University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The feminized city: Reading Wang Anyi's "Ballad of Eternal Sorrow"

(USC Thesis Other)

The feminized city: Reading Wang Anyi's "Ballad of Eternal Sorrow"

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content NOTE TO USERS
Page(s) not included in the original manuscript and are
unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript
was scanned as received.
101
This reproduction is the best copy available.
®
UMI
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
THE FEMINIZED CITY
- REDEADING WANG ANYI’S BALLAD OF ETERNAL SORROW
Copyright 2002
by
Yuan Yuan
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements of the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES)
August 2002
Yuan
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
UMI N um ber: 1 4 1 4 8 9 4
UMI
UMI Microform 1414894
Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest Information and Learning Company
300 North Zeeb Road
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
UNIVERSITY O F S O U T H E R N CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 9 0 0 0 7
This thesis, 'written by
Yuan Yuan
under the direction of h.^.....T hesis Committee,
and approved by all its members, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the Dean of The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
D tam
£ ) a t e August 6, 2002___
THESIS COMMITTEE
~ ? < r ~
-------------h— T **r — *—— ———---— —— -— — --------a m
V I J ChairmaM
.....
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Dedication
For My Parents,
Yuan Zhongmin and Fu Youqin
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Acknowledgements
With great respect, I would like to express my gratitude to all the readers
who served on the committee.
My heartiest gratitude goes to Professor Dominic Cheung, chairperson of my
committee, who has supported my research in every aspect with his knowledge,
insight and guidance. His general supervision and administrative skills helped me
complete this study within the available time.
I am also deeply grateful to Professor George A. Hayden, who supervised the
completion of the translations in this study and patiently corrected every language
mistake in the first draft. His profound knowledge of Chinese-English translation
and high expectations for quality work contributed substantially to the improvement
of the manuscript.
Great appreciation is expressed to Professor Bettine Birge for her time,
interest, and suggestions in reviewing the manuscript. Her sincere encouragement
continued throughout my master’s study.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Abstract
This thesis studies the Chinese woman writer Wang Anyi and her novel
Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow (Chang hen ge). Recognizing the relation between the
writer’s understanding of literature and her writing practices, the thesis starts with an
overview of Wang’s literary career, in which the development of her theory about
fiction writing and female narrative is outlined. The focus of the thesis is placed on
the analysis of Wang’s novel Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow, which is generally
considered as the peak of her literary achievement. Through a close text-reading, it
is demonstrated how the writer rewrites human history through female memories,
reconstructs human living space through the daily experiences of women, and
redefines gender relationships by subverting the traditional gender roles. Moreover,
in order to highlight Wang’s unique literary position and impressive achievement, a
comparison is drawn between her and other contemporary Chinese women writers in
the epilogue.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Table of Contents
Dedication---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii
Acknowledgements-----------------------------------------------------------------------------iii
Abstract------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv
INTRODUCTION: The Writer and Female Narrative------------------------------- 1
CHAPTER ONE
The Woman Writer and the City------------------------------------------------------------ 9
Wang Anyi and Her Writing Style---------------------------------------------------9
Wang Anyi’s Shanghai Nostalgia--------------------------------------------------- 17
CHAPTER TWO
The Feminized City: Reconstruction of the City in Female Narratives---------24
CHAPTER THREE
The Women and Men in the C ity--------------- 33
Women and Female Relationship in Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow-------------- 33
Men and Male Power in Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow-----------------------------48
EPILOGUE: Wang Anyi and Female Writings in China since 1980------------- 63
Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 71
APPENDIX ONE: Translations from Chapter One in Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow
I. Alleyways----------------------------------------------------------------------------75
II. Gossip-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 85
III. Pigeons------------------------------------------------------------------------------93
IV. Boudoirs---------------------------------------------------------------------------104
V. Wang Qiyao-----------------------------------------------------------------------112
APPENDIX TWO: Essays by Wang Anyi
I. Shanghai Females------------------------------------------------------------------120
II. Imagining Shanghai-------------------------------------------------------------- 125
Glossary---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 132
v
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Introduction: The Writer and Female Narrative
If I were asked to rank contemporary China’s women writers, I would agree with
Fang Fang, who, as one of the most famous women writers herself, frankly admits
her limits in literary writing, and ranks Wang Anyi the best.1 Since publishing her
literary debut “On the Plain [Pingyuan shang]” in 1978, Wang Anyi has been
known for her diligent writing and innovative style. Although her literary
exploration is anything but coming to an end, her achievements during the 1990s
gained her fame as the best contemporary woman writer in China. As one of the
biggest prize-winners in the Chinese literary circle, Wang Anyi won the Mao Dun
Literature Prize [Mao Dun wenxue jiang] in 2000 with her 1995 novel Ballad o f
Eternal Sorrow [Chang hen ge] (hereafter, Ballad). Almost at the same time, the
Shanghai Writers’ Association [Shanghai zuojia xiehui\ and Wenhui Daily
(Shanghai) [Wenhui bao] together announced the Top 10 most influential writers
and novels during the 1990s based on a survey among 100 prestigious critics, with
both Wang Anyi and her Ballad ranking the No. 1 in the two categories. Wang
Anyi hence reached the peak of success in her writing career.
1 China Youth Daily [Zhongguo qingnian bao], Jan. 6, 2001. Fang Fang is one of the representative
writers o f the “Neo-realistic [xin xieshi]” school in Chinese literature. She is a productive author and
many o f her writings are prize-winners, such as Scenery [Fengjing], the National Best Novels Prize
winner of 1987. The comment quoted here was made at a literary forum with students o f the
Geology University of China [Zhongguo dizhi daxue]. All translations in this thesis are mine.
2 The Mao Dun Literature Prize, bestowed every four years, has become one of the most recognized
and influential literary prizes since its first founding in 1981. In the past 20 years, it has awarded 24
1
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
As admiring and respectful as I am, my ambition in this thesis is modest yet
persevering. Instead of attempting to reach a comprehensive study of the whole
career of the writer, I will focus on Ballad as a manageable way to study this ever-
promising writer, as I believe in the old Chinese saying, “Look at one spot on a
leopard and you can visualize the whole animal \yi guan kui bao, ke jia n yi ban].”
As indicated above, Ballad represents Wang Anyi’s highest achievement in
her literary exploration. The novel unfolds around the life of a Shanghai woman,
yet the writer’s real intention is to reveal the history of the city Shanghai from the
1940s to the 1980s.3 As many scholars have noticed, Wang Anyi is adept at setting
her stories in an urban environment, in which her female characters live common
yet particular lives. For example, Nan Fan once observed, “Unlike others, Wang
novels, including Zhou Keqin’s Xu Mao and His Daughters [Xu Mao he ta de ntl’ r men], Li
Guowen’s Spring in Winter [Dongtian li de chuntian], Gu Hua’s Furong Town [Furong zheri] and
Lu Yao’s Ordinary World [Pingfan de shijie], etc. The other three winners besides Ballad o f Eternal
Sorrow in 2000 were: A Lai’s Fallen Dust [Chen ’ ai luo ding], Zhang Ping’s Choice [Jueze] and
Wang Xufeng’s Trilogy o f the Tea-man [Charen sanbuqu], The other novels among the Top 10
most influential novels during the 1990s include Chen Zhongshi’s Town ofBailuyuan [Bailuyuan],
Han Shaogong’s Dictionary o f Maqiao [Maqiao cidian], Yu Hua’s To live [Huozhe], etc. For more
details about the Mao Dun Literature Prize and the Top 10 ranking, refer to Xie Xizhang “How does
the Mao Dun Literature Prize weigh in writers’ minds [Dianyi dian maodun wenxue jiang zai zuojia
xinzhong de fenliang]” in Beijing Evening News [Beijing wanbao], Oct. 16, 2000.
3 In an interview by Qi Hong and Lin Zhou, Wang Anyi said, “I am directly writing the story o f the
city, yet the woman is the shadow of the city.” For details, refer to Luo Gang, “Looking for the Lost
Memories [Zhaoxun xiaoshi de jiyi]" in Dangdai zuojiapinglun, Vol. (5), 1996, p. 49.
2
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Anyi enjoys choosing the city for her novels - an open and hectic space. This at
least to some extent relates to her female standpoint [ntbcing lichang].”4 By “female
standpoint,” Nan Fan refers to Wang’s unique position about the relation between
women and the city, which was expressed in her essay “Men and Women; Women
and the City.” In this essay, Wang Anyi claims that, compared to the “birthplace of
humans,” the city provides more living resources:
The machines replace the heavy labor; the complete process of dividing
labor in society is dissembled into trifling and skill-demanding work that
only requires little physical labor and some wisdom. There emerge various
ways of making a living, and in this world the ability of women, which was
originally disdained in fields, is recognized and developed. The share
bestowed by nature to the woman is too small, and she can only give full
play to it in the man-made nature. Also because of her bom pliability and
toughness, she can better and more effectively adapt to the ever-changing
life than the upright and unyielding man (Wang, Men and Women, Women
and the City [Nanren he ntlren, Ntlren he chengshi], 85).
In other words, living in a city makes it possible for women to have equal status
with men, to live an independent life, and more importantly, to cultivate the unique
cultural discourse in which they can express their feelings and dreams.
Wang Anyi’s viewpoint of the relation between women and the city echoes
one of the most important implications of the discussions on the cultural
4 Nan Fan, “Portrait o f the city—reading Wang Anyi’s Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow [Chengshi de
xiaoxiang — du Wang Anyi de Chang hen ge,” in Xiaoshuo pinglun, vol. (1), 1998, p. 66.
3
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
connections between women and consumerism in western scholarship, which puts
forth a notion of a dual, contradictory role of women as “both consumer and
commodity, purchaser and purchase, buyer and bought.”5 Modem consumerism
has greatly influenced gender relations in urban spaces. In her study of French
consumerism, Jennifer Jones observes that until the eighteenth century, “The mode
for shopping was ... .a decidedly heterosexual encounter between carefree but self-
interested shop girls and desirous male customers.”6 However, the second half of
the eighteenth century witnessed the “increasing volume of female shoppers.”7 On
the one hand, the fact of going out of the home to shop and being able to consume
naturally gives women a feeling of empowerment. In other words, the city allows
women to shake off the confinements of household chores and be active in pursuing
satisfaction and pleasure. On the other hand, the city has to rely on women to
express its culture, which is largely based on consumption. As a result, the city and
its female dwellers become interdependent and inseparable. This city-women
relation captures the literary imagination of both the West and the East. Wang Anyi
5 Mary Louise Roberts, “Gender, Consumption, and Commodity Culture,” in American Historical
Review, vol. 103, June, 1998, p. 818.
Jennifer Jones, “Coquettes and Grisettes: Women Buying and Selling in Ancient Regime Paris” in
The Sex o f Things, edited by Victoria De Grazia with Ellen Furlough, 1996, p. 32.
7 Ibid, p. 33.
4
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
is such a writer who tries persistently to embrace and explore the city-women
relation in her writing.
In addition to the actual empowerment of women in urban commodity
culture, the feminist movement enthusiastically advocates women find solutions to
empower themselves. Feminists propose that female writing is one of the most
important ways to break the male suppression over females and re-build female
dignity and identity. Many feminist scholars sigh over the arrogant ignoring and
deliberate obscuring of the female identity in patriarchal society. Virginia Woolf
once said,
Of our fathers we know always some fact, some distinction. They were
soldiers or they were sailors; they filled that office or they made that law.
But of our mothers, our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers, what
remains? Nothing but a tradition. One was beautiful; one was red-haired;
one was kissed by a Queen. We know nothing of them except their names
o
and the dates of their marriages and the number of children they bore.
Therefore, Woolf encourages women to start inscribing their names in human
history through female writing. Although Wang Anyi never claims herself as a
feminist, clearly she is a practitioner of the feminist proposition of female writing.
Moreover, most of her novels revolve around female figures, revealing her attention
8 Virginia Woolf, “Women and Fiction,” in Women & Fiction: the Manuscript Versions o f A Room
o f O ne’ s Own, transcribed and edited by S. P. Rosenbaum, p. 195.
5
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
to the inner world of females. For example, Wang’s 1991 novel Mi Ni, 1998 novel
I Love Bill [Wo ’ ai Bi V ] and 1999 novel Mei Tou all have a female protagonist who
represents the no-higher-than-middle-class Shanghai women.
However, it is Ballad that culminates Wang’s persistent pursuit to rewrite
human history through female narrative. In the novel, Wang rejects the notion that
history can be only told in grand narratives that focus on momentous and significant
social events; instead, Wang deliberately adopts a female narrative with meticulous
attention to daily occurrences in an average city woman’s life. As Woolf pointed
out,
The extraordinary woman depends on the ordinary woman. It is only when
we know what were the conditions of the average woman’s life ... it is only
when we can measure the way of life and the experience of life made
possible to the ordinary woman that we can account for the success or
failure of the extraordinary woman as a writer (196).
Though perhaps unconsciously, Wang Anyi shares the same opinion. Not only
does the female protagonist in Ballad live most of her life as a commoner dwelling
in the most common community in the city, all her male and female friends live no-
higher-than-middle-class life (though some have been temporarily among the upper
class). What is more, the development of the story is precisely punctuated and
directed by the female characters, including the protagonist herself, and their
6
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
relations, revealing the author’s intention to break the male-character-dominated
writing tradition and give prominence to females.
Indicating the empowerment of women in the city, emphasizing female
identity and importance in urban environment and rewriting the history through
female narrative, these are the themes that this thesis will follow in reading Wang
Anyi’s novel Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow. Consequently, the thesis will be structured
as following:
The first chapter will review the writer’s overall career, to reveal her unique
propositions on fiction writing and her general writing style, as well as her nostalgic
sentiments about Shanghai’s past as indicated in her early writings.
The second chapter will examine the writer’s opinion of human history and
how this opinion is reflected in the first chapter of Ballad, which lays out the
spacial-temporal background of the story. In addition, the structure of the novel
will be mentioned.
The third chapter will be a close textual reading of the novel, in which the
male-female relationship and the relationship between females will be analyzed as
two major issues that the novel brings up.
An epilogue will conclude that in Ballad Wang Anyi successfully rewrites
7
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the history of Shanghai through female narrative, and both spacially and temporally
reconstructs the city in female discourse.
8
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Chapter One: The Woman Writer and the City
Wang Anyi and Her Writing Style
Bom in Nanjing in 1954, Wang Anyi moved with her family to Shanghai and lived
there till she finished her junior high school in 1969. Because of the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), she was unable to continue her
education but, instead, was sent to the Anhui countryside supposedly to “learn from
the peasants” at the age of sixteen. Since then she has never come back to formal
education. She started writing short stories since the mid-70s, yet it was her 1978
short story “On the Plain” that has been generally taken as her literary debut.9
Working on fiction writing for more than twenty years, Wang Anyi has been
well known as one of the most innovative woman writers in China. For example,
Zhang Zhizhong once referred to Wang as “an innovator of fictional narrative style
[xiaoshuo xushu fangshi de gexinzhe]”.1 0 Wang’s development in narrative style is
fairly traceable. Her early writings were largely based on her own experience as a
9 Chen Jie, “Writing should only follow the heart — An interview with Wang Anyi [xie zuo zhi
fucong xinling de xuyao -fang zuojia Wang Anyi],” China Reading Post [Zhonghua dushu bao], Mar.
1, 2000.
1 0 Zhang Zhizhong “Story and Story-telling” in General Series o f The Century’ s Chinese Literature:
1993—The Clamor at the End o f the Century [Bainian zhongguo wenxue zongxi: 1993, shiji mo de
xuanhua], p. 88.
9
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
member of the generation whose lives were disrupted by the Cultural Revolution.
To quote her own words, “I hope that my fiction has this effect that people will read
it and say, ‘ Yes... this is the way things were once upon a time. These are lives that
people lived.’”1 1 However, after the mid-1980s, Wang’s perspective on fiction
writing experienced a noticeable change. Instead of directly drawing on personal
experiences for literary writings, she started realizing that creative writing meant to
i ^
“make a living by imagination [xiangxiang].” Moreover, she frankly admits that,
unlike those writers who themselves have rich life experiences, she “writes in a
1 T
closed environment” and starts from the “heart.” Her 1993 novel The Actual and
the Fabricated [ .Jishi yu xugou], which traces the roots of her maternal family line
from distant past, clearly demonstrates her belief in employing imagination in
fiction writing.
Another tool that Wang Anyi constantly uses in her writing is logical
thinking. She once said that, “Life in everybody’s eyes is pretty much alike, yet we
1 1 The quotation was found on http://www.kiriasto.sci.fi/wang.htm. which is a website about
contemporary Chinese writers. The original source is unknown.
1 2 Yin Dong, “Wang Anyi: Fashion [Wang Anyi shuo shishang].” The article was first published in
Shenjiang Service Guide [Shenjiangfuwu daobao] (dates are unknown). I found the online version
on http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel6/32/20000518/68946.html on Feb. 16, 2002.
1 3 Ibid.
10
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
write different things. What matters here is the logical preparation [luoji zhunbei].
If the logical thinking is sufficient, the work will be more profound than others.”1 4
When talking about the writing of Ballad, Wang Anyi said:
In fact, when I was writing Ballad, my mind was very clear. Although
many of my previous writings were finished with strong emotions, the
writing of Ballad was a dispassionate practice: the style was realistic; the
figures and plots developed with careful reasoning; and the depiction was
finely carried out like the cun in Chinese painting.1 5
It is with her extraordinary ability of using imagination and logical thinking that
Wang Anyi makes the great success of Ballad. The novel is inspired by a piece of
news that reported the murder of an old Shanghai woman. Except that the woman
happened to be a former Miss Shanghai, the news provides little details. Yet, Wang
Anyi managed to develop the story into a literary masterpiece.1 6 The consciously
observed logical thinking and the rich literary imagination contribute to her mastery
of the details in constructing the plots as well as the historical settings in the 1940s,
which she has never personally experienced.
1 4 Quoted in Xu Chunping, “The history in my eyes is quotidian - talking about Ballad o f Eternal
Sorrow with Wang Anyi [Woyanzhong de lishi shi richang de -yu Wang Anyi tan Chang hen ge] ,”
in Wemcue bao on Oct. 26, 2000.
1 5 Ibid. Cun refers to the texturing methods, or types of texture strokes (e.g. for trees, rocks,
mountains, etc.)
1 6 Wang Jiren, “Exploring the spiritual journey of an age - on Wang Anyi’s fiction writing [Tanjiuyi
ge shidai de jingshen licheng]," in Wenhui Daily (Shanghai), Jan. 6, 2001.
11
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Based on her unique opinion about fiction writing, Wang Anyi also
developed her own writing style. She once generalized her ideal writing style as
“Four Nos:” no special circumstances or extraordinary figures; no need to collect a
lot of materials; no stylized language; no uniqueness.1 7 This explicitly expressed
pursuit of the “Four Nos” is rather anti-canonical. By the time of Wang Anyi, the
Chinese literary writing tradition had long been celebrating the principle of
“creating stereotypical characters in stereotypical conditions [dianxing huanjing
zhong de dianxing renwu\," which was considered as the most basic standard of
social realistic writing.1 8 Most Chinese writers before Wang Anyi believe that the
protagonist in literary work should “come from actual life yet be higher than the
actual life [yuan yu shenghuo, gaoyu shenghuo].” According to this theory,
characters in literature should fall into three categories: the positive, who are the
perfect heroes/heroines the author tries to promote; the middle, who are not perfect
1 7 Same as 4.
1 8 The phrase has almost been concretized in modem Chinese literary theory, being celebrated
especially by the first generation of Chinese writers after the establishment o f the communist rule as
well as its literary policy in 1949. For an example o f the general recognition o f this writing principle,
refer to Sun Li’s essay “On Fiction Writing [Guanyu changpian xiaoshuo],” in which he argues,
“The structure o f a novel emerges in the conflicts, fights, and development o f typical conditions and
typical characters.” The original text can be found in
http://books.shangdu.net/gif/cl3/sunli/slsw/124.htm.
12
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
but have the potential to be perfected; the negative, who are the enemies of the
positive and the object of attack. In other words, this theory asks the author to
deliberately create characters fitted into these categories. The result is that the
positive character, which is usually the protagonist in the novel, appears to be
unreal. As Ou-yang Ming comments, “The characters in the novels produced
during the first forty years of the Republic are usually made extraordinary [T]he
positive characters are extremely noble-minded, possessing the extraordinary
bravery that is hard to find in common people; as a result, the negative and the
middle appear to be more real and even supersede the protagonist.”1 9
Wang Anyi’s public rejection of the tradition of categorizing characters
into the positive, the middle and the negative reveals her idea that literature should
be loyal to life instead of intentionally bending the facts or creating something that
is against the basic logic in real life. Demonstrating such a belief, the protagonists
in Wang Anyi’s writing show two common characteristics. As Bai Caixia and Ma
Ding observe, first, Wang Anyi’s protagonists are no longer elevated to be “higher”
than real people; instead, they are nobody but common people in daily life. Second,
1 9 Ou-yang Ming, “Tendency toward neutralization of the characters in literature o f the New Period
[Xin shiqi wenxue de renwu zhongxinghua qingxiang],” in Changjiang Daily [Changjiang ribao],
Sep. 24, 2000. The “New Period” in this article specifically refers to the 1990s.
13
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the protagonists are usually highly fabricated with some common characteristics of
a certain group or class, speaking for the whole group instead of as individuals. In
the same manner, Wang Anyi doesn’t see the necessity of having extraordinary life
experiences or collecting too much information. She argues,
We were once very obsessed in looking for extraordinary stories, and felt
jealousy of those writers who have rich and unusual experiences, firmly
believing that we couldn’t write good novels because we lack life
experiences. Therefore, we searched every comer in the mountains and
fields, and went through every lane and street collecting stories. Our history
is long and our place is big; we have many peoples with different customs
and disasters, [therefore] if we tried hard, we would surely find many
beautiful stories. Yet, for most of the time, life is extremely stingy, giving
us only some wonderful fragments, to which we have only two ways out:
letting the fragments individually be alone, or connecting them into a whole
(Wang, The Floating Words [Piaobo deyuyan], 36).
Based on this observation, Wang Anyi consciously de-emphasizes plots in her
writing. As a result, she heavily relies on literary imagination and logical thinking
to unfold her story, and consciously nurtures her narrative skill. One of the effects
of this effort is that she vividly depicts seemingly senseless objects as the
penetration of the spirit of the characters. For example, in Ballad, even the most
trivial details of daily life embody certain a hidden affective message, which helps
2 0 Bai Caixia and Ma Ding, “The vanguard that is not flattering and the classic that is not outdated -
on Wang Anyi’s uniqueness and her ‘no uniqueness’ literary perspective [Bu meisu de qiarm eiyu bu
luowu de gudian - lun Wang Anyi de dute xingji ‘ buyao dute xing’ de wexue guan],” in Journal o f
Lanzhou Educational Institute [.Lanzhou jiaoyu xueyuan xuebao] , March, 2000, pp. 30-37.
14
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
to visualize the situation of the story and promote the intimacy between the
characters and the reader. To further demonstrate this point, a few quotations from
the text may be used here:
The alleyway houses of Shanghai are sensitive, just like one’s own
skin. (Ballad 5)
The empty pigeon cage hung from the ceiling is an empty heart.
{Ballad 5)
If the alleyways of Shanghai could dream, their dreams would be
filled with nothing but gossip. {Ballad 8)
In addition to deconstructing the old writing norm of stressing stereotypical
and exaggerated figures and plots, Wang Anyi also advocates unstylized language.
Xue Beibei once characterized Wang Anyi’s language as “introversive and
technical.” She points out that Wang Anyi seldom uses direct conversations but
0 1
replaces them with indirect speeches. Moreover, the inner worlds of Wang
Anyi’s protagonists are usually revealed through monologues. As the protagonists
are nobody but the most ordinary people, and the writer never imposes her own tone
over the protagonists, the language in Wang’s writing is fairly plain and direct,
which makes it more real than dramatic. According to rough statistics conducted in
the 1980s, Wang Anyi’s literary vocabulary is only about 3,000 Chinese words, and
2 1 Xue Beibei, “Review on Wang Anyi’s narrative style [Wang Anyi xiaoshuo xushu fangshi
