Fu Ping: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)
Nainai has lived in Shanghai for many years, and the time has come to find a wife for her adopted grandson. But when the bride she has chosen arrives from the countryside, it soon becomes clear that the orphaned girl has ideas of her own. Her name is Fu Ping, and the more she explores the residential lanes and courtyards behind Shanghai's busy shopping streets, the less she wants to return to the country as a dutiful wife. As Fu Ping wavers over her future, she learns the city through the stories of the nannies, handymen, and garbage collectors whose labor is bringing life and bustle back to postwar Shanghai. Fu Ping is a keenly observed portrait of the lives of lower-class women in Shanghai in the early years of the People's Republic of China. Wang Anyi, one of contemporary China's most acclaimed authors, explores the daily lives of migrants from rural areas and other people on the margins of urban life. In shifting perspectives rich in detail and psychological insight, she sketches their aspirations, their fears, and the subtle ties that bind them together. In Howard Goldblatt's masterful translation, Fu Ping reveals Wang Anyi's precise renderings of history, class, and the human heart.
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Community Reviews
Fu Ping
Wang Anyi’s novel offers an immersive experience of 1950s Shanghai and the author’s love for her native city is evident. Carefully recreating the atmosphere, sights, smells, customs and daily routines of living in the city, it allows the reader to explore it for themselves.
The details build slowly and are shown from the perspective of the characters, allowing us to see what they perceive and value. For example, if a character in the conversation does not dare to lift their eyes, we have only what they heard and the description of the speaker’s shoes.
The narrative follows the main character’s, Fu Ping’s, journey of self discovery over the course of a year, as she establishes herself in the big city, navigates complex web of social relationships and decides own future.
The people she meets along the way are shown to have own stories, allowing their personalities to emerge more fully. Male and female alike, all bear the weight of family and society expectations, learning to live within those constraints, to rely, contribute and benefit from the intricate network of connections.
The novel, with its unhurried pace and attention to detail creates an almost cinematic experience. Wang Anyi
describes her characters without judgment, other than to show the beauty and dignity of the working people, their efforts, hopes and joys. She describes lives of migrant workers in the specific time in Chinese history, when people were rebuilding and creating a new future after more than a decade of wars. The novel is also a story about belonging.
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