Memories of the Min River

Preface

This book tells a story about waiting.

The protagonist, Zhang Shuying, was born in 1921 to an ordinary family in Fuzhou. At fourteen, she met Qian Chongxin, a young officer. They fell in love at first sight and married the following year, sharing a brief but sweet time together. When the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out in 1937, Qian Chongxin went to the front and vanished without a trace.

For more than seventy years afterward, Zhang Shuying's life was almost entirely filled with waiting. She fled from Fuzhou to Chongqing with her mother-in-law, making ends meet through hard labor at the docks, mending clothes, and doing laundry. No matter how difficult life became, she always kept the uniform and buttons Qian Chongxin had left behind, asking everyone she met if they knew anything about him. In the turmoil of the times, she remarried, but never let go of her feelings for him. She buried the past deep in her heart, only to weep silently over old photographs late at night. Not until she was ninety-three, with the help of her children, did she finally learn that Qian Chongxin had died in the Defense of Nanjing. At last, she was able to say goodbye before his memorial tablet, more than seventy years late.

This is the story of a woman who spent her entire life keeping her promise: “Wait for you to come back.” The story centers on Zhang Shuying's wait: from her sweet hopes at the beginning, to her difficult perseverance amid the war, and then to her steadfast search through the years. Between the lines are her brief but unforgettable love for Qian Chongxin, the heartache of their forced separation, and the deep devotion and strength of spirit that endured through the long years.