From The Fall of the Pagoda to today: The truth of growth beyond "escape"
The final panel centered on Eileen Chang's semi-autobiographical English-language novel The Fall of the Pagoda, written in 1963 and published posthumously in 2010. The story follows the journey of Shen Pipa, who breaks free from her crumbling aristocratic family to pursue higher education abroad.
Li Zishu, a leading Malaysian Chinese writer, offered sharp insights from a fellow writer's perspective: "Pipa's escape was a last resort; it was not a voluntary act of self-awareness but a helpless choice." She also pointed out the reality of gender double standards: "A woman who leaves is praised as brave, strong and self-assertive, while a man making a similar choice is often condemned as a 'scumbag'. This is strange and deserves reflection."
Zhang Xi, a senior editor at Academic Monthly and a renowned Eileen Chang scholar, challenged common perceptions of Chang's later works: "Many people think her talent declined in her later years, but in The Fall of the Pagoda, she adopted a dual perspective — childhood innocence intertwined with middle-age bitterness, forming a polyphonic narrative." She emphasized that Chang's message was not "escape equals liberation": "Women need not choose between leaving home and staying... As Eileen Chang put it, 'Only when we face ourselves naked can we truly achieve self-growth and awakening'."
Contemporary novelist Di An shared her personal reading experience: "Eileen Chang's language sometimes creates images so vivid that you can hear sounds and even smell the characters' surroundings. This literary magic attracted me when I was 12 but at that age I couldn't understand the plot. But when I read it again in my twenties, it shocked me."
