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baihe_mediaMemories of a Shanghai Summer (沪夏往事, pinyin: hu xia wangshi) came to my notice the same way it (probably) came to the notice of about 90% of the Chinese-language baihe readership: it was licensed, in quick succession, for a full-cast audiobook, a (separate) audio drama, and then a simplified Chinese print edition. This was all the more striking because of the author's relatively low profile: she's not even contracted to JJWXC. She's also primarily a yanqing author: as of the date of writing, Memories of a Shanghai Summer is her only baihe novel. So that piqued my interest. The only other thing I knew about the novel is that it's set in the Republican Era and has a tragic ending (again, given the common trope about Republican Era stories, the second bit hardly needs saying).
The story is set, predictably, in a turbulent Shanghai. The central romance is between Xie Wanjun, a shrewd businesswoman straining every bit of ingenuity to compete in a male-dominated field, and Qin Shuining, a seamstress whose skills (particularly in making fancy qipao) are sought after by rich women. The two of them are refugees from the north, having evacuated to Shanghai just before the Japanese army invaded, and actually made a large part of the perilous journey together. Despite that shared life-or-death experience, however, their relationship at the start of the novel is (or at least seems) seems to be a mostly professional one: Xie Wanjun is one of Qin Shuining's many regular customers. Xie Wanjun does enjoy needling (see what I did there) Qin Shuining every now and then, but Qin Shuining usually handles it with complete equanimity and full professionalism.
Things between them began to develop when Xie Wanjun realises that Qin Shuining is a spy (of the anti-Japanese, patriotic kind, though it's never revealed precisely which faction), and goes to great lengths, on multiple occasions, to save her from being exposed as such. Qin Shuining is very reluctant to accept Xie Wanjun's help, in large part because she doesn't want Xie Wanjun to become implicated as her associate in the event that she's found out. Eventually, they declare their love for each other, but this doesn't really change the dynamic between them: Xie Wanjun wants desperately to help Qin Shuining, and Qin Shuining wants equally desperately to keep her out of it. Things come to a head when the situation in Shanghai becomes too risky for Qin Shuining, who is being increasingly suspected of anti-Japanese activity, and Xie Wanjun manages to convince her to leave Shanghai temporarily for the relative safety of Hong Kong. Xie Wanjun stays behind, promising that she'll join Qin Shuining in Hong Kong at a later date, but she never does. Shanghai falls to the Japanese army, and all communication between them is cut off. Several years later, Qin Shuining returns to Shanghai, but can find no trace of Xie Wanjun. We learn in a post-ending extra that, after the fall of Shanghai, Xie Wanjun suffered a series of serious financial setbacks due to her association with Qin Shuining (not viewed favourably by the Japanese occupiers). Her chronic gastric problems worsens, and her overall health dwindles. One night, she sets fire to her home, and dies in the flames.
There was a lot of sobbing in the comments section of the novel. I presume many readers were moved. Sadly, I was not one of them. First, the romance between Xie Wanjun and Qin Shuining felt very rushed. The author could have fixed this by having them fall in love (or at least develop an initial attraction) while they were escaping from the north together, but for some inexplicable reason, failed completely to do so. It's also never made clear why Qin Shuining decided to become a (patriotic) spy or how she became one, and her supposedly great dedication to her patriotic cause felt rather weightless and underdeveloped. The same applies to Xie Wanjun's ultimate decision to stay in Shanghai even as she insists on sending Qin Shuining to Hong Kong. We're told that she has close family members in the north of China who are being held hostage by the Japanese occupiers, and she's been bribing a Japanese agent in Shanghai for years to keep them alive, and she needs to stay in Shanghai to continue doing so. The problem is that we're not really given a very clear sense of Xie Wanjun's family or her past, and their plight doesn't feel very salient for much of the novel, so that this element felt, once again, weightless and underdeveloped, and more like a plot contrivance to separate the main couple. To me, tragic love stories are at their best when the tragedy comes out of who the main characters are, and you can trace the inevitable ending to the characters' fundamental natures. This is why Burn worked for me, for instance. In Memories of a Shanghai Summer, however, the tragedy seemed to come largely from external events, which didn't feel particularly satisfying or emotionally resonant. And that's also just reminded me about the (equally tragic) secondary couple — the daughter of a wealthy family and her opera singer friend. In the very last chapter of the main novel, we learn that the rich girl has been forced into marriage with the son of another wealthy family, and the opera singer was subsequently murdered by said family; the rich girl then commits suicide. This was all thrown at the reader within the space of a few paragraphs, which felt completely gratuitous.
