By water, reflecting flowers

Author: Wei Kefeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: In 1920, in an old-style garden mansion in Shanghai, a baby girl was born. In the loud cries, this girl connected to three noble families seemed to declare her identity and the era she would witness. She was named Zhang Ying, but only had another name—Zhang Ailing—when her mother secretly took her to register for a transfer to Huangshi Primary School. In the turbulent times, the glorious heritage of her ancestors and the scholarly atmosphere of the family allowed Zhang Ying to witness endless splendor and decline, experiencing the warmth and coldness of life. Her early wisdom and keen mind transformed these ups and downs into words that were both stunning and lamentable. Zhang Ailing, the ever-flowering legend in literature; her childhood artistic and literary awakening, her youthful maturity and rebellious behavior; as well as her romance with Hu Lan Cheng, which once made her "bloom from the dust but ultimately wither"; and her later years of withdrawing from the world, solitary and aloof—her rich life colors were like reflections in water, seemingly real yet illusory.