The Chinese women state of mind. You must read Eileen Chang and Jade Yu Shan short novels !
Posté par ITgium le 15 octobre 2013
A jùn mǎ 俊 马 tale 故事 (François de la Chevalerie)
During those Guangdong hottest days, I immersed myself in the reading of two Chinese female writers.
Despite their sixty years gap, they share a common value of free speech, mostly of independence.
Both have tasted freedom, and anyone who tastes that fruit can never have enough of it. Physically close, they look very similar, the same slender face, kind of bold beauty that celebrates the power and grace of a Victorian model of femininity.
The older one is highly regarded as one the most famous Chinese writer, inspiring generations of readers. Her name, Eileen Chang (张爱玲), enlightens the most inner thoughts of a woman.
The younger one is still on her late twenties. Her name, Jade Yu Shan (玉 山), she is mostly unknown except in some Beijing movies circle and in Dongguan where she presently lives.
I divide my time between the two readings
I have to tell the truth. I am always embarrassed to comment women’s writing being so far away from them, at the other end of their world.
Let me start with “Love in a Fallen City” (倾城之恋) written by Eileen. Getting drawn into the quagmire of the Second World War, running through the streets, fleeing the bombs in Hong Kong, even worse the conservatism of a tiresome bourgeois life of Shanghai, an unlikely couple in on the way.
She, a divorcee. Him, an outstanding womanizer.
This story might seem pretty straightforward but what makes the difference in the total uncertainty of their situation, their future.
Their emerging sharing life brings no hope, no future. It is only a matter of time before everything caves in. Despite all, love traces his way, exacerbated, unbreakable, mutually reinforcing both.
In a brilliant short novel “Why love a Chinese loser?” Jade Yu Shan gives the answer.
In today china, the substance of a love affair is mainly a business arrangement, often a family business. Regardless his physical condition, a male making money holds great value and will be a way of a woman life before long. A male earning money is a definite reality and a sure investment for the future.
Quite the contrary, a romantic relationship does not last long.
Being romantic isn’t it bothersome and time-consuming ?
However, in her absorbing short novel, Jade Yu Shan undress this failed assumption.
An unfortunate guy, jobless, poorly fed, poorly clothed, living in a shack-settlement community, a man with no future will disrupt, I mean, definitely revolutionize the life of a well-to-do middle-class woman.
Fed up with her apparently conventional Guangzhou life, drinking beers on the Zhū Jiāng banks, dancing Colombian stylized salsa, chatting, gossiping, this typical Chinese second generation china prosperity female felt in her heart a rising uncontrollable force.
One day, fleeing boredom and feelings of depression, with tears in her eyes, she started running towards the underworld.
At midnight, she meets the poor fellow in a narrow and dark street of the old Dongguan.
He didn’t know how to comfort her. Then, he said, wholeheartedly :
« Look, the sky is so full of stars that it would seem as if you could reach up and take a handful. Happy life is in Heaven !”
Then they joined hands to pray for the love they share, natural and uncontrollable.
What the poor fellow did isn’t that simple ?
He restores her confidence, her self-esteem, paving the way to a positive move to the future ?
During these readings I realized, among others, the need to clarify my concept of a woman that was basically, before those readings, weak, full of bias.
Thanks Eileen and Jade to help me to improve my knowledge about the chinese women’s state of mind.
Publié dans Chinese women love stories, Chinese women state of mind | Pas de Commentaire »