The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

May 4, 2008 · Filed under Book Stuff & Reviews · Tagged , , ,

A NovelThis book is a first novel for this writer and it reads like the lyrics to the ballad that was Pan Yuliang’s life.  The novel is a work of fiction based on the life of Pan Yuliang, a painter from Shanghai (thus the title!).  It took the writer approximately 10 years to write this book!  Sounds incredible but she did justice to Pan Yuliang’s life. 
Pan Yuliang was an orphan who was later sold into prostitution by her uncle who was supposed to be her caregiver.  I guess fortunately, she ends up in a brothel where many significant political leaders and government officials frequent.  She ends up being the concubine of Pan Zanhua, a customs inspector.  He enrolls her to study art, her passion, at a school in Shanghai.  She is so talented that she ends up in Paris furthering her art and does pretty well in Paris.  When she returns to China, the people are not ready for her.  She often opted for painting nudes, which the people of China found alarming, especially in a woman of course!  She had also grown accustomed to a European lifestyle.  China’s political atmosphere was in the midst of a revolution.  Finally, Pan Yuliang has to choose between her passion for her art and the man who gave her her life back. 
The writer took some real events of a misunderstood and under-appreciated painter and gave it life.   She filled in the blanks of a life that would otherwise have remained obscured. 
I did not know anything at all about Pan Yuliang until I read this novel.  I think the novel shows an incredible imagination on the part of the writer.  Her prose is very smooth and lyrical and was a joy to read.  For me, Pan Yuliang’s artistic life was reminiscent of the Mexican artist–Frida Kahlo.  Frida also painted the unobservable and shocking.  It seems they were women ahead of their times.
5 Tattered Pages!!

NOTE:  I entered a contest to win a copy of this book and an oil paint set :-)   I’m not a painter but I was really interested in the book!  The writer emailed me to let me know I had not won but she would send a copy of the book anyway if I was interested.  Of course I said!  A few days later the book arrived.  It was a great novel and although I don’t personally know the author, I want to thank her (if she ever reads this) :-)   Keep them coming!!

3 Responses so far »

  1. 1

    Sara Sheldon said,

    July 28, 2008 @ 6:21 am

    Unfortunately, this novel is yet another fictional recreation of the life of an important early Chinese painter, Pan Yuliang, whose life was first written about in a Chinese novel of 1982 by a writer who had no information whatsoever about Pan and made up a wholly lascivious, fictional story of Pan’s early years prior to her study of Western art (realistic painting in oil on canvas).” A Painter from Shanghai” recreates a Chinese movie produced in 1994, taken from the original 1982 novel almost scene by scene, while adding many more gratuitous, prurient details. It may have taken Ms. Epstein 10 years to write this trash, but she did little more than repeat unproven hearsay and few real facts about the artist who was, in fact, an important artist and one of the first women artists of China to paint in the modern style. It is rather like producing a novel or sex tape about Georgia O’Keeffe in which salicious rumors replace the serious life story of an important artist. Within the next 18 months a major, serious biography of Pan Yuliang will be published. Pan’s actual life, encompassing some of the most dangerous, vital years in Chinese and WWII history is far more interesting than a B movie or a 3rd rate romance novel.

    Reply
  2. 2

    mytatteredpages said,

    July 29, 2008 @ 6:18 pm

    I welcome comments, even when they are different from my own opinions!! Thanks for your comment!

    Reply

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