The novel Lingyu tells the story of a woman named Lingyu, from her youth to middle age. Like many Chinese people who studied hard from childhood, went abroad for further education, and stayed overseas to work and live, she has a life shaped by both ambition and change. In love, she experiences her parents’ relationship breaking down when she is young, meets her first love at university, breaks up and reunites with him as an adult, and ultimately chooses to become a single mother. She is a reflection of many women: the pain of childhood, distance from one’s parents, the longing for family, the conflict between self-respect and affection in love, and the instincts of motherhood. Everything life gives her and all she experiences in the world eventually lead Lingyu from stubborn attachment to understanding, making peace with her past and with herself.
