Abstract: The special identities of Zhang Ailing and Hu Lancheng make their love in the tumultuous times more legendary. Biographers of Zhang have paid great attention to the love, while Zhang herself also reviewed the experience in her novel Little Reunion. Throughout Zhang’s affair with Hu, the two had been trapped in the quagmire of multiple love, which was indeed an unavoidable ethical dilemma for Zhang. The way in which the love affair is depicted varies with the biographers, featuring regretful, delightful or resentful tones. The comparative reading of the different narratives may cast a different light on understanding Zhang Ailing and her works.

Key words: Zhang Ailing, multiple love, biography, Little Reunion

Liu Ping, PhD in Literature, is Associate Professor of Literature at Anhui Normal University. Her research interests are Western literature, literary theory and comparative literature. She is the author of Outline of Aesthetics in Historicism(2014). E-mail: lp99w@163.com.