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字體：小中大

Love in a Fallen City

2021/03/06 14:03:17瀏覽1402｜回應0｜推薦6

Writer:

Eileen Chang (Chinese: 张爱玲；September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), was a Chinese-born American essayist, novelist, and screenwriter. She is a women writer and feminism in Chinese literature in the 20th-century.

Chang was born with an aristocratic lineage and educated bilingually in Shanghai. She gained literary prominence in Japanese-occupied Shanghai between 1943 and 1945. However, after the Communist takeover of China, she fled the country. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she was rediscovered by scholars such as C. T. Hsia and Shui Jing. Together with the re-examination of literary histories in the post-Mao era during the late 1970s and early 1980s, her work became popular once again among Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the Chinese diaspora communities.^[2]

Changs most important contribution was her construction of an alternative wartime narrative, one that deviated from the grand accounts of national salvation and revolution.^[2] In her most important works, her impressionistic view of modern history displays colors, lines, shapes, textures, and moods, which are often crystallized in the changing styles of womens clothes.^(r.3)

Chang was the first child of Zhang Zhiyi (張志沂 1896–1953) and Huang Suqiong (黃素瓊 1893–1957). Changs paternal grandfather, was son-in-law to Li Hongzhang.

In 1922, when Chang was two years old, the family relocated to Tianjin. When she was three, her father began to introduce her to Tang poetry. In 1924, her father often brought back prostitutes or concubines and was addicted to opium. This resulted in fights between Changs parents. During this time, her mother decided to travel with her aunt to France to study.[1] She returned in 1927, as her husband had promised to end the turmoil with his drug usage and his extramarital affairs, and so the family settled back in Shanghai in 1928. However, her parents eventually divorced in 1930. Chang and her younger brother Zhang Zijing (張子靜) (1921–1997) were raised by their father.

Upon graduation from high school, Chang had a fight with her stepmother and father. Eventually, she contracted dysentery. Instead of obtaining treatment for her, her father beat her and forced her to stay in her bedroom for six months. Chang ran away to live with her mother shortly after her 18th birthday; they remained in a new apartment for nearly two years, until she began to attend university and briefly lived in Hong Kong.[4](r.8)

Story:

The story is set in 1940s Shanghai and Hong Kong. Bai Liusu is a beautiful divorcée who lives in Shanghai. Upon experiencing a failed marriage, Bai Liusus large and extended family feels she has shamed the family through divorce which resulted her situation at home to become unbearable. The story then begins with Bai Liusu receiving news of her ex-husbands death and her refusal to attend the funeral.

Fan Liuyuan is a bachelor who had just returned from England and was working closely in the mining business with Mr Xu, the matchmaker Mrs Xus husband. While Mrs Xu attempted to introduce Bai Liusus sister, Bai Baolu, to Fan Liuyuan, Fan became interested in Bai Liusu instead. When Fan Liuyuan left to Hong Kong for work, Bai Liusu follows to Hong Kong to win the love of Fan in hoping to get a legitimate marriage status and economic stability.

Although everything was going quite smooth in Hong Kong, Bai Liusu thinks that she cannot trust Fan Liuyuan. Thinking that Fan Liuyuan will not marry her, Bai Liusu decides to return to Shanghai. Upon returning home, her family finds her useless coming back and bringing shame to the family. Later, Fan Liuyuan calls on her and she decides to return to him. Throughout the story, they undergo many trials and tribulations together, while both doubting the others true commitment and love for each other. However, it was through the fall of Hong Kong that they realize that their love for each other is far more enduring and valuable. The city and their love share an antithetical relationship as their love triumphs with the city being defeated during the Japanese invasion.^(r.4)

Highlights vs self- reflection:

1.p.144: If someone as free as you are thinks life is unfiar, than someon likes me ought to go and hung herself.

Your suffering is nothing than my suffering, life is hard to compare with each other.

2.p.146:Spiritual love always leads to marriage while physical love leads to little hope of marriage.

3. “She wasn’t a bird in a cage. A bird in a cage, when the cage is opened, can still fly away. She was a bird embroidered onto a screen — a white bird in clouds of gold stitched onto a screen of melancholy satin. The years passed; the bird’s feathers darkened, mildewed, and were eaten by moths, but the bird stayed on the screen even in death.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

Golden Sentence:

1.p.271: It’s the usless women who are formidable.

