''Petulia's Rouge Tin'' ( zh, first=s, s=红粉) is a 1991

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

by Chinese author

Su Tong Tong Zhonggui ( zh, c=童忠贵, p=Tóng Zhōngguì; born January 23, 1963), known by the pen name of Su Tong ( zh, s=苏童, t=蘇童, p=Sū Tóng, labels=no) is a Chinese writer. He was born in Suzhou and lives in Nanjing. He entered the Depa ...

. Its official English translation, done by Jane Weizhen Pan ( zh, first=t, t=潘維真, s=潘维真, p=Pān Wéizhēn) and Martin Merz, was published by Penguin Specials in 2018.
Original page
/ref> Peter Gordon of the ''

Asian Review of Books Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from As ...

'' stated that the work's focus on the characters and their situations was an influence from

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia, its Russian diaspora, émigrés, and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different e ...

. It is set in the 1950s, in Shanghai, when the new government began requiring former prostitutes to be re-educated. Two former prostitutes, Petulia and Autumn Grace, are among those taken away to the Women's Labour Training Camp, even though their previous place of employment, Red Delight Pavilion, is still operating. Petulia spends three years, there and develops her relationship with her longtime customer, and husband, Mr. P'u, who tries to maintain his former quality of life after having assets seized by the new government. Autumn Grace escapes from the truck taking her to the camp and stays in a compound for Buddhist nuns. Gordon stated that a "clear denouement or resolution" was not present in the book, and that this was also a Russian influence. The title of the English translation is a reference to a piece of tin that is the only aspect remaining from the characters' pre-1949 lives.

Writing style

An essay in ''Modern Chinese Literature, Volume 10'' stated that it was an example of a work that had a "more straightforward, realistic description and greater thematic openness."''Modern Chinese Literature, Volume 10''.

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

Center for the Study of Modern Chinese Literature, 1998. p
100
"Su Tong conveys the possibility of greater freedom of action once he further simplified his style in novellas such as "Hongfen" ouge/nowiki> (1991) ..These novellas offer .. According to Gordon, the author "has great economy of language, saying a great deal in few words." He characterised the reading pace as "brisk". The translators stated that the original Chinese version of the work used aspects of the grammar of "traditional vernacular literary Chinese", which the author used to "inject a nostalgic mood".Su, Tong. ''Petulia's Rouge Tin: Penguin Specials''.

Penguin UK Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 8 June 2018. , 9781743773215.

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

br>PT7
(from "Translators' Note"). These features included referring to characters by names in place of using pronouns and not using quotation marks; the usage of pronouns and quotation marks in literary Chinese dated from the 1920s. Since

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

had not yet been introduced to China in the time period of the setting, the translators chose to use Wade-Giles romanization.Su, Tong. ''Petulia's Rouge Tin: Penguin Specials''.

, 8 June 2018. , 9781743773215.

br>PT6PT7
(from "Translators' Note"). The translators chose not to emulate the lack of pronouns nor the lack of quotation marks in the English version due to readability concerns.

Characters

The translators rendered the names of the women characters into their literal meanings to highlight their roles in the stories, instead of keeping the names in a romanized form. *Petulia ( zh, c=小萼, p=Xiǎo È, w=Hsiao3 E/O4, l=Little Calyx, labels=no) - Catherine Shipley of the Reading Chinese Network described her as "needy". Her original Chinese name means the

calyx CALYX, Inc. is a non-profit publisher of art and literature by women founded in 1976 based in Corvallis, Oregon. CALYX publishes both '' CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women'' twice a year and CALYX Books, which publishes one to three ...

of a flower; the translators decided that using "Petulia" has the "feel" of the Chinese name and has a "suggestive nature". *Autumn Grace ( zh, first=s, s=秋仪, t=秋儀, p=Qiū Yí, w=Chiu1 I2, labels=no) - Shipley described her as "Strong-Headed". *Mr. P'u ( zh, c=老浦, p=Lǎo Pǔ, w=Lao3 P'u3, l=Old Pu, labels=no) - He is described by Shipley as "kind", and by Gordon as "feckless" and unfortunate. According to Gordon, he has more trouble adjusting to his new life than the two women do, and that P'u is "courageous when pushed, yet completely out of his depth when it comes to dealing with women." *Lucky Phoenix ( zh, first=s, s=瑞凤, t=瑞鳳, p=Ruìfèng, w=Jui4-feng4, labels=no, l=Lucky Phoenix)

Reception

Gordon ranked the book four of five stars and called it "another winner". Shipley stated that the author "intelligently and creatively produced a story that allows the reader to gain an insight into a politically turbulent time, and has used a unique approach to do so." Henry Yunwei Wang, also of the Reading Chinese Network, stated that the original book had "brisk style of writing and exquisite command of language", and that the translation was a "brilliant English equivalent" in which the features of the original "are well reflected" and "shine through well".

Adaptations

A film version, titled '' Blush'', was made in 1994, and directed by

Li Shaohong Li Shaohong (born 7 July 1955) is a Chinese film and television director and producer. She is considered a member of the Fifth Generation movement, and China's top woman director. Her films have won multiple awards in China and abroad, includin ...

. Another film version, 1995's ''Rouged Beauties'' (hongfen jiaren), was directed by

Huang Shuqin Huang Shuqin (9 September 1939 – 21 April 2022) was a Chinese film director known for her film ''Woman, Demon, Human'' (1987). Widely considered the first feminist Chinese film by critics and scholars,Kang, Kai. "Beyond New Waves: Gender and S ...

Writing style

Characters

Reception

Adaptations

References

Further reading