shaping],” in Journal o f Jiangsu Education Institute (Social Sciences Section), Vol. 12, 1997, p. 65.
15
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
all are very common in daily conversations.2 2 However, the proposition of
unstylized language should not be mistaken as no style. On the contrary, Wang
Anyi has been persistently pursuing the most effective way of narrative to express
her plebeian protagonists. As Li Luping observes, Wang Anyi’s writing language
has gone through three stages, from identifying with the traditional romantic and
emotional language in her early writings, to appealing to daily conversations and
local spoken language, to publicly denouncing the individualistic and stylized
language in favor of a more objective yet abstract language which best serves her
goal of “restoring the actual life and human nature [huanyuan shenghuo, huanyuan
renxing] ”2 3
After reviewing the three “Nos,” it becomes natural to understand Wang
Anyi’s last “no:” the so-called “no uniqueness.” As she believes that the mission
of literature is to reveal the original state of life and human nature, using the most
objective, thus inevitably abstract, language to speak for a group of people instead
of the individuals, she concludes that writers should go beyond personal unique life
2 2 Liang Yong’an, “The Unique Resources and the Independent Language - two perspectives to look
at Wang Anyi [Dute de ziyuan, duli deyuyan — guancha Wang Anyi de liangge shijiao]” in Wehui
Daily (Shanghai), Jan 1, 2001.
2 3 Li Luping, “World o f Constructive Language,” in Journal ofNingbo University (Liberal Arts
Section) [Ningbo daxue xuebao (renwen kexue ban)], Vol. 13, No. 4, Dec, 2001, p .17.
16
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
experiences but explore the general picture of life and human nature through
literary imagination and logical thinking. It is under this observation that she
completed Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow, the landmark of her literary achievement.
Wang Anyi’s Shanghai Nostalgia
When Wang Anyi realized the importance of literary imagination and logical
thinking in fiction writing, she started exploring the world beyond her personal
experiences with her literary ticket. Holding the belief that literature should restore
the original state of life and human nature, Wang Anyi started her literary journey
by searching for the way to represent the world in which the greatest number of
people live. As I have touched upon in previous passages, Wang Anyi’s literary
practice has gone through different stages. In the beginning years of writing, she
mostly took as raw materials her personal experiences of living through the Cultural
Revolution, losing the opportunity to continue formal education, being sent off to
the countryside, and struggling to return to the city. Her first collection of short
stories, The Pattering Rain [Yu, shashasha\ (1980), her first award-winning short
story “The Terminus of This Train [Benci lieche zhongdian] (1981), and her 1984
novel, “Junior High School Students of 1969 [Liujiujie chuzhongsheng]” (1984)
clearly demonstrate her focus during that period.
17
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
However, in 1983, Wang Anyi encountered the first turning point in her
literary exploration. Participating with her mother Ru Zhijuan, who herself was
also a noted writer, in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa,
Wang Anyi had the chance to stay in the United States for about three months. This
experience of living abroad experience became a great inspiration for Wang’s
understanding of human beings and culture. As she later recalled:
[T]he travel in America provided me with a new perspective: Everything in
America is the opposite of ours; their view on history, time and human
beings is different from the Chinese view. Looking back at China, we will
find something extraordinary in what was originally regarded as ordinary.2 4
Her new reflection was soon shown in her writing during the mid-1980s. In 1996,
she published a collection of short stories and novelettes which included two
novelettes about the Chinese countryside: “Liu Town [Daliu zhuang]” and “Bao
Town [Xiaobao zhuang]." The latter of the two, “Bao Town,” is generally taken as
Wang Anyi’s major achievement during this period, and carefully unfolds the
cultural background, life style, production mode and Confucian ethics in a typical
Chinese village. In her writing, Wang’s consciousness of both the ideal side of
country life, i.e. the harmonious human relationships, the laissez-faire life style, and
2 4 Wang Ruqing, “Conscious Change and Self-transcendence -on Wang Anyi’s fiction writing” in
Journal o f Tianjin Normal University, Vol. 3, 1994, p.56.
18
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the self-sufficient production mode, and its dark side of being close-minded,
superstitious and unenlightened is indicated. The narrative in this novelette is
characterized by its calm and dispassionate tone and colloquial language. One critic
even argues that this novelette represents the transition of Wang’s writing from
“being self-centered” to “being non-self-centered,” indicating her maturation in
fiction writing.2 5
As inspiring as it is to Wang Anyi, the travel to America fails to explain
fully the appearance of the sister pieces “Liu Town” and “Bao Town;” Wang’s
writing was also influenced by the greater socio-cultural background. During the
mid-1980s, the entire intellectual circle in China experienced the so-called “Roots-
seeking [Xun gen]” movement, which was outlined by the post-Mao generation
young writers and artists in their efforts to “explore the rich cultural tradition
existing outside the Confucian mainstream - the legends, unofficial histories,
colloquial language, and popular customs of the countryside or of the ‘rural village
within the city.’”2 6 The sister pieces drew the attention of critics to Wang Anyi as
2 5 Same as 23, p. 16.
2 6 Ross Lonergan, “Tradition and Modernity in Ah Cheng’s ‘The Chess Master’”, originally
published in B.C. Asian Review, vol. 2, 1988 and obtained from
http://www.cic.sfu.ca/NACC/articles/lonerganl988/lonerganl988.html.
19
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
one of the most prominent Nativists, making her equally famous with Jia Pingwa
and comparable to the Fifth-generation filmmakers Zhang Yimou and Tian
11
Zhuangzhuang, who were the icons of the Nativist school.
If the two sister pieces mark the start of Wang Anyi’s exploration of the
roots of Chinese culture, the so-called “Love Trilogy,” Love on a Barren Mountain
[Huangshan zhi liari] (1986), Love in a Small Town [Xiaocheng zhi lian] (1986) and
Brocade Valley [Jinxiugu zhi lian](1987), show her exploration of the original state
of human nature. The trilogy revolves around female sexuality and marriage, in
which Wang gives vivid revelation of the women’s psychological course in seeking
true love and independence. As fresh as the topic is, Wang’s explicit depiction of
sexual attraction turned out to be a great shock to some conservative critics. One
argues that “the conflict between sexual desire and social norm is very complicated,
yet the works [i.e. Love on a Barren Mountain and Brocade Valley] fail to deal with
it in the proper way.”
2 7 To list some representative works in the Nationalist school, The Shangzhou Stories [Shangzhou
chulu] written by Jia Pingwa, “Shanghai Triad \yao ah yao, yao dao wai po qiao]” directed by
Zhang Yimou, and “The Blue Kite [lan fengzheng]” directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang. Both the
literary piece and the two films present a loving portrayal of peasant culture and traditional values
that reflects some o f the most conservative dimensions o f the so-called Chinese “national essence.”
2 8 Same as 24, p. 56.
20
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Although it is arguable whether Wang’s roots-seeking novelettes or the
“Love Trilogy” were successful, it is obvious that Wang’s writing went through a
big change during this period. As I have mentioned before, she started using
colloquial language as the carrier of her reflection of life and human nature. To
facilitate this serious reflection, her narrative tone became calmer and more
dispassionate. From this serious thinking and self-reflection originated her
nostalgic sentiment to the past, yet her nostalgia gradually found a more identifiable
object: Shanghai, the city she lived in.
In the late 1980s and the whole decade of the 1990s, Wang Anyi’s writing
turned to depict the urban life in Shanghai; a special class, the petit bourgeois
urbanites of Shanghai, came into her focus. While her former depiction of
Shanghai life was merely through her own experience as a citizen and her
observation of the life of people living around her, which only allow the readers to
glance at the relatively recent history of the city, in this period, Wang directed her
attention to the old Shanghai in the first half of the 20th century. She rejected her
former effort to locate the cultural and psychological roots of the existing reality in
the countryside. Instead, she patently showed her interest in her home city and
started re-examining how the current spacio-temporal Shanghai was constructed by
21
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
its past, turning away from personal experience to literary imagination and logical
thinking. As she summarized her literary career in a reminiscence in 1991, she
proposed a theory that a fiction is composed of two parts: thought [sixiang\ and
material [wuzhi]. When talking about the material part of fiction, she said:
In the early stages, I wrote fiction only because I had something to say, to
express my feelings and the experiences and thoughts I gained on the road
of life. ... However, I gradually felt unsatisfied. In fact, when I chose to
write fiction as the way to express myself, there was also a hidden desire -
the desire to create. Moreover, once I admit that fiction writing is to create
something into being, my personal experiences pose the biggest limit. It is
far less than enough to go beyond the limit through the accumulation of
personal experiences and knowledge, since everyone’s experiences and
knowledge are all limited; it has to depend on the driven force of logical
OQ
thinking. This logical driven force I call the material part of fiction.
In her 1990 work “The Story of My Uncle [Shushu de gushi\,” she starts the
novel with an honest statement, “This is a pieced-together \pincou\ story; there are
many blanks which, in order to make sense, need to be filled through imagination
and logical reasoning. ” Although this is not Wang Anyi’s first time to cast a male
character as the protagonist, the novel represents her maturity in utilizing reasoning
2 9 Quoted from Zhang Zhizhong, “Story and Story-telling [Gushi he jiang gushi]" in General Series
o f The Century’ s Chinese Literature: 1993—The Uproar at the End o f the Century [Bainian
zhongguo wenxue zongxi: 1993, shi ij mo de xuanhua] , p. 88.
22
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
power in fiction writing.3 0 The mastery of logical thinking greatly enhances
Wang’s ability to express her nostalgic feelings of Shanghai in her novels, heralding
her success in Ballad.
3 0 One of Wang’s early works, “The Terminus of This Train,” also casts a male protagonist.
However, at that time Wang seemed not to have thought much about the use o f logical thinking in
fiction writing.
2 3
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Chapter Two: The Feminized City:
Reconstruction of the City in Female Narratives
The literary production of Wang Anyi in the 1990s shows a clear tendency of
relating the city with females. Starting with Mi Ni (1991), Wang Anyi seems to
consciously depict Shanghai females as the incarnation of the spirit of the city. To
quote her own words, “If you want to write about Shanghai, the best representing
figures would be the females.”3 1 In Ballad, the femininity of the city is
demonstrated through both spacial and temporal reconstruction of the city in female
experiences.
In Wang Anyi, the city is feminine first because the history of the city is
composed of quotidian occurrences rather than momentous historical events as
recorded in traditional male discourse. When interviewed about Ballad, Wang Anyi
once said, “I personally believe that the facade of history is not made up of
significant events; history is the gradual progress of daily dribs and drabs. ... Novel
as a form of art should express daily life.”3 2 Embracing such a belief, she writes
about Shanghai as if it were a sexual and amorous woman whose attractions are
shown in trivial details of daily life. In Ballad, the novel is structured in a way that
facilitates the re-writing of history as daily occurrences.
3 1 Wang Anyi, “Shanghai Females [Shanghai de nttxing].” See appendix, p. 103.
3 2 Xu Chunping, “History in My Eyes is Quotidian - Talking about Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow with
Wang Anyi,” in Wenxue bao, Oct. 26, 2000.
24
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
The whole novel is technically divided into three parts consisting of several
chapters, which in turn contain various numbers of subsections. For example, in the
first part, there are four chapters and the first chapter contains five subsections,
which are “Alleyways [Longtang],” “Pigeons [Gezi\,” “Gossip \Liuyari\,n
“Boudoirs [Guige]” and “Wang Qiyao.” The three parts are divided according to
different life stages of the protagonist along the time sequence, yet the story does
not actually begin until the second chapter of the first part. In fact, the first chapter
can be read as the background of the whole story, which is a rearrangement of the
layout of the city in both temporal and spacial senses. Among the five subsections
in this chapter, there are two that particularly address the temporal configuration of
the city in women’s experience: “Gossip” and “Wang Qiyao.”
In Wang Anyi, gossip pervades every comer of Shanghai and embodies the
spirit of the city. “It is the intellectual activity of Shanghai alleyways, diffusing day
and night” {Ballad 8). What’s more, despite the illegitimate contents of gossip,
Wang believes that “it is only in these inferior and shameful materials that one can
find some truths” {Ballad 9). The justification of the value of gossip is the
revelation of the distrust in the traditionally recognized history in male discourse.
This revolutionary idea demonstrates the writer’s resolution of overthrowing the
very definition of history enforced by the patriarchal society. Instead, she declares
that the past of the city will be rewritten by gossip: “It seems that it is going to
rewrite history, and it starts with the pettiness. It nibbles on what is written in the
2 5
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
texts, just like termites invading a mansion” (.Ballad 9). Not only does gossip have
the determination and courage to challenge official history, it also demonstrates its
ability to achieve this goal: “It has inexhaustible energy, and cannot be stifled; ... It
is the most humble grass seed, and even though it is carried by wind into a crack in
the stone, it will still take root and blossom. It almost takes root in every crack, can
even get into the most secret places like the thickly-curtained boudoir” {Ballad. 10).
Henceforth, the dominating male power faces great threat. By showing the
persistence and vitality of gossip, Wang Anyi indicates the take-over of masculinity
by femininity in the city. In other words, gossip as a symbol of female experience
redefines the city as feminine in temporal dimension.
In addition to showing the material that constitutes the city’s history, Wang
Anyi also demonstrates that the real subjects of history (thus the city) are the
populace; as specific to Shanghai, they are the so-called “petit bourgeois urban
[xiao shimin]” females. She once told an interviewer, “Shanghai in the past was a
very coarse city. It didn’t have aristocrats; what it had were well-to-do bourgeois,
the common people and rascals whose ancestors were peasants.” By “the
common people [pingmin],” Wang refers to the “petit bourgeois urbanites of
Shanghai,” who, with their moderate yet stable economic basis and their particular
3 3 Yin Dong, “Wang Anyi: I am not like Zhang Ailing.” The article was first published in Shenjiang
Service Guide (dates unknown), and I obtained it from
http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel6/32/20000518/68946.html on Feb. 16, 2002.
26
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
value system, distinguish themselves from not only the “aristocrats, well-to-do
bourgeois and rascals” but also the absolute poor.3 4
Based on this belief, Wang Anyi has cast many petit bourgeois urban female
protagonists in her earlier works, such as the woman worker who later becomes the
thief Mi Ni in Mi Ni and the college student who doesn’t finish her study but
becomes prostitute Ah San in I Love Bill. This tradition continues even to her most
recent novel Fu Ping (2000), which centers on a girl who comes to Shanghai from
the countryside and makes a residence there. Yet, it is in Ballad that this idea is
most clearly demonstrated. Under the subtitle “Wang Qiyao” in the first chapter,
Wang Anyi straightforwardly points out the common background of her protagonist:
“Wang Qiyao is the typical girl of the alleyways of Shanghai” (Ballad 20). To
further emphasize the common identity of the protagonist, she deliberately uses the
name Wang Qiyao as both the protagonist’s name and a collective name.
Every morning, the girl who walks out carrying a flower-patterned satchel
as the door facing the back alley opens is a Wang Qiyao; in the afternoon,
the one who sings the “Song of Four Seasons [Siji diao]” along with the
phonograph next door is also a Wang Qiyao; those who go together to the
3 4 The term “petit bourgeois urbanites” is quoted from Xudong Zhang in “Shanghai Nostalgia:
Postrevolutionary Allegories in Wang Anyi’s Literary Production in the 1990s,” in Positions, Vol.
8.2, Fall, 2000, pp. 349-387. In this article, Zhang argues that class analysis, “often in the form o f
the self-consciousness of the petit bourgeois urbanites” in Wang Anyi, “becomes a literary
perspective that unravels the sentimental fa9ade o f the city created by memory and nostalgia.”
27
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
movie Gone with the Wind starring Vivien Leigh are a group of Wang
Qiyaos; those who go to the photo studio to take small-sized photographs of
themselves are two particularly close Wang Qiyaos. {Ballad 20)
The plural form of the name reveals the author’s intention of casting her protagonist
as the spokesperson of the collective consciousness, thus making the character and
experience of the protagonist meaningful in a general sense.
Another technique that Wang Anyi uses in demonstrating the femininity of
Shanghai is to reconstruct the city in spacial dimension. As she once said, “[T]he
spirit of Shanghai lies in the carefully lived life of innumerable households.”3 5
Therefore, in Ballad, she consciously decomposes the city into trivial pieces of
daily experiences, and gradually re-configures it through detailing every aspect of
these small pieces. As mentioned earlier, the first chapter lays out the background
of the central story in the novel. In turn, among the five subsections in the first
chapter, the first one can be seen as the preview of the whole chapter. Although it
is subtitled as “Alleyways,” it indeed touches upon all the next four themes: gossip,
pigeons, boudoirs and the protagonist Wang Qiyao. At its beginning, it reads,
“When you stand on a highpoint to look at Shanghai, the alleyways of Shanghai are
spectacular. They are something like the background of the city” {Ballad 3). This
' Ibid.
2 8
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
statement clearly points out the importance of alleyways to the city. Later, the
author also describes alleyways in affective terms: “The alleyway houses of
Shanghai are sensitive, just like one’s own skin. They have tactile feelings of cold
and warmth, and they have their own secrets” (.Ballad 5); moreover, “the touching
quality of Shanghai alleyways originates from the most common situations. ... In
row after row, lane after lane, flows something that is unexpected yet
understandable, something that is not spectacular but trifling, just as many grains of
sand pile up to make a pagoda [ju shaye neng cheng to]” {Ballad 6). Hence,
alleyways not only become the physical background of the city; by accumulating
the “trifling” details into the “touching quality”, they also demonstrate the
temperamental femininity of the city spiritually.
In addition, the text goes on to show that alleyways are in fact the home of
every essential aspect of the city, namely, gossip, pigeons, boudoirs, petit bourgeois
young ladies, to which the author respectively gives detailed depiction in the
following subsections:
Gossip is another sight of Shanghai alleyway houses - it’s almost
visible, flowing out from the back windows and backdoors. {Ballad 6)
3 6 “Ju sha cheng ta” is an idiomatic saying in Chinese, meaning that the accumulation o f small
efforts will make a big effect.
29
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
In the dusk, the pigeons circle in the sky above Shanghai, each
looking for its nest. (.Ballad 5)
The wooden staircase is straight to the boudoir on the second floor;
the window overlooking the street thus reveals some romance. (Ballad 4)
The backdoor beside the window is particularly for the young lady to
use when she goes to school with her book-bag in her hands, or goes for a
date with the male teacher. {Ballad 5)
It is fairly apparent that what the writer pays particular attention to is nothing but
the daily living space of the populace. Whereas two of the subsections, gossip and
the both singular and collective name Wang Qiyao can be viewed as the writer’s
effort to reconstruct the city in temporal dimension, as I have demonstrated in
previous passages, the description of boudoirs, in addition to alleyways, reveals
more of the writer’s intention to re-configure the city in spacial dimension.
In Ballad, the boudoir is indicative of the person living in it. Wang Anyi
indeed treats the impersonal boudoir as the embodiment of its emotional owner: the
petit bourgeois young lady. Sometimes, she even uses the object pronoun “it” and
->7
the female pronoun “she” or the plural form “they” interchangeably. The
following quotation is just one example among others:
The boudoirs in the alleyways of Shanghai are actually a variety. They pick
up little by little as they see it; they learn with a very open mind, and don’t
follow any fixed pattern.... They talk about the absolute distinction
between men and women, but they also talk about the liberation of women.
3 7 Though English does not distinguish between the plural form o f the female pronoun and that o f the
male pronoun, Chinese writing uses two characters to refer to gender difference.
30
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Nora is their spiritual leader, but at heart they want to be Yingying in the
Story o f the Western Chamber [Xi xiang ji]; after trying something else for a
while, what they do at last is still to look for a man and rely on him. (Ballad
13 -14)3 8
As it is shown in this passage, although the subject in the discussion is originally
the “boudoirs”, it later changes to “they” referring to the young ladies in the
boudoirs. What is more, the author also indicates the fate of the female protagonist
Wang Qiyao in the description of boudoirs. “The boudoirs are the innocence of
Shanghai alleyways, turning from being naive to being mature in one single night,
yet they are ever producing without rest, one generation after another” (Ballad 15).
The sudden change of boudoirs serves as a portent of the fate of Wang Qiyao,
suspending the following story that the novel is about.
Thus, in both temporal and spacial dimension, Wang Anyi finishes her
reconstruction of the city Shanghai. By meticulously portraying the specific aspects
in Shanghai life, she carefully builds up a special living space for the protagonist,
which, paradoxically enough, represents the most common living condition of
Shanghai petit bourgeois urbanites. The city Shanghai, under the writer’s belief
that the best representatives of it are females, is feminized through being specified
into quotidian occurrences (i.e. gossip), and daily living space (i.e. alleyways and
3 8 See appendix, p. 81.
31
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
boudoirs) in the urban experiences of females. To put it in another way, in Ballad,
Wang Anyi reconstructs Shanghai through female impression and memory of it. In
his article, Liang Yong’an gives a thorough analysis of the advantage of female
memory over male memory. As he argues,
The memory of females has its own subject, thanks to their experiences of
quotidian details in life. Although these quotidian details are trivial, not the
central events of social life, they never stop. ... Male memory has
experienced too many interruptions. The radical social changes have time
and time again brought the ‘unprecedented and unrepeatable’ life experience
to men generation after generation. Under such a background, both the
political course and the cultural discourse of society are in frequent
breakdown, and cannot continue. Therefore, the macroscopic narrative in
male tradition has lost its historical continuity, and epical literary works find
39
no way to start.
Liang’s words support Wang Anyi’s unique view of history, revealing the secret of
her success in presenting the relatively more complete and more objective, thus
more valuable, historical scenery. This is where Ballad outshines the many literary
works about history by male writers.
3 9 Liang Yong’an, “Unique Resources, Unique Language - two perspectives to read Wang Anyi” in
Wenhui Daily (Shanghai), Jan. 6, 2001.
3 2
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Chapter Three: Women and Men in the City
Women and Female Relationships in Ballad
The previous passages have mentioned that the protagonist Wang Qiyao in
Ballad is a girl from a Shanghai petit bourgeois family. The novel unfolds
around the life of Wang Qiyao from her late teenage to her sixties, which
corresponds to the history of Shanghai since the 1940s. In fact, the novel
reveals a fairly noticeable parallel between the protagonist’s life and the
history of the city. As Xudong Zhang has observed:
Effectively, the admiration and love of both men and women for Wang
Qiyao is but an aestheticized, sometimes eroticized homage they pay to the
city and its particular past. In Ballad, Shanghai unfolds along with Wang
Qiyao. Indeed, the city prospers and withers with its heroine: in her humble
background, her five-minute glamour in the limelight, and her willing
possession by the powerful; in her undeceivable sense of life's persistent
treachery, which contributes to both her calculated struggle for security and
her submission to fate; in her impeccable command of details and her
unfailing ability to charm; in her glamourless survival as a part-time nurse in
the “new society”; in her bizarre reunion with diehard Shanghai lovers of
different periods (who seek the former Miss Shanghai in their quest for the
residual evidence of the bygone era); and in her reluctant, unthinkably slow
3 3
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
but nonetheless irreversible process of aging in what she considers a coarse
40
environment.
Therefore, the life story of the protagonist Wang Qiyao reflects the history of
Shanghai from a small fishing village through the prosperity of early capitalism to
the 1930s “Oriental Paris” and finally coming to the present as a modem metropolis
which, though materially at its peak in history, nevertheless can restore the pride
and glamour of the old days. At this point, it becomes easy to understand why
Wang Anyi borrowed the title of the novel from the long ballad by the Tang poet
Bai Juyi, which tells the tragic love story of the Bright Emperor of Tang and his
beloved concubine Yang Yuhuan. Obviously Wang’s novel inherits the theme of
lamenting lost beauty from the famous poem, yet the writer also expresses her
nostalgic sentiments of the city’s past. In Wang’s novel, the images of a woman
and the images of the city become “inseparable, even indistinguishable,” to quote
Xudong Zhang again.4 1
As the city goes through its ups and downs in history, Wang Qiyao
experiences the glories and frustrations in her fate. What is worth mentioning is
4 0 Xudong Zhang, “Shanghai Nostalgia: Postrevolutionary Allegories in Wang Anyi’s Literary
Production in the 1990s,” in Positions, Vol. 8.2, Fall, 2000, p. 349.
4 1 Ibid.
34
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
that every momentous event in her life is initiated by her best female friend. In
other words, it is these female friends that trigger the great changes in Wang
Qiyao’s life, punctuating her lifetime into different stages from innocence to
maturity to old age and even to death.
Wu Peizhen is the first female friend of Wang Qiyao in the novel. As a
