| Author | Su Tong |
|---|---|
| Original title | 紅粉 "Blush" or "Rouge" |
| Translator | Jane Weizhen Pan and Martin Merz |
| Language | Mandarin Chinese |
Publication date | 1991 |
| Publication place | China |
Published in English | 2018 |
| Media type |
| Petulia's Rouge Tin | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 红粉 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 紅粉 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | "Blush" or "Rouge"[1] | ||||||
| |||||||
Petulia's Rouge Tin (Chinese: 红粉[2]) is a 1991 novella by Chinese author Su Tong. Its official English translation, done by Jane Weizhen Pan and Martin Merz, was published by Penguin Specials in 2018.[3] Peter Gordon of the Asian Review of Books stated that the work's focus on the characters and their situations was an influence from Russian literature.[3]
It is set in the 1950s,[4] in Shanghai, when the new government began requiring former prostitutes to be re-educated.[3] Two former prostitutes, Petulia and Autumn Grace, are among those taken away to the Women's Labour Training Camp, even though their previous place of employment, Red Delight Pavilion, is still operating. Petulia spends three years,[4] there and develops her relationship with her longtime customer,[3] and husband, Mr. P'u, who tries to maintain his former quality of life after having assets seized by the new government. Autumn Grace escapes from the truck taking her to the camp and stays in a compound for Buddhist nuns.[4] Gordon stated that a "clear denouement or resolution" was not present in the book, and that this was also a Russian influence.[3]
The title of the English translation is a reference to a piece of tin that is the only aspect remaining from the characters' pre-1949 lives.[3]