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A review by juliwi
Fu Ping by Wang Anyi
4.0
Literature is a unique way of giving you an insight into other people's lives. The advice to 'write what you know' may seem trite at this point, but I have always loved the opportunity it has given me to get to understand the world better this way. Thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Fu Ping is a meandering novel. Technically it is about a young girl, Fu Ping, who is brought to visit Nainai in Shanghai, so the latter can test whether she'd be a suitable bride for her adopted grandson. But Fu Ping does not just focus on Fu Ping or Nainai. Instead it becomes a larger exploration of the lives of working class women in Shanghai in the '60s. In a way, Fu Ping feels more like an assorted group of character sketches. This is what felt truest to me, the asides on each of the people Fu Ping meets while visiting Nainai. Most of these characters are women and many are from outside Shanghai, having traveled to the city to work there as housekeepers and nannies. They send money home to support families in the smaller villages outside the city, but their lives are now very far removed from these villages. We don't get to see everything about these women, which means they remain somehow incomplete, but this almost adds to the feeling that you're moving through the city itself slowly and steadily. You only get the faintest of glimpses at the full lives being lived.
Wang Anyi creates a vivid portrait of a vibrant city, as well as complicated portraits of complicaed people. Fu Ping, for example, is not your everyday main character. She is incredibly passive, recalcitrant and stoic. She is thrust into an environment she has no power in. Anyi doesn't show us much of Fu ping's internal life, but does follow her as she moves through Shanghai. Although it is not directly stated, Anyi hints at how this quiet attitude is Fu Ping's way of observing and learning, while it is also the end result of never truly having a voice. At times it can seem as if Fu Ping is more of a historical record, capturing what live was like in Shanghai during the mid-20th century, without infusing a true plot. And yet I felt very gripped, emotionally, by the story of Fu Ping and the lives of those around her. Howard Goldblatt does a wonderful job at translating and capturing the details of Anyi's narrative. Not everyone will appreciate the translation choice of adding line numbers, but it didn't distract me.
For full review: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/2019/09/review-fu-ping-by-wang-anyi-trans.html
Fu Ping is a meandering novel. Technically it is about a young girl, Fu Ping, who is brought to visit Nainai in Shanghai, so the latter can test whether she'd be a suitable bride for her adopted grandson. But Fu Ping does not just focus on Fu Ping or Nainai. Instead it becomes a larger exploration of the lives of working class women in Shanghai in the '60s. In a way, Fu Ping feels more like an assorted group of character sketches. This is what felt truest to me, the asides on each of the people Fu Ping meets while visiting Nainai. Most of these characters are women and many are from outside Shanghai, having traveled to the city to work there as housekeepers and nannies. They send money home to support families in the smaller villages outside the city, but their lives are now very far removed from these villages. We don't get to see everything about these women, which means they remain somehow incomplete, but this almost adds to the feeling that you're moving through the city itself slowly and steadily. You only get the faintest of glimpses at the full lives being lived.
Wang Anyi creates a vivid portrait of a vibrant city, as well as complicated portraits of complicaed people. Fu Ping, for example, is not your everyday main character. She is incredibly passive, recalcitrant and stoic. She is thrust into an environment she has no power in. Anyi doesn't show us much of Fu ping's internal life, but does follow her as she moves through Shanghai. Although it is not directly stated, Anyi hints at how this quiet attitude is Fu Ping's way of observing and learning, while it is also the end result of never truly having a voice. At times it can seem as if Fu Ping is more of a historical record, capturing what live was like in Shanghai during the mid-20th century, without infusing a true plot. And yet I felt very gripped, emotionally, by the story of Fu Ping and the lives of those around her. Howard Goldblatt does a wonderful job at translating and capturing the details of Anyi's narrative. Not everyone will appreciate the translation choice of adding line numbers, but it didn't distract me.
For full review: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/2019/09/review-fu-ping-by-wang-anyi-trans.html