ARTS & CULTURE PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING
BY MELISSA FU
see 30,000 people lose their lives. It’s that tragedy which forces Meilin to flee with Renshu and begin her huge journey to safety, wherever that might be. The family takes comfort from a small, illustrated hand scroll containing ancient fables and stories, given by Xiaowen to Meilin. Huddled on boat decks or in the back of wagons, they read it for guidance – Meilin deliberately altering the ending of the harder stories to give her young son hope – while waiting to see what fate might deal them next. The book follows their escape to Taiwan and the terrifying choices they have to make en route – then Renshu’s eventual journey through education to America, and a new life (and new name) studying engineering even further from home. But even in this new, safer land, unforeseen challenges arise. Although fiction, this makes a fascinating overview of China’s recent history and – on a smaller scale – is a beautiful tale of love, loss and just how far a parent will go for their child. Perfect winter reading on darker evenings.
This huge, sweeping debut novel by Cambridge-based author Melissa Fu started life as nothing more than a short piece of writing about her father’s fruit trees, and ended up a multigenerational tale spanning 70 years, unpicking China’s tumultuous 20th century. The story opens quietly in Changsha, in 1938, in the home of Dao Hongtse and his three wives (whose ‘names are not important’) plus his sons, Dao Longwei and Dao Xiaowen, who are both far from home ‘protecting the future of the Republic’. Shui Meilin, the wife of Dao Xiaowen, is diligently at work in her husband’s family antiques business. Her three-year-old son Renshu and his young cousin Liling charge around her feet, screaming with laughter, before Dao Longwei’s fearsome wife Wenling crossly retrieves her daughter from the room, and the youngest generation are begrudgingly put to bed. The gentle domesticity of the scene is offset by the knowledge that the Japanese are advancing and, later in 1938, the Changsha fire would
THE STORY OPENS QUIETLY IN CHANGSHA
RELATIONS All of this month’s books consider the importance of family. Peach Blossom Spring spans generations and continents, focusing on a parent’s love for their child
24 NOVEMBER 2021 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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