Fortress Besieged

First published in 1947, Fortress Besieged is widely regarded as the greatest Chinese novel of the twentieth century.

Set in the 1930s during the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, the novel follows Fang Hongjian, who returns to Shanghai from Europe with a bogus degree and becomes entangled in romantic complications and social misadventures.

Through masterful satire and extensive cultural references, Qian explores themes of identity, marriage, education, and middle-class society in the Chinese Republic era, blending Western literary techniques with uniquely Chinese cynicism about human behavior.