The Concubine of Shanghai
Published on 27. January 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-0-241-95067-8 (ISBN)
Description
China, 1907. Sixteen-year-old orphan Cassia is sold by her aunt to a brothel. There, she works as a lowly maid for Madame Emerald until a powerful and dangerous client plucks her from obscurity.
Master Chang is the boss of the fearsome Shanghai Triad and he always gets what he wants. Despite her unbound feet and breasts, Cassia swiftly becomes Chang's favourite mistress. He showers her with luxuries as he embarks on her sexual awakening.
But Chang's world is violent and precarious, and those such as Cassia who depend on him are bound to his fate . . .
Master Chang is the boss of the fearsome Shanghai Triad and he always gets what he wants. Despite her unbound feet and breasts, Cassia swiftly becomes Chang's favourite mistress. He showers her with luxuries as he embarks on her sexual awakening.
But Chang's world is violent and precarious, and those such as Cassia who depend on him are bound to his fate . . .
Reviews / Votes
A brilliant and sensitive writer -- Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans A fascinating, full-blooded yarn which has the reader rooting for its heroine, a kind of Chinese Moll Flanders, every inch of the way * Independent on Sunday * A beautiful and gripping writer -- Tariq Ali * Independent *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-95067-8 (9780241950678)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Hong Ying
The Concubine of Shanghai
E-Book
12/2013
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Hong Ying was born into a sailor's family in Chongqing on the Yangtze River in Southwest China. An author and poet, she began her career as a full-time writer in the early 1980s having studied creative writing at Lu Xun Creative Writing Academy and Fudan University.
She is best known in the English-speaking world for her novels: K: The Art of Love (which won the Prix de Rome in 2005), The Concubine of Shanghai, Peacock Cries and Summer of Betrayal. Her autobiography, Daughter of the River, has been translated into twenty-nine languages and many of her works have been turned into television series and films. Her latest memoir, Good Children of the Flowers, a sequel to Daughter of the River, won Asia Weekly's Top Ten Books of the Year Award 2009. She lives in Beijing with her husband and daughter.
She is best known in the English-speaking world for her novels: K: The Art of Love (which won the Prix de Rome in 2005), The Concubine of Shanghai, Peacock Cries and Summer of Betrayal. Her autobiography, Daughter of the River, has been translated into twenty-nine languages and many of her works have been turned into television series and films. Her latest memoir, Good Children of the Flowers, a sequel to Daughter of the River, won Asia Weekly's Top Ten Books of the Year Award 2009. She lives in Beijing with her husband and daughter.