Written on Water [Hardcover]

Eileen Chang (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (2004)
• ASIN: B0020ZVIW2
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,174,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Side of Eileen Chang, June 29, 2010

By 

Frederik Green "FG" (NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Written on Water (Weatherhead Books on Asia) (Paperback)

I have to disagree with the two previous reviewers. These essays are simply wonderful -- sensuous, vivid, maybe trivial, but for a reason. Chang was writing in Shanghai during the time of the Japanese occupation, when censorship made it impossible to be political. Thus her focus on the everyday, the quotidian, the little pleasures and hardships of life. These essays, some of which are very personal, provide a wonderful backdrop to some of her fiction. Also, they present a picture of war-time Shanghai that does not quite match the image presented in history books. I loved every one of these essays and recommend this anthology to anybody interested in Eileen Chang, modern China, Shanghai or urban modernity.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Written on Water, July 19, 2008

By 

Alice (SF, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Written on Water (Weatherhead Books on Asia) (Paperback)

I have read several books written by Eileen Chiang which I've enjoyed but this is not an easy book to understand. I believed it to be taken from her point of view on life in general. I will have to re-read it one day as I did not finish it.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Trivial rubbish, October 15, 2008

By 

Dewdrop (Taipei Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Written on Water (Weatherhead Books on Asia) (Paperback)

I was absolutely disappointed by this book. I've read Eileen Chang's major novels and short stories and found her fiction extremely insightful. I expected similar quality from her essays and assumed that I would be getting wise quirky essays in the tradition of Linyu Tang.
Unfortunately these essays are nothing more than badly written commercial rubbish that she churned out for popular magazines. None of them show the slightest thought or insight, and they aren't even well written. In fact, writing trivial articles about the history of dress collars while Shanghai was under cruel Japanese occupation even seems morally questionable.
There is a good introduction by the translator/editor, which provides some useful context and argues for the significance of these essays. And to the historian interested in daily life of the period, the contents might have some interest. In general, however, these minor writings are nothing more than commercial ephemera. The translation of this collection can only do harm to the reputation of one of modern China's great fiction writers.