teenage friend, she is the symbol of the most innocent and naive time in Wang
Qiyao’s life; her friendship with Wang Qiyao is also the purest and most unselfish
relationship that Wang Qiyao ever has. Because of Wu’s unattractive appearance
and her coarse yet congenial personality, Wang feels comfortable making best
friends with her. As the text reads,
Wang Qiyao doesn’t have to worry that she [Wu] will be jealous, nor does
she need to be jealous herself; on the contrary, she even nurtures some
sympathy with Wu because of her ugliness. This sympathy makes Wang
Qiyao generous; of course, her generosity is only to Wu Peizhen. Wu
Peizhen’s carelessness is in fact only because she doesn’t want to care, yet
she is thankful for Wang Qiyao’s kindness, and treats her with double
kindness, as if repaying an obligation. Being reciprocal like this for several
times, the two become closest friends. (Ballad 24)
Because of her admiration, Wu thinks hard to make Wang Qiyao happy, and her
biggest surprise for Wang Qiyao is to take her to a film studio where Wang
encounters the first great change in her life, as the author reveals at the beginning of
this subsection, “The story of forty years starts from the day in the film studio”
35
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
(.Ballad 24).
In this part, the author designedly indicates Wang Qiyao’s fate in the scene
the two girls see in the film studio. On the night before, Wu Peizhen dreams of
Wang Qiyao in costume smiling at her. Then, when they are watching a filming
scene of a woman lying on a bed in her robe, Wang Qiyao finds that “everything in
it is extremely familiar” (.Ballad 27). She later figures out that the woman is
pretending to be dead, and, “to her surprise, the scene doesn’t seem horrible at all;
on the contrary, it feels familiar even to boredom” (Ballad 28). The visit to the film
studio finally ends up with a complex feeling in Wang Qiyao: “It is not as
miraculous as she expected; yet, because it is common, it gives her some kind of
attainable impression; but what does she want to attain? She doesn’t know” (Ballad
29). Here the author plots another suspense of the story, which is not revealed until
the very last passage of the novel. Forty years later, when Wang Qiyao is
unexpectedly murdered by an acquaintance, the scene in the film studio recurs in
her eyes as the closure of her life: “Only then does she realize that the woman on
the bed is nobody but herself, dead of a murder” (Ballad 376).
When Wu Peizhen brings Wang Qiyao to the film studio, she unconsciously
shows Wang the fate waiting for her, which unfortunately also means the end of
36
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
their immaculate friendship, or, maybe more accurately, sisterhood.
Wang Qiyao’s beauty soon catches the attention of a young director, who
later tries to make a film star of her but only finds that “her beauty is not the artistic
type, but the beauty of home style, appearing in the parlor room and only for
acquaintances to appreciate, having the sentiment of daily life. ... From the camera,
it seems too plain” {Ballad 33). To compensate the effort of Wang Qiyao, the
director recommends her to a photographer friend to take some photos, one of
which is even selected by a magazine as the inside front cover. This is the first time
that Wang Qiyao enters public attention. The authors takes this opportunity to
reveal the “inseparable and even indistinguishable” relationship between the
protagonist and the city: the magazine is called “Shanghai Life,” and the title given
to Wang Qiyao’s photo is “Graceful Lady of Shanghai [hu shang shu yuan] .”
Moreover, the author passionately comments, “This photo matches the magazine
title ‘Shanghai Life’ as perfectly as if it were chosen by heaven; yet, it also seems
like the footnote to ‘Shanghai Life.’ It can be said to be the essence of ‘Shanghai
Life,’ just as such daily living scenes as dressing and eating, going about life little
by little without a letup, like a tiny stream flowing forever, could not be any more
suitable” {Ballad 38).
37
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
However, no matter how well she looks in the photograph, the experience of
performing before a camera is a frustration; it becomes a detrimental blow to Wang
Qiyao’s friendship with Wu Peizhen. Wang Qiyao begins intentionally estranging
Wu Peizhen, feeling “as if she has pried some secrets from her.” On Wu’s part, it
seems that she can do nothing but wait for Wang to change her mind. Finally, the
originally two closest friends do not speak to each other anymore, “immediately
walking away in embarrassment as they see each other” (Ballad 34). This is the
final departure of Wu Peizhen from Wang Qiyao’s life, and also the departure of
Wang Qiyao from the naive and immaculate youth. Wu Peizhen as the first female
friend in fact brings a new experience to Wang, which changes her life forever.
Because of the unsuccessful shooting experience in the film studio, Wang for the
first time has a “sense of change [cang sang gan\” (Ballad 34).
The absence of Wu Peizhen is soon filled by Jiang Lili, the second close
friend in Wang Qiyao’s life. Unlike Wu Peizhen’s, Jiang’s family background is
much superior to Wang’s. As the novel reads, “She comes from a factory-owner
family, and is one of the richest classmates in the class” (Ballad 41). Therefore,
Jiang’s invitation to her birthday party makes Wang Qiyao surprised, and probably
even flattered. However, she has learned something from her last frustration, and
38
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
becomes not only more experienced but also more confident and ambitious. As the
novel develops,
If this [Jiang’s invitation] had happened in the past, no matter how curious
she was, Wang Qiyao would only have said no; she would never devote
herself to others’ glory. Yet, now she decides not to care so much; besides,
who knows [what will happen]? Maybe at the end it will turn out that all the
glory of others is just for her. {Ballad 42)
Wang’s change once again indicates the influence of her experience in the film
studio, thus of Wu Peizhen who introduces her to it. Meanwhile, her change also
foreshadows her further stepping into a world that doesn’t correspond to her petit
bourgeois status.
Jiang Lili soon makes friends with Wang Qiyao, yet her friendship is
different from that of Wu Peizhen. While Wu expresses her love and admiration to
Wang Qiyao honestly, Jiang, “in order to distinguish herself from others,” tries to
hide her affection for Wang Qiyao {Ballad 45). Yet, as she lives in an unhappy
family with an incapable mother and an indifferent brother (her father lives with a
concubine in another city), she is also lonely and unhappy at heart and needs Wang
Qiyao’s friendship desperately. Therefore, the relationship between Wang and
Jiang is inevitably more complex than that of Wang and Wu.
Jiang changes the life of Wang starting with her birthday party, at which she
39
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
wishfully devotes her exaggerated love to Wang and draws great attention of others
to her. After this, Wang becomes a frequenter of upper class parties as a close
friend of Jiang, partly because of Jiang’s wishfulness, partly because of her own
curiosity and vanity inspired by the experience in the film studio and the fame
brought by the photo in the magazine. Wang Qiyao not only becomes accustomed
to the upper-class parties, but also gradually establishes fame for herself, which
finally prepares her for the Miss Shanghai contest. The participation in this beauty
contest is suggested by Mr. Cheng, the amateur photographer who took the famous
picture for her; yet, it is Jiang Lili who contributes most to Wang’s winning. From
the first, Jiang voluntarily becomes Wang’s sponsor and ardent supporter, devoting
every bit of her energy to Wang’s campaign. Although Jiang is as sincere as
Wang’s former friend Wu, her style is much different. As Wang feels,
She [Jiang] does all this as if the ‘Miss Shanghai’ belonged to her, as
did Wang Qiyao. (Ballad 49)
She [Wang] knows that Jiang is only out to make her happy, yet this
happiness is almost like oppression; it’s so invasive that she almost wants to
rebel. (Ballad 50)
Hence, Wang’s role is completely changed in her relationships with the two friends.
When making friends with Wu, Wang feels “as if she were putting the heavy task of
dealing with human relations on Wu’s shoulders: her prettiness gives prominence to
40
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wu’s ugliness; her generosity gives prominence to Wu’s obligation to her.”
However, when preparing for the beauty contest, Wang feels the pressure on her
own shoulders:
The hope and effort of Jiang Lili and Mr. Cheng ultimately is Wang
Qiyao’s responsibility; the success or failure after all is not theirs but Wang
Qiyao’s. (Ballad 53)
These clothes [to be worn in the contest] will accompany her to her
fate; they are her only friends when she is alone. She feels as intimate with
them as if they were her own skin and heart. This also makes her feel sad.
When it comes to that moment, she can depend on nobody but herself.
(Ballad 61)
Obviously Wang’s feeling of being oppressed and lonely is rooted in the status
difference between herself and Jiang; it indicates the ephemerality of Wang’s glory
among the upper class and promises her unavoidable fate of ending as a petit
bourgeois urbanite. With Jiang Lili and her family’s support, Wang Qiyao finally
wins the second prize of the beauty contest, reaching the most glorious moment in
her life; yet, the higher Jiang leads Wang to reach in the social ladder, the farther
she is away from her material and spiritual home in the petit bourgeois class, and
the more tragic her dream of entering the upper class becomes. If Wu Peizhen
starts Wang Qiyao’s journey away from her naive and happy girlhood, Jiang Lili
takes her closer to her sorrowful ending as a woman doomed by her beauty.
The “Miss Second Runner-up” title gained in the beauty contest gives
41
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wang Qiyao the highest fame she has ever enjoyed, and also brings her the
attention of Director Li, the powerful official in the Nationalist Party [Guomindang].
Almost as if she has foreseen her fate of being a concubine, Wang Qiyao quietly
accepts Director Li’s advancement, and wishfully moves into the apartment he
bought for her. While Wu Peizhen only indirectly brings Wang Qiyao the first
feeling of the “sense of change,” marking her step toward maturity, Jiang Lili is the
original reason for her to be more experienced and sophisticated. Having gone
through the spectacle of the beauty contest, Wang Qiyao becomes extremely calm
even at the moment when she gives her virginity to Director Li, “only with a little
bit of pity” (Ballad 93).
When Wang Qiyao goes with Director Li, she has her own justifiable reason,
that is, to “live in the core [xinzi li zuoren],'” rather than “on the surface [mianzi
shang zuoren]” (Ballad 105). What she means is that she would rather be the
beloved concubine rather than the abandoned wife who only has the title, like Jiang
Lili’s mother. At this point, Jiang Lili has broken up with Wang because of her
hopeless love for Mr. Cheng who has been completely attracted to Wang Qiyao.
Yet, it is Wang’s identity of being a married woman that makes Jiang feel “as if
there were a dividing line between them” (Ballad 106). As the second important
42
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
female friend in Wang Qiyao’s life, Jiang Lili becomes the witness of the second
stage of Wang Qiyao’s life, accompanying her from the beautiful “Miss Shanghai”
to the rich mistress.
Wang Qiyao herself once cites the old Chinese saying, “The waning of the
moon comes right after her waxing \yue man ze kui\;” her married life is both the
most glorious moment in her life and the start of her misfortune (Ballad 106). First
comes the accidental death of Director Li in an air crash, followed by the take-over
of China by the Communist Party. Wang Qiyao retreats into the countryside for a
year and returns to Shanghai to make a living by being a part-time nurse. Thus, she
actually returns to the life that she originally lived and the class that she originally
belonged to - the petit bourgeois urbanites. Here, she meets the third female friend
who plays an important role in her life - Mrs. Yan.
As far as social status is concerned, Mrs. Yan is a combination of Jiang Lili
and Wu Peizhen in that her husband was originally a rich capitalist but only able to
make a moderate living after the Communist take-over. Mrs. Yan thus embodies
both the superiority of the upper class and the easy-going temperament of the petit
bourgeois urbanite. She reminds Wang Qiyao of the past glory and the present
harsh reality at once. More importantly, she becomes another great influence on
43
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wang Qiyao by introducing Kang Mingxun, or so-called Uncle Maomao \Maomao
niangjiu], to her. If Wang Qiyao has ever loved any man in her lifetime, Kang is
the one. This fact is enough to explain the special role that Mrs. Yan plays in Wang
Qiyao’s life, let alone the fact that she is her only life-time friend.
Kang is in fact a cousin of Mrs. Yan, the only son of an even richer family
but in an embarrassing position of having been bom by the concubine rather than
the wife. Obviously Kang’s special position in the family is a big threat to his love
with Wang Qiyao, yet it is Mrs. Yan who puts the treat right in front of the two
lovers, who otherwise would rather pretend not seeing it:
This day when Kang Mingxun comes back home, he notices that everybody
in the family bears a cold look ... He feels strange, then realizes somebody
has dropped by as he sees the cake box on the table; he inquires of the
maidservant Chen, and learns that it was Mrs. Yan. (Ballad 194)
Had she been a little encouraging, Wang Qiyao’s life might have been completely
different. Yet, Mrs. Yan’s intervention only reinforces the hopelessness of love
between Wang and Kang, precipitating the end of the relationship. Finally, with the
confirmation of Wang’s pregnancy, the only time when she enjoys true love passes
away.
Mrs. Yan brings Kang Mingxun to Wang Qiyao, relighting the love in her
heart; yet, she also strangles the love, extinguishing the last hope in Wang Qiyao’s
44
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
life. It is ultimately through her that Wang Qiyao finishes her transformation from
a single woman to a single mother. In other words, Mrs. Yan adds more tragic
elements to Wan Qiyao’s life.
The next female emerging in Wang Qiyao’s life probably cannot be called a
friend; it is her daughter Weiwei. Yet, Weiwei does influence Wang greatly, not
only because of the fact that she is Wang’s only family, but also because she brings
another female, Zhang Yonghong, to Wang. What is more, because Weiwei does
not inherit the attractiveness from Wang Qiyao and even nurtures a kind of jealous
feeling as she grows up, the daughter and the mother have never been really close to
each other. This brings the chance for Zhang and Wang to be friends despite their
age difference. The two attract each other for their similar taste in fashion, which
gives them a lot of topics to talk about. As the text goes, “Zhang Yonghong feels
lucky for getting to know Wang Qiyao, who is almost a mentor to her; Wang Qiyao
is also glad to meet Zhang Yonghong: how long hasn’t she had the appetite to talk
so much” (.Ballad 275)? Because Zhang’s good looks and pride so much resemble
Wang’s past, Wang would like to share with her the knowledge that she gained in
her life:
Wang Qiyao knows that girls like Zhang Yonghong always make that kind
of mistake of wanting what they are unable to achieve and rejecting what is
45
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
less. Because they are pretty and fashionable, and because there are several
men pursuing them at the same time, they think they can choose a boyfriend.
They give themselves enough airs; yet, what they don’t know is that most
men don’t have much patience, and they will beat a retreat in the face of
difficulties. Although there might be one or two who are determined, they
are usually the ones the girls don’t like. Therefore, these girls are even
worse than those who know their disadvantages in understanding the
situation and grasping the chance. (.Ballad 278)
This is actually Wang’s explanation for the result that she ends up with; making
friends with Zhang Yonghong lets her have a clear view of what she has gone
through. Now, as her heart is revived through the bitter memories brought up by
Zhang, Wang steps back into the evening parties that her daughter’s generation
enjoys as much as she did when she was young. She sees clearly that her role has
changed: “At the party, the woman who quietly sits in a comer as if she pretty much
enjoyed being neglected is Wang Qiyao” (Ballad 290). Yet, she at heart has never
given up; the thought that “it is she who is the real heart of the party” betrays the
bitterness behind her seemingly peaceful face (.Ballad 291). In this sense, Zhang
Yonghong not only brings Wang Qiyao back to the old days, but also revives the
desire at the bottom of her heart, which only throws her into the hopeless love affair
46
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
with Old Color, a young man who is Weiwei’s age but has a strong nostalgic
sentiment about Wang Qiyao’s time.4 2
The short-lived love with Old Color is obviously an allusion to the old
Chinese saying about the last radiance of the setting sun [hui guangfan zhao].
Zhang Yonghong, the last close friend of Wang Qiyao, after indirectly bringing her
the last joy, finally becomes the one who, though unconsciously, leads her to death.
Although it is rather disputable whether this death is a good ending for the novel, it
is obvious that the author Wang Anyi had a clear reason to let Zhang Yonghong’s
boyfriend become the murderer of Wang Qiyao.4 3 Just as Wu Peizhen witnesses
4 2 According to Xudong Zhang, the original Chinese term “Lao Kela” used in the text is a translation
and transliteration of “old class,” and Wang Anyi mistakenly interprets it as “old color.” For
details, refer to Zhang’s article “Shanghai Nostalgia: Postrevolutionary Allegories in Wang Anyi’s
Literary Production in the 1990s” in Positions, Vol. 8.2, Fall, 2000, pp. 349-387. However, as a
textual study, this thesis will stay with Wang’s interpretation.
4 3 There are different opinions about the ending among scholars. For example, Chen Sihe reads the
ending as an indication of the absurdity and irony underlying the so-called nostalgic “Shanghai
Dream” in his paper “The Urban Scenery of Shanghai in Wang Anyi’s Writing - Examining Wang
Anyi’s two novels Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow and Fu Ping,” which was presented on “International
Conference on the Development of Chinese Literature in the New Century [xin shiji huawen wenxue
fazhan guoji xueshu yantaohui],” May 19, 2001, Yuan Zhi University, Taiwan. Xudong Zhang
agrees in his article “Shanghai Nostalgia” that it is a logical ending, yet present a different
perspective that Wang’s murder by a modem Shanghai rascal is an indication o f slaughter o f the
city’s unique culture formed in the semi-colonial capitalistic period. Still, other scholars, such as
Zhizhong Zhang in “Story and Story-telling” in 1993, the Uproar at the Century’ s Closure, 1998,
explicitly say that they don’t like the ending.
47
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the passing of Wang’s naive girlhood, Jiang Lili witnesses the passing of her glories,
and Mrs. Yan witnesses the passing of her true love, Zhang Yonghong is the
witness of the last days of her life.
As is shown above, all these female friends are very much involved in Wang
Qiyao’s life at different time periods, being Wang’s actual and spiritual companions
and crucially influencing the major changes in her life. In this course, each female
friend inevitably incorporates her own value and philosophy into Wang’s life; in
other words, Wang has been depicted as the spokesperson of Shanghai females.
Furthermore, though not absolutely from the same background, both the protagonist
Wang Qiyao and her female friends roughly belong to the petit bourgeois class,
with Wang being most representative, Wu and Zhang symmetrically standing along
the two sides of Wang, Jiang and Wu going through the change from upper class to
petit bourgeois. The socio-geographical design of the main characters in the novel
reveals the author’s belief that females, specifically the petit-bourgeois class
females, are the embodiment of the soul of the city Shanghai.
Men and Male Power in Ballad
While the previous chapters have argued how the feminine quality of Shanghai is
48
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
demonstrated through female reconstruction of the city and the emphasis on the
female relations in determining the life course of the protagonist, the current chapter
will explore how male power is deconstructed in the female narrative and how male
characters in Ballad have in fact transformed into the counterpart rather than the
opposite of the female characters, serving the same function of mirroring the
femininity of the city. Before going into detailed textual analysis of Ballad it is
necessary to examine the author’s basic attitude toward gender relations as seen in
her earlier writings.
As early as in Mi Ni and I Love Bill, Wang Anyi showed her vision of
modem gender relations, which was consistent with her belief that females were the
real embodiment of the city’s spirit. Although the male characters in both novels
directly corrupt the female protagonists and make their lives miserable, the female
protagonists, who actually speak the mind of the author, do not show resentment but
rather accept their misfortunes as fated. When Li Zihui comments on the two
novels, she argues,
As to the males who induce them [the female protagonists Mi Ni and Ah
San] to take the wrong step in life, Wang Anyi does not accuse them for
being morally irresponsible, but treats them as the herald and guide who
leads the turns in the story, opening the prelude to the protagonists’ fate; it is
49
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the spiritual world of the female characters that the author really focuses
44
on.
This comment precisely captures Wang’s attitude toward gender relations. Ballad
makes another example of this point.
In Ballad, the male characters can be roughly categorized into the major and
the minor roles according to the extent that they are involved in the protagonist’s
life. What is noteworthy is that all the major male characters are close to the
female protagonist in social status, sharing her vision of life that celebrates the daily
gratification of the mundane world. In contrast, the author consciously casts men of
power and influence, who represent the male dominance in the society, in a distance
to the protagonist, indicating the indifference to and mockery of the existing
patriarchal order and male power. To quote Nan Fan’s comments in “Portrait of the
City—Reading Wang Anyi’s Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow,”
The female-envisioned world [n thing shiyu\ in Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow
estranges itself from the mighty mainstream history. Those powerful and
influential figures, such as Jiang Lili’s father, Director Li, and Mrs. Yan’s
husband, only appear as some vague back views, and their violent fights and
strivings in the masculine world can be only seen through the projection in
the female-envisioned world... ,4 5
4 4 Li Zihui, “Wang Anyi and Gender Writing,” in Journal o f Zhejiang Normal College (philosophies
and social sciences section), 2000, vol. 21, p. 69.
45Same as 4.
50
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
As Nan has implied, in Ballad, the author intentionally avoids direct depiction of
the powerful male figures. Among the three listed in the quotation, Jiang’s father
and Mrs. Yan’s husband never really appear on the stage, and their identities are
only revealed through the females around them. For example, although Jiang Lili is
one of the most important female friends in Wang Qiyao’s life, and the Jiang
family’s wealth and social status play a crucial role in Wang’s transformation from
a girl from a common background to the glorious Miss Shanghai, Jiang’s father
never shows up before Wang. The only occasion when his importance is shown is
when his wife writes him a letter to urge him to donate some money to the
organization sponsoring the beauty contest, “in order to add some weight to Wang
Qiyao’s competition” (.Ballad 54). In the case of Mrs. Yan’s husband, his power
and wealth are revealed only through his wife’s lifestyle and her nitpicking with the
living conditions:
Mrs. Yan has always been resentful for living in the Ping’an alley [Ping’ an
Li]; she lives here only because the property price is low and Mr. Yan is
extremely frugal. She has complained enough, and Mr. Yan has already
made plenty of promises. Unexpectedly the joint state-private ownership
movement occurred and their property was appropriated by the state. She
should feel lucky for being able to preserve this private estate; the
gardenesque Westem-style house turned out to be only a dream (Ballad 148).
The transition from the upper class down to the middle class of the Yan family
51
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
explains the reason why Mrs. Yan looks at all other neighbors “as if they were
inferior to her” but chooses Wang Qiyao to be her friend, who, like Mrs. Yan
herself, has tasted the luxury of the upper class life but ends up being a commoner
(.Ballad 148). Because of the similar experiences, Mrs. Yan and Wang Qiyao share
the same philosophy of life. However, while the two women carefully live every
day and enjoy every bit of quotidian gratification, the man, Mr. Yan, never joins his
wife and is depicted as aloof, as if he didn’t live in the same world with her. To
quote the text, “Mr. Yan always comes and goes by car, and [although being
neighbors] for many years nobody is able to recognize his face” (.Ballad 148). The
vagueness of Mr. Yan’s face in the eyes of the common neighbors in the Ping An
alley indicates distance between the mainstream ideology and the popular ethos.
To Wang Qiyao and people in the same social class with her, what constitutes the
Grand Narratives in mainstream discourse is not comprehensible, and neither do
they bother to ponder on it:
Like all other Shanghai citizens, in their [i.e. Wang Qiyao and Mr. Cheng,
who shares the same social status with her] eyes, the image of the Chinese
Communist Party is too high to reach.... They are also living in the core of
the society, immersing themselves in the fuel and rice and other daily
necessities, hardly having any ideas about themselves, not to mention the
nation, the state power {Ballad 214).
The only powerful male figure that enjoys relatively more attention of the
52
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
author is Director Li, an influential official in the Nationalist Party who later takes
Wang Qiyao as his mistress. However, although he changes her life completely,
their encounter turns out to be ephemeral. Even at the very beginning of their first
contact, Director Li is very conscious about time. As the text goes, “On the matter
of women, Director Li always makes prompt decisions, never delays or beats about
the bush but gets directly to the subject. This is due to his power, and also because
of the transitoriness of life” (Ballad 85). Later when Wang Qiyao moves into the
luxury apartment bought by Director Li and lives as his mistress, the author devotes
considerable space to creating a mysterious and dreamlike atmosphere for the
building, indicating the fantastic quality of Wang’s luxurious days. In the
apartment “everything pairs up, one being real, the other unreal; one is true, the
other false” (Ballad 95). In addition, the world within the building is also
vulnerable: “This world is embedded in the scattered comers in the city, giving a
general look of ant-hills with shell-like crispy walls; the beauty [of the world] is
like firebugs, having one day’s life and tiny spots of light which cost the utmost of
these free spirits” (Ballad 97). The hidden unstability and danger within the
building herald the ending of Director Li’s protection of Wang Qiyao, which
symbolizes the collapse of the male power. While Director Li’s accidental death in
53
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
an air crash terminates Wang Qiyao’s peaceful life as a rich mistress, her further
retreat to a distant village indicates the subversion of the Nationalist Party by the
Communist Party. What is worth special mention is that the vehement fight over
the state power between the two political parties, which changes the history of the
nation completely, does not bother the protagonist very much. On the contrary, she
seems to live in a perfectly personal world in which she cares only about her own
individual well-being. The protagonist’s unconsciousness of political strife once
