https://www.bilibili.com/video/av7061749?from=search&seid=11892711217945544100 

I read this book when I was a high school student. Now I reread this book again and I have different perceptions. I read the original Chinese one and I didn’t read the English translation, but I want to talk about the title of this book in different versions. The title is called “ New Year’s Sacrifice” in English translation, I guess because the woman Hsiang Lin’s Wife died in the Chinese new year and the translator may think she is a sacrifice and her dead is the result of feudal society’s ideological constraints on people. In the original Chinese version, the title is called “blessing” (literal translation). I prefer this title because two reasons, one is I guess the author thinks her death is a good thing, is a relief from bondage, so he bless her, and other one I think the author has the irony meaning,  because Chinese people greet one another with blessing when they meet during the Chinese New Year, but people never blessed her, they always laugh at her by using cold violence or language violence. For example, in the video people don’t want Hsiang Lin’s wife touch the sacrificial utensils because they think she is unlucky. （81:00－84:00）

When the time came for the ancestral sacrifice at the winter equinox, she worked harder than ever, and seeing my aunt take out the sacrificial utensils and with Ah Niu carry the table into the middle of the hall, she went confidently to fetch the winecups and chopsticks.

“Put those down, Hsiang Lin’s Wife!” my aunt called out hastily.

She withdrew her hand as if scorched, her face turned ashen-grey, and instead of fetching the candlesticks she just stood there dazed. Only when my uncle came to burn incense and told her to go, did she walk away. This time the change in her was very great, for the next day not only were her eyes sunken, but even her spirit seemed broken. Moreover she became very timid, not only afraid of the dark and shadows, but also of the sight of anyone. Even her own master or mistress made her look as frightened as a little mouse that has come out of its hole in the daytime. For the rest, she would sit stupidly, like a wooden statue. In less than half a year her hair began to turn grey, and her memory became much worse, reaching a point when she was constantly forgetting to go and prepare the rice.

“What has come over Hsiang Lin’s Wife? It would really have been better not to have kept her that time.” My aunt would sometimes speak like this in front of her, as if to warn her.

However, she remained this way, so that it was impossible to see any hope of her improving. They finally decided to get rid of her and tell her to go back to Old Mrs. Wei.

Many years ago, when I read this book, I think it is the traditional Chinese feudal cultural thought that led to Hsiang Lin’s Wife’s death. Hsiang Lin’s Wife’s husband and son are dead, so people think she is ominous and unlucky. Therefore, the employer is not willing to hire her. She may have starved to death because she has no income. Now I read this book, I think it is language violence that led to her death. No one sympathizes with her experience. They isolate and bullying her in words and even behavior. Her spirit has been hit and devastated. Hsiang Lin’s Wife’s experience is the same as the school bullying or cyberbullying that some people now encounter.