Xiang Meili in Shanghai

Author: Wang Pu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: After graduating from university, the American girl Xiang Meili could not tolerate the monotonous life, so she quit her job and traveled to Europe. She met friends living in Africa and spent over a year with them. Upon returning to China, she met Harold Ross, the editor-in-chief of The New Yorker, and became a contributing writer for the magazine. After a failed relationship, Xiang Meili and her sister boarded a ship to Shanghai. At the high-society salons in Shanghai, Xiang Meili met Shao Xunmei and fell in love, staying in Shanghai ever since. She followed Shao Xunmei in smoking opium, becoming addicted, and mingling with the cultural figures of Shanghai. The two had close ties, and Xiang Meili became a frequent visitor in Shao Xunmei's household. During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, they jointly edited and published the anti-Japanese bilingual magazine Freedom Talk. After the war began, Xiang Meili, at the suggestion of her friends, started writing The Three Sisters of Song, for which she traveled between Hong Kong and Chongqing. Her relationship with Shao Xunmei began to strain, and they finally broke up.
Dr. Wang Pu, who teaches at the Chinese Department of Lingnan University in Hong Kong, discovered through reading various Chinese and foreign articles related to Xiang Meili that many authors had made numerous mistakes and misunderstandings about Xiang Meili herself and her relationship with Shao Xunmei. Therefore, based on Xiang Meili's English memoirs, novels, essays, and other relevant materials, she objectively recreates the legendary life of Xiang Meili, especially her years in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s.