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The Running Flame
“She knew that if she didn’t say her piece, that flame would never be extinguished; even after death, it would continue raging.”The Running Flame opens with its protagonist in prison awaiting execution, desperate to give an account of her life. Yingzhi, a girl from the countryside, sees opportunity in the liberal trends sweeping across China. After high school, she joins a song-and-dance troupe, which allows her to travel and opens her eyes to new people and places. But an unplanned pregnancy brings an abrupt end to all her youthful dreams. Trapped in a bad marriage, Yingzhi is driven to desperate measures—and eventually a shocking act of violence.Fang Fang’s explosive short novel inspired widespread social debate in China upon its publication in 2001. In exploring the difficulties of one woman shackled by patriarchal tradition against the backdrop of radical social change, The Running Flame bears witness to widespread experiences of gendered violence and inequality. Fang Fang evocatively captures both the heady feeling of possibility in China’s roaring 1990s and its dark underside, as economic reform unleashed social dislocation in towns and villages. The novel draws loosely from interviews the author conducted with female death row inmates in a Chinese prison. Equal parts social critique and domestic horror, The Running Flame is a gripping, propulsive narrative that shines a light on the struggles of poor women in China’s countryside.
208 pages, Paperback
Published March 18, 2025
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77 people want to read
About the author
Fang Fang
239 books50 followersFang Fang graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Wuhan University in 1982. She has published nearly seventy novels, novellas and essay collections. Many of her novels and novellas were published overseas in English, French, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Korean and other languages. Her representative works include the novels Chronicle of Wuni Lake and Water under the Time, and novellas The Scenery and Grandfather in the Heart of Father.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 16, 2025
Every time there is a slight cultural shift and women make an inch of progress, the extent of scrutiny, criticism and opposition they face is irritatingly astronomical. Be it in the west or in rural China of the 90s, the treatment and perception remain the same - align to what exists, don't you dare demand anything more, sacrifice for family and suffer in silence.
There are multiple events throughout the course of this novel, the novel's main character - YingZhi experiences resistance from her in-laws and elders, while her husband's behavior gets passed as "typical man" or "if his wife was at home, then he wouldn't have..". Fang Fang arrives at the precipice of the conflict rather early and its the reaction from others that makes the story fascinating. As the reformation at the national level are slowly progressing to rural areas, the change is hard to see let alone accept. Its in this conflict, YingZhi's crime gets her arrested and is waiting execution.
Its her story, and story of many women who don't always get to stand up for themselves, and those who are told to obey, serve and care for family as a duty.
Thank you to Netgalley and Columbia University Press for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
There are multiple events throughout the course of this novel, the novel's main character - YingZhi experiences resistance from her in-laws and elders, while her husband's behavior gets passed as "typical man" or "if his wife was at home, then he wouldn't have..". Fang Fang arrives at the precipice of the conflict rather early and its the reaction from others that makes the story fascinating. As the reformation at the national level are slowly progressing to rural areas, the change is hard to see let alone accept. Its in this conflict, YingZhi's crime gets her arrested and is waiting execution.
Its her story, and story of many women who don't always get to stand up for themselves, and those who are told to obey, serve and care for family as a duty.
Thank you to Netgalley and Columbia University Press for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
January 12, 2025
Fang Fang's The Running Flame is a short but extremely powerful novel. Set in 1990s rural China, it deals with the patriarchal oppression the protagonist, Yingzhi, faces.
I devoured this book. Fang Fang writes in a way that's very straightforward at times, but poetic at others.
Sometimes when I read a translated novel, I find myself deeply wishing I could read it in its original form. This is one of those times for me. The translator's afterword says that one sentence, translated as "say her piece" (bixu shuochu yiqie) is more directly translated as "must get everything out". Small differences like these make me yearn to be able to read the text as it was originally written, and I deeply respect the translator for taking on the job of trying to translate it as accurately as possible.
