From correspondence about her short story ideas to worried messages about her deteriorating health to designs for a new qipao she wished to purchase, the woman behind the icon that is Eileen Chang Ai-ling is revealed at a new exhibition in Hong Kong.
“Beyond Distance: Half a Lifelong Friendship of Eileen Chang, Stephen Soong and Mae Fong Soong” is the inaugural exhibition at the Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU)’s Museum of Modern Chinese Literature. It displays 120 of the nearly 17,000 items entrusted to the university in February by the Soong family, executor of the Chinese novelist’s estate since she died in 1995.
The exhibition, which marks the 30th anniversary of Chang’s death, features objects including previously unreleased photographs, original manuscripts and even furniture that belonged to Stephen and Mae-fong Soong – the couple were Chang’s close friends and she often visited their home in Hong Kong.