I read the Chinese original of the novel here on JJWXC. The mainland print edition of the novel contains a new post-ending extra set several years in the future, where Qin Shuining has reopened her dressmaking business and has an apprentice and adopted daughter.
The story is set, predictably, in a turbulent Shanghai. The central romance is between Xie Wanjun, a shrewd businesswoman straining every bit of ingenuity to compete in a male-dominated field, and Qin Shuining, a seamstress whose skills (particularly in making fancy qipao) are sought after by rich women. The two of them are refugees from the north, having evacuated to Shanghai just before the Japanese army invaded, and actually made a large part of the perilous journey together. Despite that shared life-or-death experience, however, their relationship at the start of the novel is (or at least seems) seems to be a mostly professional one: Xie Wanjun is one of Qin Shuining's many regular customers. Xie Wanjun does enjoy needling (see what I did there) Qin Shuining every now and then, but Qin Shuining usually handles it with complete equanimity and full professionalism.
Things between them began to develop when Xie Wanjun realises that Qin Shuining is a spy (of the anti-Japanese, patriotic kind, though it's never revealed precisely which faction), and goes to great lengths, on multiple occasions, to save her from being exposed as such. Qin Shuining is very reluctant to accept Xie Wanjun's help, in large part because she doesn't want Xie Wanjun to become implicated as her associate in the event that she's found out. Eventually, they declare their love for each other, but this doesn't really change the dynamic between them: Xie Wanjun wants desperately to help Qin Shuining, and Qin Shuining wants equally desperately to keep her out of it. Things come to a head when the situation in Shanghai becomes too risky for Qin Shuining, who is being increasingly suspected of anti-Japanese activity, and Xie Wanjun manages to convince her to leave Shanghai temporarily for the relative safety of Hong Kong. Xie Wanjun stays behind, promising that she'll join Qin Shuining in Hong Kong at a later date, but she never does. Shanghai falls to the Japanese army, and all communication between them is cut off. Several years later, Qin Shuining returns to Shanghai, but can find no trace of Xie Wanjun. We learn in a post-ending extra that, after the fall of Shanghai, Xie Wanjun suffered a series of serious financial setbacks due to her association with Qin Shuining (not viewed favourably by the Japanese occupiers). Her chronic gastric problems worsens, and her overall health dwindles. One night, she sets fire to her home, and dies in the flames.
There was a lot of sobbing in the comments section of the novel. I presume many readers were moved. Sadly, I was not one of them. First, the romance between Xie Wanjun and Qin Shuining felt very rushed. The author could have fixed this by having them fall in love (or at least develop an initial attraction) while they were escaping from the north together, but for some inexplicable reason, failed completely to do so. It's also never made clear why Qin Shuining decided to become a (patriotic) spy or how she became one, and her supposedly great dedication to her patriotic cause felt rather weightless and underdeveloped. The same applies to Xie Wanjun's ultimate decision to stay in Shanghai even as she insists on sending Qin Shuining to Hong Kong. We're told that she has close family members in the north of China who are being held hostage by the Japanese occupiers, and she's been bribing a Japanese agent in Shanghai for years to keep them alive, and she needs to stay in Shanghai to continue doing so. The problem is that we're not really given a very clear sense of Xie Wanjun's family or her past, and their plight doesn't feel very salient for much of the novel, so that this element felt, once again, weightless and underdeveloped, and more like a plot contrivance to separate the main couple. To me, tragic love stories are at their best when the tragedy comes out of who the main characters are, and you can trace the inevitable ending to the characters' fundamental natures. This is why Burn worked for me, for instance. In Memories of a Shanghai Summer, however, the tragedy seemed to come largely from external events, which didn't feel particularly satisfying or emotionally resonant. And that's also just reminded me about the (equally tragic) secondary couple — the daughter of a wealthy family and her opera singer friend. In the very last chapter of the main novel, we learn that the rich girl has been forced into marriage with the son of another wealthy family, and the opera singer was subsequently murdered by said family; the rich girl then commits suicide. This was all thrown at the reader within the space of a few paragraphs, which felt completely gratuitous.
I read the Chinese original of the novel here on JJWXC. The mainland print edition of the novel contains a new post-ending extra set several years in the future, where Qin Shuining has reopened her dressmaking business and has an apprentice and adopted daughter.
