Life of Eileen Chang 張愛玲的傳記

I think the most interesting stories come from a good observer of the lives of everyday people. We don’t need to live dramatic lives in order to have something poignant 令人家感動 to share with the rest of the world, just close observation and simple language to describe it. Having said that, some peoples’ lives are really dramatic and can come alive as a great story in the right hands. That is true of this drama we are watching about Eileen Chang 我從海上來.

It is a very well done drama 連續劇, that is done at just the right speed to give a feel for the times and how people were actually experiencing their lives without rushing viewers through. It starts with the scene in this photo where she is walking alone through the northern New England winter to a writer’s colony all the way out in the middle of the forest. There the story of her life, a prolific author 多產的作家 with a loyal following, slowly unfolds for the viewer. I won’t try to describe the whole story, but from other material I have read it seems pretty accurate.

Eileen Chang was a recluse 孤獨, especially toward the end of her life, the Greta Garbo of the Chinese literary world. The way it is portrayed in this drama, she seemed to have some of her mother’s loner personality. They do show her rejecting a relationship with her little brother 不理她的弟弟, 但是 but on the other hand she was (from what I have read) a devoted wife 忠實的太太 to both of her husbands. She was also good friends with a non-Chinese woman from her days in the university in Hong Kong.