The Small Endless Sorrow of the South

Abstract

In this short essay, Zhang Qinghua discourses on three aspects of Zhu Wenying’s novel Aunt Lili’s Small South (Lili yima de xixiao nanfang 莉莉姨妈的细小南方). He argues that the ineluctable qualities of the novel lie within its juxtaposition of small history and grand history through the protagonist Aunt Lili and the first-person narrator. By doing so, Zhu Wenying has given us a re-telling of the persistent cultural history of the South in the delicate setting of Suzhou.