Lust, Caution (novella)

Lust, Caution (Chinese: 色，戒; pinyin: Sè, Jiè) is a novella by the Chinese writer Eileen Chang, first published in 1979. It is set in Shanghai, Republic of China during World War II. Reportedly, the short story "took Chang more than two decades to complete". The film Lust, Caution by Ang Lee was based on this novel.

In 2008, Hong Kong magazine Muse released an unpublished English manuscript by Elieen Chang, which was clearly an earlier draft of Lust, Caution. The original title typewritten in English, was The Spyring or Ch'ing Kê! Ch'ing Kê! The manuscript was dated to the 1950s and was bequeathed to Chinese-American translator Roland Soong upon Chang's death. Soong decided to release the manuscript when Lust, Caution the movie hit the cinemas.

In China, during the Japanese occupation in World War II, a young student and former actress named Wong Chia Chi has agreed to be the central figure in the assassination of a Japanese collaborator, Yee. Using the alias of Mak Tai Tai (Mrs. Mak) and the fictional Mr. Mak, Chia Chi befriends Mr. Yee's wife, Yee Tai Tai, and eventually seduces her husband in order to kill him. However, she falls in love with him and just before her comrades try to kill him, she warns him. He escapes and has the whole group executed, including Wong Chia Chi.

Lust, Caution was first translated into English by Julia Lovell and published in 2007.

In 2009, an abridged version of Lust, Caution was read by Greg Wise as part of a series of online Jackanory style online films for The Carte Noire Readers.