Editing Eileen Chang (section)

==Career==
===Shanghai===
At the age of 10, Chang's mother renamed her as Aìlíng, a [[transliteration]] of Eileen, in preparation for her entrance into an English school. While in high school, Chang read ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'', one of the [[Four Great Classical Novels]] of Chinese literature, which influenced her work throughout her career. Chang displayed great literary talent and her writings were published in the school magazine. The following year, she wrote her debut short novel at the age of 12.<ref>{{cite book |title=Love in a Fallen City (New York Review Books Classics) |last=Chang |first= Eileen|author2=Kingsbury, Karen |year= 2007|publisher=New York Review Books Classics|isbn= 978-1-59017-178-3|pages= 320|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=49gDP2Hwc6sC}}</ref>

Chang's writing was heavily influenced by the environment in which she lived. Shanghai and Hong Kong in the 1940s were the background of many of her earlier novels.<ref name="CHAN"/> She was known for her “aesthetic ambivalence” where the narrative style and language were reminiscent of the traditional “linked-chapter” novel while the setting was more in line with modern urban melodramas. Chang also sought to probe and examine the psychology of her characters.<ref name="docs.lib.purdue.edu">{{Cite journal |last=Qu |first=Lina |date=2020-02-09 |title=Writing, Rewriting, and Miswriting: Eileen Chang's Late Style Against the Grain |url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol21/iss6/7 |journal=CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture |volume=21 |issue=6 |doi=10.7771/1481-4374.3305 |issn=1481-4374 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In 1943, Chang was introduced to the prominent editor [[Zhou Shoujuan]] and gave him a few pieces of her writing. With Zhou's support, Chang soon became the most popular new writer in Shanghai. Within the next two years, she wrote some of her most acclaimed works, including ''[[Love in a Fallen City (novella)|Love in a Fallen City]]'' and ''[[The Golden Cangue]]''. In her English translation of ''The Golden Cangue'', Chang simplified English expressions and sentence structures to make it easier for readers to understand.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Eileen Chang's Translation of The Golden Cangue|url=https://translationjournal.net/journal/42chang.htm|access-date=2020-10-08|website=translationjournal.net}}</ref>

Several short stories and novellas were collected in ''Romances'' (''Chuan Qi'', {{lang|zh-hant|[[:zh:傳奇|傳奇]]}}) (1944). It instantly became a bestseller in Shanghai, boosting Chang's reputation and fame among readers and also the Chinese literary circle.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Wang Weiping |author2=Ma Lin |date= 1997|title= Eileen Chang Fifty years of Research (张爱玲研究五十年述评)|url= http://www.cnki.com.cn/Article/CJFDTOTAL-XSYK199711015.htm|language= zh|journal= Xueshu Yuekan (学术月刊)|issue= 11|pages= 88|access-date= 3 March 2019|archive-date= May 30, 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190530024825/http://www.cnki.com.cn/Article/CJFDTOTAL-XSYK199711015.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref>

A collection of her essays appeared as ''Written on Water'' (''Líu Yán'' {{lang|zh-hant|[[:zh:流言|流言]]}}) in 1945.<ref name="HUANG2005">Nicole Huang, "Introduction," in Eileen Chang, ''Written on Water'', translated by Andrew F. Jones (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), ix-xvi.</ref> Her literary maturity was said to be far beyond her age. As described by Nicole Huang in the introduction to ''Written on Water'', "The essay form became a means for Eileen Chang constantly to redefine the boundaries between life and work, the domestic and the historic, and meticulously to weave a rich private life together with the concerns of a public intellectual."<ref name="HUANG2005" /> In 20th century China, Chang experimented with new literary language. In her essay entitled "writing of one's own," Chang retrospectively remarks on her use of a new fictional language in her novella ''Lianhuantao'' (''Chained Links'').<ref name="HUANG2005" />

In the early years of her career, Chang was famously associated with this comment:

{{blockquote|To be famous, I must hurry. If it comes too late, it will not bring me so much happiness ... Hurry, hurry, or it will be too late, too late!<ref>Zhang, Ailing, and Translated by Karen Kingsbury (2007). “Preface to the Second Printing of Romances” in ''Love in a Fallen City''. New York Review Books, New York, p.14.</ref>}}