2.p.143: shadow tree, the leaf is as light as the fern when a slight breeze made the delicate silhouette

Vocabulary:

perturbed

feasible

dismal

forlornly

tendril

clasp

torrential

she let her heart well up

alms

creaked

squeak

cloisonne

budding

huqin

gourmandized

married bliss

dolt

cheng

pennant

petty

cheongsam

naught

shelling

pamper

formidable

Conclusion:

1.She limbs a fictional world where Chinese modernity has engendered its own reflection in the image of the monstrous, embittered woman suffering from psychological and bodily decay and grapples with the corporeal manifestation of the malaise of social and marital relations in modern China.(r.6)

2. The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.-Mahatma Gandhi, sometimes the environment speaks louder than our conscience during the time of war. We are so weak to be vulnerable to take action. Life is as short as the incense, the existence of the brazier will keep burning, we still have chance to change if we believe in ourselves.

3.War does not determine who is right, only who is left-Bertrand Russel. We have no right to judge them, but a chance to understand how they gone through the war.

4. If you dont support yourself in love, you will destroy yourself in hate. The continuation of this tragedy is the root of the era, and at the same time, it is also the result of personal cowardice.

5. She depicted a fictional world where Chinese modernity has engendered its own reflection in the image of the monstrous, embittered woman suffering from psychological and bodily decay and grapples with the corporeal manifestation of the malaise of social and marital relations in modern China.(r.13)

6. The war brings us the courage to see what we really are, no matter good or bad. To accecpt what the real situation is.

7. Their desires point to their real world loneliness and entrapment in their life patterns.(r.17)

8. The social roles of women are actually the projections of men’s desires. Women, deprived of the right to define themselves, can only struggle to live up to men’s expectations which, however, twist their mentality(r.18)

9. The marriage she wrote is so ironic that one has to sacrifice his own happiness for money and choose for a selfish idea hurts himself and others. Her writings is cool and froze to penetrates into our bones and lungs and merge with my hot blood.

Even though it is often difficult for people to conquer their own passions, but in the end the pull of morality stick us here, safe and sound.

Eileen once said: "Mortals are more representative of the total amount of this era than heroes." Therefore, she create extraordinary stories with a secular perspective and play an important role in literature. Even one or two sentences can make me feel afflicted, and then generate more thoughts about life and things in the world. She does not write refined literature, but she portrays such a breathtaking literary beauty.

10.Only those who choose to be loyal to the heart can live like a nobleman.

11.“Life is an extravagant gown riddled with lice-Eileen Chang”-face your true self!

The Fallen City by Torey:

Love in A Fallen City by 张爱玲 Eileen Chang

Summary & Discussion Questions by Torey Ploeger

Summary

This book is a collection of six famous short stories, originally written in Chinese and then also translated and reprinted in English by the original author. Below are the summaries for each of the six stories.

Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier

Weilong visits her estranged aunt, Madame Liang, who married an old wealthy man for his money. After her husband passed away, Madame Liang inherited everything he owned and readers are introduced to her as she lives out the rest of her days by throwing parties and flirting with rich men. Weilong visits her aunt because her parents plan to return to Shanghai, but she wants to stay in Hong Kong to complete her studies. Madame Liang eagerly welcomes Weilong into her home. Having aged past her prime, Welong is an asset to attract suitors and acts as a“scapegoat” for her poor behavior. Weilong is easily seduced by the extravagant clothing and party lifestyle provided by her aunt. She falls in love with George Qiao, a playboy of mixed heritage with no inheritance. George warns Weilong that he doesn’t want to marry, but this doesn’t stop them from sleeping together. When Weilong discovers George is also sleeping with one of the maids, she causes a scene confronting the maid and Madame Liang finds out. Madame Liang knows that Weilong loves George and that, although he does not love her back, George can be manipulated by his need for money. She uses this knowledge to manipulate them into marrying each other so that Weilong is forced to work for her as a courtesan to support her husband. And so in the end, Weilong marries a man who has no money and doesn’t truly love her. He will stick around as long as she can support him, but her ability to do so will likely fade with time, leaving her vulnerable to divorce as a known adulterer.

Jasmine Tea

Nie Chuanqing is a student at South China University. His biological mother passed away at an early age while his father and step-mother are opium users. His father constantly beats him which has led to hearing problems. He doesn’t have any friends except for an acquaintance,

the optimistic and joyful Yan Danzhu, whose father is a professor at the University.

