The addition of a subtitle ("A Novel of Shanghai") to the original Chinese title is a logical choice: the city of Shanghai, with its ups and downs during the tumultuous period from the post-war 1940s to the 1980s, and the firmly articulated cultural identity of its citizens, stands out as the major structuring principle of the novel. In many ways, the novel is a textbook example of "city literature" in the full meaning of the term--i.e., not just writing about the City, but writing that through its style and organization expresses a distinctly urban epistemology.

attached to: The Song of Everlasting Sorrow