The Significance of Female Figures in Love in a Fallen City "In 1918, Lu Xun asserted that whenever the country seemed on the verge of collapse, Chinese men would thrust their women forward as sacrificial victims to obscure their own cowardice and helplessness in the face of the onslaught of aggressors and rebels" (Louie 15). Eileen Chang critiques the social status of females during the transitional period before the modern era in China throughout her novella Love in a Fallen City. Eileen Chang was influenced by the New Culture Movement in China, which promoted gender equality and education. Also, Eileen Chang 's mother who was a "self-possessed, westward-learning" (Zhang xi) female, enormously impacted her philosophy thoughts. Through the …show more content…
Finally, Liusu is able to marry the man she loves, and gains her social status back. Fan Liuyuan recites a poem from the Book of Songs in the novella, "Death, life, separation, with thee there is happiness; thy hand in mind, we will grow old together" (Zhang 149). As Fan Liuyuan interprets, "even there are many difficulties in life we still insist on saying I love you forever" (Louie 39). Many critics have mentioned that Fan Liuyuan lives in Britain most of the time, he is unlikely able to recite the classic poem like this. "However, as a playboy it makes sense that he has memorized these phrases associated with everlasting love and weddings in order to ingratiate himself with women" (Louie 22). Even though, he wins Liusu 's heart, and is able to find his perfect match. In the novella, the narrator says that "Hong Kong 's defeat had brought Liusu victory. But in this unreasonable world, who can distinguish cause from effect? Who knows which is which? Did a great city fall so that she could be vindicated" (Zhang 167)? The fall of Hong Kong gives this couple some spaces to live together, to have an ordinary life. As the poem from the Book of Song says, humans are not able to control all the events, "but through natural turns of events and against all expectations" (Louie 23), the couple holds each other 's hands and gets married. Chang gives the story rather a happy ending, Fan Liuyuan is able to marry the woman he loves, and Liusu gets remarried, she gains back her social status. However, many scholars question that if wealth and social status are all Liusu desires. She achieves what the society expects of her, but maybe this is not what she desires in her deepest heart. "The disparity between social expectations and hidden personal desires ultimately leads to her frustration, indirectly highlighting the oppressed situation of women in China" (Louie 44). Overall, Liusu gains what society expects of her at the end of the novella, however, that leads to
Xiong uses battles, executions, assassinations, and scandals to appeal to readers of any genre. Once a reader gets into the book they are hooked in the epic events of the book and the deep look into the ruling class. Unfortunately, Xiong’s novel might somewhat difficult to get into for many readers with no experience in Chinese history. Xiong also attempts to utilize dialogue that often comes off as underdeveloped or simplistic.
“Dark trees in the landscape of love” by Kao Kalia Yang is reading about the lives of Hmong girls married white men and how their lives are different. Kalia Yang started the story talking about his nephew preference for black trees, not bright trees, showing that all colors of the trees are beautiful not just the bright ones. Then she talks about his husband and when she first saw his husband, she never taught to marry him. Aaron used to hear her given the public speech and one day he sends her an email inviting for breakfast. She accepted for lunch and they met at the Hmong restaurant, but it was just a casual meeting to talk about work.
In the movie “The Loving Story”, the director Nancy Buirski presents a story about love and fight for the right of interracial marriage and social justice. In 1958, a white man whose name Richard Loving and his black fiancée Mildred Jeter travelled from Virginia to Washington to get married in a time when interracial marriage was illegal in most of the states in the United States including Virginia, according to the movie. However, the director shows that Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested in Virginia when they came back for violating a Virginia law that forbidden marriage between people of different races. Therefore, the couple had to leave Virginia so that they can live together with their children in Washington, D.C. A long way from
“Her actions remind me that, even under unbearable circumstances, one can still believe in justice,” in David Henry Hwang’s foreword, in Ji-Li Jiang’s memoir Red Scarf Girl, commemorated even during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution anyone can overcome adversity (9). Ji-Li Jiang was a young teenager at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and living through a very political time in China’s history made Ji-Li into the person she is today. Ji-Li’s intelligence, her choices, and family devotion made her into the headstrong and successful person she is today. Even when Ji-li thought she was unintelligent, others saw she was wise. There were many moments when Ji-Li was reminded she was very smart.