again reveals the author’s anti-traditional view of history, which celebrates the
quotidian experiences of common people instead of the political events in
traditional male discourse.
Obviously, Director Li is depicted as the representative of the male world
and male power. By constantly contrasting Director Li’s inner struggles with his
power as seen through Wang Qiyao’s eyes, the author challenges the undefeatable
image of males in patriarchal history. On one hand, Wang Qiyao feels surefooted
as if “her heart could rest on the ground” when she is in Director Li’s arms {Ballad
90). On the other hand, Director Li himself always feels pressured as if “every
move he makes would lead to great danger that would smash his body into pieces”
{Ballad 90). The vulnerability under the seeming toughness of Director Li is
54
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
revealed most clearly when he is waked up by horrible nightmares of brutal fighting
at night and “Wang Qiyao holds him in her arms and comforts him” {Ballad 112).
Here the stereotyped male-female relation of protecting and being protected is
completely reversed, being replaced by a new gender relation of mother-child,
which gives great prominence to the tough quality in femininity. This anti-
traditional gender relation becomes the guiding principle underlying all the relations
between the female protagonist and the males in her life. In other words, in Ballad,
the basic gender relationship is that the woman plays the role of the protecting
mother and the man becomes the child under protection.
Among all the male characters in the novel, Mr. Cheng keeps the longest
relationship with Wang Qiyao. First coming to her life as an amateur photographer,
Mr. Cheng is an important element that contributes to the great changes in Wang
Qiyao’s life. Admiring Wang’s beauty, he sends her photographs to the popular
magazine Shanghai Life [Shanghai shenghuo], leading her to public attention for
the first time.4 6 Moreover, he is the first person to suggest that Wang participate in
the beauty contest, further stimulating her ambition and hope of ascending along the
4 6 There is no actual record to prove such a magazine ever existed. Therefore, it may be a fabricated
name by the author.
55
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
social ladder. As devoted and dedicated as he is, however, Mr. Cheng never
captures Wang’s heart as a male admirer. The femininity in Cheng’s character is
first demonstrated in his whole-hearted appreciation of female charm, which
overshadows his masculinity. As the text reads,
Trained as a railroad builder, what occupies his heart is photography....
Among all the objects of photography, he loves females most, and believes
that females are the most beautiful pictures in the world. ... Because these
beauties are separated from him by his beloved camera lens, they naturally
retreat to the next place. Mr. Cheng almost never thought about marriage
{Ballad 66).
The sexually indifferent attitude toward women denies Mr. Cheng’s biological
gender. Even after he becomes infatuated with Wang Qiyao, his timidity and
hesitation to express himself before her betray the femininity in his character. As a
result, Wang never takes him as a male admirer; instead, in her eyes, “although Mr.
Cheng is a man, because of his gentle character, and because he is always trying to
gain her favor, he almost becomes a woman, a captive in the small world of Wang”
{Ballad 86). Later after Wang becomes a mistress of Director Li, she once recalls
Cheng’s addiction to photography, and talks about him in a tone as if he “were a
naughty child.” The mother-child type of gender relationship is clearly seen.
The mother-child relationship is shown in the form of sister-brother
relation between Wang Qiyao and Ah Er, a young student she meets during her
56
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
retreat into a village. From the first day they meet, Ah Er addresses Wang Qiyao as
“elder sister.” Growing up in the countryside but receiving his education from the
city, Ah Er has an admiration of Wang Qiyao that is closely associated with his
longing for the city. As Xudong Zhang suggests, “The convolution of the female
heroine and the city of Shanghai into a deadly seductress is perhaps best illustrated
from a distance, in a passing yet important figure, Ah E r,... In his mind, Ah Er can
never separate his love for Miss Shanghai from his worship of the city for which the
woman is named.”4 7 In fact, there is always a sense of reverence in Ah Er’s love
for Wang, which keeps it different from the sexual love between the two genders.
On Wang’s part, she naturally accepts Ah Er as a younger brother, and understands
his love as nothing but pure admiration. On one occasion, she even jokes to
“introduce a young lady from Shanghai” to Ah Er, which indicates her mother-like
love for him (Ballad 134). When Ah Er promises that he will remember Wang
forever, Wang answers, “When you get married, you’ll forget your mother, let
alone me” (Ballad 139). The seemingly unconscious association with Ah Er’s
mother betrays the mother-child type of relationship in Wang and Ah Er.
4 7 Xudong Zhang, “Shanghai Nostalgia: Postrevolutionary Allegories in Wang Anyi’s literary
production in the 1990s,” in Positions, Vol. 8.2, Fall, 2000, p. 378.
57
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
The encounter with Ah Er brings Wang Qiyao the memory of Shanghai
and helps make up her mind to return to the city, where she later manages to make a
living by being a part-time nurse in the Ping’an Alley. By making friends with Mrs.
Yan, a comparatively wealthy woman, Wang is introduced to another man in her
life, with whom she falls in love for the first time. However, Kang Mingxun is still
not a man who is strong enough for Wang to depend on; on the contrary, he is the
weaker kind in the relationship who seeks protection and consolation. The text
gives a detailed description of the embarrassing situation of Kang, also called Uncle
Maomao at earlier times:
Among those who come often [to Mrs. Yan’s house], there is an Uncle
Maomao, who is in fact Mrs. Yan’s cousin and thus called Uncle Maomao
as the children address him. Uncle Maomao finished his college in Beijing,
and was assigned to work in Gansu, where he of course didn’t want to go;
he came back to his home at Shanghai and lives with his father’s interests.
His father used to be a factory-owner whose enterprises were several times
bigger than Mr. Yan’s; after the joint state-private ownership movement, he
asked to retire and lives in a gardenesque Westem-style house with his two
wives and three children. Uncle Maomao was bom by the second wife but
also is the only son, therefore he at the same time enjoys everybody’s
fondness and needs to be observant and alert when dealing with people
(jBallad 155).
In escaping the difficult role at home, Kang finds relief in Wang Qiyao, who is also
frustrated by hard situations. Although Kang originally appears to be Wang’s
protector, caring for her both financially and emotionally at the mahjong party in
58
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wang’s place, nonetheless he lacks the necessary courage to protect their love
against the pressure from his family. When the illegitimate love is threatened as
Wang gets pregnant, Kang finally makes himself a coward, saying, “Although I
know nobody can compare to you, I have no choice” (Ballad 193). Here the author
presents a picture of the vulnerability under seemingly strong masculinity that is
similar to what happens between Wang and Director Li, with Wang playing the role
of the protecting mother and Kang the protected child. Even the way the
motherhood expressed is similar: “Wang Qiyao holds his head in her arms, stroking
his hair with her heart full of care; she not only has love for him, but also has
solicitude for him” (Ballad 193). In contrast to the male vulnerability, the female
shows great courage to take the responsibility and consequence of the illegitimate
love all by her own. Despite the illegitimacy, she bravely admits her love for the
man, and “will do anything for him” (Ballad 199). The stereotyped gender
relationship is reversed as the woman shows the toughness while the man appears
weak.
The male power in the novel is further deconstructed in Sasha, a passing
yet important male character in the novel. Unlike Kang Mingxun, whose femininity
is demonstrated in his inability to take the responsibility for his actions, Sasha
59
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
cannot be responsible even for himself, a weakness that is probably most
contemptible to the patriarchal tradition that stresses social responsibility, and even
despised by his women friends Mrs. Yan and Wang Qiyao (175). Bom to a Chinese
father and a Russian mother, who were martyrs in the revolution, Sasha is one of
the half-breed “children of the revolution” {Ballad 199). He doesn’t have a job;
instead, he makes a living partly by receiving a small amount of government
welfare and partly by catering to women and receiving their gifts and donations.
With his exotic appearance and deceptively childish innocence, he soon wins the
favor of Wang Qiyao. Because of their slight difference in age (Sasha is in his early
twenties and Wang is about thirty), he even jokingly calls Wang Qiyao “mother”
{Ballad 175). When Wang Qiyao decides to frame him as her baby’s father, she
can’t help feeling guilty and thinking to herself that “he is still a kid” {Ballad 202).
It is clearly seen that the relation between Wang and Sasha is just a new version of
mother and child.
The finish of the destruction of male power in Ballad is achieved through
the construction of the last mother-child relation between Wang Qiyao and her last
lover Old Color, a young man who is Wang’s daughter’s age but has a strong
nostalgic sentiment of Wang’s youth. The mother-child relation is first implied by
60
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the great age difference between the female protagonist and her male admirer.
When Old Color constantly mentions the 1940s in his imagination before Wang
Qiyao, Wang feels nothing but reminiscence about her past. Being aware of the age
difference, she tries to stop his approach to her by sighing to him “You are really a
kid,” which at the same time betrays her unwillingness to face her old age (Ballad
329). The mother-child relation is further reinforced by the two lovers’ hopeless
efforts to ignore the age difference. Being completely infatuated with the charm of
the old days embodied in Wang Qiyao, Old Color desperately falls in love with her,
and deliberately tries to deny the fact that Wang and he in fact live in different
generations. As the text goes,
Wang Qiyao then says to him, “I like sensible and polite kids like you, but I
don’t like kids who indulge in fancies.” He suddenly lifts his face and
bursts out, “Why always ‘kids’? Don’t call me that!” {Ballad 330)
Although Wang at first keeps a clear view of the situation, she later surrenders
under Old Color’s insistence. However, the love affair lasts only for a short time.
When Wang asks for Old Color’s commitment to their relationship, in exchange for
a box of gold left to her by Director Li, he suddenly runs away from her home and
deserts her forever. The tragic ending of the abnormal love affair between Wang
Qiyao and Old Color reaffirms their unchangeable mother-child type of relationship.
61
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
The seemingly powerful male image is finally deconstructed in the role of child in
the gender relation.
The close examination of the female-male relationships in Ballad comes to
two conclusions: first, as represented by the vague images of Director Li and Mr.
Yan, the author consciously estranges male power and male authority,
deconstructing the Grand Narratives by giving prominence to quotidian occurrences
that characterize the life experiences of women; second, by constructing a mother-
child type of gender relationship, the author deliberately reverses the traditionally
defined gender roles of male as protecting and female as protected, revealing the
tough quality in femininity that is usually ignored by the male writing tradition.
The author’s position on modem gender relation is thus indicated.
Epilogue
62
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wang Anyi and Female Writing in China since 1980
The time period after the Cultural Revolution is often referred as the “New Period”
(Jin, Feng and Li, 425). In the Chinese literary circle during this period, Wang
Anyi is certainly a shining star. Today, it is anything but a surprise to see her name
appearing in an anthology of contemporary Chinese women writers. Compared to
other women writers, Wang Anyi is outstanding in both the volume of literary
production and her innovative yet sophisticated narrative style. It is undeniable that
her literary success is due to her persistent hard work and great courage to break up
old traditions, however, it should also be recognized that her maturity in fiction
writing benefited a lot from the general environment of female writing since 1980.
Perhaps the most notable phenomenon that the contemporary Chinese
literature has witnessed is the flourishing of female writing. Not only have today’s
Chinese women writers far outnumbered their predecessors in any historical period,
but also their literary achievements merit equal admiration with those of their male
counterparts. When commenting on contemporary female writing, Zhizhong Zhang
said that women writers may not be able to compete with male writers in writing
long novels [changpian xiaoshuo] or essays [zawen], but it is fairly reasonable to
say that women writers have outperformed their male counterparts in the writing of
63
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
medium-length novels [zhongpian xiaoshuo], and they match equally with male
writers in prose [sanwen] writing (53). A brief review of the literary practices of
contemporary women writers can justify Zhang’s arguments.
Contemporary women writers became a prominent force to produce a
considerable amount of literary works since the termination of the Cultural
Revolution in the late 1970s. The literature produced since then has been generally
referred as the “New Period” literature. After abolishing the confinements on
literary practices enforced during the Cultural Revolution, along with the
breakthrough in all aspects throughout the whole society, the Chinese literature
experienced an exciting moment of revitalization; many subjects that were taboo
during the revolution were again taken into literary scope. As Jin Han, Feng
Yunqing and Li Xinyu observed, during the New Period,
The flourishing of fiction writing is first demonstrated through the great
changes in “what to write” and “how to write.” Many previous barriers of
subject matter that were artificially set up are broken down one by one. The
tragedy of life, the mistakes of politics, the sweet and the bitter of work, the
complexity of love, the prevalence and decline of morals, the daily trifles of
people, even customs and mores, ancient cultures and illusionary m yths,...
are all in the scope of writing (428).
The relatively free and open atmosphere of literary practice enabled women writers
to express their particular experiences and emotions through literature. Unlike male
64
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
writers who usually write about grand themes that have social and political
importance, contemporary women writers devote their attention to subjects that are
often ignored by the male writing tradition. For example, heterosexual love, a basic
human desire that was generally suppressed in the writing tradition mandated by the
communist political power that advocated the belief in the absolute devotion of
individuals to collective interests, became a major theme in the fiction by women
writers. Zhang Jie, a respected woman writer who started writing in the late 1970s,
boldly entitled one of her short stories as “Love Must Not Be Forgotten [Ax, shi bu
neng wangji de].” By using a female protagonist Zhong Yu, who, although she has
never really loved her husband, chooses to accept her marriage and suppress her
love for a married man, the writer shows her strong advocacy of marriage based
only on love and private desire. Other women writers such as Ru Zhijuan in her
“Badly Edited Story [ .Jian ji cuo le de gushi]”, Chen Rong in her “At Middle Age
[Ren dao zhongnian],” and Huang Zongying in her “The Flight of the Wild Geese
[Yan nan fei\,” although the do not deal with love theme explicitly, do comment on
the status of women indirectly. In other words, in the writings of these women
writers, female characters become the protagonists.
The groundbreaking literary explorations of this first group of Chinese
65
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
women writers encouraged more and more female writers to voice their inner
feelings and emotions. In the mid-1980s, the newer generation of Chinese women
writers, represented by Fang Fang and Chi Li, emerged. These younger writers
contribute to contemporary Chinese literature with a different perspective of life.
Generally referred as the “New Realist School [Xin xieshi pai],” Fang Fang and Chi
Li pay special attention to the life of common people; not only are their protagonists
just ordinary people, but trifling quotidian occurrences prevail in their works. For
example, Chi Li’s representative work, “The Troublesome Life [Fannao
rensheng],” touches on the joy and fickleness of an ordinary blue-collar worker.
With these new writers, Chinese literature in the 1980s not only includes
many previously forbidden themes such as heterosexual love, but also elevates
ordinary people as its subjects. As the first generation writer Ru Zhijuan’s daughter
and at the same time a contemporary of the younger writers, Wang Anyi actively
participated in the liberating movement of female writing during this decade,
inheriting the literary legacy of her mother’s generation and exploring new subjects
with her contemporaries. As a result, many of Wang’s works, including her 1995
work Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow, draw on the life experience of ordinary women, a
theme that had long been submerged. At the same time, after diligent practice for
66
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
more than fifteen years, she has successfully established a unique narrative style.
Entering the 1990s, female writing in China continues to develop in the
direction of being more open. The latest generation of female writers who were
born in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Chen Ran and Lin Bai develop a clearer
consciousness of their own sex, and become more radical on gender issues. Unlike
their predecessors, who still talked about the status of women in a male or quasi
male narrative style, the women writers of the 1990s do not hide their ambition not
only to exert influence on the male writing tradition but also to establish their own
narrative style. Moreover, being relatively free from the influence of the unitary
writing tradition during the Cultural Revolution that overemphasized the social
function of art, these young writers advocate literature as a tool of expressing
women’s individual emotions and desires. The so-called “Privatized Writing
[Sirenhua xiezuo]” that is characterized by personalization, autobiographical style
and private revelation becomes the dominant characteristic of today’s female
writing in China. The contemporary critic Chen Xiaoming once observed,
Female writing during the 1990s put special emphasis on the subjective
perspective. To some women writers, it is the pure form of personal inner
life; to others, it is a pose of carrying on a dialogue between the individual
and history. No matter what it is, female narratives always show the
prominent characteristics of being a ‘personal memory [geren jiyi].' People
thus tend to understand female writing as a form of psycho-autobiography
67
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
[ jingshen zizhuan\ (qtd. in Zhang Zhizhong, 66).
In other words, female writing after 1990 stresses women’s self-consciousness and
their particular experiences and memories. For example, both “The Private Life
[Siren shenghuo]” by Chen Ran and “A War with Oneself [Yigeren de zhanzheng]”
by Lin Bai can be fairly read as quasi- autobiographies.
In addition, both Chen Ran and Lin Bai show great interest in redefining the
role of women in contemporary gender relationships. Many of Chen Ran’s works,
including “The Private Life,” “A Toast to the Past [Yu wangshi ganbei]” and
“Sunlight in the Lips [Zuichun li de yangguang]” present a gender relationship in
which the female protagonist falls in love with a man who is much older. It is not
hard to recognize that the male character is a substitute for the father to the female
protagonist, who is either absent or distant to her because of the failure of his
marriage. Thus the father-lover male character can be read as the writer’s effort to
compensate her disappointment with the traditional gender relations. Taking a
different approach yet expressing a similar disappointment, Lin Bai explores the
alternative of the traditional gender relationship - homosexual love - in such works
as “The Bench in the Winding Corridor [Huilang zhi yi]” and “The Water in a
Bottle [Pingzhong zhi shui].” Obviously, these women writers of the 1990s have
68
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
gone further than those of the previous decade. They actually realize what their
predecessors indicated but did not voice: women have the equal right with men to
be the subjects in literature; their emotions and experiences equally deserve writing
and attention.
While Chen Ran and Lin Bai are devoted to developing a quasi-
autobiographical writing style to express their anti-traditional view on gender issues,
Wang Anyi carries out her innovations of the male writing tradition in another
direction. Unlike the younger writers in the 1990s whose writings mainly voice
personal private desires and emotions, Wang insists that her writing be the group
voice of the most ordinary people, which adds to her works a sense of profundity
and seriousness. One of her contributions to Chinese female writing during the
1990s is her analytical narrative style based on careful reasoning. As mentioned
earlier, Wang firmly holds the belief that logical reasoning is crucial in fiction
writing. Zhang Zhizhong once commented, “Wang Anyi puts the issue of how to
tell the story into a position that is even more important than the story itself’ (91).
The novel Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow that I have been discussing in this thesis is just
a prime illustration of this point. Although the plot is anything but surprising, the
protagonist is just an ordinary woman, and the situation of the story is in the past,
69
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wang, using an analytical language from a woman’s perspective, successfully tells
the story in a peculiar way. It is thus safe to conclude that Wang Anyi outshines
other contemporary Chinese women writers in her excellent mastery of literary
imagination and logical reasoning, and her unique yet sophisticated narrative style.
70
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Bibliography4 8
Ai Xiaoming, ed. New Selections o f Novelettes by Chinese Women [Zhongguo ntl
xing xiaoshuo xinxuan]. Hong Kong: Sanlian shudian youxian gongsi, 1997.
Cao Juren. Shanghai Recollections {Shanghai chunqui). Shanghai: Shanghai
Renminchubanshe, 1996.
Chen Ran. Sunlight in the lips [Zuichun li de yangguang]. Beijing: Zuojia
chubanshe, 2001.
Chi Li. Selections o f Chi L i’ s Works [Chi Li wenji]. Nanjing, China: Jiangsu wenyi
chubanshe, 1995.
Feng, Jicai. Nativist Novels [Xiangtu xiaoshuo]. Beijing: Dazhong wenyi
chubanshe, 1998.
Gottdiener, M. and Alexandras Ph. Lagopoulos, eds. The City and the Sign: An
Introduction to Urban Semiotics. New York: Columbia University Press,
1986.
Grazia, Victoria De, and Ellen Furlough, ed. The Sex o f Things: Gender and
Consumption in Historical Perspective. Berkeley : University of California
Press, 1996.
Hauser, Ernest. Shanghai: City for Sale. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company,
1940.
Henriout, Christian. Shanghai 1927-1937: Municipal Power, Locality, and
48
The MLA (Modem Language Association) format and documentation style is adopted throughout
this thesis with two exceptions: 1) If there is a conflict between the MLA style and the regulations o f
the University of Southern California, the latter takes precedence. 2) Magazine and newspaper
articles quoted in this thesis are indicated in the footnotes instead of being included in bibliographic
entries.
71
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Modernization. Trans. Noel Castelino. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1993.
Hershatter, Gail. Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth
Century Shanghai. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Howe, Christopher, ed. Shanghai: Revolution and Development in an Asian
Metropolis. Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Jin Han, Feng Yunqing and Li Xinyu, ed., Newly Compiled Developmental History
O f Chinese Contemporary Literature. China, Hangzhou: Zhejiang daxue
chubanshe, 1997.
Lau, Joseph S.M., and Howard Goldblatt, eds. The Columbia Anthology o f Modern
Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
Le, Zheng. The Social Psychology o f the Modern Shanghainese ( ,Jindai shanghai
shehui xintai, 1860-1910). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1991.
Lin Bai. The Bench in the Winding Corridor [huilang zhiyi], Kunming, China:
Yunnan renmin chubanshe, 1995.
Pan Ling. In Search o f Old Shanghai. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1993.
Tang, Xiaobing. Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse o f Modernity.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Wang Anyi. Baotown [Xiaobao zhuang\. Trans. Martha Avery. New York: W.W.
Norton, 1989.
—. Brocade Valley [Jinxiu gu zhi lian]. Trans. Bonnie S. McDougall & Chen
Maiping. New York: New Directions, 1992.
—. Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow [Chang hen ge). Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 2000.
—. FuPing. Taipei: Maitian chuban, 2001.
72
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
—. I Love Bill [Wo ’ ai B i’ r]. Beijing: Jinri zhongguo chubanshe, 1998.
—. Laps o f Time [Liu shi]. Intro. Jeffrey Kinkley. San Francisco: China Books &
Periodicals; Beijing, China: Panda Books, 1988.
—. Love in a Small Town [Xiaocheng zhi lian]. Trans. Eva Hung. Hong Kong:
Research Center for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988.
—. Love on a barren mountain [Huangshan zhi lian\. Trans. Eva Hung. Hong
Kong:
Research Center for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988.
—. Mei Tou. Haikou, China: Nanhai chubangongsi, 2000.
—. Men and Women, Women and the City [Nanren he ntlren; ntlren he chengshi\.
Kunming, China: Yunan renmin chubanshe, 2000.
—. Mi Ni: Changpian xiao shuo juan. Beijing : Zuojia chubanshe, 1996.
—. The Actual and the Fabricated [Jishi yu xugou]. Beijing: Renmin wenxue
chubanshe, 1993.
—. The Floating Words [Piaobo deyuyan: san wen juan]. Beijing: Zuojia
chubanshe, 1996.
—. The Pattering Rain [Yu, shashasha]. Taipei: Xindi wenxue chubanshe, 1988.
Wang, Shaozhou, ed. Pictorial Record o f Modern Chinese Architecture [Zhongguo
jindai jianzhu tulu]. Shanghai: Kexuejish chubanshe, 1989.
Woolf, Virginia. Women & Fiction: the manuscript versions o f a room o f one’ s
own.
Trans. S. P. Rosenbaum. Cambridge, Mass. USA: Three Cambridge Center,
1992.
73
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wu Liang. Old Shanghai: The Vanished Days [Laoshanghai yishide shiguang].
Nanjing: Jiangsu meishu chubanshe, 1998.
Zhang Jie. Love must not be forgotten \Ai, shi bu neng wangji de]. Intro. Gladys
Yang. San Francisco: China Books & Periodicals; Beijing: Panda Books,
1986.
Zhang Yingjin. The City in Modern Chinese Literature and Film: Configurations
o f
Space, Time, and Gender. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Zhang Zhizhong. General Series o f the Century’ s Chinese Literature: 1993— The
Clamor at the End o f the Century [Bainian zhongguo wenxue zonghui: 1993
shijimo de xuanhua]. China, Jinan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe, 2000.
74
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Appendix One: Sections in Chapter One of
Ballad o f Eternal Sorrow by Wang Anyi:
Section 1: Alleyways4 9
When you stand on a highpoint to look at Shanghai, the alleyways of
Shanghai are spectacular. They are something like the background of the city. The
streets and buildings heave on top of them, making some dots and lines, but the
alleyways are something like the so-called “Cunfd’ in a Chinese painting, filling
out the blanks.5 0 When the night approaches and lights are turned on, all those dots
and lines are light; what is behind the lightness — the big blocks of darkness - are
the alleyways of Shanghai. The darkness is almost like surf, as if it is pushing those
