上海故事 Shanghai Story by Alexa Kang

Shanghai Story 係列共三本，寫的是37年到40年的亂世上海，男主人公是一個叫Clark 的中國人，Clark 喜歡上了從德國逃難到上海的猶太姑娘Eden， 但因為家庭背景和文化的不同，加上國恨家仇，兩人隻能保持著若即若離，介於友情和愛情之間的微妙關係，小說從一個猶太女孩的角度看當時被日本侵略的上海，虛擬與真實曆史事件杯觥交錯，讓讀者恍惚之間置身到了那兵慌馬亂的年代。

作者應該是華裔，對中國文化很了解，沒有切身體會過的人寫不出來， 文章中用到了很多拚音。

小說開頭就對中國人的稱謂做了解釋，非常準確：

“ 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.”

我最喜歡選段：

Clark第一次見到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知道家裏已經給自己訂婚了，但他也知道他真喜歡的是Edein，Eden對他也有感覺，她試探性的問話，卻得到失望的回答。

….. 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是國民黨的官員，對當時共產黨的意識形態很厭惡， 他妹妹Zi-Hong確很推崇。Clark對共產的概括：

“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.