Red Rose, White Rose (novella)

Red Rose, White Rose (Traditional Chinese: 紅玫瑰與白玫瑰; simplified Chinese: 红玫瑰与白玫瑰) is a novella by Eileen Chang, one of the most well-known authors in modern Chinese literature. The novel was first published in 1944 and later included in her short-story collection Chuanqi (1944; "The Legend"). In 1994, Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan adapted the novel into a movie of the same name, which was widely acclaimed and entered into the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.

Set in the 1930s and 1940s Chinese society, the story focus on the tangled love between Tong Zhenbao and two women: his spotless wife Yanli ("white rose"), and his passionate mistress Jiaorui ("red rose"). With finely detailed writing, the novel explores the women's survival status, tragic fate, and loss of self-consciousness in a patriarchal society. It describes ordinary people's emotions and marital status under the collision of traditional Chinese culture and Western culture.