India Ink is a full-length romance novel by Yi Shu, telling of a mismatched love between Chen Yujin, a young man from a scholarly family of modest comfort, and Liu Yinzi, a girl from a poor household. The story begins during Chen Yujin's summer in Hong Kong studying Chinese, when he accompanies a friend to an ad shoot and falls in love at first sight with a girl living in a rooftop shack, Liu Yinzi. Abandoned by her father as a child, Yinzi grows up with a mother and sister whose affection is weighed down by too many practical burdens; with her striking face she becomes an advertiser's darling, is spotted by investor Hong Jukun, and enters the film and television world, her star rising. Chen Yujin advances in his studies and is always ready to stand up for Yinzi, yet at every difficult crossroads Yinzi turns and leaves him. The gap in family background, life experience, and outlook means the relationship can never reach fulfillment; afterward Chen Yujin travels far, marries, and settles into a scholar's life, while Yinzi continues to drift through the world of fame and profit, and once cares for Hong Jukun in his low point. Written in a clean, crisp style, the novel portrays the choices and dignity of urban men and women, and the lingering regret of what brushes past between "getting" and "losing"; it is one of Yi Shu's rare full-length works with an especially strong romantic flavor. The book also has a traditional-Chinese edition from Cosmos Books and simplified editions from Oriental Press and Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House.
Flower City Publishing House focuses on literary publishing, covering categories such as classic works, foreign literature, folk literature, Eastern philosophy, essays and miscellaneous writings, and social novels. Representative books in the library include Lu Xun's Call to Arms, Lao She's Camel Xiangzi and Four Generations Under One Roof, editions related to Confucius's The Analects, and Chinese translations of foreign classics such as Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. Its author resources include classic writers such as Lu Xun, Lao She, and Confucius, as well as translators and scholars such as Li Gang, Chen Puqing, and Zhang Ling. The publisher's characteristic approach is to organize editions around literary classics and celebrated Chinese and foreign works, while also including folk literature and Eastern philosophy titles. Public information is limited, so this introduction emphasizes the publishing directions reflected in the books held in the library.
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