Soirée in the Spring

Abstract

“Soirée in the Spring” was first published in Zuojia in 2016. The story takes place in Berlin and Shanghai and follows the love affair of a young academic. In a society where the shadow of class stratification is as dense as the intoxicating fog on riverbanks, the young academic slowly wakes up from the illusion of love to the reality of life. As the story unfolds, she must find a way to penetrate the cloak of shadow and to break free. Yet, will she? The embedded narrative structure of the novella facilitates the juxtaposition of time and space, impression and substance, the hunter and the prey as the protagonist navigates her own inner discovery.