"Eileen Chang (1920-1995) is arguably the most perceptive writer in modern Chinese literature. She was one of the most popular writers in 1940s Shanghai, but her insistence on writing about individual human relationships and mundane matters rather than revolutionary and political movements meant that in mainland China, she was neglected until very recently. Outside the mainland, her life and writings never ceased to fascinate Chinese readers. There are hundreds of works about her in the Chinese language but very few in other languages. This is the first work in English to explore her earliest short stories as well as novels that were published posthumously. It discusses the translation of her stories for film and stage presentation, as well as nonliterary aspects of her life that are essential for a more comprehensive understanding of her writings, including her intense concern for privacy and enduring sensitivity to her public image. The thirteen essays examine the fidelity and betrayals that dominate her alter ego's relationships with parents and lovers, informed by theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines including literary, historical, gender, and film studies. These relationships are frequently dramatized in plays and filmic translations of her work."--Project Muse.

Introduction : Eileen Chang : a life of conflicting cultures in China and America / Kam Louie -- 1. Romancing returnee men : masculinity in "Love in a fallen city" and "Red rose, white rose" / Kam Louie -- 2. From page to stage : cultural "in-betweenness" in (new) Love in a fallen city / Jessica Tsui Yan Li -- 3. Eileen Chang and things Japanese / Nicole Huang -- 4. The ordinary fashion show : Eileen Chang's profane illumination and mnemonic art / Esther M.K. Cheung -- 5. Betrayal, impersonation, and bilingualism : Eileen Chang's self-translation / Shuang Shen -- 6. Eileen Chang, Dream of the red chamber, and the Cold War / Xiaojue Wang -- 7. Eileen Chang and Ang Lee at the movies : the cinematic politics of lust, caution / Gina Marchetti -- 8. Seduction of a filmic romance : Eileen Chang and Ang Lee / Hsiu-Chuang Deppman -- 9. "A person of weak affect" : toward an ethics of other in Eileen Chang's Little reunion / Laikwan Pang -- 10. Romancing rhetoricity and historicity : the representational politics and poetics of Little reunion / Tze-lan Sang -- 11. Madame White, The book of change, and Eileen Chang : on a poetics of involution and derivation / David Der-wei Wang -- Afterword / Leo Ou-fan Lee -- Notes -- Index.