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''The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai'', also translated as ''Shanghai Flowers''Forbes, p
240
or ''Biographies of Flowers by the Seashore'',
Idema Advanced Format (AF) is any disk sector format used to store data on magnetic disks in hard disk drives (HDDs) that exceeds 512, 520, or 528 bytes per sector, such as the 4096, 4112, 4160, and 4224-byte (4  KB) sectors of an Advanced Format ...
, p. 355
is an 1892 novel by Han Bangqing. The novel, the first such novel to be serially published, chronicles lives of courtesans in Shanghai in the late 19th century. Unlike most prostitution-oriented novels in
Wu Chinese The Wu languages (; Wu romanization and IPA: ''wu6 gniu6'' [] ( Shanghainese), ''ng2 gniu6'' [] (Suzhounese), Mandarin pinyin and IPA: ''Wúyǔ'' []) is a major group of Sinitic languages spoken primarily in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Zhejiang Provin ...
, specifically the Suzhou dialect, all dialog in this novel is in Wu.Snow, p
34
The acclaimed writer
Eileen Chang Eileen Chang ( zh, t=張愛玲, s=张爱玲, first=t, w=Chang1 Ai4-ling2, p=Zhāng Àilíng;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 A ...
translated the book into Mandarin, published in two parts under the titles "" and "" (lit. ''The Flowers of the Sea Bloom / Fade''" or "''The Flowers of Shanghai Bloom / Fade''"). She also translated the book into English, Wang, David Der-wei,
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
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which was not discovered until after her death.Downer, Lesley.

" ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. November 20, 2005. Retrieved on March 27, 2015.
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 ''The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century'' is a 1980 book edited by Milena Doleželová-Velingerová, published by the University of Toronto Press. It was the first book that had been written in a Western language that chronicled fiction publ ...
'' in ''
T'oung Pao ''T’oung Pao'' (; ), founded in 1890, is a Dutch journal and the oldest international journal of sinology. It is published by the publisher E. J. Brill. ''T'oung Paos original full title was ''T’oung Pao ou Archives pour servir à l’étud ...
'', 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". A film adaptation called ''
Flowers of Shanghai ''Flowers of Shanghai'' is a 1998 Taiwanese drama film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien starring 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 ...
'' was made in 1998.


Reception

Hu Shih Hu Shih (; 17 December 1891 – 24 February 1962), also known as Hu Suh in early references, was a Chinese diplomat, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, and politician. Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese libera ...
,
Lu Xun Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. ...
, and other Chinese literary figures critically acclaimed ''Shanghai Flowers''. However, the novel did not sell very well. Lesley Downer of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote that few people read the novel in China as of 2005. Hu Shih's thesis is that because the novel had such a strong usage of Wu, readers had difficulty understanding it. 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.
David Der-wei Wang David Der-wei Wang (; born November 6, 1954) is a literary historian, critic, and the Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. He has written extensively on post-late Qing Chinese fiction, comparative literary the ...
argued that the main usage of Wu in the novel was by the courtesans 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."


English translation

*


See also

* '' Nine-tailed Turtles''


References

* Forbes, Andrew. ''Shanghai'' (''National Geographic Traveler Beijing & Shanghai''). National Geographic Books, 2007. , 9781426201486. * Idema, W. L. "
The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century ''The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century'' is a 1980 book edited by Milena Doleželová-Velingerová, published by the University of Toronto Press. It was the first book that had been written in a Western language that chronicled fiction publ ...
" (book review). ''
T'oung Pao ''T’oung Pao'' (; ), founded in 1890, is a Dutch journal and the oldest international journal of sinology. It is published by the publisher E. J. Brill. ''T'oung Paos original full title was ''T’oung Pao ou Archives pour servir à l’étud ...
'', , 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 Hong Kong University Press is the university press of the University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially t ...
, 2004. , 9789622097094. * Wang, David Der-wei. "Foreword." In:


Notes


External links

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海上花列傳
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海上花列傳
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sing-song Girls of Shanghai Qing dynasty novels Shanghainese Culture in Suzhou Novels set in Shanghai 1892 novels 19th-century Chinese novels Columbia University Press books