List of Love and Hate

Late Chinese writer Eileen Chang’s novel manuscript, List of Love and Hate, has been recently published in Taiwan. The novel, based on Chang’s answers to a survey upon her graduation from high school in 1937, was one of her works after her death, following The Fall of the Pagoda and The Book of Change. In her letter to her friends, Stephen Soong and Mae Fong Soong in 1990, Chang recalled the survey and told the couple her answers, including the fact that she feared death the most, hated the marriage of a talented woman at an early age the most, appreciated the life of King EdwardⅧ, also known as the Duke of Winsor, the most, and favored the taste of fried rice with roast pork the most. While taking a look at the survey issued more than half a century ago, Chang was inspired to write an autobiographical novel about her love and hate as a young girl. Roland Soong, the son of the Soong couple and the present executor of Chang’s legacy, had List of Love and Hate published at last. In her novel, Chang wrote, “When I was 17 years old, I was hit by several blows which forced me to feel like a child again ... But I definitely felt so proud of the merits awarded at the age of 17 and only at this age.” List of Love and Hate has opened a window to the author’s writing habits, such as making an outline before adding or deleting sentences several times in one paragraph until it was to her heart’s content. Chang, born in 1920 to a falling noble family, was one of the most gifted and prolific female writers in China. Her outstanding works, such as Love in a Fallen City, Red Rose White Rose and Half Life are true reflections of her unique and elegant writing style. Chang died alone in a flat in California in 1995.