NeilLit

From the early 1940’s to the 1980’s Shanghai was rapidly changing place, fraught with violence, political strife and yet it was also a place of art and enjoyment. //The Song of Everlasting Sorrow// is a magnificent story of the lives of people from those generations. Part One of the book follows the young life of Wang Qiyao, a girl from the Shanghai //longtang.// Despite only following one girl’s life, Wang Anyi presents a perspective that is feminine and overarching. This broad perspective changes the story from the life of an individual to the lives of a generation of women. Wang Anyi’s //Song of Everlasting Sorrow// is renowned for its well-crafted portrayal of Shanghai life through a feminine perspective.

Wang Qiyao is described as a typical Shanghai woman causing the story becomes less of the story of an individual but the story of women. Wang Qiyao finds herself swept along in a series of events starting at a film studio and leading to her taking third place in the Miss Shanghai beauty contest. Although she achieves glory with third place in the beauty contest, her beauty is described as typical and normal, the kind seen every day. While witty and clever, she is constantly helped by others and possesses no extraordinary capabilities. When she ends up as the lover of a wealthy and powerful man, it is because she is oblivious to the world outside Shanghai. These attributes form the vivid yet plain character that is Wang Qiyao. In every moment, Wang Qiyao is not just the Wang Qiyao but she is representative of any woman.

When first described in the book, Wang Qiyao is used as the model for every young woman in a Shanghai //longtang// at that time.

“Wang Qiyao is the typical daughter of the Shanghai //longtang.// Every morning, when the back door squeaks open, that’s Wang Qiyao scurrying out with her book bag embroidered with flowers. In the afternoon, when the phonograph plays next door, that’s Wang Qiyao humming along with ‘Song of the Four Seasons…’ Sitting in virtually every side room and //tingzijian// is a Wang Qiyao.” (pg. 22)

This passage highlights the way in which the book begins to set a feminine tone on Shanghai and the story as a whole. As it is the first description of human activity in the novel it quickly draws the reader in. The writing style is much more concrete than the abstract analogies of the first twenty some pages. Once drawn into this passage, there is a sense that Wang Qiyaos are essential to Shanghai. They are the girls who run off to school each morning and are home in the afternoon. As later stated, they set the trends for Shanghai and are the joy of its parties and nightlife. A sense of familiarity with Wang Qiyao, and by extension, the city, is also developed through this passage. Each description of Wang Qiyao is a description of the women of 1940’s Shanghai. They all go to school, gossip, laugh, cry, and live in a way that is very tangible to the reader. The association of Wang Qiyao and every woman of that generation in Shanghai is a very powerful connection that prevails throughout the whole novel. In the end, Wang Qiyao is strangled, a supposed reference to the concubine Yang Guifei and a definite reference to a scene in the first part of the book. //Song of Everlasting Sorrow// is a powerful novel that sweeps over forty years, showing the lives of a generation of women who were swept up in a rapidly changing Shanghai. Perhaps a work that can be defined as scar literature, the book’s Wang Anyi gives a poignant glimpse of the life of women in a turbulent China and the costs of political movements.