It gave a unique look at how badly the Japanese soldiers treated people during the occupation of China.

The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel by Weina Dai Randel The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel by Weina Dai Randel

She also did a nice job of moving back and forth to a current timeline with Aiyi wanting to tell her story to a documentarian. While she should have been inspirational by virtue of being a successful business owner in a patriarchal world, she is shown as selfish, judgemental, and short-sighted. However, our main villain, the all-too-sterotypical Japanese military bully, Yamizake, has no way to locate Ernest who hides in plain sight. In the face of overwhelming odds, a chain of events is set in motion that will change both their lives forever. And from Ernest’s perspective, there’s all the usual stuff about how he can’t really offer Aiyi much in terms of a stable future, but even more central to his character is his devotion to his younger sister, and his desire to give her a good life despite their current circumstances.I enjoyed watching her negotiate with the powerful Jewish magnate Sassoon, and seeing her outwit Japanese soldiers and her domineering oldest brother, all to hold on to the business she’d worked so hard to build. For example: After Ernest was hired, time skipped forward by several months and the club was flourishing. The two main characters were so well written that I felt their pain during the war and their happiness at being together.

The Last Rose of Shanghai - Weina Dai Randel - Google Books The Last Rose of Shanghai - Weina Dai Randel - Google Books

From the electrifying jazz clubs to the impoverished streets of a city under siege, The Last Rose of Shanghai is a timeless, sweeping story of love and redemption. I chose this novel on NetGalley because so many of my favorite authors were discussing it on Goodreads and Instagram.Finally, here’s one that talks about the Japanese occupation of China, and the intra-Asian racism and cruelty during the war, alongside the horrors of the Nazi regime. From Weina: "I love to see how words form an image that transcends the banal reality or how words join together to create a morsel of wisdom that tickles your mind. He intercedes to protect Aiyi when she is attacked, beginning a relationship that lasts throughout the book, as each goes through failures and successes.

The Last Rose of Shanghai, by Weina Dai Randel Review | The Last Rose of Shanghai, by Weina Dai Randel

I sometimes thought it was written to become a TV miniseries or worse a Hallmark soap opera style TV film. I loved watching Aiyi fight to maintain her power and financial independence at a time when women still dealt with bound feet and social expectations about their role being limited to the home. Haipai, or Shanghai style, saw cross-cultural innovations in dress, manners and social mores, as well as in literature, cinema, entertainment and commercial design.Riichi spent time in Shanghai and his novel reveals the city as a melting pot of cultures, nationalities and ideas. He shows us Shanghai’s Japanese community before the second world war, the positive interactions between Chinese and Japanese intellectuals and artists, as well as the large number of often-grim Japanese-run cotton mills and silk filatures. Ballard took the decision to fictionalise his experiences the better to show the often “casual surrealism” of war. Their departure forced Ernest to make a near-impossible choice about his family’s future, and while the scene where Ernest makes that decision is probably the most heartbreaking in the entire novel, the aftermath of the decision he makes imbues the scene with even more layers of emotion. This adds a nice challenge to the story: how to be patient with a character who gets on your nerves.

The Last Rose of Shanghai – Rob’s Latest Book Review The Last Rose of Shanghai – Rob’s Latest Book Review

Offers a decent look at Shanghai during WWII, but the romantic relationship overshadows the war story. HNS Awards have helped discover and launch the author careers of Michel Faber, Ruth Downie, Hilary Green, Martin Sutton, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Nikki Marmery, Margaret Skea, Warwick Cairns, Katherine Mezzacappa and Elizabeth Macneal. In fact, I’d say that it’s Aiyi and Ernest’s own story arcs that really make the novel shine, even more than the romance between them.

As the war escalates, Aiyi and Ernest find themselves torn apart, and their choices between love and survival grow more desperate. Finally, here’s one that stars a Chinese woman instead of a white one with blond hair and blue eyes. The story is set in Shanghai under Japanese occupation during WWII and is told from the alternating points of view of Aiyi and Ernest. As an older woman in 1980, Aiyi wants a documentarian to tell Ernest’s story and to right a wrong she’s done to him. She included a list of further reading at the end of the book to learn more about Shanghai during WWII, and I will definitely be adding some of them to my TBR list!