Chinese Writer Zhang Ailing and Pre-revolution Shanghai

Works by renowned Chinese writer Zhang Ailing's (张爱玲) in the 1940s and 1950s had a great influence on many other Chinese writers - whether elite or popular genres - and her literary style had frequently been imitated over the past few decades.

Zhang's writings were mainly cast in pre-revolution Shanghai, and her concept had been reincarnated many times over in the works of later Chinese artists from different regions.

These include an impressive number of celebrated literary and cinematic works produced in the last few years of the 20th century by people like Yim Ho (Red Dust, 滚滚红尘, 1990), Stanley Kwan (Red Rose White Rose, 红玫瑰白玫瑰, 1994), Peter Chan (Comrades Almost a Love Story, 甜蜜蜜, 1996), Ann Hui (Eighteen Springs, 半生缘, 1997), Wang Anyi (Song of Everlasting Sorrow, 长恨歌, 1996), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Flowers of Shanghai, 海上花, 1998), and Wong Kar-wai (In the Mood for Love, 花样年华, 2001).

Indeed, the idolization of Zhang Ailing was said to be symptomatic of the surge of "cultural nostalgia" in the early 1980s. This trend was partly driven by second-generation mainlanders' homesickness for an imaginary China of the past, and partly by increasing demand for cultural products of all types within the booming domestic market.

As Yvonne Chang explained, "thanks to the backward looking Nationalist historical narrative and the reopening of mainland China, pre-revolution Shanghai became an object of popular cultural fantasy."