Nainai has lived in Shanghai for many years, and the time has come to
find a wife for her adopted grandson. But when the bride she has chosen
arrives from the countryside, it soon becomes clear that the orphaned
girl has ideas of her own. Her name is Fu Ping, and the more she
explores the residential lanes and courtyards behind Shanghai's busy
shopping streets, the less she wants to return to the country as a
dutiful wife. As Fu Ping wavers over her future, she learns the city
through the stories of the nannies, handymen, and garbage collectors
whose labor is bringing life and bustle back to postwar Shanghai.
Fu Ping is a keenly observed portrait of the lives of lower-class
women in Shanghai in the early years of the People's Republic of China.
Wang Anyi, one of contemporary China's most acclaimed authors, explores
the daily lives of migrants from rural areas and other people on the
margins of urban life. In shifting perspectives rich in detail and
psychological insight, she sketches their aspirations, their fears, and
the subtle ties that bind them together. In Howard Goldblatt's masterful
translation, Fu Ping reveals Wang Anyi's precise renderings of
history, class, and the human heart.