dots and lines forward. It has volume, while the dots and lines are floating on it,
only existing for dividing the volume just like the punctuations dividing the
sentences. The darkness is like an abyss; even if you dropped a mountain into it, it
would just fall onto the bottom without a sound. It also looks like that there are
many reefs hidden in the darkness, and an incautious act will lead to an overturn of
4 9 The original Chinese term for alleyway is Longtang (also called nongtang). It basically refers to
the paved alleyways between the rows of houses built within a walled compound, yet sometimes it is
also used to describe all types of alleyway houses in the city.
5 0 Cunfa is a texturing method in Chinese painting and sometimes refers to types of texture strokes
(e.g. for tress, rocks, mountains, etc.)
75
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the boat. The light of the dots and lines of Shanghai has been supported by this
darkness for several decades; the resplendence of this Oriental Paris has spread out
on the darkness for several decades. Yet, now, everything seems to be getting old,
showing the original appearance bit by bit. The dawn is approaching step by step;
the lights are turned off one by one. First comes the thin fog; the sunlight is straight,
outlining the figure as fine brushstrokes do. What jump out first are the Laohu
skylights [laohu tianchuang] of old-style alleyway houses.5 1 They look delicate
and cute in the morning fog: the wooden window sashes are finely carved; the tiles
on the roof are carefully arranged; even the China roses in the flowerpots are
attentively raised. Next, the flat roof comes out too, with clothes washed last night
hung there stagnant as if painted; the cement of the short wall on the flat roof has
peeled off, revealing the rust-red bricks, which also look as if painted with every
stroke clear. Later, even the cracks on the gable wall come into sight, together with
spots of green moss that give you a feeling of touching cold. The first wisp of
sunlight arrives at the gable wall, making a beautiful picture that is almost splendid
but also a little bit desolate, fresh but also aged. At this moment, the cement floor
5 1 Laohu literally means “tiger.” A Laohu skylight is usually in the roof of the pavilion room in an
alleyway house.
76
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
at the bottom of the alleyway is still in the fog, which is heavier in the back than in
the front. The balconies with iron railings of the new-style alleyway houses are also
in the sunshine, which glistens on the French window. This is a comparatively
sharp stroke, lifting the curtain and dividing the night and the day. The fog is
finally dispersed by the sunshine; everything becomes darker: the green moss is
black in its original color; the wood of the window frame is black too; yet from the
black railings of the balconies grows yellow rust, from the cracks on the gable wall
grows out green grass, and the white pigeons flying in the sky turn gray.
The alleyways of Shanghai are of all kinds. Sometimes they are like this,
sometimes they are like that, with no standard shape. Yet, despite all apparent
changes, they remain essentially the same, only changing the appearance but never
the spirit, and what they keep talking about is ultimately the same thing, just like
there are thousands of people who are of the same mind. Those alleyways called
shikumen are of greatest power and influence of all.5 2 They bear some traits of
imposing dwellings with spacious courtyards, and look like the front of official
mansions; they show all the hints of being strongly fortified on the gate and the wall.
5 2 The term kumen originally referred to the outermost gate for both emperor-kings’ and prince-
dukes’ palaces. Shikumen, literally meaning “stone warehouse gate,” is a flattery way to refer to a
house with a small front yard and backyard and separate kitchen.
77
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Once the gate is open, it turns out that both the yard and the parlor room are shallow,
and after several steps one will see a wooden staircase right over his head. The
wooden staircase is straight to the boudoir on the second floor; the window
overlooking the street thus reveals some romance. The new-style alleyway houses
of the eastern district of Shanghai, however, get down from their high horse. The
gate is short and filigreed wrought iron gate; on the second floor are not only a
window for leaning out of but also a balcony for standing, which is good for gazing
at the street scene. The oleander in the yard sticks out of the wall as if it can’t help
showing its spring colors. Yet they are still on guard at heart: the lock on the back
door is a spring lock made in Germany; the windows of the ground floor are
equipped with iron railings; the short iron gate has sharp spikes on the top; the patio
is surrounded by the houses, which makes one feel as if he can never escape once
he enters. The alleyway apartments of the western district take strict precautions:
each cell contains inner rooms, and once the only door is shut, it looks as if one man
guarding the pass could hold off ten thousand; the walls are soundproofed,
preventing the crowing of the cocks and the barking of the dogs from being heard.
Between the buildings are big spaces, as if the neighbors would never meet each
other in their lifetime. However, this kind of precaution is democratic and Western
78
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
style, and what is under protection is individual freedom. In fact, it allows one to
do whatever he wants, and nobody can stop him. The shacks in the shantytown, on
the contrary, are completely open: the roof covered by felt cannot stop the rainfall;
the wooden partition wall cannot keep out the wind; the doors and windows cannot
be shut tight. Row upon row of these shacks crowd together like fish scales and
comb teeth; the lights are like tiny beans, yet as faint as they are, they are densely
distributed, looking like a pot of thick porridge. They also resemble a big river with
innumerable ramifications, or a big tree with countless branches. They crisscross
each other, making a huge net. They are seemingly open but in fact extremely
mysterious, being complicated in heart. In the dusk, the pigeons circle in the sky
above Shanghai, each looking for its nest. The ridges of houses look continuous
and rolling, giving different vistas of mountains and peaks when seen from different
angles. From a highpoint, they are connected into an unlimited whole, blurring the
distinctions of the four directions. They also resemble a river flowing everywhere,
filling out every crack, appearing to be a little bit messy but in fact in picturesque
disorder. They show both expansion and density, somewhat like the fields planted
and harvested by farmers; they may also seem like a virgin forest, emerging of
themselves and perishing of themselves. They are indeed extremely beautiful.
79
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
The alleyway houses of Shanghai are sensitive, just like one’s own skin.
They have tactile feelings of cold and warmth, and they have their own secrets. The
back window with heavy greasy dirt in the kitchen is especially for the
maidservants to chat, one standing inside and another outside; the backdoor beside
the window is particularly for the young lady to use when she goes to school with
her book-bag in her hands, or goes for a date with the male teacher; the front gate,
though usually closed, is opened occasionally for big events, exclusively serving the
honored guests coming for a visit and indicating the good or bad news, weddings,
funerals, as a poster. It always shows some unconstrained excitement, quivering
and nattering all the time. The flat roof and the balcony, together with the
windowsill, are left with private whispers, and the door-knockings at night rise and
fall one after another. One still needs to stand on a highpoint and select a good
perspective: inside the alley are clothes hung on bamboo poles every which way,
with a flavor of privacy; the balsamine, langura, scallion and garlic in the
flowerpots have the quality of privacy too; the empty pigeon cage hung from the
ceiling is an empty heart; the broken and scattered tiles are also symbols of heart
and body. The gully-like alleyways are paved either with cement or small
cobblestones. The cement ones at bottom after all feel as foreign as somebody
80
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
else’s innards, but those cobbled ones are as familiar as the backs of one’s own
hands. The sound of footsteps on the two types of alleyways is also different: those
on the former are sharp and clear, whereas those on the latter sounds like being
swallowed in the stomach. Those on the former talk formalities; those on the latter
intimacies. Neither one is empty red tape. Yet neither of them is red tape; both are
inescapable everyday conversations. The back alleyways of Shanghai are even
more touching, as if they can reach one’s heart: the road surfaces have cracks; the
sewers overflow; fish scales and rotten vegetables float on the water; greasy kitchen
smoke circulates in the air. This place is a little filthy and untidy; even the most
secret, even a bit improper, privacy is revealed. Therefore, it looks a little bit
gloomy. The sun does not come till three o’clock in the afternoon, and after a while
it starts setting in the west. This bit of sunlight covers the back alley with a vague
color, turning the walls yellow and making the layer of coarse grits on it clearly
seen. The window glass also looks yellow, with the dirt making some vague
patterns on it. At this moment, the sun has been shining for a while, and it seems to
be no longer able to hide its tiredness, bursting out the last dregs of light, and thus
the light looks ropy, heavy and sordid, as if there were lots of sediments in it. The
pigeons fly ahead; what flies behind in the back alleyways is the dust in the sunset.
81
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
And stray cats wonder around here. All this goes deep into the flesh; it is beyond
intimate or close; it even makes one feel bored, fearful of it secretly; but this is also
bone-bitingly touching.
The touching quality of Shanghai alleyways originates from the most
common situations; it is not as violent as turbulent waves; it is accumulated bit by
bit. It is the emotional effect of the mundane world. In row after row, lane after
lane, flows something that is unexpected yet understandable, something that is not
spectacular but trifling, just as many grains of sand piled up to make a pagoda. It
has nothing to do with concepts like “history,” and it is even hardly to be included
in any unofficial history; it only deserves the name of gossip. Gossip is another
sight of Shanghai alleyway houses - it’s almost visible, flowing out from the back
windows and backdoors. What comes out from the front door and the front balcony
is a tad more solemn, but gossip never the less. Although this kind of gossip are
barely history, they also indicate the passage of time, developed in proper sequence
from cause to effect. These kinds of gossip are close to you as if your body can feel
them, and they are not what lie cold in the musty old papers; although they are full
of mistakes, even these mistakes can be felt. When the lights on the streets in this
city are all brilliantly illuminating, there is usually just one lamp hung on the comer,
82
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
covered by the most common iron mantle which bears some rust and dust; the light
is dim, and there is something misty growing under it; and it is at this moment that
gossip is brewed. This moment is hard to understand; it is kind of obscure, yet it
saddens the heart. The pigeons are chirring in their cage, as if they were whispering
some secrets. The lights on the street are perfectly legitimate, but, unfortunately,
they are swallowed by the darkness before flowing into the alleyways. The gossip
from houses with a front parlor room and two wing-rooms is comparatively old-
style, giving off the smell of lavender; that from alleyway houses with pavilion
rooms and a turning staircase is modem-style, having the smell of camphor balls.
No matter whether old-style or modem-style, they all are sincere, and so can be
called tme. All are accumulated just like watering the ground with two hands,
scooping some of the water only to let half of it fall down, or like the swallows
building their nests by carrying bits of earth in their bills, each time keeping half but
dropping the other half, without the slightest slackening or trickery. Nothing can be
slacked even a little. The alleyways of Shanghai are really indecent. The green
moss in the shady spots is indeed something like the scar on a wound, with a pain
which can be only assuaged by time. Because it is not legitimate, it has to grow in
the dark, seeing no sunshine during the whole year. The Boston ivy does grow in
83
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the sun, yet it is the cover of time, keeping something secret. When the pigeons fly
in the sky, their hearts feel stab after stab of pain as they see the wavy tiles on the
alleyway houses. The sun spurts onto the roofs, rough and uneven, the light broken
up. This is the grand vista made up of innumerable fragments, the mighty power
accumulated by unlimited patience.
8 4
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Section 2: Gossip
Gossip always has a dismal smell. Sometimes this dismal smell is lavender
in the wing-rooms, sometimes camphor balls, and at other times the smell of the
meat-chopping block. It is not the smell of tobacco plugs or cigars; neither is it the
smell of 666 (BHC) [liuliu fen] or dichorvos [didiwei]. It doesn’t appear to be
sternly virile; instead, it shows some feminine softness. It is a mixture of smells of
boudoir and kitchen, some rouge, some smudge, and some sweat. Gossip is also a
little bit misty and vague, just like breathed-on or dirt-covered window glass. How
many alleyways exist in this city, is the quantity of gossip; one cannot recount it all.
This gossip has the power to contaminate, making serious talk as vague as gossip.
Gossip blurs the true and the false, containing some truth in the false, and
containing some falseness in the truth, all being indistinguishable. It inevitably
shows some absurdity, but this absurdity is less-experienced women’s absurdity,
composed of ignorance and fantasy. It wanders in alleyways, moving from one
backdoor to another, until it is known to the world in a moment. It is also like silent
electric waves, crossing each other in the sky over the city; it is even like shapeless
clouds, covering the city and finally turning into a rain of judgment. Yet the rain is
5 3 Both 666 (BHC) and dichlorvos are two kinds o f toxicants and can be used to kill mice.
85
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
not a downpour, but the intermittent drizzles during late spring, not violent, yet
even the air is sodden. Therefore, one cannot underestimate this gossip. It is close
and soft, very entangling. Every alleyway in Shanghai contains this kind of gossipy
air. In the alleyways of the upscale, apartment in the west district, the air is also
open, more refreshing and clearer, just like the high sky of autumn with few clouds;
next, in the new-style alleyways, the air becomes more turbid and fluctuating, just
like the wind blowing around. Then, the gossipy air in the even more inferior old-
style shikumen alleyways is no longer wind; instead, it becomes the water vapor
during the days when everything gets damp, leaving smears everywhere. When it
comes to the timeworn alleys in the shantytown, the air becomes thick fog, not the
fog dispersed to reveal the sun, but the strong fog turning into rain, so thick that you
can’t see anybody five steps away. However, no matter in what kind of alleyways,
the air is always omnipresent, penetrating everywhere. It can be called the spirit of
Shanghai. If the alleyways in Shanghai could speak, what they say would be gossip.
It is the intellectual activity of Shanghai alleyways, diffusing day and night. If the
alleyways in Shanghai had dreams, the dreams would be also gossip.
Gossip is always despicable. It has a coarse heart; it is inevitably self-
deprecating. It is the water in the sewer, used, polluted. It has never been assured
86
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
or bold with justice, and can only tattle stealthily. It has no sense of responsibility,
no undertaking of consequences, therefore it is pretty freewheeling, just like water
flowing everywhere. It cannot be deliberated on, nor is there anyone who
deliberates on it. It is somewhat like linguistic garbage, except that sometimes one
can glean out some true values out of garbage. Gossip is leftovers discarded by
serious talk, or the yellowed vegetables, or barnyard millet mixed in the rice. It
usually has an indecent look, containing more bad news than good news, unclean,
and dross. It is actually made of the most inferior materials, and even the young
ladies living in the apartments of the west district in Shanghai inevitably gather
some of these kinds of inferior materials. Yet it is only in these inferior and
shameful materials that one can find some truths. These truths are something
behind respectablility, hard to take even when one talks to oneself, therefore made
into gossip. If there is any good in gossip, it must be in these truths. But the truths
all have some false features, revealing the true face out of the false, revealing some
actuality out of the tenuous, always changing the appearance, and looking one way
and then the other. The truths reveal some courage of being a human being, the
courage of not being afraid of losing face, giving up the opportunity to be a human
but choosing to be a demon, singing a tune completely counter to the mainstream.
87
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
This courage contains some sadness in it. This sadness is the result of being
unsatisfied and discontent, implying some complaint; yet as sad as it is, the heart is
trying to reach what is beyond one’s grasp, and just because of this unreachable
goal, there comes the sadness of failure. Therefore the sadness is coarse sadness; it
is not the kind in Tang poetry or Song lyrics, but the kind in the street slang. This
sadness thus shows some weight; it precipitates; it is the dregs of sadness, but not
the romantic sentiments on the water surface. In fact, gossip is all dregs and has not
gone through any panning or hammer-hardening; on the contrary, it exists from the
beginning to the end, and cannot be panned out or smelted out; it is the tough
quality of being a human being, the bones broken but the tendon remaining
connected, the teeth broken but swallowed into the stomach, brazenfaced kind of
toughness. Gossip is inevitably blusterous, exaggerating, with ghosts, spirits,
demons and monsters all coming together; it arises along with the wind, and
disappears with the wind, showing neither beginning nor end. However, the true
heart of the city exists only in gossip. No matter how splendid the city appears to
be, its heart is coarse; the heart makes its home in gossip, and gossip makes its
home in the alleyways of Shanghai. This Oriental Paris is full of the miraculous
legends of Far the East, yet if you open the shell, the core is nothing but gossip, just
88
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
like the core of a pearl is nothing but a rough sand; gossip is just like this sand.
Gossip confuses the ears and the eyes. It seems that it is going to rewrite
history, and it starts with the pettiness. It nibbles on what is written in the texts, just
like termites invading a mansion. It doesn’t have any art of composition; it turns
things upside-down; it never follows any rules but wanders everywhere only at its
pleasure, just like the rascals and local ruffians. It doesn’t harangue, nor does it
focus on details; it just runs wild. It employs the method of sneak-raid, attacking
somebody from the back and disappearing before one turns around, taking away the
perpetrator of the injustice and the debtor of the debt. It never takes any great
actions, yet the small actions never stop; later, all the little things accumulate into a
big single, and the rivulets flow into a big river. The so-called “rumors coming in
swarms” refers to this, and it is indeed like the buzz of bees. It is mean, but also
diligent. It picks up every single matchstick to start a fire, picks up every single
thread to thread a needle. It does make trouble, but its attitude is serious and
sincere but not cynical; even it is just making rumors, it devotes all its heart to it;
although it lacks credence, it has affection and sympathy. It persists in its own
ways of doing things. No matter what you say, it just retells it in its way, and it
transforms everything regardless public opinion. It doesn’t actually have different
89
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
political opinions; instead, it has no opinions at all, and knows nothing about
politics. It uses the side door, neither going against mainstream society nor
agreeing with it; instead, it makes up another society. It is something like the
mainstream society’s side branches and arouses no alarm from it, therefore it can
succeed making trouble secretly. Its power, however, should not be neglected, just
as “strong wind starts from a blade of grass.”5 4 It transgresses traditional morals,
but not with an anti-feudal face; it only corrupts public morals and is the perfect
embodiment of nastiness. It dares to pull the emperor down off his horse, but not as
republicans, rather like a ruffian, revealing its classic nastiness again. Both the
revolutionary and the anti-revolutionary despise it, and both discard and neglect it.
It is never decent - otherwise it would be able to elevate itself onto the same level
with public opinion - now, it can only live under a cover, like wind in the ears.5 5
Just like wind, but it doesn’t care at all; it makes its home wherever it is, having no
sense of carving out a career. It has no ambition or aspiration; it doesn’t even have
any brains. It only has the instinct of making trouble, propagating aimlessly. Its
5 4 Sources are unknown.
5 5 The original Chinese phrase “[mingxiu zhan dao, an du chen cang],” first appearing in “Basic
Annals o f Gao Zu [Gao zu ben ji]” in Records o f the Grand Historian[Shi ji\ by Si-ma Qian in the
Han dynasty, has become an idiomatic expression meaning to do something secretly or under cover
o f something else.
90
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
propagation rate is surprising, just like the spawning of fishes. Its ways of
propagation are various, sometimes like interlocking rings, sometimes like
interconnected knots, sometimes like enigmas within enigmas; sometimes like cases
embedded in other cases. It suffuses the sky over the city, as homeless formless
vagabonds. Actually, gossip is one of the romantic aspects in the city.
The romanticism of gossip is seen in its unfettered and mobile imagination.
This imagination can both jump the dragon gate and chisel into dogs’ holes,
unconstrained by any rules. Nothing can compete with gossip in its ability to talk
nonsense and make irresponsible remarks. It has inexhaustible energy, and cannot
be stifled; it is like the grass in the poem: “The balefire cannot bum it out, and it
will revive when the spring wind blows.”5 6 It is the most humble grass seed, and
even though it is carried by wind into a crack in the stone, it will still take root and
blossom. It almost takes root in every crack, can even get into the most secret
places like the thickly-curtained boudoir. It lingers at the stitches on the
embroidery of the young ladies, or on the pages of the girl students’ extracurricular
reading - sentimental novels, whose pages are always stained with tears. With each
5 6 This is quoted from the classical poem “Song of Grass on My Friend’s Departure [Fu de guyuan
cao song bie],” or abbreviated simply as “Grass [Cao]” by the Tang poet Bai Juyi (772 -846).
91
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
tick and tack of the clock on the table, gossip breeds; in the basin for washing off
the rouge it breeds. Secret places are where gossip pervades, and the air of privacy
is especially good for its growth. The alleyways of Shanghai can hide secrets well,
therefore gossip suffuses everywhere. At night, when the lights in every household
have gone out, the only gleam of light coming out of a door is gossip; in the
moonlight, the pair of embroidered shoes put in front of the bed is also gossip; the
maidservant who carries the toilet box and makes the excuse of going to do her hair
is in fact going off to spread gossip; the rapid clicking of mahjong titles as young
mistresses shuffle them is the sound of gossip; even in the winter afternoon when
there is nobody outside, the sparrows all chatter gossip as they leap in the dooryard.
Gossip contains the word “secret” in its core, and the word “secret” has some
inexpressible bitterness. This bitterness is not the kind that the Bright Emperor of
the Tang had toward Consort Yang, nor it is the kind that Overlord of Chu had
toward his lady Yu; it is not something that results from sudden ups and downs, nor
is it worth anyone’s praise or tears, or deep grief. This bitterness is the result of
rotten bad luck, and it is intertwining and petty. The alleyways of Shanghai cannot
hold great bitterness. Their bitterness is cut into thousands and distributed evenly,
and the portion under each person is not too much. Even it is sadness, it is the
92
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
sadness at the bottom of the heart, and it is not worthy of being recited or
appreciated on the stage, nor does it deserve being written in lyrics and sung; it is
the kind the reason and result of which is only known to oneself, and only oneself
can take it. This is what the word “secret” means, and actually it is also the true
bitterness. Therefore, gossip ultimately contains some bitterness; although the pain
may not come at the right place, it still pieces the heart. Everybody suffers from his
own pain, and there is no pity or sympathy; it is lonely pain. This is where gossip
moves people. The moment when gossip arises is just the moment people behave
devotedly as human beings. In the alleyways of Shanghai, people wholly devote all
their attention living their lives; their eyes only focus on themselves without a
glance at others. They do not want to make history, but just to realize themselves;
they don’t have great ambitions, but devote all their strength. This strength is also
evenly distributed, and everybody has his own portion.
93
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Section 3: Boudoirs
In the alleyway houses of Shanghai, the boudoirs are usually built in the wing-
rooms or the pavilion rooms, the window facing the sun and covered with a
flowered curtain. Opening the curtain, one can see the neighboring man and lady in
the parlor room of their house in back, and the oleander in the courtyard. The
boudoirs are not covered up very well: in the pavilion room on the other side of the
wall, there may be an intern of a bank living there, or a college student who just lost
his job, or a dancing girl who just entered the profession. The back alley is also a
sink of filth: the vulgar talk of maidservants, the slang of rickshaw pullers, the
neighbor college student’s dubious friends coming several times a day, the dancing
girl’s sisters coming once every few days. At midnight, the activities from those
backdoors are especially clear, as if there is some anecdote about to spring forth.
Just taking an example of the man and lady in the parlor room of the next household,
appearing to be a married couple, they may be just adulterous, and in just a few
days there may be someone finding the place and breaking every bowl and glass in
it. What is even worse, there is a young lady living in the rich family in the bottom
of the alley who goes to the prestigious “McTyeire School for Girls [Zhongxi nil
zhong],” and behind the black-painted gate there is a private car going in and out,
94
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
and in Christmas there is piano of birthday party coming out.5 7 Both are daughters,
but the boudoirs are different. Therefore, there are inevitably some resentments and
desires aroused in the heart. These two feelings are in fact the biggest taboos in the
boudoir, almost like a curse, and the boudoir originally should have been as naive
and tender as flower buds, but since it is built in such a noisy and tumult place, what
kind of fate can it expect to have?
The shadow of the moon on the flowered curtain is always soft and beautiful.
When there is no cloud in the sky, the moonlight will make the room bright. This
brightness is not like the direct dazzle of the day; it looks as if being veiled with a
layer of gauze, dancing and whirling. The lilies on the wallpaper and the spun-gold
grass on the bedcover all look as if they were painted by a fine brush, and could not