Reading about Yinghzi is extremely depressing. She's a young girl, fresh out of high school, and forced to marry even when she does not truly want to. She tries to find some aspect of her life that she can have control over, and finds it. Joining a singing troupe, she finds some freedom from her suffocating situation.
The book isn't subtle in its patriarchal themes, but it isn't supposed to be. What it is subtle in is the socio-economic aspect. Yinghzi finds some sense of freedom not only in being flirtatious, but in earning her own money. She becomes somewhat obsessed with the idea of building and owning her own house.
I feel like I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. Fang Fang is an amazing author, able to weave important subjects into a compelling story without making them seem forced in the slightest. The thing that touches me most of all is that both of the books I've read by her seem to be actual truths. First, Soft Burial, based on a story told to her. Now, The Running Flame, based on an interview she did of a woman that was in jail. Fang Fang managed to write a beautiful, compelling story, tackling the issues that a young woman in rural China faced.
I devoured this book. Fang Fang writes in a way that's very straightforward at times, but poetic at others.
Sometimes when I read a translated novel, I find myself deeply wishing I could read it in its original form. This is one of those times for me. The translator's afterword says that one sentence, translated as "say her piece" (bixu shuochu yiqie) is more directly translated as "must get everything out". Small differences like these make me yearn to be able to read the text as it was originally written, and I deeply respect the translator for taking on the job of trying to translate it as accurately as possible.
Reading about Yinghzi is extremely depressing. She's a young girl, fresh out of high school, and forced to marry even when she does not truly want to. She tries to find some aspect of her life that she can have control over, and finds it. Joining a singing troupe, she finds some freedom from her suffocating situation.
The book isn't subtle in its patriarchal themes, but it isn't supposed to be. What it is subtle in is the socio-economic aspect. Yinghzi finds some sense of freedom not only in being flirtatious, but in earning her own money. She becomes somewhat obsessed with the idea of building and owning her own house.
I feel like I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. Fang Fang is an amazing author, able to weave important subjects into a compelling story without making them seem forced in the slightest. The thing that touches me most of all is that both of the books I've read by her seem to be actual truths. First, Soft Burial, based on a story told to her. Now, The Running Flame, based on an interview she did of a woman that was in jail. Fang Fang managed to write a beautiful, compelling story, tackling the issues that a young woman in rural China faced.
December 31, 2024
Fang Fang's »The Running Flame« is a powerful exploration of a woman’s struggle against societal constraints in China, set against the backdrop of the transformative 1990s. The novel opens with Yingzhi, a young woman on death row, reflecting on her life choices and the circumstances that led her there. This framing device creates immediate tension as readers are drawn into her desperate need to recount her story.
Yingzhi's journey starts in a rural village, where she dreams of something better. Joining a song-and-dance troupe brings excitement and new experiences but things take a turn when she gets pregnant unexpectedly. Forced into a troubled marriage and an unwanted life, Yingzhi's emotional rollercoaster and growing desperation lead to a violent act, which also serves as a commentary on gender roles in China.
Fang Fang paints a vivid picture of China in the '90s, contrasting the lively buzz of economic change with the harsh reality faced by women like Yingzhi. The mood is heavy with tension and despair, underscoring the weight of outdated tradition. You can feel Yingzhi's loneliness and frustration as she tries to navigate a world that doesn't understand or support her situation.
The writing is both poetic and raw, bringing Yingzhi's inner thoughts and emotions to life with striking clarity. Fang Fang doesn't shy away from tough subjects like violence and inequality, making readers confront uncomfortable truths about gender-based violence in today's society. While the narrative is gripping, it sometimes leans heavily into melodrama, which may detract from its overall impact.
Fang Fang is a prominent voice in modern Chinese literature, known for tackling social issues head-on. Her background in journalism adds authenticity to Yingzhi's experiences and the larger social commentary within the book. »The Running Flame« not only tells an engrossing story but also sparks important discussions about women's rights and societal change in China.
In the end, the novel is a thought-provoking look at the struggles of women caught between tradition and modernity. It invites readers to think about the broader issues raised by Yingzhi's story while giving an intimate glimpse into one woman's fight for independence in a rapidly changing world.
