviewed in the United States on 8 October 2015
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I absoutely loved this book! I loved the story of the Sing Song Girls in Shanghai. I loved to read about the services that they provided to the well heeled in society. The Sing Song houses were important social centers where business was discussed, where agreements were made and where industry moved. There was respect between the habitues and the girls. There was an understanding between the girls and their clients. These were the centers for consolation, for entertainment, for peace. Home away from home. I loved this book!!!
2 people found this helpful
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laolaohu
4.0 out of 5 stars decline of an entire dynastic system
Reviewed in the United States on 27 August 2019
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If you are not familiar with classic Chinese literature (although I'm not sure I would even classify this as a classic), you might find this to be a difficult slog. Even if you are familiar with Chinese literature, you might find it to be a difficult slog. By my count, there are no less than one million, three hundred and fifty two thousand, five hundred and forty seven separate characters. Okay, I didn't really count, but there are a lot; even by Chinese standards there are a lot. And the story line does not even begin to reveal itself until at least half way through, and does not fully reveal itself until the end, and even then only in a sketchy manner. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but considering the length of the book, it does make it difficult at times to keep plowing forward. Still, it is worth reading as a period piece, as a glimpse into a life and style of life that we would not otherwise have access to, i.e. the life of the higher class Shanghai brothels shortly before the turn of the twentieth century. Although one thing I did find curious, and that no one (not even the translator or the author of the forward) seems to have picked up on, and that is the almost total lack of any form of eroticism in this book. Certainly you might argue, in retrospect, that there are stylistic reasons for this, although the Chinese are not ones to back away from sexual portayals in their literature, especially when the literature concerns courtesans. But I tend to think that the cause is even deeper: that there actually was very little in the way of eroticism in the brothels themselves. The thing that most struck me was the prodigious amout of opium ingested within these pages. These seem to not have been brothels so much as high class opium dens. You can hardly turn a page without someone or other partaking of his or her opium pipe. The clients of these so-called brothels would likely have been too wasted for actual sex. Well, at least that's the way it struck me. This is more than just the portrayal of a fading style of life, but rather is the portrayal of the decline of an entire dynasty, and indeed of an entire dynastic system.
Read less
2 people found this helpful
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Justin H
5.0 out of 5 stars Massive tome to read
Reviewed in the United States on 21 May 2018
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Took me an entire month to read this book and I am a fast reader at that. Very pleased with the story and I am sure it could have went on even longer if more was written.
2 people found this helpful
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A MEMBER
1.0 out of 5 stars torture
Reviewed in the United States on 11 September 2010
Verified Purchase
This may be a classic within its culture but, in this translation at least, the monotonous and relentless listing of random details is like water torture.
6 people found this helpful
Report
Nancy Bain
5.0 out of 5 stars Quality books
Reviewed in the United States on 16 August 2019
Verified Purchase
Books top quality. Great customer service experience.
One person found this helpful
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by Bangqing Han (Author), Eileen Chang (Translator), Eva Hung (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
Desire, virtue, courtesans (also known as sing-song girls), and the denizens of Shanghai's pleasure quarters are just some of the elements that constitute Han Bangqing's extraordinary novel of late imperial China.
Han's richly textured, panoramic view of late-nineteenth-century Shanghai follows a range of characters from beautiful sing-song girls to lower-class prostitutes and from men in positions of social authority to criminals and ambitious young men recently arrived from the country. Considered one of the greatest works of Chinese fiction, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai is now available for the first time in English.
Neither sentimental nor sensationalistic in its portrayal of courtesans and their male patrons, Han's work inquires into the moral and psychological consequences of desire. Han, himself a frequent habitué of Shanghai brothels, reveals a world populated by lonely souls who seek consolation amid the pleasures and decadence of Shanghai's demimonde. He describes the romantic games played by sing-song girls to lure men, as well as the tragic consequences faced by those who unexpectedly fall in love with their customers. Han also tells the stories of male patrons who find themselves emotionally trapped between desire and their sense of propriety.
First published in 1892, and made into a film by Hou Hsiao-hsien in 1998, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai is recognized as a pioneering work of Chinese fiction in its use of psychological realism and its infusion of modernist sensibilities into the traditional genre of courtesan fiction. The novel's stature has grown with the recent discovery of Eileen Chang's previously unknown translation, which was unearthed among her papers at the University of Southern California. Chang, who lived in Shanghai until 1956 when she moved to California and began to write in English, is one of the most acclaimed Chinese writers of the twentieth century.
Review
The publication of this book is a significant event in the upper echelons of Chinese literary study... Finally a book that's been much talked about is now available to an international readership. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
Neither sentimental nor sensationalistic in its portrayal of courtesans and their male patrons, Han's work inquires into the moral and psychological consequences of desire. Han, himself a frequent habitué of Shanghai brothels, reveals a world populated by lonely souls who seek consolation amid the pleasures and decadence of Shanghai's demimonde. He describes the romantic games played by sing-song girls to lure men, as well as the tragic consequences faced by those who unexpectedly fall in love with their customers. Han also tells the stories of male patrons who find themselves emotionally trapped between desire and their sense of propriety.
