The Good Women of Fudi

The Good Women of Fudi by Liu Hong weaves a narrative where Imperial China meets Edwardian England in an epic story of loves lost and gained, set during the aftermath of the Opium Wars.

Best friends Jiali and Wu Fang know that no man is a match for them. In their small harbour town of Fudi, they practise sword fighting, write couplets to one another, and strut around dressed as men. Jiali is a renowned poet, and Wu Fang is determined to become China's first female surgeon. However, when Wu Fang returns from medical training in Japan, she is horrified to learn of Jiali's marriage to a man who cannot even match her couplets. She also finds herself confused by her intense feelings of jealousy towards her friend's new husband, Yanbu.

Charles, an ocean man, arrives in Fudi to start a new life. He shuns the company of his fellow foreigners, choosing instead to spend time with his new colleague Yanbu, his wife Jiali, and her friend Wu Fang. Over several months, he grows close to them all in increasingly complex ways. But what will happen when he is forced to choose between his country and his friends?

As tensions rise between the Manchu rulers and the local people, and with foreign battleships gathering at sea, loyalties will be tested in ways Jiali, Wu Fang, Yanbu, and Charles could never have imagined.

The Good Women of Fudi is described as "a torrid romance that shows how love can transcend traditional gender expectations and national borders." - Driftless Area Review

Praise for Wives of the East Wind:

"A fine combination of delicacy and steeliness... the yin and yang of marriage, Weyna's barbed relationship with her widowed mother, loyalty misplaced and rediscovered makes for a warm and understated novel." - The Guardian

"The simple style of the narrative is perfectly in keeping with the story - a tale of ordinary people who are not ordinary at all. There are moments of humour mixed with great hardship and the characters face their trials with dignity. This is a moving, non-judgemental novel set in China's recent past." - Historical Novel Society