Zhang Ailing

Zhang AIling

Contents

Education

Zhang began school when she was 4 in a traditional Chinese school, but her mother wanted her to receive a western education, and when she turned 9, she began attending a western school. She had a particular love for language and literature and became fluent in English, in addition to her native Chinese. Zhang attended and graduated from a Christian High School but claimed her family was not religious. Perhaps a religious school was the most western to be found in their particular setting. Education was really important to Zhang, and in 1939, she planned to attend the University of London, on a Scholarship, but could not due to the war in China. Instead, she studied English Literature at the University of Hong Kong until the Japanese Invasion forced her back into mainland China (Encyclopedia Britannica). Eventually she attended St. John’s University, but had to drop out due to lack of funds, refusing to work any job except for writing. Despite the inconsistency of her educational situation, Zhang had a love of the written word. Her writing was hugely popular and influential in China, and remains popular to this day. The ways in which she approached untraditional relationships in her writing were completely revolutionary. It is possible that her take on relationships came from the confused path of relationships she observed in her immediate family, and eventually in her own life.

Marriages

She met her first husband, Hu Lancheng , in 1943. He was married to his 3rd wife at the time, but they pursued a relationship and married a year later. No mention is given to what happened to his 3rd wife. Apparently unable to maintain a monogamous relationship, Hu was unfaithful, and they divorced in 1947, after only about 3 years of marriage. Zhang later met an American Screenwriter, Ferdinand Reyher, and in 1956 they were married. Before their marriage, Zhang became pregnant, and Reyher proposed but insisted that he did not want the baby. It seemed that although he loved Zhang and wanted to be with her in a permanent relationship, he was not interested in becoming a father. She eventually miscarried, and never had any children. The couple were married for many years, even as Reyher became ill, and eventually died in 1967. Her marital relationships perhaps only added to her disillusionment with the world, and contributed to her eventual reclusiveness.

Literary Career

Zhang’s literary career was one of immense popularity. In contrast to many of her contemporaries, she did not take a political approach to her writing. She seemed more interested in exploring the intricacies of relationships, and particularly in portraying the workings of the human mind. Her experience with both her own relationships and the relationships of her parents greatly influenced this desire to understand men and women, and how they interact with one another. She wrote many popular books and short works, many of which have been translated into English and other languages. She also worked as a translator, translating many books from Chinese into English. Works Love in a Fallen City "The Golden Cangue" Lust, Caution Naked Earth The Rice Sprout Song: a Novel of Modern China The Rouge of the North Traces of Love and Other Stories Written on Water Sealed Off Jasmine Tea

Later Life

After the death of her second husband, Zhang fell into reclusiveness. Disillusioned with the world, she began to withdraw, until she almost never came out into the world. When she died of heart failure in 1995 in Los Angeles, she was not discovered for several days. It seems that her difficulties with relationships as a child and an adult, led her to dislike society. That being said, she willed her estate to friends, who eventually left it to their own children.

Works Cited

"Elieen Chang (Zhang Ailing) - A Legendary Female Writer." Cultural China. Cultural China, 2010. Web. 8 Oct 2012. "Zhang Ailing". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 08 Oct. 2012 Corinneb 13:21, 8 October 2012 (UTC)