Every time there is a slight cultural shift and women make an inch of progress, the extent of scrutiny, criticism and opposition they face is irritatingly astronomical. Be it in the west or in rural China of the 90s, the treatment and perception remain the same - align to what exists, don't you dare demand anything more, sacrifice for family and suffer in silence.

There are multiple events throughout the course of this novel, the novel's main character - YingZhi experiences resistance from her in-laws and elders, while her husband's behavior gets passed as "typical man" or "if his wife was at home, then he wouldn't have..". Fang Fang arrives at the precipice of the conflict rather early and its the reaction from others that makes the story fascinating. As the reformation at the national level are slowly progressing to rural areas, the change is hard to see let alone accept. Its in this conflict, YingZhi's crime gets her arrested and is waiting execution.

Its her story, and story of many women who don't always get to stand up for themselves, and those who are told to obey, serve and care for family as a duty.

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Columbia University Press for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review. </i>

Powerful and frustrating novel, where the protagonist makes a lot of bad choices, struggling against the patriarchal society in rural China.

I think The Running Flame is a very thought-provoking and interesting book.

At the same time, there were some parts I didn't like. Mainly, the writing style feels very simplistic, at times cringe-y?
For example:
"What led a woman as beautiful and delicate as she was to hide out in a filthy outhouse in the middle of the night? Just thinking about it made her break out in tears."

I also thought Guiqing was a bit too comically evil.

I was prepared to give this book a bit of a lower rating until I read the translator's note, which completely changed my perspective.
The fact that the author did real interviews and decided to take the opposite route of the TV show really impressed me. The TV show painted Yingzhi as a beautiful, innocent soul who didn't deserve the abuse. This novel gives Yingzhi flaws. She still doesn't deserve how she is treated, but Fang Fang makes it interesting in portraying Yingzhi as less likeable and making bad choices, she's not a perfect victim.

There are some really good messages in this book about how women were/are still treated in many conservative areas and also how daughters were traditionally seen in China, which I really liked. Things like "daughters are like spilled water once they get married, You aren't part of our family anymore." It was so painful to read, honestly, Also, the translator brought up, in the end, recent-ish news stories coming out about wives being mistreated in the Chinese countryside, At first I was feeling that this book didn't feel current, but I realize that's not true, This book is still important and I think more people should read it,

📕 The Running Flame by Fang Fang
📕 Publication Date: March 18, 2025
📕 Rated 4⭐ out of 5

This book was originally published in China in 2001. The English translation will be released on March 18.

The novel is set in two villages in China during the 1990s.

The story begins with a conversation between a young woman named Yingzhi, who is in prison, and her fellow inmate, Sister Yu.

Yingzhi, unable to forget the terrible events she has experienced, harbors deep resentment and pain.

Inside the grim and filthy prison walls, there is graffiti that reads, "Why don't you love me?" According to Sister Yu, it was written by a girl named Fenping.

Fenping had been in a five-year relationship with a man who made her undergo five abortions. One day, he casually admitted that he had never loved her. Enraged, Fenping poisoned his food, leading to his death. She stayed in the prison for five months before facing her punishment, as Sister Yu told Yingzhi.

Yingzhi, however, claims that her own life was far worse than what Fenping went through.

As the story unfolds, readers will eventually discover why Yingzhi ended up in prison.

Despite completing high school, Yingzhi did not attend college, as she had little interest in wasting money on further education.

Her classmates, Chunhui and Yonggen, had different paths. Chunhui, a bookworm, developed vision problems, while Yonggen remained carefree and mischievous. Yingzhi, being practical, often took care of the small details for both of them.

Compared to them, Yingzhi seemed to be doing much better at this point in life.

She grew up in Phoenix Dike, a small village. Her father was a farmer, and her mother ran a small grocery store.

One day, Yingzhi had the opportunity to sing for the local music troupe led by Sanhuo. This troupe performed at weddings and funerals in nearby villages.

Yingzhi, fresh out of high school, found a way to support her family through singing.

While performing in a neighboring village, she met a man named Guiqing, who eventually visited her village and asked her out.

During their time together, Yingzhi led him along an unfamiliar path by the creek, and things escalated between them.

As a rising local singer, Yingzhi, young and naïve, got caught up in a fleeting romance without thinking about the consequences.

Initially, before anything happened, Yingzhi had jokingly told Guiqing that she would only accept him if he got her a refrigerator and a television.

However, when she later realized she was pregnant, she had no choice but to stay with him.

Guiqing wanted to marry her, saying he loved their child. But in the end, the wedding happened without the promised gifts.

When their child was born, Guiqing’s parents named him Jianhuo (which means "trash").

Yingzhi’s marriage was troubled from the start. Her mother-in-law disliked her, and Yingzhi struggled with the household chores.

Guiqing turned out to be a gambler who squandered money instead of working.

His parents constantly blamed Yingzhi for everything, belittling her and suppressing her voice. When she spoke up, they retaliated with mistreatment.

When drunk, Guiqing would violently beat her, only to apologize tearfully the next morning. But he never changed.

