So the most recent work we read for class is Sealed Off, by Zhang Ailing. It started off so randomly; it just spent the first half of the story describing the different things and people on the tramcar in Shanghai. Then is finally got to the two main characters. I want to focus on the girl called Wu Cuiyan. She is an English instructor at her alma mater, and yes she has a college degree.
She is described as a good daughter and a good student. She’s done everything in her life properly and according to the wishes of her parents. This is all well and good for any child, especially for a daughter of a more reserved Shanghainese family. Her first introduction was one that made me respond with the thoughts, “Oh, another classic case of the perfect daughter stereotype, I really don’t want to read about that.” Her reaction to a student’s paper, however, rives away the fear I had. Apparently she gave a student an “A” for a poorly written essay because of the way he treated her through his paper. He was the only man who treated her enough as an intelligent person to be unafraid in using terms like, “painted prostitutes,” and, “low-class bars and dancing halls.” It was from this that I got the sense that Cuiyan is a REAL woman.
She isn’t some paradigm of a stereotype of women; she is a person with substance, looking for substance. I mean, she seems to hate the idea of just falling into place, marrying for the sake of her family. She wants the kind of spontaneity she experiences with Lu Zongzhen, who suddenly appeared next to her and started flirting with her. She didn’t seem to completely mind the idea of becoming a concubine; in fact she seemed to be thrilled with the fantasy of it as she considered how her family would react.
Now this is a real woman. She is someone who has her own urges and needs. She is someone who both wants to live up to expectations while also wanting to rebel against them. She is someone who romanticizes and can be lost in emotion. she is a person equal to that of a man in such aspects.
I just wanted to thank Zhang Ailing for creating a real person for his female lead instead of following convention and creating a model of social stereotypes.
On a separate note, it’s a bit unnerving that, even in the 1900’s, the act of taking concubines was still accepted. Cuiyan’s reaction to Zhongzhen’s suggestion makes it seem as though taking concubines was still prevalent in society even if frowned upon. What’s worse is that the man seems as if he would be unaffected socially, just monetarily. The woman in the other hand, who becomes a concubine, needs to worry of what her family will think or do to her and how she will fit into society outside that role. The double standard of sexual infidelity seems to continue to exist and across cultures.