Hong Ying: The Concubine of Shanghai, 9780241950678, Penguin Books

With the skies offering only every shade of grey, pouring rain to top it, I headed for my book pile and picked up Hong Ying’s “The Concubine of Shanghai” (Die Konkubine von Shanghai), wanting just to be entertained.  I confess a weakness for novels dealing with the old China which started in my teens with Pearl S Buck.  “Concubine of Shanghai” has been sitting on my growing book pile for some time; Penguin published the translation in 2013. Hong Ying is best known for “K: The Art of Love” (Die chinesische Geliebte) which won the Prix de Rome in 2005 and was made into a film.  Hong Ying has also written an autobiography.

If you enjoy Amy Tan, Hong Ying is a good alternative, an accomplished, excellent writer in my view and a great historical storyteller, laced with some erotic elements. 

The criticism I have: this book is very long, nearly 400 pages but the story is full of interesting characters to stick with it. 

China 1907, the orphan Cassia is sold by her aunt and uncle into a Shanghai brothel run by Madame Emerald, a key character in Cassia’s future life. Her feet are unbound making her unattractive to work as a prostitute; she ends up working as a lowly maid.  Her fate changes when Master Chang, the boss of the Brotherhood, one of the Shanghai Triads, sees something different in her, awakening more than just sexual interest in him. Her intelligence and self-assuredness turn her into his most trusted alley and his favorite mistress. The violent times in Shanghai at the beginning of the century cast a shadow on Cassia’s love and happiness.  Relying on all her resources, fate forces her to reinvent herself over and over again, finally becoming one of the most prominent singers and talked about women in Shanghai during her days. 

The book has many twists and turns, interesting characters, such as her lovers Yu and Huang Peiyu or Madame Emerald,  in my view the ending was a bit disappointing and during the second half of the book, the plot showed some weaknesses.