The Book of Change

The Book of Change was written in English, like its prequel, The Fall of the Pagoda, depicting Chang's childhood in Tianjin and Shanghai. It provides a first-hand account of life in wartime Hong Kong following the Japanese invasion, with scathing details of widespread cowardice, as well as inspiring examples of human resilience.

Eileen Chang is now recognized as one of the greatest modern Chinese writers, though she was completely erased from official histories in mainland China at one time. She was the most popular writer in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II, with English and Chinese stories focusing on human frailties rather than nationalist propaganda. For her non-committal politics and idiosyncrasies, she was boycotted by fellow writers after the war and forced to the margins of literary respectability.

Eileen Chang arrived in Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1939 and enrolled in the University of Hong Kong. Her childhood in Shanghai was a gothic horror tale in which she finally ran away from her father and stepmother. Her student life in Hong Kong was a happy interlude, but Chang soon found herself stranded by the war. The Japanese occupation of late 1941 provided many brutal lessons on the fragile nature of personal attachments.

"Chang is quick to tell us she is one of those people she sets out to satirize: first shocked by the disorder of war, yet becoming accustomed to the new order of life in a short time… what concerns her most is food. She calls attention to people's grotesque behavior and 'bizarre wisdom' inspired by the instinct to survive. Physical intimacy, like food, becomes a poignant index to convey the primordial needs of humanity." – From the Introduction by David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University