The Painter from Shanghai
by Jennifer Cody Epstein
W.W. Norton, HK$200
Jennifer Cody Epstein's debut novel narrates the life story of Pan Yuliang in English for the first time, and recreates it in a refreshing telling while keeping to a historical timeline. To a fiction writer, Pan, arguably the most important female artist in contemporary China, is a perfect subject. Her 80-plus years in China and France spanned the two world wars and she witnessed stunning changes in both countries. Almost as dramatic was her transformation from teenage prostitute to avant-garde painter (she was among the earliest Chinese artists to adopt a western style).
Her works - thousands of them, from oil paintings to sculptures - won her the title 'the Chinese Vincent van Gogh' but also brought controversy. Her nude paintings, for which she is best known, were often targeted by vandals and subjected to derogatory comments in China. That prompted her to leave the mainland for France for the second time in 1937. She never returned and died in Paris in 1977.
For various reasons (the Cultural Revolution for one), historical records about Pan are scarce and incomplete. Until the appearance of Shi Nan's 1983 novel Hua Hun, Pan was a vague figure even to the Chinese. But interest in her life and times has been increasing. Mainland director Huang Shuqin's 1994 movie (starring Gong Li) and Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan's 2003 television series (starring Michelle Reis), both based on and named after the novel, have made Pan a household name in China.