be clearer. Faintly a phonograph seems to be playing the “Song of Four Seasons”
by Zhou Xuan.5 8 No matter how noisy it is outside, the boudoir remains quiet. The
joss sticks have burned halfway down, and the first half has already turned ash; the
5 7 The McTyeire School for Girls was founded in 1890 by the Southern Methodist Mission and
named after Bishop McTyeire. Originally it was the school for upper class and Western-oriented
girls. The medium o f instruction was English and most of the teachers were Westerners. It was the
predecessor of today’s Shanghai No. 3 Girls School.
5 8 Zhou Xuan (1920-1957) was a top actress and songstress o f the 1930s. Her image and songs
typified the tastes of Shanghai during the 1930s to 1940s.
95
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
clock has only ringed six out of the twelve tones, and the other half has become a
dream. The dream is also a silent dream. Among the pitch-black windows at the
back alley, unpredictably there is one embedded with such an immaculate dream,
which is like a piece of cloud floating over the dust, vague and ephemeral, but never
aware of its short life and coming every night. The stitches on the embroidery
frame and the characters on the book pages are all closely grained line by line, and
all they are about is something in the heart. The things in the heart are also silent.
They are saturated by the moonlight, especially striking, yet also especially subtle,
as if inexpressible. The moon is going west, and the sky is about to be lighted but
still remains in the dark; at this darkest moment, the dreams and the things in the
heart all become silent; when the first sun rays come out, they all disappear like the
wild geese passing by without leaving any trace behind. They are the only
briskness in this all-quiet night, and this briskness is elegant, and as soft as water.
They are the piece of cloud over the dust. In the morning, when the flowered
curtain is open, the window behind it seems to be waiting for something, a wait
which seems to have been brewing all night. There is not even one spot on the
window glass, and there is not even one single person in the room, but there is
plenty of waiting. The waiting doesn’t even have a name or reason, and usually
96
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
there is nothing to come at the end. Nevertheless, there will be neither resentments
nor sadness. In such a hectic morning, when the noises rise at the cock’s crow, this
is the first helpless waiting for destruction. There is no one to depend on or turn to
for help, yet there are plenty of aspirations. The aspirations are flowers without
fruits, while the rest are fruits without flowers. This is the purity and nobility in the
alleyways of Shanghai. The young man’s pigeons are on the roof, and the heart of
the young lady is in the boudoir. When the sunlight comes into the room, it is
already on the way down to the west, as if it were singing an elegy, an outpouring
of the last minute. This is also the only helplessness in the bustling afternoon. This
helplessness has an air of antiquity, giving you a feeling of classical poetry and
music, and it even can be intoned. However, who will listen to it? It is not even a
piece of floating cloud; the cloud can turn into wind or rain, but this can only turn
into some mist, and will disappear immediately when the wind comes. It’s not
impossible that the boudoirs in the alleyway houses of Shanghai will turn out to be
a mirage; the splendid world in heaven may disappear in a twinkling moment.
The boudoirs in the alleyways of Shanghai are actually a variety. They pick
up little bit here and there; they learn with a very open mind, and don’t follow any
fixed pattern. They build up their life from nothing, and are good at borrowing
97
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
from others. The stories about chaste girls and Hollywood romances co-exist with
each other, and under the blue indanthrene qipao are high-heel shoes, showing a
mix of old and modem.5 9 Not only the old poem “at night I send my friend off the
river bank of Xunyang; the maple leaves and the reeds show the sign of autumn” is
read,6 0 but also “when we were young” is sung.6 1 They talk about the absolute
distinction between men and women, but they also talk about the liberation of
women. Nora is their spiritual leader, but at heart they want to be Yingying in Story
o f the Western Chamber, after trying something else for a while, what they do at
last is still to look for a man and rely on him.6 2 One cannot say they don’t have any
rules; on the contrary, they have too many different rules; however, although they
are unable to decide which is right, they graft them together well; they are blending
boudoirs. But there is nothing adulterated; their hearts are very sincere and serious.
They are as diligent as farmers, getting up early and getting back late managing the
5 9 QipPao was originally the dress o f Manchurian women, but later was reformed to a kind of
woman’s costume and became popular during 1930s and 1940s.
6 0 This passage is quoted from “Ode of the Pipa [Pipa xing\” by Bai Juyi (772-846) in the Tang
dynasty. Xunyang is in today’s Jiangxi province.
6 1 Although the source o f this passage is not identified, according to the context, it possibly comes
from a popular song at that time.
6 2 Yingying is the female protagonist in the traditional Chinese drama Story o f the Western Chamber
by Wang Shifu in the Yuan dynasty. Nora is the female protagonist in the play “ A Doll’s House” by
Henrik Ebsen.
98
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
boudoir business. They do not distinguish between the superior family and the
inferior family, neither do they distinguish what is serious and what is not. They
follow both the dancing girl in the pavilion room next door and the young lady
within the black gate at the depth of the alley, learning to be both elegant and
flirtatious. The maidservants tell them to marry into a decent family; the male
teachers encourage them to be independent; the foreign priests prompt them to
believe in God. The beautiful clothes in the display windows beckon to them; the
movie stars on the screen beckon to them; the female protagonists in the serial
stories beckon to them. Their bodies are sitting in the boudoir, but their hearts have
gone to all quarters of the world. There are thousands of roads under their feet, yet
ultimately all the rivers flow into the sea. They murmur the foreign words in their
mouths, yet keep thinking the cloth to make qipao. Their hearts are indeed wild, as
if they would run all over the world. At the same time, they are so timid that even
going to a late movie show, they will need a maid to accompany them. When they
go to school or come back home, they have to walk along with each other to cross
the streets, even then appearing to be very shy. If they meet a stranger, they will
feel too bashful to lift their head, and if some loafer says some obscene words to
them, they will feel so offended that they almost come to tears. Therefore, the
99
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
boudoirs are in fact full of contradictions, and the only one who are hurt are
themselves.
The boudoirs are particularly nettlesome in the afternoon. During the spring
and summer when the windows are open, the singing cicadas in the phoenix trees,
the sound of the tram where the alley meets the street, the clappers of sweets sellers
and the music from the phonograph in the next door all horn in together, disturbing
your mind. What nag most are those subtle noises that only seem to exist but do not
have any name or origin, mumbling all the time. You can’t drive them off but
neither can you grab hold of them. For most of the time, there is nothing to do in
the afternoon; the heart is only filled up with these indescribable noises, thus
becoming even more bored. During the fall and the winter, however, there is
always haze outside. The haze of the south of the River has some weight in it,
overbearing the heart.6 3 It is extremely quiet, and even a single sigh will be
swallowed into the stomach, only to re-emerge as haze. The charcoal fire in the
charcoal brazier was originally to dispel the haze, but unexpectedly it itself is
almost suffocated by the haze, managing only to flicker a little. The bright and dark,
and the warm and the cold in the afternoon all come to disturb you. If you are
6 3 The River refers to the Changjiang (Yangtze) river.
100
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
NOTE TO USERS
Page(s) not included in the original manuscript and are
unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript
was scanned as received.
101
This reproduction is the best copy available.
®
UMI
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
there is a disaster being brewed to ruin one’s life, one will feel no sorrieness, just
like the moths jumping into the fire without any hesitation. Therefore, the
afternoon is like a trap: the more bright and beautiful it is, the more dangerous it is.
The brightness and beauty of the afternoon are always ominous, and it seems they
always play tricks: the wind is flirtatious; the shadows are flirtatious; and the person
is not ecautious. The phonograph plays the “Song of Four Seasons” by Zhou Xuan
from spring to winter, which only sings of beautiful scenery to delude you,
deliberately stressing the good side of things. The pigeons set free from the roof are
in fact the heart of the boudoirs. When looking down at the flowered curtain after
they fly high, they imply the difficulty of meeting again after easy separation, and
they also imply the unbearable coldness of the highest point.
The boudoirs in the alleyways of Shanghai are open to the wind from every
direction; even the worries make a clamor. The rain in the back alleys besprinkles
the window, leaving the word “worry” in dripping water; the fog in the back alleys
is an equivocal “worry.” It is also urges, but what it urges is unknown. It consumes
the patience of being a daughter, and even being a human. It inevitably has some
resemblance to the arrow fitted to the bowstring, or the hairpin in the toilet box,
waiting for the right opportunity to set out. It pretty much suffers day by day, yet in
102
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
retrospect, it sighs that life is too short, and confusion. The boudoirs are the
innocence of Shanghai alleyways, turning from being naive to being mature in one
single night, yet they are ever producing without rest, one generation after another.
The boudoirs are also the hallucination of Shanghai alleyways, disappearing like the
ashes and the mist after the clouds are dispersed and the sun comes out, yet they are
ever playing without stop, one act after another.
103
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Section 4: Pigeons
Pigeons are the spirit of this city. Every morning, there are innumerable pigeons
flying off the rolling roofs into the sky. They are the only living creatures who can
overlook the city; who else can see the city as clearly and distinctly as they do?
They witness so many unsolved cases mysteries. Who knows how many secrets
they store in their eyes? They fly past thousands of windows, and the scenes in
these windows are all connected together. Although these are merely common
scenes, because they are in great number, they have accumulated into a heartstop.
In fact, only the pigeons understand the essence of the city. They go out early and
come back late, obtaining a lot of knowledge. Moreover, they must have a very
good memory. If it were not so, how can we explain their ability to know their
ways? How can we know what their road signs are? They know every single
comer of this city. The highpoint mentioned before in fact refers to nothing but
their viewpoint. What kind of highpoint can we human beings expect to have? As
two-footed animals, we essentially don’t have very much freedom to move about.
Our heart is constrained, and our eyereach is pitifully limited. We live among our
own kind, and we all see the same things without any new discovery. We don’t
have any curiosity, and take everything for granted, because we can’t see any thing
104
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
special. But this is not the case with pigeons. They come back with fruitful results
every evening. How many eyes like this are in the sky over the city!
The scenes on the streets are all quotidian and repetitive. They have some
quality of performing, all stylized, and although they are resplendent and extremely
colorful, they are only in conventional patterns. The neon lights are like a wavy sea,
and the shop windows are of all kinds, yet all are the most conventional at all.
People walking on the streets all wear masks, as if they were in an outdoor party.
Their smiles are only for social intercourse, and their language is also for social
intercourse, therefore these are hardly even called “convention” but only the shell
covering the convention. Only the scenes in the alleyways can be called true scenes.
They are just the opposite of the street scenes. They look like they are all wearing
the same face, and every row of houses is pretty much similar and undistinguishable,
giving the impression that they are very conventional; yet, they at heart are very
innovative in pattern, each having its own ways of doing business and excluding
anyone else. Only a wall apart, is the same as thousands of mountains in between.
Who can get a sense of all this? The unsolved mysteries are especially prevalent in
the alleyways, one after another without an interruption. The gossip also is bravado
only; even if you were serious with it, it would be of little help, leaving you still in
105
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the dark. Everybody has a belief in his own opinion about the affairs in the
alleyways, and there is never any arbitration. The true remains unclear, and the
gossip puts more sand in the wheels. The scenes in the alleyways seem to be clear
on the outside, yet inside they are as confused as a mass of hemp, which cannot be
cut but will get even worse when you try to sort it out. The people behind the
windows frames are the agents concerned, who are the most confused ones, and
after going through the same experience so many times, they become the dumbest
ones, opening their eyes but seeing nothing. Those who are clear-eyed are those
animals who can fly through the clouds and fog and go everywhere. How free they
are! The freedom is really beguiling. The street scenes are too familiar to attract
their attention; instead, their sharp eyes are good at discovering unusual events.
Their eyes can also eliminate the false and retain the true, being good at capturing
the essence. They are very sensitive. They are not limited by the old conventions
and customs; they are almost the only Children of the Nature in this city. They are
hovering over the closely packed roofs, as if they were hovering over debris piles of
ruins, having an air of being the only survivors of a disaster. They in fact fly over
and over with some feeling of despair, making what is in their eyes is also colored
with pessimism.
106
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
We should admit that there is another species which can also fly: sparrows.
But sparrows are vulgar, and cannot fly high. They can only fly onto somebody’s
balcony or patio, pecking the remains of a meal from the cracks in cement, as if
they were blending with the filth. They are familiar guests in the alleyways, but
they are despised guests, and their being driven away everywhere is partly because
they belittle themselves. They don’t have any wisdom and are the most
commonplace among all birds. Their perspective is even worse than that of humans,
because they have neither human civilization to appeal to nor any talents in their
own. They can never be mentioned in the same breath with pigeons. Pigeons are
animals of the spirit, whereas sparrows are animals of the only flesh. They are
especially fit to fly in the alleyways, and the alleyways are their home. They are
narrow-minded, always buzzing, totally immersed in the gossip. The gloomy
atmosphere in the alleyways is partly because of them, and they make the low taste
in the alleyways even worse. Pigeons never linger in alleyways, and never stop on
one’s balcony, windowsill or patio to flatter or try to be close to humans. They
always fly high up in the air, leaving the roofs in the city under their feet. They
soar over the sky, bearing a scornful look. They are so proud, yet they are not
unkind; otherwise, why would they spend their last drop of blood flying back home
107
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
no matter how far it is? They are the true friends of humans; they don’t form a
clique to pursue any selfish interests; instead, they are understanding, sympathetic,
concerned and caring. If you happen to have seen the small pieces of red cloth
hung on the bamboos flying in the wind in the evenings, beckoning the pigeons
back home, you would understand this. This is perfect mutual understanding, as
sincere as that between children. As many secrets are in their hearts, there is the
same amount of sympathy, and as much sympathy, as much trustworthiness. The
pigeons make up the most tender scene in this city, which is also out of the brighter
scenes in the alleyways of Shanghai. Making a nest for the pigeons, seeing them
off in the dawn and welcoming them back in the dusk, this is one of the points of
affection of this city, the land of warmth for the city’s heart.
Even the most hidden guilt and punishment, disaster and fortune cannot
escape the pigeons’ eyes. When there are pigeons suddenly flying up and hovering
for a long time, the moment of guilt and punishment, and disaster and fortune
comes. At an abrupt glance, they are just like the rain cloud gathering quickly
under the sun, or the spots in the sun. In the gullies and fissures of this cement
world are imbedded so many scenes unbearable to wrath. It is just as well that we
cannot see them, yet the pigeons cannot avoid them. There is always astonishment
108
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
at these scenes in their eyes, as if they had tears which never shed. The cement city
under the sky and the crisscrossing alleyways are all like a big abyss, and there are
ant-like living creatures struggling there. The dust in the air flies as if it was
dancing, becoming the master of the universe. The minute noises filling up every
comer are the master of the universe too. Suddenly there rises the hail of the
whistles tied to pigeons, sharply fleeting like the tearing of a piece of silk; it is the
sudden awakening of the drowsy universe. Over the roofs of the city, there is
another thing which sometimes flies with the pigeons: kites. Kites are often found
on rooftops or telephone poles hopelessly watching the pigeons as their strings are
broken by the nets of the electric wire, or their wings are broken. They are
imitators of birds like pigeons; although they are even inferior to creatures like
sparrows, they embody the innocent and high-aiming heart of humans. They are
most often created from children’s hands or debauchees’ hands; debauchees are also
children; they are old-aged children. Children and debauchees run wildly carrying
the kites, trying to fly them up to the sky. Yet, they usually come to an untimely
end midway, with only a few flying up into the sky. When one among them does
succeed in joining with the pigeons, flying among the whistles, how happy it is!
During the tomb-sweeping time, there is a lot of debris of kites on the roofs,
109
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
suffering the wind and the rain - all sacrifices to love. They gradually turn into the
soil on the roofs, nurturing the frail bristlegrass. Sometimes, there are also kites
whose strings have broken flying up into the sky, gradually disappearing as a black
dot - this is an escape, with a determination to die. Only the pigeons are faithful to
humans from the beginning till death. It seems that they want to give this city some
comfort, hovering over it. The city is just like a dried sea: the buildings are like
forests of the reefs, together with all those marooned boats. How many suffering
people there are! How can they abandon them and fly away? Pigeons are the only
creatures with divinity in this atheistic city, yet a divinity nobody believes in; only
they themselves understand their divinity, and humans only know that no matter
how distant the way is, they will come back with their last drop of blood. Humans
merely feel affection toward them as they see them, especially those people living
on the top floors. When the pigeons fly back to their nests, they always pass by the
clearstories of the top floor, and this is the moment that they are most intimate with
people living there. Although there are all kinds of temples and churches, but
temples are temples and churches are churches and the people are still the people
living in the alleyways. Humans are the petty creatures in the wavy alleyways,
drifting with the tides, and the whistles on the pigeons are the soft alarms, singing in
110
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
the sky every morning and every evening.
Now, the sun is gushing out from the continuous roofs, splashing its golden
resplendence. The pigeons come out of their nests, their wings dazzling white. The
high buildings look like buoys on the sea. All kinds of activities become the low
howl of the sea. Dust also comes up in a fog. How restless it is! How many
incidents are hurrying to prepare cause and effect! There are already intense
emotions floating uninterruptedly. The doors and windows are all pushed open,
intense and close, letting out the stale air intermingling and making the sunlight
turbid, the sky darker, and the dust slower in its dancing. There is a certain
entanglement forming in the air, which constrains excitements, makes the freshness
of the morning gloomy, and the urging in the heart quiet. Yet, incidents are still
accumulating causes with inevitable results; a melon seed into melon and bean seed
into bean. The sun crosses its daily route in the sky, moving light and shadow;
every activity and particle of dust goes into its normal state, which repeats every
day and every year. All romantic sentiment calm down; the sky is high and the
clouds are thin; the pigeons disappear.
I l l
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Section 5: Wang Qiyao
Wang Qiyao is the typical girl of the alleyways of Shanghai.6 4 Every
morning, the girl who walks out carrying a flower-patterned satchel as the door
facing the back alley opens is a Wang Qiyao; in the afternoon, the one who sings
the “Song of Four Seasons” along with the phonograph next door is also a Wang
Qiyao; those who go together to the movie Gone with the Wind starring Vivien
Leigh are a group of Wang Qiyaos; those who go to the photo studio to take small
sized photographs of themselves are two particularly close Wang Qiyaos. Almost
in every wing-room or pavilion room sits a Wang Qiyao. The parlor room in Wang
Qiyao’s house usually has a set or so of rosewood furniture. The central dining
room is a little bit dark, and the sun always lingers on the windowsill but never
really comes in. On the toilet table with three mirrors, the powder in the puff box
always looks affected by damp, being somewhat sticky, whereas the hair cream has
dried up. The copper lock on the camphorwood trunks is shiny, indicating the
frequency of being opened and closed. The radio broadcasts Suzhou pingtan,
Shaoxing opera and even stock market; the wave bands are always hard to adjust,
6 4 In this novel, the name Wang Qiyao is used as both the protagonist’s name and the collective
name for girls grow up in alleyways.
112
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
and there is always static.6 5 The maidservant in Wang Qiyao’ house sometimes
sleeps in the triangular room under the staircase, which is only big enough to for a
bed. The maidservant even prepares the water of her employer family; and the
employer family orders her about as if they would use up every penny of the
interest on her salary. The maidservant is always busy from morning till night, yet
she still has time to gossip about her boss family and have an affair with the
rickshaw puller next door. Wang Qiyao’s father is usually henpecked and well
subdued, helping build up an image of female dignity for Wang Qiyao. Every
morning in the streetcar sits Wang Qiyao’s father on his way to work; in the
afternoon in the pedicab sits her mother on the way to shop for materials for making
qipaos. Every night under the floor of Wang Qiyao’s house are mice moving about.
A cat is thus adopted to kill the mice, and therefore there is slight stench of cat urine
in the room. Wang Qiyao is more likely the eldest child in the family, becoming
her mother’s bosom friend at an early age, going to make clothes with her,
accompanying her to visit friends and relatives, and listening to her complaints
about men’s natural dispositions, with her father as living example.
6 5 Pingtan is an artistic form o f storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou dialect. Both Suzhou and
Shaoxing are close to Shanghai, and the former in Jiangsu province and the latter in Zhejiang
province. Culturally both are older than Shanghai and have influenced it with their art forms
113
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Wang Qiyao is the typical girl waiting to be betrothed, squinted at over and
over by the apprentices in foreign firms. During the hottest days of the year when
the clothes are about to be taken out to bask in the sun, Wang Qiyao will imagine
her dowry as she looks at her mother’s clothes in the bottom of the trunk. The girl
in the show window of the photo studio wearing her wedding dress which falls
down to the ground is the last Wang Qiyao to get married. Wang Qiyao is always
the beauty who outshines the moon and puts the flowers to shame, always wearing
an indanthrene blue mandarin gown, always being in fine shape, and always has
beautiful eyes behind her fringe which are so vivid that they can speak. Wang
Qiyao follows the trend, never behind the times or going too advanced, but
fashionable along with everybody else. They follow the exact same trend as others
do, never speaking their mind or asking why, believing with their whole heart. The
Shanghai fashion relies on Wang Qiyaos. Yet they cannot promote anything;
promotion is not their job. They don’t have any talent to create anything; nor do
they have any independent or free personality. On the contrary, they are assiduous
and honest, extremely loyal, aping others at every step. They don the spirit of the
time without any regrets or remorse, and so can be taken as the manifesto of the city.
Whenever a star is bom in this city, no matter in which profession, they will be the
114
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
idolaters; whatever the romances in the supplements of newspapers, they will be the
sincere readers; the outstanding of them will write letters to the stars and writers,
and usually all they want is just a signature. In this fashionable society, they are the
social basis. Moreover, every Wang Qiyao is sentimental, and their sentimentality
is also trendy, every technique coming from imitation of others. The fallen leaves
are preserved in books; the dead butterflies are kept in the rouge box. They move
themselves to tears, and the tears go with the trends too. The sentimentality is
feigned first before true feeling comes, showing on the surface first and then
moving the heart. You cannot say it is all false; it just comes in the wrong order; it
is the artificial genuineness. In this place everything has a facsimile and a pioneer.
The eyelids of Wang Qiyaos are always dark, as if they were covered in shadow,
the shadow of sentimentality. They all appear to be somewhat pitiable, which
makes them even more delicate and charming. They eat very little like a cat does,
and they walk as lightly as a cat too. Their complexion is transparently fair, and
their light blue arteries and veins are visible. They all loss appetite and weight in
summer, and cannot sleep warm in winter; all need to take some herbal medicine to
treat their yin deficiency and build up vital energy. The fragrance of the herbal
medicine diffuses in the air. All this makes up the fashion created by the romantic
115
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
bel-esprits in the papers and dramas, fitting Wang Qiyao’s feelings, a fashion which
has some sensitivity after all. So the trend can be called sensitive to one’s heart.
Wang Qiyaos all have sisterhood with one another, which sometimes
accompanies them all their lives. Whenever they get together comes the whiff of
the boudoir life. They are the markers of the boudoir life for one another,
something like monuments; they are also a witness for one another, as if they could
detain the time. In their lifetime, there are a lot of things that can be replaced, yet
the sisterhood holds out from beginning to end. The sisterhood is somewhat strange.
