Short stories
Red Beans
紅豆
Zong Pu · 1957
Synopsis
On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic, Jiang Mei, a student, falls in love with Qi Hong, a banker's son, who once held her back at the water's edge where she was about to fall; their meetings take place at the Summer Palace. Xiao Su, who awakens the young woman to revolutionary ideas, warns her against this love. Jiang Mei finds herself torn between her attachment to Qi Hong and the commitment she is called to, in a country changing hands.
Context
The text appeared in the July 1957 issue of Renmin wenxue. It immediately caused debate and, according to a study by Fang Panpan, earned its author a brief fame, then long years of hardship during the campaign against the rightists. Chinawriter reports that students later went to look for the meeting places at the Summer Palace. Critics long saw in Qi Hong a heartless egoist, a reading that the same study contests. Geremie Barmé translated it into English under the title Red Beans for anthologies, in 1983 and then in 2005; no French translation has been found.
Who it is for
Short narrative of a love at the moment when everything tips over; it can be read in English in anthologies, not yet in French.
Prizes and reception
Chinawriter regards it as the representative work of the author, which has long since become a classic of Chinese letters.
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