One day, Chuanqing finds an old magazine with a message from Yan Ziye to his biological mother. Piecing together what he knows from stories told by his mother’s maid, he realizes that his mother and his professor had once been in love, but their relationship didn’t work out because her family believed that Yan Ziye was not worthy of marrying her. Chuanqing begins to wonder what could have happened if his mother married Yan Ziye. He grows envious of Yan Danzhu and her life to the point where it becomes a distraction to his studies. In an embarrassing incident in Professor Yan’s classroom, Chuanqing can’t answer a simple question and Professor Yan lectures him about being lazy, deeply scarring Chuanqing’s heart. That same day Chuanqing attends a dance and encounters Danzhu. Danzhu mistakes Chuanqing’s distance as a sign of love but in actuality, Chuanqing has a strong hatred towards

her. After the dance his hate turns violent when he beats and kicks her nearly to death. Afterwards, Chuanqing returns home with the realization that he will almost certainly have to see her in school again.

Love in a Fallen City

Set in 1940s Shanghai, the story begins with a beautiful divorcée named Bai Liusu who, upon receiving news of her ex-husband’s death, refuses to attend the funeral. As the conversation unfolds around her refusal, we learn that her large and extended family feels that Liusu has shamed the family through a failed marriage. Her home situation has become unbearable, as she is often treated poorly and viciously gossiped about. Fan Liuyuan is a bachelor who had just returned from England and was working closely in the mining business with the matchmaker’s husband. When the matchmaker attempts to introduce Bai Liusus sister, Bai Baolu, to Fan Liuyuan, Fan becomes interested in Bai Liusu instead. Fan Liuyuan subsequently leaves to Hong Kong for work and Bai Liusu follows him there, hoping to win his love and regain both legitimate marriage status and economic stability. Although everything seems to go quite smoothly in Hong Kong, Bai Liusu comes to believe Fan Liuyuan will not marry her, but rather intends to take her as his mistress. So she returns to

Shanghai and the shameful glare and gossip of her family, which only intensifies after her seemingly failed romance with Fan Liuyuan. Months later, Fan Liuyuan calls on her and she decides that returning to him would at least be better than continuing to endure poor treatment at home. Throughout the story, they undergo many trials and tribulations together, while both doubting the others true commitment and love for each other. However, it is through the fall of Hong Kong that they realize their love for each other is enduring and valuable. The city and their love share an antithetical relationship as their love triumphs with the city being defeated during the Japanese invasion.

The Golden Cangue

Set in Shanghai, this is the story of Ts’ao Ch’i-ch’iao, the daughter of a sesame oil shopkeeper, who is forced to marry into the Chiang family for wealth. Originally intended as a concubine, she is ultimately married to the second Chiang son, a cripple who is not entitled to a marriage with anyone from a decent family background. Once Ts’ao Ch’i-ch’iao becomes his legal wife, she is then bound to serve him faithfully. The entire Chiang family, including the other two wives from titled and respectable families, and even the servants, look down on Ts’ao Ch’i-ch’iao because of her low social status. With time in this oppressive environment, her heart and personality become distorted and toxic. Even after her husband and mother-in-law pass away and she receives her piece of the estate (a house

and an allowance), she persists in her misery and her obsession with money and power. She rejects Chi-tse, her brother-in-law with whom she shared a forbidden love while their spouses were still alive, when he comes to profess his love. She pampers her son into an opium-smoking, brothel-visiting rogue, and abuses both his first and second wives, leading each one to die within just a few years of marrying him. She also ruins her daughter’s prospect for marriage to a man from a decent family who genuinely loves her. In the end she dies in bitter misery, leaving her children estranged from their families and suffering under the burden of her malice.

Sealed Off

The story takes place in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of the city during World War II. A tramcar stops when an air raid alarm bell sounds. The city comes to a standstill and the people on the tramcar wait. Two passengers, Lu Zongzhen, an accountant with wife and children, and Wu Cuiyuan, an English instructor and single, strike up a semi-flirtatious and serious conversation. After receiving Cuiyuan’s phone number, Zongzhen abruptly leaves whenthe tramcar continues its journey.

Red Rose, White Rose

This story is a reflection by the protagonist, Tong Zhenbao, on his own backstory and the perils of love in 1940s Shanghai. Stemming from a poor family he is the prototype of a social climber and self-made man who espouses traditional Chinese values while immersed in a modernizing society. As an upper-level manager in a foreign textile company Zhenbao is a successful member of the higher middle class. In addition, he has a home, a wife and a nine-year-old daughter as he ought to. All things considered, he has the ideal life that he always planned to have at this stage. He has been faithful to his resolution to “create a world that was ‘right’, and to carry it with him wherever he went,” but he finds that he isn’t happy in his ideal world. We learn through his backstory that he loved two women passionately in the past, but rejected

them due to both his inability to control them and their inability to heighten his social status. Ironically, the woman he ends up marrying for her purity and congeniality turns out to be unintelligent and uninteresting, as well as difficult to conform to his wishes. She even cheats on him with the local tailor! Around the same time he catches his wife with the tailor, he also bumps into a past love on the train and she seems quite happy. After this he descends into several months of drinking, whoring, and domestic violence. With time his wife is forced to gain friends

and status outside the home, since Zhenbao is no longer bringing home money or talking to her. Just when it seems he will never recover, he throws a lamp at her and, feeling that he has finally “defeated” her, changes his ways and goes back to being a model husband, father, and citizen.