After enduring repeated abuse, Yingzhi finally fled barefoot in the middle of the night to her parents' home.

Her mother sympathized with her but advised her to be patient, as traditional beliefs dictated that wives should endure their husbands.

Her father, on the other hand, told her that once a daughter is married, she belongs to her husband's family and must make things work, no matter what.

No one stood up for Yingzhi.

She was only twenty years old.

Desperate for money, she continued singing with Sanhuo’s troupe, saving her earnings secretly.

To hide the money, she sewed it inside her dress. But to gain her husband's permission to keep performing, she had to bribe him with some of her earnings.

Yingzhi despised the discrimination against women and wanted to prove that women could be just as capable as men.

She also couldn’t stand living under the same roof as her mother-in-law, who constantly criticized her.

Determined to build her own house, she asked Guiqing to borrow money from his parents.

However, not only did his parents refuse, but they also dismissed her entirely, saying it was not their concern.

Yingzhi then turned to her own parents for help, but they, too, refused.

Feeling humiliated yet determined, she continued saving.

During a performance in another village, an audience member jokingly suggested that Yingzhi and another singer, Xiaohong, should strip on stage for 500 yuan.

Desperate to build her house, Yingzhi compromised her dignity for money.

One day, she learned that her childhood friend Chunhui would be visiting for the New Year.

Chunhui had gone to college in southern China and was now living well.

When she discovered Yingzhi’s unhappy marriage, she felt sorry for her and advised her to change her life by moving south for work.

Chunhui encouraged Yingzhi to reach out to her and make a fresh start.

If Yingzhi could leave everything behind and go to the south, her life might take a different turn.

However, Yingzhi was trapped.

She was married to a gambler, a selfish man with no sense of responsibility.

She lived in a society where wives were expected to endure domestic abuse and submit to their husbands.

Guiqing’s mother never blamed her son.

She believed that he was once a good man and that Yingzhi was the reason he turned to gambling.

Yingzhi, suffering from loneliness and frustration, faced constant hardship.

In her music troupe, she encountered men who made inappropriate remarks, including Wentang, a married musician who wanted to sleep with her.

Desperate for money, Yingzhi eventually sacrificed her body to get loans.

Her unhappy marriage, her abusive in-laws, and her own reckless choices led to a downward spiral.

In the end, her story did not have a happy ending.

This novel, though not very long, is vividly written. Fang Fang portrays the outdated traditions of Chinese villages, where women’s rights were disregarded, and domestic violence was normalized.

Yingzhi’s lack of education, her impulsiveness, and her failure to make wise choices led her to a tragic fate.

Through this novel, readers will witness the life of a young woman trapped in a suffocating marriage, struggling against a society that offered her no way out.

💛 I'm grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this book.

I read this book directly after reading SOFT BURIAL, another book by Fang Fang I was grateful to receive an advance copy of, and they were quite the combination to read together. This novel goes deep into gender inequalities in rural China during the period in which it is set, and it was horrifying and compelling to see how awfully the protagonist is treated. Why she is in jail and awaiting execution isn't revealed upfront, but we gradually get to that point--and it was quite the incredible journey of getting there.

This novel was totally gripping and dark while being an absolutely searing and uncompromising social commentary. It follows Yingzhi, an ambitious young woman from a Chinese village looking to get ahead and unwilling to be stopped by her gender, or anything else. She starts performing in a local song-and-dance troupe, earns more money and admirers than she knows how to handle, and ends up trapped in a dead-end marriage.

The writing is brisk and the story moves quickly. There are some weird quirks of language, especially in the sharp and simple dialogue, but this seems to be characteristic of fiction translated from Chinese. In this case, it helps the worldbuilding of this simple village community and people who may not be able to express themselves precisely with language.

What really works is that Yingzhi herself is not particularly likeable or sympathetic. She reminded me a lot of Mr. Biswas from VS Naipaul's novel - she is singularly focused on building a house, but she runs all kinds of schemes and is only really interested in others insofar as they can help her get ahead. She takes out loans from family and doesn't pay them back. She uses her sexuality to make money. She is not interested in being a mother to her child. But she has life, verve, desire - which most of the characters around her seem to have beaten out of them, or else reduced to base pleasures. She is full of anger and a joy to watch. She is young and somewhat naive, but not innocent. That allows the close third person narration to be very critical of gender roles in society because of Yingzhi's instinct that "things shouldn't be like this".

I highly recommend the translator's afterword for context on Chinese society in the 90s and particularly the newly capitalist economy and the race to get ahead. It offered a great balance to the novel, which otherwise reads mostly as feminist.

I really liked the narrative of the book, and even though it didn't have many ups and downs, I enjoyed reading it.

Fang Fang's The Running Flame is a short but extremely powerful novel. Set in 1990s rural China, it deals with the patriarchal oppression the protagonist, Yingzhi, faces.
I devoured this book. Fang Fang writes in a way that's very straightforward at times, but poetic at others.

