★ The debut full-length novel on women’s themes by renowned writer and screenwriter Shu Qiao—winner of the third leg of the 2024 “Contemporary Literature Rally”!
★ Set against the backdrop of an East Asian patriarchal family, this work explores female growth, awakening, and self-redemption. Beneath the guise of a suspenseful crime narrative lies the heart of a story about three sisters struggling to survive in a stifling environment.
★ The narrative follows the life journeys of three sisters within a patriarchal household, spanning more than thirty years. It delves into themes of female development, familial bonds, education, and working life. As the story unfolds, a cold-case mystery closely tied to the protagonists’ family is gradually unraveled, with twists and turns that keep readers deeply engaged.
★ More than just a suspense novel, it is an epic tale of female resilience—how women carry their wounds and continue to live. Rather than offering a perfect solution to healing, it portrays the arduous path women take, under the constraints of patriarchy, to find and define themselves through “running”—both literally and metaphorically.

In 1974, Li Yuan was born into a rural family in northern Jiangsu. As the second child, she grew up with her father, Li Dingliang, who was widely regarded in the village as the most talented stonemason and carpenter. In the early 1980s, as ancient temples and gardens across the country were in need of restoration, Li Dingliang’s superb craftsmanship earned him an opportunity to work on repairing historic sites in Suzhou, so he moved there with his entire family. While living in Suzhou, Li Yuan narrowly escaped harm from a serial offender who molested women, and at the same time, a brutal rape-murder case shook the local community. As Li Dingliang’s job took him from place to place, Li Yuan, an avid reader, found herself constantly uprooted, changing schools again and again—a life marked by displacement. And lingering alongside her growth was the deep shadow cast by that earlier incident.

In 1992, the Li family arrived in Shenzhen, which was undergoing reform and opening-up. Amidst the sweeping changes of the times, Li Yuan and her sisters each embarked on divergent paths. Her eldest sister, Li Xian, got married; her youngest sister, Li Ting, ran away from home. Eventually, Li Yuan too mustered the courage to leave, and only in middle age, looking back on her journey, did she gradually uncover the cruel truths hidden within her family…

Story Analysis:
Father Li Dingliang named his three daughters Li Xian, Li Yuan, and Li Ting—each name embodying traditional society’s “ideal” expectations for women: “graceful,” “perfect,” and “elegant.” Yet this naming practice is, at its core, a form of social conditioning; the character “ting” even subtly carries the prohibition of “pause, stop, or you cannot go on,” revealing how such seemingly beautiful words actually suppress a woman’s true self.

Through the different fates of the three sisters, the novel portrays the various survival strategies women adopt under the shadow of patriarchy:
Eldest sister Li Xian tries to liberate herself through marriage, seeking escape from her family of origin.
Second sister Li Yuan (the protagonist) believes that knowledge can change one’s destiny, pursuing independence through writing and education—but comes to realize that knowledge itself can also impose new constraints.
Youngest sister Li Ting chooses a more radical path, resorting to any means necessary to survive, seizing every chance to break free.

The novel blends elements of suspense and spans more than thirty years. As an adult, Li Yuan returns to her hometown as an investigative journalist, reopening a cold case that had remained unsolved for over two decades. The ultimate truth points to the cruelty within her own family—the murderer turns out to be her authoritarian father. This elevates the novel’s exploration of women’s plight to a condemnation of the very nature of patriarchal violence.

“Running” serves as a recurring motif throughout the book, functioning as a poetics of resistance. The protagonist, Li Yuan, runs ceaselessly in her dreams and constantly flees in reality. Author Shu Qiao defines “running” as an act of courage—striving with all one’s might “for that fragile freedom”—and as a survival strategy that allows one to preserve oneself amidst oppression.

Shu Qiao
Born in Shanghai in 1980, with ancestral roots in Wuxing, Zhejiang, she is a writer, screenwriter, and food enthusiast.
As the founder of the “Yue Shi Chinese Culture” project, she graduated from Fudan University and serves as the publisher and editor-in-chief of the magazine “Yue Shi Epicure,” as well as the producer of the documentary series “Yue Shi China.”
She has previously maintained personal columns in several magazines, including “Sanlian Life Week” and “Weekend,” and has published multiple collections of essays, including “Vitality Candy” and “The Chronicle of Gluttony.” She has also contributed to the screenplays of films such as “The Secret Visitor” and web series like “Tall Tower.”
Her novel “Double Feast” is soon to be adapted into a TV series of the same name, which is set to premiere.
She has published the full-length novel “Double Feast,” and its short-story version has been translated into Thai and Italian and adapted into a film. A newly created web series based on the same work is slated for release.