Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture: Sino-Western Discourses and Aesthetics on Marriage 981199840X, 9789811998409

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Chinese Culture 7

Chi Sum Garfield Lau Kelly Kar Yue Chan   Editors

Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture Sino-Western Discourses and Aesthetics on Marriage

Chinese Culture Globality, Connectivity and Modernity Volume 7

Series Editors Tze Ki Hon, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Hok Yin Chan, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Editorial Board Chih-yu Shih, Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan Dominic Sachsenmaier, Department of East Asian Studies, Göttingen University, Göttingen, Niedersachsen, Germany Michael Lackner, Gebäude D3, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany Monika Gänßbauer, Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden Yujiro Murata, Doshisha University, Nerima-ku, Japan Tak-Wing Ngo, Department of Government and Public Administration, University of Macau, Taipa, Macao

This book series aims to publish monographs and edited volumes that examine how Chinese culture has been circulated, redeployed and reinterpreted around the world since the 15th century. In this book series, Chinese culture is understood broadly, ranging from canonical texts, philosophical/religious systems and aesthetic tastes of the educated elites to cultural artefacts, festivals and everyday practices of ordinary people. This broad definition of Chinese culture is to serve two purposes. The first is to encourage research that views Chinese culture not just as a home-grown construct serving the Chinese in their native land, but also as a symbol, a site where diverse meanings can be generated for global conversation and transnational exchanges. The second is to provide an opportunity to researchers to publish works that examine how China is used, metaphorically or figuratively, in the recent debates on modernity and post-modernity. The series welcomes proposals from multiple disciplines in connection with the study of Chinese culture, including language and literature, history, philosophy, politics and international relations, media and cultural studies.

Chi Sum Garfield Lau · Kelly Kar Yue Chan Editors

Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture Sino-Western Discourses and Aesthetics on Marriage

Editors Chi Sum Garfield Lau School of Arts and Social Sciences Hong Kong Metropolitan University Ho Man Tin Hong Kong SAR, China

Kelly Kar Yue Chan School of Arts and Social Sciences Hong Kong Metropolitan University Ho Man Tin Hong Kong SAR, China

ISSN 2662-9755 ISSN 2662-9763 (electronic) Chinese Culture ISBN 978-981-19-9840-9 ISBN 978-981-19-9841-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Foreword

Marriage as Metaphor Between Local Nostalgia and Global Redefinitions Few things in the realm of human existence are more intimate than the act of marriage—a word that, in English at least, covers two different potentialities of meaning: the moment of getting married and the process of inhabiting the same space together with another being. In both these connotations, marriage involves the fundamental relationship between two souls and two bodies, between two ontological microcosms brought together by choice, destiny or even external circumstances. Anthropologically, it is a universal experience, something that turns the mere biological inclination of so many other species into an act of sacred communion. Indeed, marriage seems to be one of those rare chances that humanity is granted in order not only to conquer instincts, to subdue physical impulses, but to transcend matter and turn it into spirit. Yet, above and beyond everything that may constitute its universality as a social institution, marriage is always grounded in a tradition. It is, in a noble sense, an expression of that tradition. A ritual far more than a formality, the wedding of two mortals invokes the cosmic energies of day and night, the sun and the moon, the earth and the sky. Thus, to understand its various patterns in different cultures is to apprehend the reflection of deep religious beliefs in the social fabric of one community or another. What seems to be the same everywhere is in fact separated by so many spiritual dimensions. This is equally true of marriages, of conjugal relationships, of everything that constitutes the osmosis between two human beings who share everything they have and everything they are.

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In a Chinese context, marriage has been defined by social, societal norms virtually indecipherable for the minds of Westerners, shaped by centuries of cultural specificity, locked in an eternal paradox. There, between the constraints of recent demography and all the complex layers of its rich past, the institution of marriage seems to be the very essence of the Chinese people, the core of Chinese identity. The same can be affirmed, perhaps, with respect to so many other nations, correspondingly, as the family is the cell of the social tissue, and marriage is the nucleus of that cell. It follows then that for all people from all continents, marriage is the distilled image of their own ethos. And yet, nowhere else is marriage more profoundly, inextricably linked with everything private or public and with everything between private and public. Unsurprisingly, marriage—with all its intricate ramifications within the discrete parameters of the household or in the society at large—features prominently in so many of China’s cultural phenomena. It is present in its mythology, as nothing could better explain the cosmogonic vision on everything that exists than the Chinese sense of the conjoint, harmonized—in other words, conjugal—dynamics between Yin and Yang. It is never missing from its overwhelming folk literature, with so many stories set around the teapot, in the sheltered warmth of the household. It is always included in its theatrical tales, from the classical scripts of Peking Opera to the contemporary experiments of a new generation of playwrights. It infuses the delicate tones of its chamber music, and it enters the land of cinema, to a degree that is yet to be contemplated thoroughly. It has even survived in the disguised forms of television shows and, more recently, digitalized media. It is simply everywhere, in all possible cultural manifestations of the Chinese spirit—old and new, traditional or modern. Impossible to fully comprehend, enigmatic like the spirit of the people itself, the subject of marriage in Chinese contexts has proved as fascinating from a western cultural perspective as it remains irremediably elusive. The way in which Western cultural figures have engaged with this theme illustrates prominently the concept once put forward by Claude Lévi-Strauss as much as, at the same time, it captures one of the key notions of Victor Turner’s system of thinking. In Tristes Tropiques (1955), Lévi-Strauss spoke about the endless paradox of the Westerners’ stance, between two radically opposing impulses: the tendency to surrender to the “exotic” other and the utmost desire to conquer it, to annihilate its spirit. In The Forest of Symbols (1967), Turner referred to the distinction between liminal and liminoid, which perhaps can somehow explain how various authors from the West approached the subject matter of Chinese marriage—on the threshold between general approximations and detailed interest in the particulars. It seems that the gaze of the Westerner can only penetrate to a certain extent the nature of conjugal relationships in China, either insisting excessively on the tribulations of human emotions or dwelling too much on the aesthetic. Yet, it is precisely this mixture of relative understanding and complete misapprehension, of intellectual curiosity and cultural limitations, that accounts for what marriage has ended up being in this long process of betweenness: a metaphor.

