Half a Lifelong Romance

Half a Lifelong Romance

cover of 2014 English translation published by Penguin Classics
Author	Eileen Chang
Original title	半生緣
Translator	Karen Kingsbury
Language	Chinese
Set in	20th-century Shanghai and Nanjing
Publication date	1948
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	半生緣
Simplified Chinese	半生缘
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bàn Shēng Yuán
Publication place	China

Half a Lifelong Romance (半生緣) is a Chinese novel by Eileen Chang. It was initially serialized in a Shanghai newspaper Yi Bao (亦報) in 1948, under the title Eighteen Springs (十八春). The novel was published as a book in 1950. In 1966, Chang edited the book in the United States and republished it under the title Half a Lifelong Romance in Taiwan.

The novel was under the heavy influence of John P. Marquand's work, H. M. Pulham Esq. Chang transplanted and adapted the synopsis, character settings, important scenes, and dialogues from Marquand's work.

The novel was translated into English in 2014 by Karen S. Kingsbury.^[1][2]

• Eighteen Springs, a 1997 Hong Kong film^[3]
• Affair of Half a Lifetime, a 2003 Chinese TV series
• Half a Lifelong Romance (a.k.a. Eighteen Springs), a 2020 Chinese TV series

• Half a Lifelong Romance at the Internet Archive