1920s: family background

Eileen Chang 张爱玲, childhood name Zhang Ying 张瑛, was born in 1920 into an illustrious political family in Shanghai. Her grandmother, Li Ju'ou 李菊耦, was the daughter of Li Hongzhang 李鸿章, and her grandfather, Zhang Peilun 张佩纶, had been an important late-Qing official. Her father, Zhang Tingzhong 张廷众, though well versed in classical Chinese literature and contemporary Western literature thanks to his privileged upbringing, lived off his family inheritance and ended up as an opium addict. Her mother, Huang Yifan 黄逸梵. came from a famous family in Hunan province. Her only brother, Zhang Zijing 张子静was born in 1921. Her family moved to Tianjin and lived in the British concession in 1922, and returned to Shanghai in 1928.

1930s: formative years

It was in 1930, when Chang entered the sixth grade at the Huang shi 黄氏Primary School, that she was given the Chinese school name爱玲,translated from her English name, Eileen, by her mother. In the same year her parents divorced, her father remarried and her mother moved out with her paternal aunt to live in the French concession. Her first piece of fiction, ‘Buxing de ta'不幸的她, was published in 1932 in Feng zao凤藻, the school magazine of St. Mary's Hall Girls' School, which she entered in the previous year. In 1937, the year she graduated from St. Mary's Hall, Chang was beaten by her father and was held in custody at home for six months for defying her stepmother. She eventually escaped in 1938 to live with her mother and aunt. Her short article recounting this experience was published in an English newspaper in the same year. In 1939 her mother left Shanghai for Singapore. In the same year, with her hopes of studying in England dashed by the outbreak of war in Europe, she attended the University of Hong Kong, majoring in English. During her study there from 1939 to 1941, she was awarded the Nemazee Donor Scholarship and the Ho Fook Scholarship for Best Sophomore.

1940s: golden days

While at the University of Hong Kong Chang formed a close friendship with her classmate Fatima Mohideen, whom she referred to as `Yanying'炎樱in her works. In 1942 when Hong Kong came under Japanese occupation, Chang abandoned her studies and returned with Fatima to Shanghai, where she shared an apartment with her aunt. Most of her major works were published in this period, which represented the high point of her writing career. In early 1944 Hu Lancheng 胡兰成 , an official of the puppet government in Japanese-occupied China, impressed, by Chang's talent, made her acquaintance through Su Qing 苏清, another well-known woman writer. A romantic relationship ensued which led to their common-law marriage in the same year. However, tainted by Hu's traitor past and his unfaithfulness, their relationship eventually turned sour. They separated in 1947.

1950s: from PRC to Hong Kong

Following the establishment of the PRC, Chang continued to publish her works in newspapers. Shiba chin 十八春, first serialized in Yibao亦报 in Shanghai in 1948, was published in book form in 1951. Xiao Ai 小艾 was serialized in Yibao in the same year. In the summer of 1952 Chang was invited to attend the First Conference of Literary Representatives. However, uncertain of her career future in the PRC, she opted to leave and re-enrolled at the University of Hong Kong in September 1952. But she went to Tokyo in November the same year. Unable to secure a job there, she returned to Hong Kong and worked for the United States Information Service (USIS). Through her work there she made the acquaintance of Mae Soong NEX and Stephen Soong 宋淇, who were to become her lifelong friends. In 1953 her father died in Shanghai.

I950s: from Hong Kong to USA

In 1954 The Rice Sprout Song, written in English, and Chang's own Chinese translation Yang ge秧歌: were published in Hong Kong. Chili zhi lian 赤地之恋, a project commissioned by USIS, and her own English translation Naked Earth were published in the same year. In 1955 Chang left Hong Kong for the US, and met up with her old friend Fatima in New York. Soon after her arrival she paid a visit to Hu Shi 胡适, who had been a family friend. In 1956 she was awarded a two-year stay at the MacDowell Colony, an artists' colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. She met Ferdinand Reyher there and married him in New York in August. In September the same year 'Stale Mates', written in English, was published in The Reporter, a California magazine. In 1957 ‘Wusi yishi’ 五四遗事, her own Chinese translation of Stale Mates', was published in Literary Magazine v4_,fitm , Taipei. Her mother died in England in the same year. In November 1958 Chang and Reyher were granted residence at the Huntington Hartford Foundation Colony in California. In May 1959 they left and moved to San Francisco.

