Love in a Fallen City

From 1636 to 1912, the Qing imperial dynasty ruled China. In 1912, the Qing dynasty was overthrown and a new government, the Republic of China, was instituted on the mainland (Feuerwerker, Albert, and Chusei Suzuki. “The early republican period.” Encyclopedia Britannica.) The Republic, while highly unstable, nevertheless brought in reforms that transformed Chinese society and economy. The Republic of China on the mainland came to an end in 1949 when the Communist Party came to power. The stories in Love in a Fallen City largely take place during the Republic of China. The volatility and changing customs of the Chinese Republican period, particularly in the cosmopolitan, multicultural trade cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong, are the backdrop of the stories’ exploration of Tradition and Modernity in a Changing Society.

The history of the Republic of China is characterized by internal instability, resulting in civil war, and threats from external pressures, particularly from the Japanese Empire, which sought access to Chinese trade routes, land, and natural resources. In 1931, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Chinese Manchuria, sparking the Second Sino-Japanese War. Protests against this invasion in Shanghai resulted in a bombing of that city in 1932 by Japan. In 1937, Shanghai was again the site of battles between Chinese forces and Japanese invaders, who succeeded in occupying parts of the city. This instability is alluded to by characters in the text, such as the family of Ge Weilong in Aloeswood Incense, who leaves Shanghai for Hong Kong because of “rumors of war” (19).

Hong Kong likewise was a site of contestation. In 1841, following the Qing dynasty’s loss in the First Opium War, Hong Kong became a British colony. During World War II, Hong Kong was once again a front in battles between colonial empires. On December 8, 1941, on the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan began a bombing campaign in Hong Kong to take the important trade city from the British. The British surrendered 18 days later, and Japan held the city until the end of World War II in 1945. This bombing campaign is depicted in the title of the collection, Love in a Fallen City.

In 1931, the Republic of China instituted the Civil Code reform that allowed women to get a divorce and ended forced marriages, although concubinage would not be outlawed until 1949 under the Communist regime. This reform gave women greater freedom than they had under the imperial system, and the practice of divorce is a common motif in the stories in Love in a Fallen City.

Author Eileen Chang was a firsthand witness to many of these historical events and their impacts on society. Born in Shanghai, she briefly attended the University of Hong Kong to study literature before the 1941 Japanese bombing campaign forced her to return to her hometown. She married in 1944 but divorced three years later due to her husband’s infidelity. These elements of history, both personal and political, are ever-present in the text.