Chinese Literature

Zhang Ailing (Cheng Ailing, Eileen Chang) was a Chinese author whose well-known literary texts include The Rogue of the North, The Golden Cangue, and The Rice Sprout Song. Her works, considered to be among the best Chinese literature of the 1940s, examined the themes of marriage, family, love, and relationships in the social context of 1930s and 1940s Shanghai. Zhang's writing depicted paradoxical human natures, powerlessness, and sorrowful truths in everyday life without the political subtext that characterized other writers of the period. The collection consists of six boxes of materials in English and Chinese. While the collection includes some of her early Shanghai publications, the majority of the materials relate to her life and ongoing works after she immigrated to the United States in 1955.