===Hong Kong===
<!-- this section is the target of [[The Book of Change (Chang)]] -->

In 1945, Chang's reputation waned due to postwar cultural and political turmoil. It worsened after the defeat of the [[Nationalist government]] by the Communists in the [[Chinese Civil War]]. Chang left [[mainland China]] for [[Hong Kong]] in 1952, realizing her writing career in [[Shanghai]] was over.<ref name="HUANG2005"/> In [[Hong Kong]], she worked for the [[United States Information Service|United States Information Service (USIS)]], which promoted United States interests overseas.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=DeMare |first=Brian James |url= |title=Land wars : the story of China's agrarian revolution |date=2019 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-5036-0849-8 |location=Stanford, California |pages=29 |oclc=1048940018}}</ref> During this time, she wrote two anti-communist works, ''[[The Rice Sprout Song]]'' (''Yang Ge'', {{lang|zh-hans|[[:zh:秧歌|秧歌]]}}) and ''Naked Earth'' (''Chidi zhi lian,'' 赤地之戀, sometimes known in English as ''Love in Redland''),<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-05-04 |title=High Style and Desperate Love: On the Life and Work of Eileen Chang |url=https://themillions.com/2015/05/high-style-and-desperate-love-on-the-life-and-work-of-eileen-chang.html |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=The Millions |language=en-US}}</ref> both of which she later translated into Chinese and published in Taiwan.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Goldblatt|first=Howard|date=1999|title=Review of The Rice-Sprout Song; The Rouge of the North, Eileen Chang|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/655784|journal=The China Quarterly|issue=159|pages=760–761|doi=10.1017/S0305741000003659|jstor=655784|issn=0305-7410}}</ref> ''The Rice Sprout Song'' was Chang's first novel written entirely in English.<ref name="PONG2009"/>

Chang wrote ''Naked Earth'' at the direct request of the USIS and used a plot outline supplied by USIS agents.<ref name=":2" /> According to academic Brian DeMare, the book is a consequence of the anti-Communist paranoia of the United States Cold War mentality and lacks the poetry and nuance of Chang's other works.<ref>{{Cite book |last=DeMare |first=Brian James |url= |title=Land wars : the story of China's agrarian revolution |date=2019 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-5036-0849-8 |location=Stanford, California |pages=29–30 |oclc=1048940018}}</ref>

She also translated a variety of English works into Chinese, most notably ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'' by [[Ernest Hemingway]] and "[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]" by [[Washington Irving]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Xia |first=Chih-tsing |title=The Relationship Between Eileen Chang and Hu Lancheng (张爱玲与胡兰成的前世今生) |date=2007 |publisher=Shi Fan University |isbn=9787561332702 |location=ShanXi |page=197}}</ref> Chang's translation of ''The Old Man and the Sea'' was seen as Cold War propaganda for the USIS and is argued to have directly influenced her writing and translating of ''The Rice Sprout Song''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bo|first=L. Maria|date=2019-09-01|title=Freedom Over Seas: Eileen Chang, Ernest Hemingway, and the Translation of Truth in the Cold War|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/comparative-literature/article/71/3/252/139731/Freedom-Over-Seas-Eileen-Chang-Ernest-Hemingway|journal=Comparative Literature|language=en|volume=71|issue=3|pages=252–271|doi=10.1215/00104124-7546276|s2cid=202375261|issn=0010-4124}}</ref>

===United States===
In 1955, Chang moved to America, struggling to become an English writer. Her work was rejected by publishers many times.<ref name="auto"/> Chang's move from Hong Kong to the U.S. marked an important turning point in her literary career.<ref name="docs.lib.purdue.edu" />

In the 1960s, Chang was constantly searching for new job opportunities, particularly ones that involved translating or writing screenplays. Chang once tried to adapt a screenplay for Hollywood with Chinese elements, but was unsuccessful because the agent thought the role had too much content and psychological changes.<ref name="auto"/> Chang became an [[American citizen]] in 1960 and headed to [[Taiwan]] for more opportunities, returning to the United States in 1962.

