The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow's considered one of the crowning achievements of modern Chinese literature. First published in 1995, the novel won the Mao Dun Prize, China's top literary honor, and has been adapted for stage, television, and film. Set in post-World War II Shanghai, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow follows Wang Qiyao, a young girl infatuated with the glamour of 1940s Hollywood. After being discovered by an amateur photographer, Wang Qiyao competes in the Miss Shanghai beauty pageant of 1946 and wins second runner-up. This fleeting moment of stardom becomes the pinnacle of Wang Qiyao's life, and she spends the next forty years clinging to her experience with fame and decadence. As the decades pass, Wang Qiyao continues to live freely and indulgently, secretly playing mahjong during the anti-Rightist Movement and entertaining several lovers during the Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s she emerges as a relic of "old Shanghai"--a living incarnation of a new nostalgia--and finds herself embroiled in a tragedy reminiscent of the pulpy Hollywood noirs of her youth. From the violent persecution of communism to the liberalism and openness of the age of reform, Wang Anyi tells a sorrowful tale of old China versus new, of survival and perseverance in the face of adversity, and of our never-ending quest for transformation and beauty.

The classic story of a woman in post-World War II China. “[A] complex and penetrating portrayal . . . that best displays [Anyi’s] gifts as a novelist.”—The New York TimesInfatuated with the glitz and glamour of 1940s Hollywood, Wang Qiyao—a girl born of the longtang, the crowded, labyrinthine alleys of Shanghai’s working-class neighborhoods—seeks fame in the Miss Shanghai beauty pageant. This fleeting moment of stardom becomes the pinnacle of her life. During the next four decades, Wang Qiyao indulges in the decadent pleasures of pre-liberation Shanghai, secretly playing mahjong during the Anti-Rightist Movement and exchanging lovers on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Surviving the vicissitudes of modern Chinese history, Wang Qiyao emerges in the 1980s as a purveyor of “old Shanghai”—a living incarnation of a new, commodified nostalgia that prizes splendor and sophistication—only to become embroiled in a tragedy that echoes the pulpy Hollywood noirs of her youth.  From the violent persecution of communism to the liberalism and openness of the age of reform, this sorrowful tale of old China versus new, of perseverance in the face of adversity, is a timeless rendering of our never-ending quest for transformation and beauty.“A beautifully constructed cyclical narrative . . . ingenious . . . As the novel builds to its tragic conclusion, the manner in which character types and events recur against the city’s shifting backdrop is impossible to forget.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“[A] literary masterpiece . . . The story is spellbinding, colorful, and sad; the writing is dense and thoughtful . . . a page-turner right up to the end.”—Historical Novel Society