Who is Gigi?Her identity is difficult to define: whore?mistress?Artist's muse?Or is she an artist herself?Paris Montparnasse is a symbol of an era, and Gigi is the queen of Montparnasse in the late 1920s: she has worked as a mannequin, film actress, nightclub singer, and even became "the mainstay of Paris nightlife" .She is a witness and a participant of this era.Her autobiography is candid about her youth, her associations with artists, and anecdotes from her time as a nude model.The book and its authors are considered legendary by many, including Hemingway. In 1929, Hemingway took pleasure in writing the foreword to the English edition of The Memoirs of Gigi, the first time he had written a foreword for anyone else.He wrote: "If you're tired of the lady writers of the day, this is a book by a woman who was never a lady. For ten years, as far as our times allow, she has been the kind of woman we are. A person who is called a queen, of course, is completely different from a lady."

The purpose of planning the Chinese version of "Jiji's Memoirs" is first of all to make the words and stories of the memoirs look good.As Le Figaro puts it: "Her narrative is irresistible, like Mimi's narrative of 'the artist's life', and she speaks it better because her style is more earthy and naked. …Gigi, in her own way, is the goddess of down-and-out artists. She doesn’t write much, and they pop off the page: rough, happy, drinkable, something creative and chaotic.” And then there’s The legend of Gigi.Despite poverty and hardships, she is curious about life and extremely energetic.She lived through such a difficult life, yet she became the center of the last artistic movement of this era, and she can unashamedly occupy her place in it.Her legendary experience has the power to move people in the ordinary.

The first part of the book consists of Hemingway's preface and autobiographical body.In addition to the autobiography, we invited famous translator and translator Ma Zhencheng, cultural critic and columnist Xiaobai, deputy director of Fudan University Visual Culture Research Center and photography critic Gu Zheng to write several essays from their own unique perspectives. The second part of this book will not only enable readers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of Gigi herself, the legendary era and the legendary city she lived in, but also make a further study of the subtle interaction between people-time-city. think.

All the pictures and materials in this book are provided by Professor Gu Zheng, and the preface of Hemingway’s English version is provided by Mr. Wu Qianli, a doctor in the United States. I would like to express my gratitude here.