上海故事 Shanghai Story by Alexa Kang

Shanghai Story 系列共三本，写的是37年到40年的乱世上海，男主人公是一个叫Clark 的中国人，Clark 喜欢上了从德国逃难到上海的犹太姑娘Eden， 但因为家庭背景和文化的不同，加上国恨家仇，两人只能保持着若即若离，介于友情和爱情之间的微妙关系，小说从一个犹太女孩的角度看当时被日本侵略的上海，虚拟与真实历史事件杯觥交错，让读者恍惚之间置身到了那兵慌马乱的年代。

作者应该是华裔，对中国文化很了解，没有切身体会过的人写不出来， 文章中用到了很多拼音。

小说开头就对中国人的称谓做了解释，非常准确：

“ Chinese people often address others by honorifics instead of names.

Ge and jie are often used to address someone who is not a blood relative, but who the speaker holds in higher regards.

Uncle, aunt, auntie, the honorifics are  often used to address someone is a friend of one's parents , as well as siblings of parents.”

我最喜欢选段：

Clark第一次见到Eden:

"The door swung open and before him stood a young woman. She had the most luscious deep brown hair he'd ever seen. Like a fairy descended upon the earth."

Clark知道家里已经给自己订婚了，但他也知道他真喜欢的是Edein，Eden对他也有感觉，她试探性的问话，却得到失望的回答。

….. She asked “What about you? Are you free to choose whoever you want?”

“Me?” He seemed surprised. “I…”

She peered into his face. “I am bound, in some ways, I am family's only son..”

“Would you be happy?” she lowered her hand from his shoulder to his arm” would you live your life following their wishes and be content?” “I don't know”. His brows creased. “Chinese families take these things very seriously. Perosonal happiness doesn't factor in. “What if you fall in love with a woman different from what your family expects. ”He chuckled.  “Love is a very new concept to the Chinese. If someone defies his family for love, every one would think hes very selfish. “I see.” It would be disingenuous to say she was not disappointed….

Clark是国民党的官员，对当时共产党的意识形态很厌恶， 他妹妹Zi-Hong确很推崇。Clark对共产的概括：

“A country built on the idealism of an egalitarian commune the way Zi-Hong described would fail from the tragedy of the commons.”

其他金句：

There were people like that. Their sympathies for those who suffered didnt go beyond the boundaries of their own contry.

When we try to revise history to fit our own model of how things should be, we lose the lessons we can learn from the past.