The Dream Of The Red Chamber (background) I talked about the book in an Opuss ages ago, and now I've finally (nearly) finished all my exams, it feels to be the right time to introduce the Dream of the Red Chamber. It was written by Cao Xueqing (In Chinese order, we write the surname first, so his surname is Cao) and Gao E. Xueqing died before he could finish the novel so Gao E wrote the last 40 chapters of the book. The book was written in Qing Dynasty, roughly 400 to 200 years from now so all the traditions and customs described in the book are truly amazing. The first half of the novel went on sale first and people at that time were crying out for a copy of the novel. It had never happened before that a half finished novel could have such popularity. The book was also banned by the government due to its descriptions of sex, although that is not quite the main focus of the book. The book was against the mainstream idea in its respect to women and criticism of men. I'll talk more about it later in more details. I'm re-reading the book at the moment and hope I can get more out of it.