Ｈａｎ Ｓｕｙｉｎ’ｓ Ａｕｔｏｂｉｏｇｒａｐｈｉｃａｌ Ｎｏｖｅｌ Ａ Ｍａｎｙ－Ｓｐｌｅｎｄｏｕｒｅｄ Ｔｈｉｎｇ Ｆｉｒｓｔ Ｐｕｂｌｉｓｈｅｄ ｉｎ Ｃｈｉｎａ

A Many-Splendoured Thing， an autobiographical novel written by prominent Chinese-British woman writer Han Suyin， is her greatest success and representative work which has established her status in the international literary world. But surprisingly， this famous novel with the background of China，its content closely linked with China’s modern history， her destiny and the Chinese life， sold well in the West for half a century and adapted into a famous American film several decades ago， came back to China just recently. The Chinese version of the novel was published by the Horizon Media Co.， Ltd.， a division of Shanghai Century Publishing Co.， Ltd.

This novel was written in fluent English and a clear but profound， sentimental but magnanimous style. At the end of the 1940s， Han Suyin， a young woman doctor of Chinese and Belgian origin， who had just graduated from a British university and was on her way home， was detained in Hong Kong because of war and met British journalist Mark Elliot by chance… Then， there were Chinese and English cultures， European and Asian cultures， different ways of life and concepts of people of different races and social strata under different political systems and spiritual beliefs. All this was wonderfully mingled with their romance. The novel was prefaced and recommended by Malcolm MacDonald， the then British governor of Hong Kong. As soon as it was published in the U.K. in 1952， it caused a sensation. It was soon translated into several languages and published and reprinted time and again in the following several decades. In his letter to Han Suyin in 1952， publisher Jonathan Cape said， “In British buses I see almost every woman have one of your books under her arms.” In 1955 the novel was filmed by the American 20th Century Fox (using the title Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing). In the following year the film won three Oscar awards， and Han Suyin became famous in the international literary world.

However， this classical novel which had been very popular outside China for half a century was not published in China timely due to a strange combination of circumstances. Until one day in 2004， Meng Jun，a university teacher in Shandong， who had a habit of reading and translating foreign literary works into Chinese and was engaged in the research of Chinese modern literature， found the book from among piles of British and American best sellers. After scanning it and then reading it carefully， he was deeply moved by the content of the book: “I have not experienced the years described in the book， but is there any educated Chinese unfamiliar with the history of that period? It was those years that determined our country’s present features and the fate of every Chinese.” After that， he began to gather data about the book， finding that up till then there was no Chinese version of the book. After the first draft of the Chinese translation of the book was finished， the Horizon Media Co.， Ltd. (the publisher of the Chinese version of the book My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk， the Nobel laureate in literature in 2006) got to know it and realized the value of the book. Shi Hongjun， general manager of the Horizon Media Co.， Ltd. immediately decided to publish the book and bought its copyright， thus enabling the Chinese people at last to have a chance to enjoy reading it.

As a matter of fact， all of the works by Han Suyin who was born in Xinyang， Henan in 1917 of a Chinese father and a Belgian mother were related with China. She has met with and interviewed Chinese leaders many times and written many articles and books recording lots of events in China and is regarded a China expert. Since the 1980s， many of her works have been published in China including The Morning is Young， Till Morning Comes， The Enchantress， and biographies Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China 1898-1976， The Morning Deluge: Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Revolution 1949-1975 as well as an autobiography My House Has Two Doors. Only A Many-Splendoured Thing that had been adapted into an American film over 50 years ago just recently returned to China， the homeland of the heroine. Just as what the authoroften said that in her life she will always run to and fro in the two opposite directions: leave love， run back to love; leave China and run back to China.