Red Rose, White Rose

There were two women in Zhenbaos life: one he called his white rose, the other his red rose. One was a spotless wife, the other a passionate mistress. Isnt that just how the average man describe a chaste widows devotion to her husbands memory - as spotless, and passionate too? Maybe every man has had two such women - at least two. Marry a red rose and eventually shell be a mosquito-blood streak smeared on the wall, while the white one is "moonlight in front of my bed." Marry a white rose, and before long shell be a grain of sticky rice thats gotten stuck to your clothes; the red one, by then, is a scarlet beauty mark just over your heart.

In Eileen Changs eloquent and evocative novella, Zhenbao is a devoted son, a diligent worker, and
guarded in love. But when he meets a friends spoilt, spirited, desirable wife, he cannot resist her charms, or keep their relationship under his control. As he succumbs to passions and resentments, Red Rose, White Rose is both sensual and restrained.