Yingzhi's journey starts in a rural village, where she dreams of something better. Joining a song-and-dance troupe brings excitement and new experiences but things take a turn when she gets pregnant unexpectedly. Forced into a troubled marriage and an unwanted life, Yingzhi's emotional rollercoaster and growing desperation lead to a violent act, which also serves as a commentary on gender roles in China.
Fang Fang paints a vivid picture of China in the '90s, contrasting the lively buzz of economic change with the harsh reality faced by women like Yingzhi. The mood is heavy with tension and despair, underscoring the weight of outdated tradition. You can feel Yingzhi's loneliness and frustration as she tries to navigate a world that doesn't understand or support her situation.
The writing is both poetic and raw, bringing Yingzhi's inner thoughts and emotions to life with striking clarity. Fang Fang doesn't shy away from tough subjects like violence and inequality, making readers confront uncomfortable truths about gender-based violence in today's society. While the narrative is gripping, it sometimes leans heavily into melodrama, which may detract from its overall impact.
Fang Fang is a prominent voice in modern Chinese literature, known for tackling social issues head-on. Her background in journalism adds authenticity to Yingzhi's experiences and the larger social commentary within the book. »The Running Flame« not only tells an engrossing story but also sparks important discussions about women's rights and societal change in China.
In the end, the novel is a thought-provoking look at the struggles of women caught between tradition and modernity. It invites readers to think about the broader issues raised by Yingzhi's story while giving an intimate glimpse into one woman's fight for independence in a rapidly changing world.
March 30, 2025
Taking place in the 1990s, after China’s turn to capitalism was in full swing—and along with it the reemergence of brutal patriarchy, which had been simmering in the background during the all-too-brief flirtation with the feminism encapsulated by Mao’s adage, “Women hold up half the sky”—The Running Flame novelizes the fates of too many women living in China’s countryside (and the city, too). Under traditional, Confucian patriarchy, daughters-in-law are expected to wait on their in-laws hand and foot, as well as the son she married, raise and tend to their children, keep the house tidy, the meals ready, the animals fed, their pens cleaned, and the vegetable garden hoed and weeded. Once a woman leaves her parent’s home to enter her husband’s home, her parents regard her as water thrown out the window. She becomes, quite literally, her husband’s and in-laws’ property to do with as they see fit. Even today in China, domestic abuse is no guarantee that a divorce will be granted—it depends on whether the husband agrees to it. Same with male but not female infidelity.
But during China’s one-child policy, daughters could now receive a college education instead of the son who was never born. How are ya gonna keep on the farm once they’ve seen Paree?
The Running Flame concerns the fate of a young woman named Yingzhi, who is in prison when we first meet her, awaiting her execution for the murder of her husband. (A note on capital punishment in China: The average amount of time between being charged with a capital crime and being executed for that crime is about one month: no time for extenuating circumstances, recanted testimony, exculpating DNA evidence, and so forth to wend its way through the court system to overturn a decision. In the novel, Yingzhi learns that the last woman to have the cell she now occupies was there five months.) How did she get there?
Yingzhi’s story begins with her high school graduation. She did well in school, was studious, got good grades, and understood the material well enough to tutor her friends who didn’t understand it. Still, she’s not interested in going to college, nor is she interested in hard labor—about the only type of work available in rural China. A friend of her family’s, who runs a successful band that plays at weddings and funerals, asks Yingzhi if she would like to sing in his band—she’s pretty and has a good voice. She agrees, is immediately popular, and quickly realizes that just from singing and dancing a couple of times a week, she could make up to the U.S. equivalent of about $50 a month, with another $6 or $7 a month for her parents. This is the countryside version of bright-lights-big-city income.
Early in her new success, she meets a young man named Guiqing, who compliments her on her beauty and singing. They begin a courtship that quickly results in Yingzhi’s pregnancy and an early marriage. For her marriage gift, she wants from Guiqing a house with indoor plumbing. He demurs by saying the money would be better spent on raising their soon-to-be-born son. She agrees to it, not realizing until after the marriage that because their son obtained Yingzhi so cheaply, she must not be worth very much as a person. And so, the antagonisms with her in-laws begins, including their insistence on naming the baby the English equivalent of “trash,” assuming that it will inspire him to rise above his name, at which point they can re-named him. That’s something they did with Guiqing—the son who can do no wrong, just as much as he will do no labor but instead spends his time drinking, gambling, and whoring. Money is a matter for Yingzhi to make.
Since it is up to Yingzhi to make money, she uses this as leverage to get permission to sing in the band again. Her hope is that within two years, she will have saved 2,000 yuan ($275), enough to build a house. However, Guiqing takes the money to pay off his gambling debts and his parents continue you to shame her for daring to ask that he work. Soon, too, the beatings start, as does Yingzhi’s infidelity. Once her infidelity is discovered, Guiqing’s parents demand her death.
Fang Fang’s The Running Flame is a stark but honest assessment of the lives lead by too many women still in China, whether they live in the country or the city. Yingzhi’s desires for herself are astonishingly modest by urban standards: Just a small place to live, with electricity, indoor plumbing, and a washing machine. And the freedom to leave whenever she wants.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
But during China’s one-child policy, daughters could now receive a college education instead of the son who was never born. How are ya gonna keep on the farm once they’ve seen Paree?
The Running Flame concerns the fate of a young woman named Yingzhi, who is in prison when we first meet her, awaiting her execution for the murder of her husband. (A note on capital punishment in China: The average amount of time between being charged with a capital crime and being executed for that crime is about one month: no time for extenuating circumstances, recanted testimony, exculpating DNA evidence, and so forth to wend its way through the court system to overturn a decision. In the novel, Yingzhi learns that the last woman to have the cell she now occupies was there five months.) How did she get there?
Yingzhi’s story begins with her high school graduation. She did well in school, was studious, got good grades, and understood the material well enough to tutor her friends who didn’t understand it. Still, she’s not interested in going to college, nor is she interested in hard labor—about the only type of work available in rural China. A friend of her family’s, who runs a successful band that plays at weddings and funerals, asks Yingzhi if she would like to sing in his band—she’s pretty and has a good voice. She agrees, is immediately popular, and quickly realizes that just from singing and dancing a couple of times a week, she could make up to the U.S. equivalent of about $50 a month, with another $6 or $7 a month for her parents. This is the countryside version of bright-lights-big-city income.
Early in her new success, she meets a young man named Guiqing, who compliments her on her beauty and singing. They begin a courtship that quickly results in Yingzhi’s pregnancy and an early marriage. For her marriage gift, she wants from Guiqing a house with indoor plumbing. He demurs by saying the money would be better spent on raising their soon-to-be-born son. She agrees to it, not realizing until after the marriage that because their son obtained Yingzhi so cheaply, she must not be worth very much as a person. And so, the antagonisms with her in-laws begins, including their insistence on naming the baby the English equivalent of “trash,” assuming that it will inspire him to rise above his name, at which point they can re-named him. That’s something they did with Guiqing—the son who can do no wrong, just as much as he will do no labor but instead spends his time drinking, gambling, and whoring. Money is a matter for Yingzhi to make.
Since it is up to Yingzhi to make money, she uses this as leverage to get permission to sing in the band again. Her hope is that within two years, she will have saved 2,000 yuan ($275), enough to build a house. However, Guiqing takes the money to pay off his gambling debts and his parents continue you to shame her for daring to ask that he work. Soon, too, the beatings start, as does Yingzhi’s infidelity. Once her infidelity is discovered, Guiqing’s parents demand her death.
Fang Fang’s The Running Flame is a stark but honest assessment of the lives lead by too many women still in China, whether they live in the country or the city. Yingzhi’s desires for herself are astonishingly modest by urban standards: Just a small place to live, with electricity, indoor plumbing, and a washing machine. And the freedom to leave whenever she wants.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
August 22, 2025
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
The Publisher Says: “She knew that if she didn’t say her piece, that flame would never be extinguished; even after death, it would continue raging.”
The Running Flame opens with its protagonist in prison awaiting execution, desperate to give an account of her life. Yingzhi, a girl from the countryside, sees opportunity in the liberal trends sweeping across China. After high school, she joins a song-and-dance troupe, which allows her to travel and opens her eyes to new people and places. But an unplanned pregnancy brings an abrupt end to all her youthful dreams.
Trapped in a bad marriage, Yingzhi is driven to desperate measures—and eventually a shocking act of violence.
Fang Fang’s explosive short novel inspired widespread social debate in China upon its publication in 2001. In exploring the difficulties of one woman shackled by patriarchal tradition against the backdrop of radical social change, The Running Flame bears witness to widespread experiences of gendered violence and inequality. Fang Fang evocatively captures both the heady feeling of possibility in China’s roaring 1990s and its dark underside, as economic reform unleashed social dislocation in towns and villages. The novel draws loosely from interviews the author conducted with female death row inmates in a Chinese prison.
Equal parts social critique and domestic horror, The Running Flame is a gripping, propulsive narrative that shines a light on the struggles of poor women in China’s countryside.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: It is a short novel, on the blurry edge between novel and novella in length; definitely complex enough to merit the "novel" label. YingZhi is a woman driven to the end of her endurance, across a long enough period to see changes in the laws that do not touch her...until she finally snaps.>
It's notable that her story *is* a story because she does what is, across most cultures, the prerogative of men to do to women. Her snap, in a man, would not merit a novel, novella, or anything more than a tutting notice on a newspaper's "local crimes" section.
While writing this story, I wonder if the estimable Fang Fang, quite a cultural touchstone in Chinese literary circles, thought of that. In one sense, reading this story humanizes...particularizes...the motive that drove her violence while at the same time reinforcing the abnormality of a woman taking violence into her own hands to dole out on a man.
We're trained, culturally, to see women as victims in every narrative. Even this one. YingZhi dares to want a home of her own, dares to seek personal validation in an art that excludes her husband, dares to be a tiny bit her own person...and suffers for it.
We know this story is based on a factual event and that Fang Fang spoke at length with the woman whose snap provided the base of the tale. Does no one anywhere see that this real person's story told from death row, reinforces the transgression she committed as illegal, yet not the endless provocations to it as immoral?
Am I the crazy one? Is this dark, forbidding shadow not bothering anyone else?
I got more and more appalled by YingZhi's awful life of feeling utterly powerless and slighted for wanting to be her own person. As we spend time "listening" to her unburben herself, I got more and more drenched in the fear and outrage at her culturally enforced voicelessness. As a gay man (a loathed minority in China as well), I could relate to YingZhi's inability to bring happiness the way she wanted and needed to experience it into being.
This is a powerful story told in a style that suited my inner ear. It did not, I'm sorry to say, have scope enough to bring others to clarity in the story being told...too short...but as a deep dive into a woman at the precipice of her end, it was excellent, it was honest about its emotional representation, and it was deeply moving.
A half-star off for choosing to shorten, therefore foreshorten, a story with a lot of scope for even further reflection.
The Publisher Says: “She knew that if she didn’t say her piece, that flame would never be extinguished; even after death, it would continue raging.”
The Running Flame opens with its protagonist in prison awaiting execution, desperate to give an account of her life. Yingzhi, a girl from the countryside, sees opportunity in the liberal trends sweeping across China. After high school, she joins a song-and-dance troupe, which allows her to travel and opens her eyes to new people and places. But an unplanned pregnancy brings an abrupt end to all her youthful dreams.
Trapped in a bad marriage, Yingzhi is driven to desperate measures—and eventually a shocking act of violence.
Fang Fang’s explosive short novel inspired widespread social debate in China upon its publication in 2001. In exploring the difficulties of one woman shackled by patriarchal tradition against the backdrop of radical social change, The Running Flame bears witness to widespread experiences of gendered violence and inequality. Fang Fang evocatively captures both the heady feeling of possibility in China’s roaring 1990s and its dark underside, as economic reform unleashed social dislocation in towns and villages. The novel draws loosely from interviews the author conducted with female death row inmates in a Chinese prison.
Equal parts social critique and domestic horror, The Running Flame is a gripping, propulsive narrative that shines a light on the struggles of poor women in China’s countryside.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: It is a short novel, on the blurry edge between novel and novella in length; definitely complex enough to merit the "novel" label. YingZhi is a woman driven to the end of her endurance, across a long enough period to see changes in the laws that do not touch her...until she finally snaps.>
It's notable that her story *is* a story because she does what is, across most cultures, the prerogative of men to do to women. Her snap, in a man, would not merit a novel, novella, or anything more than a tutting notice on a newspaper's "local crimes" section.
While writing this story, I wonder if the estimable Fang Fang, quite a cultural touchstone in Chinese literary circles, thought of that. In one sense, reading this story humanizes...particularizes...the motive that drove her violence while at the same time reinforcing the abnormality of a woman taking violence into her own hands to dole out on a man.
We're trained, culturally, to see women as victims in every narrative. Even this one. YingZhi dares to want a home of her own, dares to seek personal validation in an art that excludes her husband, dares to be a tiny bit her own person...and suffers for it.
We know this story is based on a factual event and that Fang Fang spoke at length with the woman whose snap provided the base of the tale. Does no one anywhere see that this real person's story told from death row, reinforces the transgression she committed as illegal, yet not the endless provocations to it as immoral?
Am I the crazy one? Is this dark, forbidding shadow not bothering anyone else?
I got more and more appalled by YingZhi's awful life of feeling utterly powerless and slighted for wanting to be her own person. As we spend time "listening" to her unburben herself, I got more and more drenched in the fear and outrage at her culturally enforced voicelessness. As a gay man (a loathed minority in China as well), I could relate to YingZhi's inability to bring happiness the way she wanted and needed to experience it into being.
This is a powerful story told in a style that suited my inner ear. It did not, I'm sorry to say, have scope enough to bring others to clarity in the story being told...too short...but as a deep dive into a woman at the precipice of her end, it was excellent, it was honest about its emotional representation, and it was deeply moving.
A half-star off for choosing to shorten, therefore foreshorten, a story with a lot of scope for even further reflection.
February 1, 2025
I think The Running Flame is a very thought-provoking and interesting book.
At the same time, there were some parts I didn't like. Mainly, the writing style feels very simplistic, at times cringe-y?
For example:
"What led a woman as beautiful and delicate as she was to hide out in a filthy outhouse in the middle of the night? Just thinking about it made her break out in tears."
I also thought Guiqing was a bit too comically evil.
I was prepared to give this book a bit of a lower rating until I read the translator's note, which completely changed my perspective.
The fact that the author did real interviews and decided to take the opposite route of the TV show really impressed me. The TV show painted Yingzhi as a beautiful, innocent soul who didn't deserve the abuse. This novel gives Yingzhi flaws. She still doesn't deserve how she is treated, but Fang Fang makes it interesting in portraying Yingzhi as less likeable and making bad choices, she's not a perfect victim.
There are some really good messages in this book about how women were/are still treated in many conservative areas and also how daughters were traditionally seen in China, which I really liked. Things like "daughters are like spilled water once they get married, You aren't part of our family anymore." It was so painful to read, honestly, Also, the translator brought up, in the end, recent-ish news stories coming out about wives being mistreated in the Chinese countryside, At first I was feeling that this book didn't feel current, but I realize that's not true, This book is still important and I think more people should read it,
At the same time, there were some parts I didn't like. Mainly, the writing style feels very simplistic, at times cringe-y?
For example:
"What led a woman as beautiful and delicate as she was to hide out in a filthy outhouse in the middle of the night? Just thinking about it made her break out in tears."
I also thought Guiqing was a bit too comically evil.
I was prepared to give this book a bit of a lower rating until I read the translator's note, which completely changed my perspective.
The fact that the author did real interviews and decided to take the opposite route of the TV show really impressed me. The TV show painted Yingzhi as a beautiful, innocent soul who didn't deserve the abuse. This novel gives Yingzhi flaws. She still doesn't deserve how she is treated, but Fang Fang makes it interesting in portraying Yingzhi as less likeable and making bad choices, she's not a perfect victim.
There are some really good messages in this book about how women were/are still treated in many conservative areas and also how daughters were traditionally seen in China, which I really liked. Things like "daughters are like spilled water once they get married, You aren't part of our family anymore." It was so painful to read, honestly, Also, the translator brought up, in the end, recent-ish news stories coming out about wives being mistreated in the Chinese countryside, At first I was feeling that this book didn't feel current, but I realize that's not true, This book is still important and I think more people should read it,
April 5, 2025
Wow! This is the second book by Fang Fang that I read in a couple of months, after Soft Burial, and I enjoyed this one more than the previous one. It's short - a bit over 200 pages - but enough time to follow YingZhi, a very young woman growing up in poverty in rural China. She finds she has a talent for singing and joining a band offers a promise of a better future as she soon earns more than her parents. She marries another poor young man, QuingQi, looking forward to a future where she finally escapes poverty but her husband refuses to work, is a gambler and a very violent man who beats his wife, potentially a rapist. We follow her desperation as she keeps saying that "there's gender equality now" but finds out that she is considered her husband's property, that divorce is not an option and that the money she earns isn't really hers.
I loved YingZhi's voice, her determination to make the best of her circumstances and to earn to build a house and leave her abusive in-laws'. I loved her anger and her disbelief that everything she is doing is not enough, and that everything seems to be stacked against her. It was an interesting commentary on feminism and the women left behind, something I rarely read about but found horrifying and revolting.
Like with Soft Burial, I found the translation a bit weak, repetitive at times and "simple". But I loved the storytelling.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
I loved YingZhi's voice, her determination to make the best of her circumstances and to earn to build a house and leave her abusive in-laws'. I loved her anger and her disbelief that everything she is doing is not enough, and that everything seems to be stacked against her. It was an interesting commentary on feminism and the women left behind, something I rarely read about but found horrifying and revolting.
Like with Soft Burial, I found the translation a bit weak, repetitive at times and "simple". But I loved the storytelling.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
March 19, 2025
The Running Flame pairs well with Sweat when it comes to books that tackle the topic of coercive control and it's ultimate ramifications. Like Sweat's Cassie Ying Zhi isn't the perfect victim, but has been warped by her husband's coercive dominating and abusive nature and ultimately driven to the extremes to keep things on an even keel, despite knowing she can not win, because she isn't following the traditional patriarchal cultural path for a rural wife to be submissive to her husband's whims and tolerate what she has, despite her husband basically being a unrepentant gambler. I don't know if it was Fang Fang's intent but the only character in the novel who seems to be truly and completely a victim is Ying Zhi's son who has been given the name 'trash' by his paternal grandparents.
An interesting read and observation on society and how it treats women so much differently than men, throughout the novel despite her husband's various crimes he never once is blamed it always falls on being Ying Zhi's fault, and sadly after her marriage her parents have written her off as no longer being part of the family...
Thank you for the e-ARC Columbia University Press & Netgalley in exchange for my review, I really enjoyed Fang Fang and Berry's translated work :)
An interesting read and observation on society and how it treats women so much differently than men, throughout the novel despite her husband's various crimes he never once is blamed it always falls on being Ying Zhi's fault, and sadly after her marriage her parents have written her off as no longer being part of the family...
