On Zhang Ailing's Novels and Life Breath from Gossip

The collection of essays "Gossip" includes Zhang Ailing's essays from 1943 to 1944, which records all aspects of her life and is full of fireworks. There are many kinds of sketches in gossip, such as children's talk, looking back at people and things in the past, living in an apartment, watching the road with their eyes and so on. Talking about dancing, foreigners watching Beijing opera, etc. , all expressed their views on Beijing opera. Zhang Ailing's essays are rich in content and close to life.

If Zhang Ailing's novels are true but somewhat indifferent, then her prose is true and full of warmth. After reading Zhang Ailing's prose, we can go deeper into her novels and her heart. When I first read Zhang Ailing's novels, I always feel that it is nothing more than a story about love and affection between men and women. After reading them, I also feel a sense of desolation, but it always seems to be confined to this world. However, after reading Zhang Ailing's essay My Articles, I realized why she was obsessed with writing about men and women. "In the history of literature, there are few works that simply praise the stability of life, but there are many works that emphasize the flying of life, but a good work lies in its description of the comfortable flying of life based on life." "I even just write small things between men and women. There is no war or revolution in my works. I think that people are simpler and more unrestrained when they are in love than when they are in war or revolution. " Zhang Ailing is a writer with her own uniqueness. Although there are many high-profile flying works, Zhang Ailing still likes simplicity. "Little things between men and women" is a simple and real thing to her. By writing these, readers can understand that beauty and strength coexist in her works, and there is always sadness in her beautiful and gorgeous language.

Zhang Ailing is a woman writer who really cares about women's fate and inner world. Most of the female characters in her novels are miserable, and she always speaks for women who are oppressed by the patriarchal society. However, Zhang Ailing is also rational. She doesn't just complain about oppression, but also thinks about women's own problems. Zhang Ailing said in Talking about Women, "But it is not a complete answer to blame men for everything, and it seems irresponsible." Women's misfortunes also come from their own submission to oppression, and they themselves have certain reasons, so when we read novels, we often sympathize with women's misfortunes, but we also feel their depravity. However, Zhang Ailing is still on the side of women. "Women can be forgiven even if they are wrong." Women in her eyes are powerful, which usually means that men's "superman" is ideal in reality, but "superior women" can be found in life. Therefore, in Zhang Ailing's novels, the dominant men have some weaknesses more or less, while the women in a weak position also show the ability to resist oppression in some aspects. The men and women in her novels are also incomplete and have their own shortcomings, but it is this incompleteness that constitutes the authenticity of Zhang Ailing's writing.

Reading Zhang Ailing's prose before or after reading her novels can help readers re-interpret the ideas conveyed by the novels. If the novel indirectly reflects the author's life, then the prose is more direct and closer to the author's life. From Zhang Ailing's prose, we can see her daily life full of warmth and fireworks.

In Notes on Apartment Life, we followed Zhang Ailing to see the details of her life. Maybe people with rich hearts just have a different kind of charm. Generally, recording life is like recording a running account. The author and readers looked at their hearts calmly, but the life written by Zhang Ailing was so vivid. Faucets, streetcars, people coming and going, vendors' meals, neighbors and servants in the apartment, and even flies and mosquitoes can't escape Zhang Ailing's eyes. Reading Zhang Ailing's words, we seem to have returned to Shanghai in the 1940s and watched the bustling street life with her. In Looking at the Road, she said that "thousands of books is not as good as Wan Li Road" and that "there are many things worth seeing in the street", so Zhang Ailing became an observer, including rickshaw pullers and women, vendors' shops, coal carts' shops, postmen riding bicycles and his mother, models and windows in the shops … all of these were included in her words.

In Shanghai in What a Shanghainese and Hong Kong in Ember Records, Zhang Ailing shows readers where she lives. She also writes articles about clothing, Beijing opera, dance, music and painting, and there are many words describing eating in her prose. "For a long time, eating in the street was still monopolized by yellow cakes. Gradually there were experimental bread, triangle cakes and suspicious coconut cakes. " We stood on the stall eating fried radish cake, and the poor man's blue body lay at our feet. "This sharp contrast touched the readers. Zhang Ailing even wrote a little carrot as an article, which was included in Gossip. Zhang Ailing's insights and fireworks make readers feel more approachable and closer to life.

When mentioning the story of Zhang Ailing, it is inevitable to talk about her bumpy life experience. The failed marriage of her childhood parents and her emotional entanglement with Hu Lancheng had a great influence on Zhang Ailing. Most of Zhang Ailing's later works are full of sadness, especially the love between men and women. Even if the ending is not as bad as Love in a Fallen City, readers will feel sad. Many people say that Zhang Ailing is pessimistic and indifferent. But from her prose, we can see that Zhang Ailing is still full of warmth.

In Zhang Ailing's childhood, her mother loved to make all kinds of clothes. Zhang Ailing envied her mother. "At the age of eight, I wanted to comb my hair. When I was ten years old, I wanted to wear high heels. At the age of sixteen, you can eat zongzi jiaozi and eat everything that is difficult to digest. " After her parents divorced, Zhang Ailing could only choose the clothes left by her stepmother. "Never forget a thin crimson cotton gown, which is like being frostbitten all over." Her childhood shortcomings can only be made up by herself when she grows up, so we can see that Zhang Ailing likes clothes very much, and her articles are always inseparable from women's clothes. Zhang Ailing mentioned her name in I Also Want to Clear My Innocence. "My name is vulgar and I know it very well, but I'm not going to change it." "I love my name to remember when I chose it." She is not satisfied with her name. She also wanted to have a profound and beautiful name, but she didn't change it in the end. Her mother insisted on sending her to school when she was ten years old. Zhang ailing's father smoked opium, didn't care much about her, and even beat her with his stepmother. "Things on my father's side must be bad, although sometimes I like them." Even if her father is not very good to herself, she still cherishes her father's kindness to herself. Reading tabloids with her father and talking about jokes between relatives will make Zhang Ailing feel warm. "Up to now, that pile of tabloids still gives me a feeling of going home." No matter what her past experience is, no matter how indifferent and aloof Zhang Ailing seems on the surface, she still retains a warm side, and readers are closer to her inner world.

Zhang Ailing's prose tells what she sees, hears, thinks and feels about her daily life. The content is true, rich and full of life interest. It is also Zhang Ailing, who is full of human fireworks, that makes us know more about the connotation of her novels and enter her inner world.

refer to