After leaving the Mainland for Hong Kong in 1952, Eileen Chang was commissioned
by the United States Information Service to write two books, one of which was he
r magnificent novel Naked Earth. Far from being a simplistic exercise in anti-Co
mmunist propaganda (two previous novels Chang wrote were pro-Communist), Naked E
arth is a powerfully moving, Balzacian tale that follows two young students, Liu
Ch'uen and Su Nan, who fall in love at a time when, as Chang writes, the whole
country lay stretched out like an open palm, ready to close around any one perso
n at any minute.
