Moth Smoke
Quotes from the Book
THE RED SEA had long since been crossed, and the ship was now on its way over the Indian Ocean; but as always the sun mercilessly rose early and set late, encroaching upon the better part of the night. The night, like paper soaked in oil, had become translucent. Locked in the embrace of the sun, the night’s own form was indiscernible. Perhaps it had become intoxicated by the sun, which would explain why the night sky remained flushed long after the gradual fading of the rosy sunset. By the time the ruddiness dissipated and the night itself awoke from its stupor, the passengers in their cabins had awakened, glistening with sweat; after bathing, they hurried out on deck
(Marriage) it's a fortress under siege. The people outside the city want to break in and the people inside the city want to escape.
Roasted sweet potatoes are like illicit sex in the old Chinese saying, "Having it isn't as good as not having it." The smell is better than the taste. When you smell it, you feel you must have one, but once you actually sink your teeth into it, you find it's not really anything special.
Others called her "Truth," since it is said that "the truth is naked." But Miss Pao wasn't exactly without a stitch on, so they revised her name to "Partial Truth.
Why do charming girls all have fathers? She can be hidden away all by herself in one's heart to cuddle, but when her father, uncle, and brother are dragged along with her, the girl stops being so cute and carefree and it's not so easy to conceal her away in your heart anymore. Her charm has been mixed in with the dregs. Some people talk about marriage as though it were homosexual love. It's not the girl they fancy, but her old man or her elder brother they admire.
Watch on YouTube
About Qian Zhongshu
About the book
The greatest Chinese novel of the twentieth century, Fortress Besieged is a classic of world literature, a masterpiece of parodic fiction that plays with Western literary traditions, philosophy, and middle-class Chinese society in the Republican era. Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, our hapless hero Fang Hung-chien (á la Emma Bovary), with no particular goal in life and with a bogus degree from a fake American university in hand, returns home to Shanghai. On the French liner home, he meets two Chinese beauties, Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, "With Miss Pao it wasn't a matter of heart or soul. She hadn't any change of heart, since she didn't have a heart." In a sort of painful comedy, Fang obtains a teaching post at a newly established university where the effete pseudo-intellectuals he encounters in academia become the butt of Qian's merciless satire. Soon Fang is trapped int
Book details
- First published
- 1947
- Author
- Qian Zhongshu
- Genre
- Fiction
- Goodreads rating
- 4.30 (3k ratings)
Keep reading
Moth Smoke
The Robber Bride
Love
Mexican Gothic
Gingerbread
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years
A Spy in the House of Love
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
The Penelopiad
The Fox Wife
Trickster's Choice
Egg & Spoon
The Book of Love
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
The Volcano Lover: A Romance
The Hostile Hospital
Sexing the Cherry
Skinny Legs and All
Wicked Becomes You
White Teeth
Crescent
Palimpsest
What I Did for a Duke
The Night Tiger
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
The Blue Castle
Too Much Happiness: Stories
The Christie Affair
A Study in Scarlet Women
After Midnight
The Post-Birthday World
Dept. of Speculation
Morning in the Burned House: Poems
The Witch of Little Italy
What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust
The Crimson Petal and the White
On Beauty
The Windup Girl
Shanghai Girls
Trust: Betrayed
Oscar and Lucinda
The Fraud
Still Life with Woodpecker
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent
Rain and Other South Sea Stories
Beasts of a Little Land
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
The Rebel Angels
The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl
The Pink Cadillac
Princess Sultana's Daughters
Aru Shah and the End of Time
Waking Lions
Sea of Poppies
The Blue Hour
Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales
The Children's Book
Devil's Daughter
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea
The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos

