Fortress Besieged

Fortress Besieged (Traditional Chinese: 圍城; Simplified Chinese: 围城; Pinyin: Wéichéng) is a Chinese satirical novel written by Qian Zhongshu (Ch'ien Chung-shu), first published in 1947, and widely considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century Chinese literature. The novel is a humorous tale about middle-class Chinese society in the late 1930s. It gained worldwide popularity after it was reprinted in the 1980s and made into a television series in 1990. Origin and History Qian Zhongshu started writing the novel in 1944 and completed it in 1946. He began writing the book while he and his wife, Yang Jiang, were living in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. According to Yang Jiang, the successful production of several of her plays inspired Qian to write a full-length novel. Qian’s personal experiences abroad and in China inspired the characters and plot of the novel. For example, both Qian and the protagonist, Fang Hongjian, studied abroad in the mid-1930s. Furthermore, Qian’s journey through rural China during the war to teach at Lantian Normal College in Hunan in 1939 influenced Fang’s journey to San Lü University. The title is based on a French proverb: