Fortress Besieged
Fortress Besieged (Traditional Chinese: 圍城; Simplified Chinese: 围城; Pinyin: Wéichéng) is a Chinese satirical novel written by Qian Zhongshu (Ch'ien Chung-shu), first published in 1947, and widely considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century Chinese literature. The novel is a humorous tale about middle-class Chinese society in the late 1930s. It gained worldwide popularity after it was reprinted in the 1980s and made into a television series in 1990. Qian Zhongshu started writing the novel in 1944 and completed it in 1946. He began writing the book while he and his wife, Yang Jiang, were living in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. According to Yang Jiang, the successful production of several of her plays inspired Qian to write a full-length novel. Qian’s personal experiences abroad and in China inspired the characters and plot of the novel. For example, both Qian and the protagonist, Fang Hongjian, studied abroad in the mid-1930s. Furthermore, Qian’s journey through rural China during the war to teach at Lantian Normal College in Hunan in 1939 influenced Fang’s journey to San Lü University. The title is based on a French proverb: Marriage is like a fortress besieged: those who are outside want to get in, and those who are inside want to get out. (Le mariage est une forteresse assiégée, ceux qui sont dehors veulent y entrer, ceux qui sont dedans veulent en sortir.) The novel is known for its acerbic asides, such as describing one young lady in the following way: Others called her “Truth,” since it is said that “the truth is naked.” But Miss Pao wasn’t exactly without a stitch on, so they revised her name to “Partial Truth.” Qian never completed another novel after the 1940s, shifting to writing research publications on classical Chinese literature. He began work on a second novel entitled Bai he xin 百合心 (Lily Heart), but the manuscript was lost when he and his family moved to Beijing in 1949. The literary work was published in its original version in Shanghai during the year of 1947.
