Petals unfolding

Growing up in post-cultural revolution China gave Fan Wu a real life canvas on which to base her first novel, February Flowers. Like her main characters, Ming and Yan, Wu attended university in China in the early 90s, a time when the economy was opening up after years of Communism and when the culture was changing at a rapid rate.

Opposites of each other in so many ways, Ming and Yan form an unlikely friendship. Ming is introverted and bookish; wholly committed to her studies and with little interest in boys. Yan is a party girl with a mysterious past who seeks to escape her minority status by marrying a local Guangzhou man.

Yan treats Ming almost as a novelty for her own entertainment and sees her as a representation of the innocence she lost long ago. For Ming, Yan is the experienced woman of the world with fashionable clothes and an exciting lifestyle. February Flowers takes place over the course of eleven months and during that time each girl’s understanding of the other never really extends beyond their initial impressions.

Wu skirts around the edges of Ming’s potentially sexual feelings towards Yan yet stops short before delving in and letting this sub-plot develop. I’m left wondering whether it’s simply Wu’s style to let the reader draw his/her own conclusions or is she hesitant to explore a gay storyline given her still relatively conservative Chinese audience. Perhaps a little of both.

Wu’s prose is quite innocent and straightforward. English is her second language after all and at first I found her style a little jarring but I soon got used to it and actually found it a refreshing change to the inflated, allegorical prose of some literary fiction.

However, I found the depth of February Flowers to be limited by Ming’s first person narrative. It may have been Wu’s intention to let the reader make up their own mind about Yan however, for me, this lack of insight into Yan’s perspective simply had the effect of further distancing me from her. The information I was given about Yan via Ming was neither enough to help me draw a conclusion about her nor even really care about her. And this all hinges on Ming’s lack of understanding of Yan; Yan remains an exotic mystery to her and so that translates to mystery for the reader.

The character I found most interesting was neither Ming nor Yan but rather the changing face of Chinese society. It plays such an important role in Wu’s story, ever present and such an influence on the two main characters. The constant discord between traditional Chinese culture and the emerging Westernised culture is highlighted so well when the girls’ university enters a Top Ten Campus competition. For the duration of the competition previously permissible behaviours, such as smoking and public displays of affection, are prohibited. To be considered an excellent campus means regressing to the conservative mores of yesteryear and so China remains in the conflict between traditional and modern values.

February Flowers is an impressive debut from Wu. It offers an insight into contemporary Chinese life not often seen in literature of Chinese origin and will leave the reader wanting more of the same.

Karin van Heerwaarden

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February Flowers

Author: Fan Wu
Publisher: Picador
Price: $32.95

Read our interview with Fan Wu here