Do we really love what we do? In the article “In the Name of Love,” Miya Tokumitsu covers the issue that doing what you love (DWYL) gives false hope to the working class. Tokumitsu reviews how those who are given jobs ultimately cannot truly love what they do because of the employers who make jobs possible. These same employers keep their employees overlooked.
Through analyzing the stories about their lives’ hardships and experiences, it is revealed that Suyuan’s American Dream is achieved by Jing-mei by going back to her own country, retrieving her two sisters, and makes the family whole again. The story of Suyuan and Jing-mei chasing their American Dream teaches us a lesson: Never gives up your dreams casually. One day, you will be thankful for your persistence, when the dream comes
It came to dominate my understanding of the discussion on the social and historical scene and to restrict my ability to participate in that discussion.(444) If we go back and use the reference again of the electronic tool we can see the struggle of being at home and communicating with her family and having an influence of capitalistic viewpoints and living the life of a capitalist, then immediately having to communicate in a different language at school and being surrounded by socialistic views and living the life of a socialist. Her thoughts were constantly flip-flopping and this became very frustrating for her. If we bring all these struggles into one main purpose, Min-Zhan Lu’s mother falls into silence two months before her death and Min-Zhan Lu attempts to “fill up that silence with words that I have since come to by reflecting on my earlier experience as a student in China.(437) The struggles that she faced growing up in China as a student and her past experiences have really helped her overcome life obstacles and develop her as a better reader and writer.
Jiacheng Liu Final paper (a)summary Citizen Barlow a young African-American, arrives in Pittsburgh and is part of the freed slaves. While working at the local mill, Citizen steals a can of nails. Another man is accused and choose suicide rather than face arrest and a life in which it is unfairly identified as a thief. Citizen wants to redeem his guilt for causing the death of one person and looking at Aunt Ester, whose healing powers are legendary. A 285-year-old aunt Esther lives in a house with Eli, his friend and protector, and Black Maria, a young woman wearing the clothes for a living and who Aunt Esther hopes to pass his powers.
Similarly the man overcame the woman in the relationship. Janie chose to conform to the outward marriage and new relationship. She became, in essence, a trophy wife. Janie followed the will of her husband, and not until years later questioned their relationship. As the story progresses, the internal strife between how Janie acts and how Janie feels shows the lack of the true Janie.
Her intentions are not meant for heartbreaks, but for the well-being of her babies. Support Point # 2- Suyuan’s top priority is to educate Jing-mei as ideal daughter; however, high expectations are difficult to achieve causing problems and leading bitterness into the relationship. Support Point
A Pair of Tickets In “A Pair of Tickets,” Amy Tan described the journey of Jing-Mei Woo, a middle-aged, Chinese-American woman, to China where she experienced a compelling change in herself. The author herself is Chinese-American, which enabled her to use insightful experiences in the story that were similar to her own experiences to better illustrate the emotions that Jing-Mei felt. Reminiscing about her own trip to China, Tan wrote: “As soon as my feet touched China, I become Chinese” (Tan 146). As Jing-Mei made the long travel to her motherland, she experienced a series of events, met her long-lost relatives, reflected on her own memories, and listened to stories about her mother’s past, deepening the connection that she had with her mother
In Wang Anyi's novel Song of Everlasting Sorrow women's friendship is a major theme, however many of the friendships fail. The main reason behind the failure of the friendships was because of Wang Qiyao's ongoing identity crisis. In addition to her identity crisis Wang Qiyao's ulterior motives behind the friendships along with her distrusting personality contributed to the downfall of her two main friendships.
The two important themes that I identified within this extract are beauty and love. Firstly, beauty is conveyed via descriptions of Ling’s wife. This is evident in the line “ une épouse et la prit très belle”. I think that the beauty of the wife mirrors the appreciation for aesthetics that is clearly evident in the text as if the wife herself, was as beautiful as one of Wang-Fô ‘s paintings. The latter theme is evident in the love for his wife as well.