Fire and Rain (novel)


Fire and Rain is a 1964 Taiwanese novel by romance novelist Chiung Yao. One of her best-known works, it has been adapted multiple times into film and TV dramas.

Plot

The story follows a young girl Lu Yi-ping whose father Lu Chen-hua had for years been a warlord in Northeast China, where he forcibly married many girls, before fleeing the 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution for Taiwan. In Taipei, Lu Yi-ping and her mother live in utter poverty, and she swears revenge on her father's household, who live in luxury. After realizing her half-sister Lu Ru-ping fancies reporter Ho Shu-huan, she actively seeks his love as part of her scheme. She and Ho Shu-huan fall in love, but Ho is furious when he discovers she has used him. In his fury, he promises Ru-ping he would marry her instead. Yi-ping is heartbroken and becomes ill. Ho Shu-huan is very concerned and tells Yi-ping that he didn't mean to leave her and that he doesn't actually love Ru-ping. Yi-ping exposes the affair of Ru-ping's mother Hsueh-chin, and Ru-ping, who has been on an emotional roller-coaster all this time, commits suicide. Lu Chen-hua also dies from shock and anger, leaving Yi-ping full of remorse. By this point, Yi-ping has forgiven the Lu household, but it's too late to save her love with Ho Shu-huan. He leaves her for good.

Characters



Note: Lu Hsin-ping who died in the late 1940s was 7 years older than Lu Yi-ping.

Translations

The novel has also been translated to Dutch, Danish, Indonesian and Vietnamese, among other languages.

Adaptations