Han Bangqing (Chinese: 韓邦慶; pinyin: Hán Bāngqìng; Wade–Giles: Han Pang-ch'ing; 1856–1894),^[1] also known by the given name Ji (寄), courtesy name Ziyun (子雲), and pseudonyms Taixian (太仙), Dayi Shanren (大一山人), Hua Ye Lian Nong (花也憐儂), and Sanqing (三慶), was a late-Qing dynasty Chinese writer from Lou County, Songjiang Prefecture, Jiangsu (now a district of Shanghai).^[2]

Biography

As a child he went with his father to live in Beijing.^[3] He failed at the imperial examinations many times,^[1] even though he had a reputation as a prodigy in his childhood,^[2] and eventually wrote for the newspaper Shen Bao in Shanghai. In 1892, he started what can be considered China's first for-profit literary magazine, the Wonderbook of Shanghai (海上奇書; Haishang qishu), which lasted eight months,^[3] and in which he published his novel Shanghai Hua in instalments.^[1] The novel has been widely acclaimed as a classic (particularly by Lu Xun, Hu Shih, and Eileen Chang) but is little read today, likely due to its being written entirely in Wu Chinese, unintelligible to Mandarin speakers.^[1]

It was translated into Mandarin and English by Eileen Chang. After Chang's death in 1995, the translation was discovered among her papers and published in English as The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai in 2005 after revision by Eva Hung.^[1][3]

Not long after publication of the novel, in 1894, Han Bangqing died, age 38.