1960s: Hong Kong revisited

In 1960 Chang was granted American citizenship. In 1961 she was commissioned to write and adapt film scripts (e.g. Ren cai hang 人财两得, Nan bei yijia qin 南北一家亲) in Hong Kong. She made a stop-over in Taiwan, her only visit to the island, to do research on a work of fiction she was planning to write. Under the arrangement of a friend who worked for the American Consulate in Taiwan, she met with a group of young writers including Bai Xianyong白先勇, and Chen Ruoxi陈若曦. She wrote an English article, 'A Return to the Frontier', about the visit, which was published in The Reporter in March 1963. In 1962, she returned to America and joined Reyher in Washington. Her commitments in the following years included Writer-in-residence at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1966, and Fellow of the Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1967-69. Her husband, Ferdinand Reyher, died in 1967. In 1968 Crown Publishing Ltd. in Taipei started to reissue her works in .a new edition. This period saw Chang regain her fame in Taiwan as well as Hong Kong.

1970s: following The Dream

Before finally settling in Los Angeles in 1972, Chang worked from 1969 to 1971 as Researcher in the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1971 The Golden Cangue', her own English translation of ‘Jinsuo ji’金锁记, was published in Twentieth Century Chinese Stories (New York: Columbia University Press) edited by C.T.Hsia夏志清. The 1970s also saw the publication of her research on Honglou meng 红楼梦. Honglou mengyan红楼梦魇, a collection of her monographs on Honglou meng, was published in Taipei in 1977.

1980s: Shanghai connection

In 1981 Haishang hua liezhuan 海上花列传 [Sing-song Girls of Shanghai] with Chang's Mandarin annotations of the original Wu dialect sections was published in Taipei. In 1984 her own English translation of the first two chapters of Singsong Girls of Shanghai was published in Chinese Middlebrow Fiction from the Ch'ing and Early Republican Eras, a Renditions Book (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press) edited by Liu Ts'un-yan 柳存仁:. In the same year ‘Jinsuo ji’was reprinted in Shoubuo 收获magazine in Shanghai, signalling a renewed interest in Chang's works in mainland China.

1990s: twilight years

In 1991 Chang's aunt died in Shanghai. In 1994 Crown. Publishing Ltd. in Taipei published a complete edition of Eileen Chang's works in fifteen volumes, including Duzhao ji对照记[Reflections: Words and Pictures]. In the same year Chang was given a 'Special Achievement Award' by The China Times时报in Taiwan. She died in Westwood, Los Angeles in early September 1995.

张爱玲（1920年9月30日−1995年9月8日），本名张瑛，祖籍河北丰润，生于上海。中国现代著名作家。张爱玲的家世显赫，外曾祖父李鸿章，祖父张佩纶都是清末名臣。1931年入读上海圣玛利亚女中，改名爱玲。1939年考入香港大学。1942年香港沦陷后辍学回到上海。这之后直到1945年的四年间，张爱玲在沦陷区的上海大放异彩，她一生中最重要的作品都是在这个时期诞生的。1950年代后，张爱玲经香港辗转到美国，1973年后定居洛杉矶，晚年于寓所深居简出，直至病逝。

1920年9月30日（一说为1921年），张爱玲出生在上海公共租界西区的麦根路313号（今静安区康定东路87弄，临近苏州河，周边是鸿章纺织染厂）的一幢建于清末的仿西式住宅中。她的父母给她取名叫做张煐。张爱玲家世显赫，祖父张佩纶是清末名臣，祖母是晚清洋务派领袖朝廷重臣李鸿章的女儿。父亲张廷重是典型的遗少，母亲黄素琼则是留过洋的新女性。

1922年，张爱玲2岁时，全家搬家到天津英租界。在那里，张爱玲四岁进入私塾学习。同年，母亲黄素琼出国留学。1928年，张家又搬回了上海。

1930年，张煐被改名为张爱玲，这是为了上中学报名方便。“爱玲”为英文“Eileen”的译音。同年，张爱玲的父母离婚，张爱玲跟随父亲生活。

1931年，张爱玲开始在上海白利南路美国圣公会所办的贵族学校圣玛利亚女中就读。

1932年，张爱玲在该校的校刊上发表了她的短篇小说处女作《不幸的她》。1933年，在该校刊发表她的第一篇散文《迟暮》。1937年，在一些刊物上发表了多篇小说，并在这一年从中学毕业。

1934年，张爱玲的父亲张廷重与民国政府前总理孙宝琦之女孙用番在国际饭店举行婚礼。1938年，张爱玲与继母发生冲突后，离家出走。1939年，考入香港大学文学院。[2]成绩优异，连获奖学金，并有机会赴伦敦大学深造。日战爆发后，不得不中断学业，回沪从事文学创作为生，租住赫德路爱丁顿公寓65室（常德公寓），与姑母为邻。1943年，张爱玲发表几篇重要著作，包括《沉香屑第一炉香》、《倾城之恋》、《心经》等。

1943年，张爱玲结识胡兰成，并于1944年8月秘密结婚（婚礼上只有炎樱和胡兰成的侄女胡青芸在场）。一年之后，1945年8月，日本投降，胡兰成匿名逃亡。她与胡兰成在1947年离婚。

1948年，发表《十八春》（后来改名为《半生缘》）。

1952年，张爱玲离开上海，迁居到香港。到香港美国新闻处工作。

1955年，张爱玲赴美国定居。

1956年，她得到了Edward MacDowell Colony 的写作奖金。这一年她结识了剧作家赖雅，同年八月在纽约与赖雅结婚 。开始创作小说《秧歌》与《赤地之恋》，小说的故事背景是“三反、五反”时期。由于作品与当时中共的主流格调不合，被作为“毒草”而批判。在大陆文学界，张爱玲也因此长期被作为反面典型，直到改革开放之后才有所改观。

1957年—1964年，为香港电影业巨子陆运涛的电影懋业公司编写《情场如战场》等剧本。

1967年，改编短篇小说《金锁记》为《怨女》，又名《北地胭脂》。

1967年，赖雅去世，张爱玲获邀担任美国纽约雷德克里芙学校驻校作家，并且开始将清朝的长篇小说《海上花列传》 翻译成为英文。

1968年，《十八春》的内容经过修改以后重新定名为《半生缘》，在《皇冠》杂志、香港《星岛晚报》进行连载。

1973年，定居洛杉矶。

1991年，《张爱玲全集典藏版》由皇冠文学出版有限公司出版。

1995年9月8日，张爱玲逝世于洛杉矶寓所，享年74岁。同年9月19日，林式遵照其遗愿，同将她的遗体在洛杉机惠提尔玫瑰岗墓园火化。同年张之忌辰日（9月30日），林式同与几位文友将其骨灰撒在太平洋。遗物则由友人宋淇、邝文美夫妇处理，其中大部分交由皇冠出版社收藏。

1997年，旅美学者张错在美国南加大成立“张爱玲文物特藏中心”，得到宋淇遗孀邝文美的同意，送了南加州大学图书馆两箱张爱玲的遗稿，发现《海上花》英译稿竟就在其中。

张爱玲作品

张爱玲一生创作大量文学作品。类型包括小说、散文、电影剧本以及文学论著，她的书信也被人们作为著作的一部分加以研究。

张爱玲的作品《怨女》、《流言》、《半生缘》及《张爱玲短篇小说集》于1960、70年代先后由台北皇冠出版社重新出版，且于1980年代畅销海内外。张爱玲小说风格对台湾战后文坛的小说流派影响深远。电影剧本有由陈燕燕主演的《不了情》和《太太万岁》。

2004年2月，台湾皇冠文化集团在其50周年社庆之际，宣布推出张爱玲的遗作《同学少年都不贱》，这本突然曝光的著作据称是张爱玲的最后一部遗稿。其后该书的简体中文版权也由天津人民出版社获得。

2005年，皇冠出版社与大陆的书商合作，委托陈子善先生担任主编，收录她以往未曾正式结集出版的散文、电影剧作、亲笔插画和个人遗物的照片，辑成新书《沉香》。