Fan Dai

Butterfly Lovers: A Tale of the Chinese Romeo and Juliet Fan Dai

A beautiful girl disguises herself as a man and lives under one roof with a young male scholar for three years without revealing her true identity. They become "sworn brothers," soul mates and lovers. In a world in which marriage is determined by social status and arranged by parents, what is their inescapable Romeo-and-Juliet-type of fate?

The novel is based upon a popular Chinese folktale that has moved millions to tears. There are various music, movie and drama adaptations of the story in the Chinese language, but this is the first English publication in original fiction form. The Chinese title of the story is Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.