Read Sing Eileen Chang was conceived with Dui Zhao Ji (Mutual Reflections: Looking at My Old Photo Album) in mind. It uses the novel as the structure, interspersed with Eileen Chang’s prose works and novels. In some ways, it reads like Eileen Chang’s life Timeline. I find the picture of Chang holding a copy of “China Times” particularly interesting. It is the classic Chang-style witty humour.
The Chinese character “份” in the term “緣分” (circumstances/ serendipity) has a “人” radical, referring to “human”, and “分” as a side, which means parting. Circumstances bring people together. Circumstances also bring them apart. In the limited time and space, what kind of relationship can we build? Did we notice each other? Perhaps we exchange a gaze, a conversation, a sound, a feeling? These are all unpredictable. Life is full of the imperceivable and the aspirations for the future.
Today we look at the life of different people through our mobile phones. We also consume other people’s lives. News has become a fictional while fiction becomes news. In the past, novelists digested reality and produced novels. Some were realistic and some were science fictions. The plots of Eileen Chang’s novels were very realistic, but she turns the ordinary into extraordinary through her clever use of words. Eighteen Springs has a plot of a soap opera. Yet, when told through her words, soap opera transcends into another level. That’s why every adaptation of Eighteen Springs into a TV series or movie have failed, because the plot of Eighteen Springs is too conventional. When adapting, they tried too hard to rewrite Eileen Chang’s text. But Eileen Chang is like Shakespeare. It is crucial to retain her text to maintain the charm. If not, adapting the plot alone will render the work a very clichéd soap opera.