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In so many of the Sino-Western narratives—textual or otherwise—Chinese conjugal relationships have been charged with a sense of poignancy that goes beyond the predictable hybridity to be found in the framing of other similar topics. Something is always left out. On purpose. Something floats in the realm of the unsaid, of the unspoken. And everything is more than what it seems to be: this is the suggestive grace of implied meanings, of the unattended moments that at once reveal and conceal reality. It is equally true of the religious echoes of ancient literature translated into English or French and of the transparently contemporary stories about social anxiety in interracial marriages. There are few cases of cultural representation in which conjugal affairs, from nuptial visuality to habitual patterns of old age coexistence, are not elevated to this level of expressiveness. All the contradictions to which Lévi-Strauss and Turner referred are avenged by what may be termed the poetics of indistinctiveness, which turns the mundane fabric of any Chinese marriage into a long series of metaphorical implications. A romantic gesture can be the symbol of historical reconciliation, and a quarrel between a wife and husband can indicate the dissolution of the traditional values in an entire community. This book is a first attempt to map the complex dynamics of marriage in Chinese culture, between tradition and modernity, between the old and the new, between one artform and another, but also—and, in a sense, more importantly—between deep local specificity and global construal. Its structural diversity appositely reflects the tremendous variety of forms that the representation of marriage embraces within this broad context. It takes into account that the concept itself, marriage, has evolved throughout history. It addresses the implications of such transformations. It also looks at aspects that are beyond history, from Chinese mythology to the contemporary adventures of the human spirit. In all these different facets, in each interpretative reflection, there is a never abandoned, constantly reinforced sense of respect for the topic itself. Such a merit is often taken for granted, regarded as elementary for any avenue of academic research. Any yet, it may often be missing or simulated, not substantial enough to be praised. In the case of this book, each contribution is respectful of the endless complexity of its subject—whether it focuses on the vast universe of Chinese traditional opera or the minute of decorations of contemporary wedding invitations. The assortment of perspectives included in it is not and could not be the result of hazard, the mere consequence of research interests that merge and match only partially. It is, in fact, a kaleidoscope of images, sounds, fragrances, colours, vibrations that together give the reader an insight into the virtually unfathomable mystery of that which all Chinese marriages are based upon. What are they all based upon? One has to read the following pages to come closer to an understanding, whilst knowing and accepting that something will always be—fortunately—incomprehensible. A trait that binds them together is immediately noticeable and equally authentic: all the chapters included within this book seek to emphasise the indefinability of that mystery. None of them struggles to exhaust its topic through excessive explanation, through pedantic intellectual elaboration. Rather, each single angle accepts its own restraints, as if only together they could form a complete circle of both analytical and synthetic possibilities. Discourses about clearly delineated historical periods are gracefully complemented by subtle