Betrayal is an overarching theme in Chang's later works, notably in her English essay "A Return to the Frontier" (1963) and one of her last novels ''Little Reunions'' (2009, published posthumously). Compared to her previous works, there are many more tragedies and betrayals in her writings later in her life.<ref name="u.osu.edu">{{Cite web |date=2014-09-23 |title=Ends of Betrayal: Diaspora and Historical Representation in the Late Works of Zhang Ailing |url=https://u.osu.edu/mclc/journal/abstracts/shenshuang/ |access-date=2020-11-19 |website=MCLC Resource Center |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1962, when she resided in San Francisco, Chang started writing the English novel ''The Young Marshal'' based on the love story between the Chinese general [[Zhang Xueliang]] and his wife, Zhao Yidi, with an aim to break into the American literary world. However, due to the multitude of Chinese names and complex historical background in the book, her editor gave a poor evaluation of the initial chapters, which greatly undermined Chang's confidence in the writing. With her interest in Zhang Xueliang waning, she abandoned the story. In 2014, Eileen Chang's literary executor, Roland Soong, managed to have the unfinished novel published, with a Chinese translation by Zheng Yuantao.

In 1963, Chang also wrote two novels based on her own life: ''[[The Fall of the Pagoda]]'' and ''The Book of Change''.<ref name="docs.lib.purdue.edu" /> Both were believed to be her attempts to offer an alternative writing style to mainstream America; she did not succeed. The full-length novels were not published until 2010.<ref name="docs.lib.purdue.edu" /><ref>[http://beijingtoday.com.cn/2010/04/fall-pagoda-records-eileen-changs-childhood/ "Fall of the Pagoda Records Eileen Chang's Childhood"]. ''Beijing Today''. April 30, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://jmsc.hku.hk/2010/08/book-launch-eileen-changs-book-of-change/ "Sept 3: Book Launch&nbsp;– Eileen Chang's The Book of Change"]. August 27, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/90873/6954246.html "Eileen Chang's first English autobiographical novel published"]. ''People's Daily''. Retrieved December 19, 2010.</ref>

In 1966, Chang had a writing residency at [[Miami University]] in [[Oxford, Ohio]].<ref name="auto" /> In 1967, Chang held a short-term job at [[Radcliffe College]]. In 1969, upon the invitation of Shih-Hsiang Chen, a professor of Oriental Languages at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], Chang became a senior researcher at the Center for Chinese Studies of Berkeley.<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis|last=Hoyan|first=Carole H. F.|title=The life and works of Zhang Ailing : a critical study|date=1996|publisher=University of British Columbia|url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0087802}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://epaper.anhuinews.com/html/jhsb/20140829/article_3154065.shtml|title=The Dispute Between Eileen Chang and Chen Shizhen (张爱玲与陈世骧的争执)|website=epaper.anhuinews.com|access-date=2018-03-31|archive-date=May 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510112522/http://epaper.anhuinews.com/html/jhsb/20140829/article_3154065.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her research topics included Chinese Communist terminology and the novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''.<ref name=":0" /> In 1971, the year Chen died, Chang left her post at Berkeley.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb6h4nb3q7&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00007&toc.depth=1&toc.id=|title=University of California: In Memoriam, 1974|website=texts.cdlib.org|access-date=2018-03-31}}</ref> In 1972, Chang relocated to [[Los Angeles]]. In 1975, she completed the English translation of ''[[The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai]]'', a late [[Qing Dynasty|Qing]] novel written in [[Wu Chinese]] by [[Han Bangqing]]. The manuscript for the translation was found among her papers at the [[University of Southern California]] and published posthumously in 2005.

In 1978, ''Crown Magazine'' published Chang's novellas ''[[Lust, Caution (novella)|Lust, Caution]]'' and ''Fu Hua Lang Rui'', as well as her short story  "Xiang Jian Huan".<ref>{{cite book |last= Xiao |first= Song Xi Yue|date= 2016|title= Eileen Chang's Life in the United States of America (张爱玲在美国的日子)|location= Beijing|publisher= Zhongguo Hua qiao chu ban she|page= 203 |isbn= 9787511359384}}</ref>

In 1990, Chang began writing an essay "Table of Love and Hate" (愛憎表), a reflection of her thoughts during her school days. The essay was published posthumously in the July 2016 issue (Issue 155) of Taiwan's Ink magazine and in the autumn-winter issue of China's Harvest magazine.