Advertisement

'Lust, Caution' and the HKU connection

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP

A 1941 University of Hong Kong transcript portrays a student who was undoubtedly talented but gave little indication of what lay in store for the woman who would become one of the more controversial figures in Chinese literature.

Advertisement

Eileen Chang Ai-ling's student records show she scored 92 per cent in Chinese literature, 89 per cent in English and 90 per cent in history.

They could hardly predict that she would go on to create works as contentious as Lust, Caution, recently brought to the big screen by director Ang Lee.

With the movie adaptation putting Chang back in the spotlight, her alma mater is holding an exhibition to honour the woman who spent two years at its campus.

The exhibition, organised by HKU's Project for Public Culture, includes some of her original manuscripts, photographs and documents, including a personal notebook never before seen.

Advertisement

Many of the documents have been provided by Roland Soong Yee-long, the administrator of Chang's estate.

Chang left her native Shanghai in 1939 to study Chinese and English at HKU's faculty of arts, but her studies came to an abrupt end when the Japanese occupied the city two years later.

Advertisement