In July of 1952, Shanghai writer Eileen Chang moved to Hong Kong alone, in order to "continue her studies at the University of Hong Kong that had been interrupted by the War of Resistance Against Japan". Although the Three-Antis and Five-Antis Movements had not yet spread to cultural circles at that time, Eileen Chang seemed to have anticipated the more severe persecution that would later happen, and took the initiative to remove herself from it. As her younger brother Zhang Zijing would later remember it, the two met for the last time in the spring of 1951. When Zijing asked his sister's plans in the future, she replied, "I certainly won't be wearing anything as boring as a Mao suit".

In 1954, Eileen Chang published two novels — "The Rice Sprout Song" and "Naked Earth" — in Hong Kong. The stories described the hardships of farmers during the land reform period; they were supposedly adapted from the stories of real people. Her works were inconsistent with the Chinese Communist Party's mainstream style at that time, and as such, they were criticized as 'poisonous weeds'. In Mainland China's literary circles, Eileen Chang was also regarded as a negative model, an attitude that persisted until 'reform and opening up' in the 1990s. However, to this day, "The Rice Sprout Song" and "Naked Earth" are still banned by the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1955, Eileen Chang went to the United States via Hong Kong to settle down. Later, she engaged in translation and novel textual research at the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Chinese Studies, while also writing freelance. Many writers with similar backgrounds to Chang, such as Su Qing, Guan Lu, and Zhou Shoujuan, stayed in Mainland China and did not escape brutal political persecution.

Reference materials: "My Sister Eileen Chang"; "Biography of Eileen Chang"; "The Rice Sprout Song"; "Naked Earth"; "Because of Understanding, There is Compassion: The Wonderful Eileen Chang"; Education Encyclopedia