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Love and Revolution: A Novel About Song Qingling and Sun Yat-sen
ISBN: 9780231511087
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Columbia University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Song Qingling 1893–1981 -- Fiction; Sun Yat-sen 1866–1925 -- Fiction;

This lackluster Taiwanese import reconstructs the final thoughts of Sun Yat-sen, "the founding father of modern China" who died in 1925, and of his second wife, Song Qingling, who died in 1981. Told from the perspectives of Sun, Song and a daughter of the widow Song's illicit lover, the novel offers a glimpse into a 10-year marriage between a peasant revolutionary and his rich, much younger wife who adored him (but was disgusted by his lapses in personal hygiene). Sun regrets Song's miscarriage during their violent days on the run; reflects on his abandonment of his first wife and children and his years of promiscuity; and worries about his political clout. For her part, Song, whose sister married future Taiwanese president Chiang Kai-shek, laments that she was sidelined politically after Sun's death and pines for her younger, last lover who died when she was 70. Dish on the intimate life of a revered national hero and his widow's political disillusionment and love affairs won't be a surprise to Ping Lu's readers in Taiwan (where she has published multiple works on figures including Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling), but this stilted effort will confuse readers less familiar with the intricacies of the region's political history. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved