Eileen Chang: Google celebrates Chinese-born American essayist’s 100th birthday with Doodle

Google Doodle praises the 100th birthday celebration of a Chinese-born American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter Eileen Chang (张爱玲), otherwise called Zhang Ailing or Chang Ai-ling, on September 30, 2020.

Who was Eileen Chang (张爱玲)?

Born as Zhang Ying (張煐) with an aristocratic lineage and instructed bilingually in Shanghai, China on September 30, 1920.

In 1922, when Eileen Chang (张爱玲) was two years of age, the family moved to Tianjin. At the point when she was three, her dad started to acquaint her with Tang poetry. In 1924, her dad frequently brought back prostitutes or mistresses and was likewise addicted to opium. This brought about battles between Chang’s parents. During this time, her mom decided to make a trip with her auntie to France to study.

She returned in 1927, as her husband had vowed to end the turmoil with his drug usage and his extramarital issues, thus the family settled back in Shanghai in 1928. Notwithstanding, her parents in the long run divorced in 1930. Chang and her younger brother Zhang Zijing (張子靜) (1921–1997) were raised by their dad.

Eileen Chang (张爱玲) began school at age 4. Chang had acquired incredible English skills other than her local Chinese. In 1937, she graduated from an all-female Christian secondary school, St. Mary’s Hall, Shanghai, yet said her family was not religious.

Eileen Chang (张爱玲) ran away to live with her mother shortly after her 18th birthday. Under her mom’s impact, at an early age, Chang started training in painting, piano, and English.

In 1939, Eileen Chang (张爱玲) was acknowledged to the University of London on a full scholarship, but since of the war in Europe, she couldn’t join in. Rather, she studied English Literature at the University of Hong Kong, where she met her long-lasting companion, Fatima Mohideen (炎櫻 died 1995). At the point when Chang was one semester shy of gaining her degree in December 1941, Hong Kong fell to the Empire of Japan.

In 1943, Eileen Chang (张爱玲) became the most famous new author in Shanghai. Within the following two years, she kept in touch with some of her most acclaimed works, including Love for a Fallen City (Qing Cheng Zhi Lian, 傾城之戀) and The Golden Cangue. A few short stories and novellas were gathered in Romances (Chuan Qi, 傳奇) (1944). It had right away become a bestseller in Shanghai. Thus, Chang promptly got consideration from Chinese readers and the literary circle.

Eileen Chang (张爱玲) increased literary prominence in Japanese-involved Shanghai somewhere in the range of 1943 and 1945. Nonetheless, after the Communist takeover of China, she fled the nation. Chang left territory China and went to Hong Kong in 1952, understanding her writing career in Shanghai was finished.

In Hong Kong, Eileen Chang (张爱玲) worked as a translator for the United States Information Service for three years. While there, she composed The Rice Sprout Song (Yang Ge, 秧歌), her first novel written totally in English. Most prominently incorporate books by Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. She at that point left for the United States in 1955, never to return to territory China again.

Eileen Chang (张爱玲) became a U.S. resident in 1960 and quickly headed to Taiwan for additional chances, getting back to the U.S. in 1962. In 1969, upon the invitation of Shih-Hsiang Chen (陳世驤 Chen Shixiang), a professor of Oriental Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, Chang became a senior researcher at the Center for Chinese Studies of Berkeley.

In 1972, Chang migrated to Los Angeles. In 1975, she finished the English translation of Shanghai Flowers, a celebrated Qing novel written in Wu Chinese by Han Bangqing. She has been recorded as one of China’s four women geniuses, along with Lü Bicheng, Xiao Hong, and Shi Pingmei.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Eileen Chang (张爱玲) was rediscovered by researchers, for example, C. T. Hsia and Shui Jing. Along with the reevaluation of literary histories in the post-Mao period during the late 1970s and early 1980s, her work became famous indeed among Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the Chinese diaspora communities.

Chang’s most significant contribution was her construction of an elective wartime story, one that strayed from the grand accounts of national salvation and revolution. In her most significant works, her impressionistic perspective on modern history shows colors, lines, shapes, textures, and states of mind, which are frequently solidified in the changing styles of women’s garments.

On September 8, 1995, Eileen Chang (张爱玲) was discovered dead in her apartment on Rochester Avenue in Westwood, Los Angeles, by her landlord.

On September 30, 2020, Google observes Eileen Chang’s 100th Birthday with Google Doodle. Among her beloved works from this period are the novellas “Love in a Fallen City” (1943) and “Red Rose, White Rose” (1944), the two of which are portrayed in the Google Doodle.