Thank you for the e-ARC Columbia University Press & Netgalley in exchange for my review, I really enjoyed Fang Fang and Berry's translated work :)
October 30, 2024
This is a translated novel, set in a village in China. It is set in the late 90s, which I gathered from Michael Berry’s (translator) note, as the the novel itself does not explicitly reference the time (although there may be cultural/historical cues that I may have missed given my limited understanding of Chinese contemporary history). But in a way, the time it’s set in doesn’t matter because the author, Fang Fang, wrote this over 20 years ago, but the cultural setting is still the same when it comes to patriarchal cultural systems and beliefs! It was surprising that some of the dialogues between the characters could very well have been set in any other country, and they’d still be frustratingly relateable. Hence, the story is timeless, although what that says about human societies is very sad.
This was a short read, and quite fast-paced. I definitely want to read more from this writer, and I’m crossing my fingers that her other novels will also be translated soon!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!
This was a short read, and quite fast-paced. I definitely want to read more from this writer, and I’m crossing my fingers that her other novels will also be translated soon!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!
June 6, 2025
We meet YingZhi as she's about to be executed for murdering her husband. What follows is her story, how she fell for the first bounder who crossed her path, her pregnancy and subsequent marriage. Her husband turns out to be a horrible piece of work: he spends all his days drinking and gambling, expecting YangZhi to foot the bill. What's worse is that his parents back up his behaviour as does his village. Equally awful is the expectation that a husband should beat his wife to within an inch of her life if she ever disrespects or criticises him. By the end of this torrid tale, I wished that YingZhi could burn down this whole way of life, not just her abominable husband. Yet, from the translator's afterword, it seems that in parts of China, treating women this badly is still deemed acceptable. A sad read, exposing some real life evils, and a lot of swearing. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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April 24, 2025I received an advance copy of this book, along with the other Fang Fang novel translated and published, and while I liked both, this one really stuck with me. It's about a woman who finds herself in a loveless marriage and an awful situation because of it, but when the conflict gets worse, we see how it'll change all of their lives forever.
full review is on my blog: https://www.ashleyhajimirsadeghi.com/...
full review is on my blog: https://www.ashleyhajimirsadeghi.com/...
May 24, 2025
This is China's version of Kim Jeyoung, 1982. The Chinese cultural essence does nothing to lessen the depravity that is second to a woman's life. It's tough to compliment this, because who applauds the portrayal of distress and injustice?
November 19, 2024
a dramatic and interesting text about china in the 90s, filled with tradition and patriarchal beliefs. a fast read that i devoured. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.
April 22, 2025
The Running Flame opens with its protagonist in prison awaiting execution. Yingzhi, a beautiful girl from the countryside, seizes the opportunity to make some money by joining a song-and-dance troupe, which allows her to travel and opens her eyes to new people and places. But an unplanned pregnancy brings an abrupt end to all her youthful dreams. Trapped in a bad marriage and abused by her in-laws, Yingzhi is desperate to find peace and happiness, and she is determined to do anything in her power to be free.
This story is BRUTAL.
It's a never-ending escalation of abuse a violence (verbal and physical) justified by patriarchal tradition and gendered inequality. It's A LOT - the poor protagonist never has a moment to breath, and the reader with her also feels the suffocation of a family than never supports but abuses and crushes Yingzhi's spirit, most of the times with absolutely no reason. The Running Flame is no light read, and I would not recommend it to everyone, but I enjoyed it even though I was furious while reading it.
I'm curious to read more books by Fang Fang, will definitely keep an eye out for new translations.
4 stars.
* I'd like to thank Fang Fang, Columbia University Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This story is BRUTAL.
It's a never-ending escalation of abuse a violence (verbal and physical) justified by patriarchal tradition and gendered inequality. It's A LOT - the poor protagonist never has a moment to breath, and the reader with her also feels the suffocation of a family than never supports but abuses and crushes Yingzhi's spirit, most of the times with absolutely no reason. The Running Flame is no light read, and I would not recommend it to everyone, but I enjoyed it even though I was furious while reading it.
I'm curious to read more books by Fang Fang, will definitely keep an eye out for new translations.
4 stars.
* I'd like to thank Fang Fang, Columbia University Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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