Delving into the ghosts of the past

Published date18 June 2022
Publication titleMix, The
Melissa Fu

Hachette

Although this work is fiction, New Mexico-born academic Melissa Fu has drawn on her Chinese father’s experiences living through the Sino-Japanese and the Chinese Civil Wars.

While he was hesitant to share his terrible past, intermittent clues as to his journey provide the background for Fu’s expansive debut novel.

Peach Blossom Spring spans 70 years, opening in 1938 in the city of Changsha, Hunan province, where the family’s patriarch has his business, Heavenly Light Kerosene and Antiques.

The family has been surrounded by beautiful objects. Now, war is encroaching, and soon the cities of Shanghai and Nanjing fall as the Japanese make inroads.

Youngest son Dao Xiaowen, his wife, Shui Meilin, and young son Renshu join the throngs retreating from the turbulent east.

Xiaowen loves his wife, considering her his finest treasure. However, in the fighting his days are numbered, and his widow and young son must journey on alone.

Among their scant possessions is an elaborate hand scroll. Many tales are inscribed upon the silk.

Meilin’s storytelling, based upon these legends, gives young Renshu much-needed security when all around is chaos.

Beauty belongs to art where there is overwhelming ugliness in their real lives. However, with his mother and transitory travellers as role models, Renshu retains his grace and kindness, as cities around them burn.

Fu has written an imaginative and moving story of survival set against a raw and writhing landscape.

The first part, set in the 1930s, is...

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