First published in 1892, and made into a film by Hou Hsiao-hsien in 1998, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai is recognized as a pioneering work of Chinese fiction in its use of psychological realism and its infusion of modernist sensibilities into the traditional genre of courtesan fiction. The novel's stature has grown with the recent discovery of Eileen Chang's previously unknown translation, which was unearthed among her papers at the University of Southern California. Chang, who lived in Shanghai until 1956 when she moved to California and began to write in English, is one of the most acclaimed Chinese writers of the twentieth century.
Review
The publication of this book is a significant event in the upper echelons of Chinese literary study... Finally a book that's been much talked about is now available to an international readership. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
About the Author
Han Bangqing (1856-1894) founded China's first literary magazine and is considered one of the most important writers of modern China.
Eileen Chang (1920-1995) was a legendary figure in Chinese literature and the author of the essay collection Written on Water (Columbia, 2005) and the novels The Rogue of the North and The Rice-Sprout Song: A Novel of Modern China.
Eva Hung is the editor of the journal Renditions and the translator, editor, and author of more than two dozen books, including Contemporary Women Writers: Hong Kong and Taiwan.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.
Product details
ASIN : B008PDBP08
Publisher : Columbia University Press; Revised edition (30 November 2007)
Language : English
File size : 2463 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 593 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 820,781 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)73 in History & Criticism of Chinese Literature
556 in Chinese History (Kindle Store)
1,709 in Asian Literature (Books)Customer Reviews:
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
About the author
Top reviews from Australia
There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from Australia
Top reviews from other countries
Westonjm
5.0 out of 5 stars Sing Song Flowers of Shanghai
Reviewed in the United States on 8 October 2015
Verified Purchase
I absoutely loved this book! I loved the story of the Sing Song Girls in Shanghai. I loved to read about the services that they provided to the well heeled in society. The Sing Song houses were important social centers where business was discussed, where agreements were made and where industry moved. There was respect between the habitues and the girls. There was an understanding between the girls and their clients. These were the centers for consolation, for entertainment, for peace. Home away from home. I loved this book!!!
2 people found this helpful
Report
laolaohu
4.0 out of 5 stars decline of an entire dynastic system
Reviewed in the United States on 27 August 2019
Verified Purchase
If you are not familiar with classic Chinese literature (although I'm not sure I would even classify this as a classic), you might find this to be a difficult slog. Even if you are familiar with Chinese literature, you might find it to be a difficult slog. By my count, there are no less than one million, three hundred and fifty two thousand, five hundred and forty seven separate characters. Okay, I didn't really count, but there are a lot; even by Chinese standards there are a lot. And the story line does not even begin to reveal itself until at least half way through, and does not fully reveal itself until the end, and even then only in a sketchy manner. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but considering the length of the book, it does make it difficult at times to keep plowing forward. Still, it is worth reading as a period piece, as a glimpse into a life and style of life that we would not otherwise have access to, i.e. the life of the higher class Shanghai brothels shortly before the turn of the twentieth century. Although one thing I did find curious, and that no one (not even the translator or the author of the forward) seems to have picked up on, and that is the almost total lack of any form of eroticism in this book. Certainly you might argue, in retrospect, that there are stylistic reasons for this, although the Chinese are not ones to back away from sexual portayals in their literature, especially when the literature concerns courtesans. But I tend to think that the cause is even deeper: that there actually was very little in the way of eroticism in the brothels themselves. The thing that most struck me was the prodigious amout of opium ingested within these pages. These seem to not have been brothels so much as high class opium dens. You can hardly turn a page without someone or other partaking of his or her opium pipe. The clients of these so-called brothels would likely have been too wasted for actual sex. Well, at least that's the way it struck me. This is more than just the portrayal of a fading style of life, but rather is the portrayal of the decline of an entire dynasty, and indeed of an entire dynastic system.
Read less
2 people found this helpful
Report
Justin H
5.0 out of 5 stars Massive tome to read
Reviewed in the United States on 21 May 2018
Verified Purchase
Took me an entire month to read this book and I am a fast reader at that. Very pleased with the story and I am sure it could have went on even longer if more was written.
2 people found this helpful
Report
A MEMBER
1.0 out of 5 stars torture
Reviewed in the United States on 11 September 2010
Verified Purchase
This may be a classic within its culture but, in this translation at least, the monotonous and relentless listing of random details is like water torture.
6 people found this helpful
Report
Nancy Bain
5.0 out of 5 stars Quality books
Reviewed in the United States on 16 August 2019
Verified Purchase
Books top quality. Great customer service experience.
One person found this helpful
Report
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