I finished Fortress Besieged (围城), a Chinese novel by Qian Zhongshu. The novel tells the story of Fang Hongjian, a Chinese student who traveled abroad to study in the 1930s, got a fake degree, and returned to China after using up all the money. His yearning for romantic love drove him to pursue different women throughout the novel. Most failed, and he ended up marrying Sun Roujia, a colleague he met while teaching in a university, through a series of coincidences and dramas. The marriage deteriorated quickly as the burden of everyday life falls onto the new couple. After much fighting, the novel ends with Sun leaving Fang, while Fang listens to the chiming of a clock.
The title of the book came from the French proverb: Marriage is like a fortress besieged: those who are outside want to get in, and those who are inside want to get out. (Le mariage est une forteresse assiégée, ceux qui sont dehors veulent y entrer, ceux qui sont dedans veulent en sortir.) No doubt marriage and love are the central themes of this book - Fang was so desperate to get love, yet when he finally found one and settled down, he realized the burden of marriage is too hard to carry. Small things add up, as in every relationship, and Fang’s inability to communicate effectively with his wife and his ambiguity towards the relationship turned out to the fatal flaws for the marriage. I suspect the fatal flaws are connected to the context of the novel - 1930s was the age when the generation of Chinese intellectuals who were raised learning Confucian ethics got a peak of the western world. Love, passion, commitment, these western values took roots at the minds of Chinese intellectual, but inevitably clash with the pervasive Confucianism in the society at the time. The tension is especially apparent on Fang Jianhong, who embodies the Confucian values yet had a passion to embrace the western values.
Marriage and love are definitely not the only themes in the book. A more careful reader would notice the connection between family (家) and country (国) in the novel. While Qian Zhongshu was writing a story about family life, it is easy to draw the connection to the country. The chaos that Fang faced with his family mirrored the chaos China faced during the Sino-Japaness War.
Finally, what makes this novel a must-read is Qian Zhongshu’s artful use of Chinese language and humor. While the writing is one of the most beautiful piece of Chinese novel that I have ever read, the humor also makes this novel a spectacular work. It is so subtle that you would not get it at first read, but as you progress with the novels, the absurdity and sarcasms becomes increasingly clear.