It is not the kind that shares weal and woe, neither is it the kind that shares meager
resources in time of need; it contains no favor or resentment, having few
entanglements. It has no home or career to depend on, thus having neither
constraints nor guarantees. Even though it can be called the intimacy of
understanding one another, how many secrets do girls have? They are more likely
just looking for company, not for anything urgent, but just for going to and coming
back from school together. They wear the same hairstyle, the same shoes and
stockings, holding hands like lovers. If you see such two young girls, you must not
take them as twins; that’s just the sisterhood, Wang Qiyao-style. They always lean
close to each other, which is a bit of overacting, yet their expressions are so serious
116
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
that it will make you serious too. They accompany each other only to make the
loneliness and the helplessness worse, and nobody can really help anyone. Because
of this, the companionship lacks any utilitarian quality and becomes purer. Every
Wang Qiyao has another Wang Qiyao accompany her. Sometimes it’s her
classmate, sometimes it’s her neighbor, and at other times it’s one of her cousins.
This is also one of their social contacts in the insipid boudoir life. Since they have
very few social contacts, they can’t help going all out, turning social contact into
affection. Wang Qiyaos are all affectionate, devoted to each other heart and soul
under the surface of pursuing fashion. The sisterhood lies in the mutual sincerity,
though the sincerity is insipid sincerity. If a Wang Qiyao is going to be married, the
other will be her bridesmaid, with an air of nostalgia as well as leave-taking. The
bridesmaid wears a look of willingly serving as a foil, with her clothes in darker and
older style, her rouge is lighter, and everything being restrained and showing the
solemnity of self-sacrifice. This is what is called sisterhood.
In every gateway in the alleyways of Shanghai sits a Wang Qiyao reading
her book, or doing her embroidery, whispering with her friends, or shedding tears
because of sulking with her parents. The alleyways of Shanghai have the attitude of
a little girl, and it is called Wang Qiyao. The attitude has something very graceful
117
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
about it; it doesn’t seem too high to reach, but appears to be very amiable and
accessible. It is unobtrusive and warm. Although it is a little bit put-on, its
intention is to be pleasing and thus acceptable. It is not generous or lofty enough,
yet nobody intends to compose an epic. The petty sentiment is even more pleasing
because it is the attitude of daily life. It fosters daily reciprocation, yet it cannot be
looked down upon. It lacks knowledge and experience, yet it is understanding and
reasonable. It is a little narrow-minded, yet narrow-mindedness is more interesting
than big principles. It plays tricks, yet the tricks are also interesting and nothing but
the decorations on normal life. It is inevitably a little boorish, yet it has gone
through the washing-out of civilization. Its flashiness has a practical foundation.
On the graceful shadow of the moon on the wall of the alley is written Wang
Qiyao’s name; on the pink fallen flowers of the oleander is written Wang Qiyao’s
name; on the dancing light behind the gauze curtain of the window is written Wang
Qiyao’s name; the soft Shanghai dialect mixed with Suzhou accent recites Wang
Qiyao’s name. The clappers of the osmanthus-porridge vendor arouses as if it is
sounding the night watches for Wang Qiyao; the literary young man boarding in the
pavilion-room on the third floor is writing new-style poems for Wang Qiyao; the
dew wetting the phoenix trees is the tear of Wang Qiyao; when the maidservant,
1 1 8
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
back from her tryst, slips silently through the back door, Wang Qiyao’s dream has
gone far to an unknown place. Because of Wang Qiyao the alleyways of Shanghai
have feelings. These feelings seem to burst out from the crevices of the daily life,
just like the grass with yellow flowers in the cracks of the walls, left out
unintentionally.6 6 The feelings look as if they are capable of contaminating and
defusing, like the moss creeping on the wall, filling the eye with green despite the
hardships of being exposed to the wind and dew, and also like the spark in the
grassland starting a big fire. The struggle and fortitude have incurable pain.
Because of the feelings, the alleyways of Shanghai have their pain, and the pain’s
name is also Wang Qiyao. In the Shanghai alleyways, occasionally one can see a
wall fully covered by green and luxuriant Boston ivy, the feeling of old age, the
long-lived one of the feelings. Its long life is endless pain, too oppressed to breathe
by the wards of time and written all over it, and debris of years and months. This is
Wang Qiyao with her endless pain.
6 6 The original Chinese text has an old saying “wu xin cha liu" literally meaning although having no
intention to plant the willow tree, it ends up producing a lot o f shade. It is used to describe a
situation of getting some result without original intentions or awareness.
119
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Appendix 2: Two essays by Wang Anyi:
Shanghai Females [Shanghai de n Wcing]
The toughness of Shanghai females is not demonstrated in offense, but in
defense. The combat between men and females is somewhat horrible, and also
somewhat heart-wrenching...
Shanghai females are really tough-minded; otherwise you can’t deal with all
those people and matters in the city. People who don’t know the truth all say that
Shanghai dialect is soft and sweet, but what they are referring is to Wu dialect;
Shanghai dialect is almost exclusively composed of the toughest elements of Wu
dialect.6 8 It is almost impossible to speak of love in Shanghai dialect. The word
“like” sounds even softer than “love”; thus we can see the “love” in Shanghai
dialect is the solid “love.” To express “chivalry” in Shanghai dialect, however, is
better: every word is clear and precise, with the Jianghu spirit [jianghu qi\.6 9
6 7 The Chinese text of this article is found in two literary websites:
h ttp://mv.szptt.net.cn/fanvt/nxwx/wangav/wav02.htm
htt p: //s ei n.mvrice.eom /anvi/l 1 .htm on Feb. 16, 2002.
6 8 Wu dialect is spoken in major cities in southeastern Jiangsu province and most o f Zhejiang
province, including Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou.
6 9 Jianghu spirit refers to the spirit of a self-organized group of men who demonstrate good
brotherhood and chivalry. Because in history these people were usually organized to rebel against
120
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Therefore the females speaking Shanghai dialect sound somewhat like cavaliers;
they can have converse with men, and what they talk about is not heart petty talks
but world affairs. Those who don’t know the truth also say that Shanghai females
7 0
are “restrained,” by which they refer to the atmosphere of the Wu and Yue area.
What they don’t know is that Shanghai females embody the toughest elements in
the Wu and Yue area. They don’t show their toughness in offense, but in defense.
You won’t see people who have more grievance than Shanghai females, but their
grievances do not come from meek submission; it comes at a price, as a result of
careful deliberation. This is the reason why you should never take their tears as a
demonstration of weakness.
Never believe that Shanghai is romantic because there are several rows of
London Planetrees; all it has is toughness, which is built with bricks and tiles. If
you take a good whiff of the air, you will smell asphalt, and even the brine and
moisture of the sea, no matter how soft when it strokes your face. When you climb
onto a flat roof of a house to see this city, the coarseness of the city fills your eyes:
the densely packed cement boxes seem like bee-hives and ant-hills, and even give a
corrupt governments, and thus had to wonder from place to place to escape being caught, they were
referred to as people moving along Jianghu, literally meaning rivers and lakes.
7 0 The Wu and Yue area refers to roughly modem Zhejiang province and Jiangsu province.
121
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
look of ferocity. You should also not reminisce the old dreams from twenty or
thirty years ago; they were nothing but the lights on the stage; behind the scenes
were still those dense bee-hives and ant-hills, in which there was nothing but teeth-
gnashing, fist-rubbing determination. The place really doesn’t have anything poetic;
even the songs are like stamping. Only when you see at the worksite the lights
ablaze all through the night and the pounding noises everywhere, you will feel
touched for a moment and have a passion in your heart. This is the Genesis chapter
of this city; you have to have your eyes on this grand scene. As to all the humanity,
wriggling ant-like on the streets of cracked concrete, how can you expect any
poetry from them?
Females here have to possess some masculine quality, and men do not
simply treat them as women. The mission to strive is the same; everyone has to
gain a ground under the crowded roofs. Because of the same goal, sometimes they
can be comrades and strive with hands joining together and shoulders abreast; at
other times, they become enemies and fight to the bitter end for their own goals.
The combating scene is somewhat horrible, and also somewhat heart-breaking, all
because the tiny lives in comers so pitifully small that it is hard to turn around, the
struggle for a victory to gain a few inches, and do not accept defeat. The men here
122
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
cannot make use of their masculine quality; everywhere they have to huddle up to
fit the tininess, no wonder they don’t treat women as women. The two sides are
evenly matched and equally self-dependent; both start business from scratch, and
neither will give ground. When it comes to the true equality: both standing on the
same horizon, each having a half of the sky. Those yelling about “looking for the
manly man” are mostly female students, who are restless from overreading.
Women who have gone through the blood and tears of life do not look for the
manly man but the one who is caring and understanding. Supporting each other,
both the man and the woman are nothing but weak people. To weave two hearts
together is the sweetest and most romantic thing in this place.
If you want to write about Shanghai, the best representing figures would be
the females. No matter how serious their grievance is, Shanghai provides them with
a good stage of displaying talents. And players like them who take the stage for the
first time always start their stories from the very beginning. Nobody is more lively
and energetic than they. If there are any heroes in the story of Shanghai, they are.
In the accumulation of social status, they are the dirt poor proletariat; therefore they
are also the revolutionaries. Among Shanghai females, those in their middle ages
are especially typical. Their fantasies have disappeared, and their time for
123
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
recollection has not come yet. They take more actions, and Shanghai is a giant of
action. At the very moment of making important decisions for life, they are
decisive and resolute, diligent in thinking and busy in action, and self-determined.
Although I call them the middle-aged, they are actually just around thirty. This is
the time that they become mature in both experience and energy. They are not
timid or narcissistic as girls are; neither are they able to resign themselves to the
unpleasant things as old people can. They understand that hope is nowhere but in
their hands. They are all great examples.
However, they cannot satisfy the romantic dreams in your heart. They are
too practical. The life in this place is too tough; everything is down-to-the-earth
and there is no room for sublimation. Maybe only when you have your eyes on the
grand scenes, looking at the worksite operating all day and all night, you can find an
accumulated passion. But it will be a long time before you get the grand scene;
now what you can pick up are only the small days. Collect heat and energy
scattered at the comers, and be prepared for the next transcendence.
1 2 4
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
7 1
Imagining Shanghai [Xiangxiang Shanghai]
I am designing Shanghai on the stage.
The background is realistic style; the details are elaborately described, even
including the bad words of children on the wall. On the planks of the back door are
nailed a milk-box, a mailbox, and several doorbells, each of which has a small strip
of adhesive tape with a surname like Zhang or Li written on it. The drainage pipes
of every air-conditioner are carefully arranged along with each other, leading down
together. The air-conditioners are prudently covered either with a green fiberglass,
or with an adjustable canopy. Of course if it is an old house, which shows all
functions openly and everybody can tell what is for what, therefore there may be no
air-conditioner but wooden blinds instead, which are movable and have to be made
very well. When the blinds are shut, it is imaginable that the in-doors is very cool;
when they are open, then the sun’s rays are shining in.
The shops along the street are mostly small, with people living upstairs,
entering from the backdoor and making the front the fa?ade of the shop. There are
rice shops, seasoning shops, bowl shops, and sewing kit shops. One store after
another is a fashion store. The facade is usually small, with a proprietress putting
7 1 The article was first published in Wenhui Daily (Shanghai) on Jan. 9th , 2001.
125
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
down the ironing board and ironing clothes. On the glass door is a poster
advertising for employees. All in all, one can get to know the situation in the shop
even with one glance. However, when you push the door and enter the shop, there
is still a secret atmosphere inside. On the counter, which is also used as a writing
table, are a sheet of half-written stationary, the half-done account of family
expenses, name cards of customers or friends, some candies given by someone,
pictures of the children, the nipple of a feeding bottle, a man’s cigarette box, and a
woman’s hairpins. Most of the people waling by the door are familiar-looking, yet
what they are doing can well be guessed. However nobody strikes up a
conversation; all show a reserved manner and have a serious look; they all have
their own important business, and you wouldn’t understand even they told you.
The costumes should be really exquisite. This exquisiteness does not mean
being fashionable or gorgeous; it means being proper. Even if one is just going to
the alleyway to gossip, he will also dress well. The zipper of jacket is pulled up two
inches from the collar; the creases of the trousers are straight; the leather shoes
don’t have to be very new, but must be well shined, and the run-down heels must be
repaired. There shouldn’t be any nails; nails will not only make the shoes look like
horseshoes, but also give a fake favor by making loud noises. It’s all right to wear a
126
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
suit. Yes, just wear a suit, stand at the doorway and shoot the breeze. In addition,
these must be men who are over forty-five, with their hair well combed and
pomaded, and their hands in their pockets. If they are women, it would be the best
that they wear clothes made of scattered-flower pattern cloth; the color should be a
little bright, and the pattern a little rustic. To be “rustic,” is indeed to be feminine,
without being philistine. It is OK for a man to be philistine; it makes him appear to
be capable to deal with emergencies and cope with the world; it even makes him
appear to be a little wild. He can appear to be rascally, but he shouldn’t be slick.
The woman, on the other side, should be a little “rustic,” really charming, but not
completely incapable. They wear clothes with scattered-flower pattern, and
everyday hairstyle. It looks better not to perm the hair but rather to make braids or
cut the hair level with the ears, using a hairpin to raise one side up. What do they
do then? They are the shop proprietresses mentioned above. The unmarried are the
employees responding to the ads, patiently learning the knack of doing business,
and then starting their own business. What kind of shoes do they wear? If the shape
of the feet is good, even wearing cloth shoes looks very good, with a band across
the instep, or with shoestrings knotted in the middle, which was fashionable in
1970s. Never wear plastic slippers, which look really coarse. Both the men and the
127
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
women are very slim and have no superfluous fat. But they are not as lean as the
Cantonese; neither do they look like peasants who are slim because of physical
labor. They are like intellectuals, who are slim from a life of the mind.
As to language, the Shanghai dialect is the mainstream. In the Shanghai
dialect, the accents of Suzhou and Ningbo are strong. These two accents are just
1 1
like the yin and yang, with one being feminine, and the other masculine. However,
they should be spoken in reverse: the former spoken by men, and the latter by
women. Thus, men become good at telling tales, talking tirelessly, with great
patience but not with a lot of clarity. The philistinism just mentioned, with some
lyric quality in it, then reduces the flavor of vulgarity. How about the women?
They speak the Shanghai dialect with a strong Ningbo accent, and that makes them
witty and lively. Otherwise, they would probably sound a little dull and boring.
But women here are all very interesting; their temperament is more straightforward;
they are both charming and vigorous.
The play performed by these men and women can be nothing but comic.
How about the plot? It is something like what appears in the column “Under the
7 2 In Chinese thought, yin and yang are two opposing principles in nature, the former feminine and
passive, the latter masculine and positive.
128
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Roses” in New People Evening News [Xin min wan bao\. For example, there is an
old man who goes to transport his dead wife’s ashes. He recalls that his wife liked
to have fun and make friends, and becomes concerned that the wife will invite the
spirits of their old neighbors to home. Therefore, when he gets back home, he
intentionally puts the ashes outdoors on the bicycle to prevent the spirits from
coming in. Unexpectedly, a thief steals the box of ashes as a treasure box. In
another story, a wan wants to find out if his wife really loves him. He pretends to
be dead with a white sheet covering his body in order to hear his wife crying for
him. However, he only scares his son, who happens to come back from school.
The son immediately turns around and begins running desperately, and the father
then gets up to catch him, shouting, “Don’t run away!” Of course the boy runs even
faster as the father chases him and finally falls down and hurts his head. The couple
has to take the child to the hospital to be bandaged. There is another story. A bus
conductor sees a young man taking a monkey onto the bus. She is so excited that
she invites the young man to take one stage of the bus route without purchasing
tickets. One more story: a woman is standing in a bus. A child then stands up and
asks her to take the seat, calling her “granny”. The woman insistently refuses.
Then someone calls her “Miss,” and she then happily sits down. Things like this.
129
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Only stories like these, if you want to call them absurd, well, they are, but they are
also very wonderful. Exciting and producing little spectacles, but nothing
disturbing. They don’t appeal to refined taste, but Shanghai is nothing but an opera
house, just like the “Great World [Da shijie],” where a mixed bag of people gathers,
and the plays are all on small stages. To call them comedies would be too serious;
so let’s go along with common speech: farces.
The background music doesn’t have to adhere to any type; the popular songs
of any time will be fine, as long as they are popular and everybody can sing them,
especially that kind of refined or even melancholy song. For example, the passage
of “The reunion with Liang Shanbo after a short separation” from “Liang Zhu,”7 4
< 7 *
and “Asking Zijuan where Sister Lin’s flower-hoe is,” and “Chairman Mao, oh
Chairman Mao, you are in my heart, in my heart,”7 6 in which emphasis is put on the
last clause by the street boys to the girls passing by. There are even more examples,
7 3 The “Great World” is the oldest entertainment center in Shanghai, with its noticeable Baroque
tower encircled by columns. It was set up by Huang Chujiu in 1915, and now is located at 450 Yan
An Road (E).
7 4 This passage is quoted from the 3r d century folktale “Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai,” a tragic love
story which was latter developed into drama scripts in different areas o f China.
7 5 This passage is quoted from the drama script o f A Dream o f Red Mansions [Honglou meng],
which is based on the novel with the same title by Cao Xueqin in Qing dynasty.
7 6 This passage is quoted form a song which was first popular during 1970s and revived after 1990s.
130
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
such as “Can this used ticket take me on the boat in service,”7 7 etc. The comic life
has vicissitudes of the world. However, they don’t make people upset; everyone
feels warm inside.
All in all, I love the humorous elements of Shanghai. Therefore, if I were
asked to imagine Shanghai, I would pick all these out, enlarge them, highlight them,
edit them, and put them all together.
7 7 This passage is derived from a popular song. The original lyric goes “Can this used ticket take me
to your boat,” which pictures a man/woman hoping to reunite with his/her old lover.
131
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Glossary
This list includes Chinese names, terms, places, articles, stories, books, journals,
newspapers that appear in the thesis. Entries are in alphabetical order. The quotation
marks indicate the titles of articles and stories, while the { )) marks designate the titles
of films, books, journals and newspapers.
A
Ah Er H U
Ah Lai H A
Ai shi bu neng wang j i de “ ^
Ai Xiaoming 3t0jPil
Anhui (% ')
B
Bai Caixia 0 f l
Bai Juyi SIS'Jy
Bai lu yuan « S itl »
Bainian zhongguo wenxue zongxi:
1993, shi ji mo de xuanhua ((H A H
1993,
i m
Beij ing wanbao « i t A tffcM . »
Benci lieche zhongdian “ A A H IA
A A ”
Bu meisu de qianwei yu bu luowu de
gudian - lun Wang Anyi de dute xing
ji ‘buyao dute xing’de wexueguan
c
Gang sang gan
Cao Juren W Mi--
Cao Xueqin W U '/f
Chang hen ge « - £ '» »
Changjiang ribao ((j£tL 0 ) )
Changpian xiaoshuo
Charensanbuqu ((I^ A H hPiS i ) )
Chen’ai luoding ((A A iilA ))
Chengshi de xiaoxiang 0
Chen Jie [(An
Chen Ran H A
Chen Rong illW
Chen Sihe H M
Chen Xiaoming W&L
Chen Zhongshi H A A
Chi Li V tk ^tJ
ChiLiwenji (((AHA A))
Cun Wl
D
Da Shijie A t& #
Daliuzhuang ((AHJH)>
Dangdai zuojia pinglim ( ( A W
i£»
Dazhong wenyi chubanshe A A A 2
Dianxing huanjing zhong de dianxing
renwu U M A tl
Dian yi dian maodun wenxue jiang zai
zuoj ia xinzhong de fenliang — T iS
h ”
Didi wei f
1 3 2
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Dongtian li de chun tian ((AAMKl
# A »
Dute de ziyuan, duli de yuyan -
guancha Wang Anyi de liangge
shijiao IflA tillin'
t —
F
Fang Fang A A
Fannao rensheng (('Mi'll A A))
Feng Jicai i-frUM
Feng Yunqing 'M A #
Fengjing ((Mile))
Fu de gu yuan cao song bie ((litIf-A
FuPing ((§ # ))
Furongzhen ((HUM))
G
G a n su ttif ( if )
Gaozubenji
Geren jiyi M A iBtZ
Gezi fA F
Gouzhu de yuyan shijie—ping Wang
Anyi xiaoshuo yuyan de yanbian
Gu Hua A A
Guanyu changpian xiaoshuo “ A A
Guige |1| M
Guomindang H I
Gushi he jiang gushi " IM f A A A
9 ?
H
Haikou % P (Tf)
Han Shaogong I f M-M
Hangzhou trC j'H ( if )
Hongloumeng
Huangshan zhi lian ((^ ill A ) )
Huang Zongying H A A
Huanyuan shenghuo, huanyuan renxing
Hu shang shu yuan
Hui guang fan zhao [ m IA A ,®
Huilangzhiyi (([FlJllAff'))
Huozhe ((ftft1 ) )
J
Jia Pingwa W A H
Jian ji cuo le de gu shi “ I f I f f t T
i W ”
Jiang Lili f i ®
Jianghui qi MAIM,
Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe
Jiangxi tf ®
Jin Han A A
J in an ( if )
Jindai Shanghai shehui xintai ((A A A
Jingshen zizhuan I f # ll A
Jinri zhongguo chubanshe A B A B A
m ±
Jinxiugu zhi lian ((f&Mlf
Jishiyuxugou (M EH M liiff) )
Ju sha cheng ta
K
Kang Mingxun MAfliih
1 3 3
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Kunming §,0^ (A )
L
Lanfengzheng
Lanzhou j iaoyu xueyuan xuebao < ( A
L ao K elaig A Jl
Laohu tianchuang A A A lSf
Lao Shanghai yishi de shiguang ((A
Le Zheng T IE
Li Guo wen T 0 A
Li Luping T # T
Li Xinyu T § t T
Li Zihui l ^ T i t
Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai " ill
Liang Yong’an HczKA
Lin Bai # S
Lin Zhou T A
Liujiujie chuzhongsheng “ /B A A IB
A T ”
Liuliu fen A A la -
Liu yan A A
Longtang A T
Lu Yao
Luo Gang 3? pi
Luoji zhunbei
M
Ma Ding A T
Maitian chuban A IB A )A
Mei Tou «MA»
Mianzi shang zuoren M T T T B A
Mao Dun wenxue jiang T T IfA 'T A
Maomao niangjiu T T T i l
Maqiao cidian ((A'BfS? A))
Ming xiu zhan dao, an du chen cang S B
n m m , B i«^ r
MiNi «TM»
N
Nan Fan i t Hi
Nanjing A (M )
Nanren he nliren, ntlren he chengshi
“MAlRAA> AAS^M”
Ningbo
Ningbo daxue xuebao (renwen kexue
ban) ( A X m ^
m »
Mixing lichang A A A ill
Nllxing shiyu A14$!M$
O
On the Plain ((A iTilti:))
Ou-yang Ming IAIB S jj
P
Piaobo de yuyan « M T IftirE g ) )
Pincou A A
Ping’an Li T A M
Pingfan de shij ie « T A tft A ) )
Pingmin T A
Pingzhong zhi shui “ T A7K ”
Pipaxing “ 1111 A ”
Q
Qi Hong
Qing T ( A )
Qipao
1 3 4
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
R
Ren dao zhongnian “ A S tlf1 ^#”
Ru Zhijuan
S
Sanlian shudian youxian gongsi
T O (WPS)
San wen ffcA
Sasha
Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe ill %ML
W tB M ±
Shanghai de nttxing “ _h)$ A '14 ”
Shanghai chunqiu ( (
Shanghai renmin chubanshe _h$5 A
FsF H T F fh
Shanghai shenghuo « ± $ |A A »
Shanghai wenxue ((A $ |A ^ ))
Shanghai zuojia xiehui Jl'MYCMW
~ Z X
Shangzhou chulu ((|uf ji| % J ] A ) )
Shenjiang fuwu daobao ((if A JF A
Shiji
Shikumen A A fl
Shi yue « + ^ »
Shouhuo
Shushu de gushi “ fit] ♦ ”
Sixiang
Si-ma Qian
Siji diao
Sirenhua xiezuo fA A AhA fi
Siren shenghuo “fA A A A ”
Sun Li
Suzhou (TfT )
Suzhou pingtan A f 'lif
T
Tanjiu yi ge shi dai de jingshen
licheng—ping Wang Anyi de xiaoshuo
chuangzuo A B tf tlf lf t# M
Tangjflf ( f t )
Tang Xiaobing iifRjSA
Tian Zhuangzhuang FI A f t
W
Wang Anyi A AfZ
Wang Anyi bixia de Shanghai dushi
changing -xidu Wang Anyi de liangbu
changpian xiaohsuo Chang hen ge he
FuPing
( ( a a a ) ) a mm
Wang Anyi shuo shishang “ T iA fZ ijt
IT O ”
Wang Anyi xiaoshuo xushu fangshi
shuping “ £E A \L 'JN ijt §& A A A ill
i f ”
Wang Jiren j££BA
Wang Qiyao TAftiS
Wang Ruqing i'A W
Wang Shaozhou 3A9A1
W a n g S h ifu i^ ff
Wang Xufeng
Weiwei He H e
Wenhui bao (Shanghai) ((A A f F) )
(± J $ )
Wenxue bao ((A ^ fF ))
Wo’ai Bi’er
Wo yanzhong de lishi shi richang de -
yu Wang Anyi tan Chang hen ge “ A
13 5
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
m « - & « » ”
WuM
Wu Liang M^i:
Wu Peizhen MiMM
Wu xin cha liu jit$P
Wu zhi 4^/M
X
Xi xiang j i <(®JSBB»
Xiangtu xiaoshuo « ^ A A i&) )
Xiang xiang
Xiangxiang Shanghai “2 ® $ ± & w
Xiaobao zhuang ((AtfijS:))
Xiaocheng zhi lian ((AMHfSL)
Xiao shi min A A A
Xiaoshuo xushu fangshi de gexinzhe
Xie Xizhang M M M
Xie zuo zhi fucong xinling de xuyao
-fang zuoj ia W ang Anyi “ ‘ B M IS
Xinbian zhongguo dangdai wenxue
fazhanshi ((§riliA lS M A M A A )fl
M»
Xinminwanbao ((fjri^PAA))
Yigeren de zhanzheng «—A A (ft
#-»
Yi guan kui bao, ke jian yi ban LlHf
mm, rtjal- %
Yin Dong A A
Y u H u a ^
Yu, shashasha “ M > W'&'& ”
Yu wangshi ganbei ”
Yuan yu shenghuo, gaoyu shenghuo
Xin shiji huawen wenxue fazhan guoji
xueshu yantaohui
Xin shiqi §rBt$J
Xin xieshi pai
Xin shiqi wenxue zhong de renwu
zhongxinghua qingxiang “ fffBvlAflM
Xinzi li zuoren A A MM A
Xu Mao he ta de nU’r men ((i^F^MMtil
Xue Beibei
Xun gen (A M )
Xunyangjiangtouye songke; fengye
dihuaqiusese
Y
Yannanfei “jfllUM”
Yao ah yao, yao dao wai po qiao ((M
Yang Yuhuan fit
Yingying ( # ) M M
Yuan zhi da xue A ^
Yue M
Yue man ze kui B
Yunnanrenmin chubanshe Ap^AB;
Z
Zawen
Zhang Jie A A
Zhang Yimou A H A
136
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Zhang Yonghong
Zhang Zhizhong ir&Jes®
Zhaoxun xiaoshi de jiyi “ fR
Zhejiang daxue chubanshe
Zhongguo dizhi daxue 4*
Zhongguo j indai j ianzhu tulu ((4^ H I
Zuojia chubanshe ® /fett
Zuichun li de yangguang
mm
Zhongguo ntixing xiaoshuo xinxuan
((4 5H 14'hi& i§ri$± > )
Zhongguo qingnian bao « ^ S W ^
m
Zhonghua dushu bao « 4 1 ^ ^ ^ ^
Zhongpian xiaoshuo c t ,lti/.h'$!.
Zhong shan «I t lil) )
Zhongxi ntlzhong 't ’M iC 't1
Zhou Keqin jo) j r
Zhou Xuan jnj Ml
137
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Negotiations of the transPacific, United States-Japan divide in the writings of Lafcadio Hearn and Yone Noguchi

