Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier
沉香屑 ˑ 第一炉香
"女人就像是飞蛾，在黑暗中飞向那唯一的一束光，她们只有真正扑上去的时候，才会分辨出那究竟是光还是火"。
Set in the 1930s colony of Hong Kong, the Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier, depicts the decadence of a Shanghai girl and her struggle between love and money and the compromises she makes for them as she turns from college student to playgirl.
The novella was initially serialized in the Shanghai magazine, Violet (紫罗兰), from the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school (鴛鴦蝴蝶派), in 1943; its publication made Eileen Chang a literary star in Shanghai. The story starts with the burning of aloeswood incense; and the extinguishing of the incense indicates the end of the story, the girl giving up on her hopes, and the desperate compromise of her fate.
The protagonist, Ge Weilong, a Shanghai high school student, refuges to Hong Kong following her parents after the Japanese landed in Shanghai on August 13, 1937. To continue her study in Hong Kong against the wishes of her father, Weilong turns to her estranged aunt, Madam Liang, a rich widow who inherits a large fortune from an old wealthy man to which she is concubine.
Madam Liang lives out her days by throwing parties and flirting with other rich men and she uses Weilong as an asset to attract and retain these suitors. At a party at Madam Liang’ home, Weilong meets and falls in love with a young gentleman of dual heritage, George Qiao. She marries him, but he is a playboy who cannot return the same feelings for her and has no commitment to the marriage. To keep her husband, she suffers from Qiao's infidelities, and she continues to work for Madam Liang, deciding to spend her life supporting her husband financially. At times, she cannot believe her reality- a complete betrayal to her initial pursuit. The novella resonates with readers through the construction of ironic character dialogs and vibrant descriptions of the setting, using material objects to contrast western and eastern values. The Hong Kong director, Xu Anhua 许鞍华, revisited the novella recently and adapted it into a film in 2019.