The latest opus from Wang Anyi (Baotown) is set in post-World War II Shanghai, and traces the survival of ghetto girl Wang Qiyao, who is deeply impressed with the incandescence of 1940s Hollywood and must hide her “decadence” from the various ebbs and flows of Mao and Co.’s attempt at revolution. She survives in the new reformed China as a revered throwback to the nostalgic glamour of a past Shanghai—which she turns to her material advantage. And then tragedy strikes—go figure.
Reading
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow
The latest opus from Wang Anyi (Baotown) is set in post-World War II Shanghai, and traces the survival of ghetto girl Wang Qiyao, who is deeply impressed with the incandescence of 1940s Hollywood and must hide her “decadence” from the various ebbs and flows of Mao and Co.’s attempt at revolution. She survives in the new reformed China as a revered throwback to the nostalgic glamour of a past Shanghai—which she turns to her material advantage. And then tragedy strikes—go figure.