Discussion Questions

1.Were there any unexpected translations in these stories that you thought gave a new or different meaning to the stories? Do you believe they were intentional on the part of theauthor?

" Please find the mouldy green copper incense burner handed down in your family, light a furnace of agarwood crumbs, and listen to me tell a story about Hong Kong before the war. After you finish lighting this furnace of agarwood crumbs, my story should be over." In terms of narrative time, "First Burning Incense" organically integrates story time and narrative time, creating a special narrative form. She creates a gap between reading the past and telling reality. Harmony constructs a time strategy of opposing nature. This change in narrative time makes this work show a strong sense of rhythm.(r.9)

2.Jasmine Tea has a very open ending. Do you believe Chuanqing would eventually be punished for his behavior towards Danzhu? Or, would she be blamed for putting herself in a compromised situation?

If you dont support yourself in love, you will destroy yourself in hate. The continuation of this tragedy is the root of the era, and at the same time, it is also the result of personal cowardice.

Fragrant tea is a combination of tea flavor and floral fragrance. The tea attracts floral fragrance and flowers enhance the tea flavor, complementing each other. It not only maintains the rich and refreshing tea taste, but also has a fresh and fragrant floral fragrance. But Zhang Ailings pot of jasmine fragrant slices is bitter and astringent, and it is really a combination of sadness and hardship.(r.10)

3.In Love in a Fallen City , Liusu remarks upon her initial meeting with Fan Liuyuan that “No matter how amazing a woman is, she won’t be respected by her own sex unless she’s loved by a member of the opposite one. Women are petty this way.” (p.127) Do you agree or disagree with this assessment of women?

In the past, women are the scapegoat for the family, cos they lost the economic ability.

Nowadays,only those who choose to be loyal to the heart can live like a nobleman.

4.These stories seem to paint the picture that it was normal for middle class and wealthy men in mid-century Shanghai and Hong Kong to have mistresses. Is this an accurate telling? For a woman, were there benefits to being a mistress instead of a wife?

They don’t need to worry about the economics, don’t need to take the responsibility as wife, they prefer not to take serious responsibility. It’s a post-war syndrome.

5.In Sealed Off Cuiyuan thinks to herself that “In this world, there are more good people than real people…” (p 241) What do you think she means by that? Do you think that statement is more true during times of war?

After Cuiyuan reflects on how she is a good daughter and a good student, she realizes “there are more good people than real people.” The author comments, “Cuiyuan wasn’t very happy.” At this early stage of the story Cuiyuan reacts to the small child laying on the lap of the nanny sitting next to her, “The sole of the of the child’s food pushed against Cuiyuan’s leg. Little red shoes, decorated with tigers, on a soft but tough little foot . . . this at least was real.” This physical sensation is pleasing to Cuiyuan, more alive and tangible than her everyday life. Later, while Zongzhen has his arm stretched out behind her, “She looked at him again. . . . Stretching out from his sleeve, and resting on the newspaper, was a warm, tanned hand, one with feeling – a real person! Not too honest, not too bright, but a real person. Suddenly she felt flushed and happy. . . .” Cuiyuan’s desire to be woken up is evident in the use of this word. She longs for some spark, some emotional change, some vibrant opportunity, some respectful recognition of her. She wants to be more than “good” and please others. In fact, she longs to rebel and be real, to feel and experience life for herself. Cuiyuan’s favorable response to her student’s “real” paper, the pleasant sensation of the child’s foot, and Cuiyuan’s self-reflection sharpens her desire to experience life in a real, sensory manner. These events prepare her for Zongzhen’s encounter.(r.16)

To touch the real life and to feel the real rhythem of the earth is better than to be fake good.

6.In Red Rose, White Rose , Zhenbao asserts that “In China, as elsewhere, the constraints imposed by the traditional moral code were originally constructed for the benefit of women: they made beautiful women even harder to obtain, so their value rose, and ugly women were spared the prospect of never-ending humiliation.” (p. 285) Do you agree that the traditional moral code actually benefited women?

"Perhaps every man has had two women like this, at least two. Married a red rose. Over time, the red one changed to a smear of mosquito blood on the wall, and the white one was still "the moonlight in front of the bed"; he married a white rose. The white one is a sticky rice stick on the clothes, but the red one is a cinnabar mole on the heart."