PDF

Religion and literary practice in the essays and fiction of Endo Shusaku

PDF

Intersubjectivity and the mother-daughter dyad in Korean American women literature

PDF

A commercial and optimistic worldview of the afterlife of the Song people: Based on stories from the "Yijian Zhi"

PDF

"The Infant in the Void": A spiritual journey

PDF

Tanizaki and film: An introduction with three early writings in translation

PDF

Recasting Vladimir Propp's formalist method through traditional Asian narratives

PDF

Representations of the mother as origin and force of life in Japanese literature and history

PDF

The evolving vocabulary of otherness in pre-imperial China: From 'belligerent others' to 'cultural others'

PDF

An analysis of characterization in "The Romance of the Western Wing"

PDF

Ito Noe: Living in freedom. A critique of personal growth in Japanese society

PDF

Korean-Japanese writer, Yu Miri overcoming Korea and Japan

PDF

Confrontation and compromise: The worlds of the supernatural and humans in Pu Song-Ling's "Liaozhai Zhiyi"

PDF

A picture of human composition: An interpretation of Mencius' theory about human nature

PDF

On the so-called Japanese reflexives zibun and zibunzisin

PDF

Yamamoto Sumika: A new kind of living goddess in Japan

PDF

Second language acquisition of the ba-construction in contemporary Mandarin Chinese

PDF

In search of the sun: Yukio Mishima's body aesthetic

PDF

"Double" in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions

PDF

Maternal devotion: the symbiotic relationship between mothers and sons in Yi Jian Zhi

Asset Metadata

Creator Yuan, Yuan (author)

Core Title The feminized city: Reading Wang Anyi's "Ballad of Eternal Sorrow"

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program East Asian Languages and Cultures

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag literature, Asian,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-302460

Unique identifier UC11336862

Identifier 1414894.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-302460 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 1414894.pdf

Dmrecord 302460

Document Type Thesis

Rights Yuan, Yuan

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA