Böcker av Qian Zhongshu

Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese war, this work recounts the exuberant misadventures of the hapless hero Fang Hung-chien, who after aimlessly studying in Europe at his family's expense returns to Shanghai armed with a bogus degree from a fake university. On the liner back, Fang's life becomes deeply entangled with those of two Chinese beauties.

In a novel set in middle-class Chinese society on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, Fang-Hung-chien obtains a teaching position, using a degree from a fake American university, in a Chinese university--where the pseudo-intellectuals become the butt of the author's satire.