In the old traditional Chinese society, women need to have bound feet , belittle themselves to serve men, cos men owns the power of economic.

7.Many of the stories in this novel center around the pursuit of love. Does the author view love as something worthy of pursuit?

The marriage she wrote is so ironic that one has to sacrifice his own happiness for money and choose for a selfish idea hurts himself and others. Her writings is cool and froze to penetrates into our bones and lungs and merge with my hot blood.

Even though it is often difficult for people to conquer their own passions, but in the end the pull of morality stick us here, safe and sound.

law. She does not write refined literature, but she portrays such a breathtaking literary beauty.

8.The concept of social climbers is often brought up in a disdainful way, despite the fact that everyone in these stories is always seeking improved status. Is the desire for and pursuit of higher social status a bad thing?

“Thinking is painful business.” ― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“I was the absolute master of my old robe. I have become the slave of the new one”.(r.22)

9.What seems to be the source of Zhenbao’s unhappiness? Does it matter if he is happy?

In 1924, Eileen was 4 year-old, her father often brought back prostitutes or concubines and was addicted to opium. This resulted in fights between Changs parents. During this time, her mother decided to travel with her aunt to France to study.[1] She returned in 1927, as her husband had promised to end the turmoil with his drug usage and his extramarital affairs, and so the family settled back in Shanghai in 1928. However, her parents eventually divorced in 1930. Chang and her younger brother Zhang Zijing (張子靜) (1921–1997) were raised by their father.

10.Insecurity seems to be a theme woven throughout all of Chang’s stories, whether it is insecure identity, income, or status. Which characters are most driven by insecurity?

Ge Weilong, the social flower of "The First Incense", cannot withstand the temptation of material and love, and is willing to fall.(r.23)

Review of March Book Club Meeting “Love in a Fallen City” Led by Torey Ploeger

This was probably one of the best meetings and discussions in a long time, and ironically about a book that seemed to confound and confuse many of the readers, especially those who read it first in Chinese. Torey did an incredible job of keeping the discussion going and going through the stories that were both astonishing and also hard to resolve. Eileen Chang’s stories are notoriously difficult to trace the exact lines of oppression and victimization but there were discussed passionately by the group. Chang’s fictional world is both beautiful and depressing but always about the life of women in a culture long gone.

Hierarchies of class, gender, and race are everywhere in the stories, but this made the stories fascinating and the discussion lively. Many of the members found that the stories revisiting in the 60’s and beyond made less sense than they did when they were read in Chinese in the twenties. Chang introduces us to women who are shrewd enough to exploit society, needs and each other in order to carve out a precarious space for themselves. Most of the members agreed that these lives were often carved out at the expense of other women: their servants, their rivals, their daughters (sometimes sons as well). Was the portrayal of women flattering? No. But did it create a lively discussion? Of course! We all appreciate the contribution of Faye and Lydia and Ling Huei. Florence shared a great story of a love that ended early in her life and it captured the imagination of all the members present today.

Although there were no out and out winners in Chang’s stories, the members of the group were the people who really won. With Torey’s guidance and discussion questions, the group was able to discuss matters about culture, identity and gender, how much and how little has changed since the 1940’s. There are many bruised hearts and lost souls in Chang’s stories and her world is one of surfaces, superficialities, and masks. Our group had a great time “unmasking” some of the characters and discussing the plight of women in Chinese culture. This may have been one of the liveliest discussions in a long time and maybe one of the most perfect set of stories for International Women’s Day. We also welcome our new member Lily to the group and we look forward to hearing her thoughts for a long time to come.

Florence: Many thanks to Torey for her attentive preparing the meeting, we had a happy and heated discussion today.

2.Eileen Chang: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%B5%E6%84%9B%E7%8E%B2

3.Eileen Chang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Chang

4.Love in a Falling City: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_a_Fallen_City_(novella)

5.movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_a_Fallen_City_(novella)

6.conclusion: https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/13399063/QJCS_Final_Eileen_Chang_apa_1.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

7.Torey’s link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g6BeRiMDAs1kmrhz-fG4nKQkJRM0ohNafVUhaIFAFYM/edit

8.Chang’ background: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%B5%E6%84%9B%E7%8E%B2

9.the aloewood incense, the first brazier: https://lujuba.cc/en/423540.html

10.Jasmine: https://kknews.cc/zh-tw/n/v3z69n4.html

11.Why do some women choose to be mistress: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-women-choose-to-be-a-mistress

12.Sealed off: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50485667-sealed-off