Sometimes when I read a translated novel, I find myself deeply wishing I could read it in its original form. This is one of those times for me. The translator's afterword says that one sentence, translated as "say her piece" (bixu shuochu yiqie) is more directly translated as "must get everything out". Small differences like these make me yearn to be able to read the text as it was originally written, and I deeply respect the translator for taking on the job of trying to translate it as accurately as possible.

Reading about Yinghzi is extremely depressing. She's a young girl, fresh out of high school, and forced to marry even when she does not truly want to. She tries to find some aspect of her life that she can have control over, and finds it. Joining a singing troupe, she finds some freedom from her suffocating situation.
The book isn't subtle in its patriarchal themes, but it isn't supposed to be. What it is subtle in is the socio-economic aspect. Yinghzi finds some sense of freedom not only in being flirtatious, but in earning her own money. She becomes somewhat obsessed with the idea of building and owning her own house.

I feel like I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. Fang Fang is an amazing author, able to weave important subjects into a compelling story without making them seem forced in the slightest. The thing that touches me most of all is that both of the books I've read by her seem to be actual truths. First, Soft Burial, based on a story told to her. Now, The Running Flame, based on an interview she did of a woman that was in jail. Fang Fang managed to write a beautiful, compelling story, tackling the issues that a young woman in rural China faced.

a dramatic and interesting text about china in the 90s, filled with tradition and patriarchal beliefs. a fast read that i devoured. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

I mean damn, this is a depressing read.

I read in the authors note that Fang Fang wanted us to look at this with a less bias lens…but can we really?

Regardless of Yingzhi’s indiscretions, she did not deserve the way she was treated by him and his family and in turn, her own. It really does force you to take a closer look at gender inequality and there were many things in here that made me angry.
There were a lot of questions around her brand of motherhood, particularly giving her son a name that means ‘trash’ and failing to connect with him at all. For most of the story it was like he didn’t exist to her at all- perhaps he was just a plot point and her feelings toward him as a child were irrelevant.
I was also shocked to find out in the authors note that this is based on true events. I would have loved to know more but couldn’t find the source material when I searched.

All in all this was a good read, I certainly wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but I did leave with a lot of thoughts and feelings.

Fang Fang's »The Running Flame« is a powerful exploration of a woman’s struggle against societal constraints in China, set against the backdrop of the transformative 1990s. The novel opens with Yingzhi, a young woman on death row, reflecting on her life choices and the circumstances that led her there. This framing device creates immediate tension as readers are drawn into her desperate need to recount her story.

Yingzhi's journey starts in a rural village, where she dreams of something better. Joining a song-and-dance troupe brings excitement and new experiences but things take a turn when she gets pregnant unexpectedly. Forced into a troubled marriage and an unwanted life, Yingzhi's emotional rollercoaster and growing desperation lead to a violent act, which also serves as a commentary on gender roles in China.

Fang Fang paints a vivid picture of China in the '90s, contrasting the lively buzz of economic change with the harsh reality faced by women like Yingzhi. The mood is heavy with tension and despair, underscoring the weight of outdated tradition. You can feel Yingzhi's loneliness and frustration as she tries to navigate a world that doesn't understand or support her situation.

The writing is both poetic and raw, bringing Yingzhi's inner thoughts and emotions to life with striking clarity. Fang Fang doesn't shy away from tough subjects like violence and inequality, making readers confront uncomfortable truths about gender-based violence in today's society. While the narrative is gripping, it sometimes leans heavily into melodrama, which may detract from its overall impact.

Fang Fang is a prominent voice in modern Chinese literature, known for tackling social issues head-on. Her background in journalism adds authenticity to Yingzhi's experiences and the larger social commentary within the book. »The Running Flame« not only tells an engrossing story but also sparks important discussions about women's rights and societal change in China.

In the end, the novel is a thought-provoking look at the struggles of women caught between tradition and modernity. It invites readers to think about the broader issues raised by Yingzhi's story while giving an intimate glimpse into one woman's fight for independence in a rapidly changing world.

This is a book worth reading for its cultural insights into being a young woman in an oppressive regime - however, something about the prose feels flat and rather superficial.

I also didn't appreciate the language feeling so American ('you are such an asshole!') which feels like a disjunction between the setting and the writing.

Worth a read for the Chinese setting.

This was a good book with a lot of emotion. The strong themes of gender, money, power, choice, and loss or so well spoken in this book. The author did a good job at covering these themes for multiple viewpoints. I also loved learning about different cultures in this book.


Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

This is a translated novel, set in a village in China. It is set in the late 90s, which I gathered from Michael Berry’s (translator) note, as the the novel itself does not explicitly reference the time (although there may be cultural/historical cues that I may have missed given my limited understanding of Chinese contemporary history). But in a way, the time it’s set in doesn’t matter because the author, Fang Fang, wrote this over 20 years ago, but the cultural setting is still the same when it comes to patriarchal cultural systems and beliefs! It was surprising that some of the dialogues between the characters could very well have been set in any other country, and they’d still be frustratingly relateable. Hence, the story is timeless, although what that says about human societies is very sad.

This was a short read, and quite fast-paced. I definitely want to read more from this writer, and I’m crossing my fingers that her other novels will also be translated soon!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!