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parallelisms between typical Chinese modes of storytelling and Western exercises in literary aesthetics. The effect is one of cultural vitality and natural fusion, not at all in the sense of forced agglutination, but in the spirit of a multidisciplinary or, rather, transdisciplinary perspective. Thanks to this paradox of heterogeneous homogeneity, the present volume is far more than a predictable exploration of certain cultural instances in which marriage can be found as the subject. It is a celebration of the “marriage” between ideas and aspirations, a perfect assortment of resonances and reverberations from the spiritual consciousness of an entire nation. Naturally, the research methods and frameworks to be discovered are as diverse as the viewpoints from which the discourses are argued. Some of the approaches fit comfortably within the scope of comparative literature, comparative culture, while others venture into the territory of cinema studies. Some are grounded in the solid field of the history of religions. Some are canonical, and some are not. Some engage with the solidity of marriage as a cultural institution, whereas some others address the uncomfortable and disturbing consequences of divorce. Some are dedicated to purely Chinese tropes. Some prefer the inflections of globalism and universality. Therefore, this is not simply a book for experts interested in Chinese culture, for all those already embarked on their own research journeys in this area, but for a category that does not seem to find its place easily in the thin horizon of typical scholarly books: what the unforgettable Samuel Johnson might have called the “general reader” (Rollyson, 2001). This openness does not affect its academic quality, it does not diminish its intellectual substance. On the contrary. It makes it valuable and meaningful, above the limits and limitations of one subject and beyond the unavoidable confines of the sum of all its chapters. Whoever wants to open it in order to learn about The Phoenix Hairpin will effortlessly be drawn to something as different as the recent and continuously growing phenomenon of the Chinese female vloggers. A reader seeking the illumination of ancient China’s miraculous births will hardly be inclined to avoid reading about “The Woman from New York”. These cross-cultural undercurrents make this book original, and give it the flare of liveliness. Its contributors, coming from many different avenues of scholarly pursuit, also cover a wide range of intellectual profiles: from established academics to promising doctoral candidates. This is another great gift. It proves that the topic highlighted in the title of this volume is of great cultural appeal to different generations of researchers, and hopefully this will be mirrored by its readership. Now, when the illusion of planetary connectivity seems to turn into the disillusion of isolation, one can only hope that this volume will affirm its theme as something that truly matters. Perhaps, it will inspire more and more spirits of our troubled times to explore the endless and everlasting beauty of Chinese tradition as well as the very actual, present-day manifestations of local and global creativity based upon it.

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As a last and rather personal note, one should like to congratulate the two editors of this volume, who—through meticulous care and passionate energy—have added another important milestone to this special Springer collection. Together, they form a great team, and indeed the conceptual substance of the current tome finds its place within a series that is likely to determine a different, much needed shift in all our understanding of Chinese cultural virtues. Octavian Saiu President, the International Association of Theatre Leaders Professor, Hong Kong Metropolitan University School of Arts and Social Sciences Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China

References Lévi-Strauss, C. (1955). Tristes Tropiques. Paris: Plon. Rollyson, C. (2001). Samuel Johnson: Dean of Contemporary Biographies. Biography, 24 (2), 442–447. Turner, V. W. (1967). The Forest of Symbols. Ithaca, N.Y.; London: Cornell University Press.

Introduction

Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture—Sino-Western Discourses and Aesthetics on Marriage is an essential volume that scrutinizes the multifaceted dynamics of conjugal relationships in Chinese culture and Sino-Western contexts. It delves into the sophisticated and multiple aspects of marriage as they interact with political, societal and ideological transitions. Specifically, the volume highlights how these factors may override the private nature of marriage, thus turning nuptial affairs into public discourses. Aiming at a more complete presentation on the aesthetics of different genres concerning marriage, this volume revisits the connection between conjugal relations and various art forms including literature, film, adaptation, modern design, etc. In Part I: Revolutionary Alternatives of Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, five contributors have raised questions on the extent that conjugal relations could be an expression of individual free will, and the potential incompatibility between personal satisfaction and the well-being of a generation or a state. Owing to the dominant position of Confucian philosophy in Chinese culture, conjugal relations were often seen as the duty of an individual in forming a family for giving birth to male heirs so that both the father and his sons could fulfil their responsibilities to the state. As this ideology prevailed, marriage became an act for the state and the kinship rather than a fulfillment of individual romance and desire. As marriage does not essentially constitute to the merriment of harmonious unity, it is crucial to study the possible alternatives and how these deviations from conventional conjugality are perceived. There appears a noticeable trend in the decreasing number of marriage registrations in China from 2019 to 2021 (Du, 2022). The contributors also analyze revolutionary initiations against the institutionalization of marriage and new insights on the connection between marriage and progeny. While marriages in the Chinese context are often associated with prosperous blessings and auspicious intentions, taboos against divorce and widowhood stimulate provocation of intellectual analysis on the aftermath of a failed conjugal relation. Besides, cases of divorce and remarriage could only be justified under certain restrictive doctrines. In Chap. 1, Kelly Kar Yue Chan epitomizes how the rarity of divorce and remarriage in pre-modern China can be immortalized through two Cantonese xi

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operas. “Divorce and Remarriage as Revealed in Cantonese Opera: The Phoenix Hairpin and The Return of Lady Wenji” examines the divorce and remarriage of two heroines at the expense of their own pursuits of love, which have manifested the grief-laden elements in the very periods of pre-modern China in contributing to tragedies of women. In Chap. 2, Hin Ming Frankie Chik brings us to the Chinese mythical world regarding the miraculous births of ancient sages. In “The ‘Absence’ of Conjugal Relationships in the Myths of Miraculous Births in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey”, Chik shows various cases of miraculous births in Chinese culture as exemplifications of the relationship between Heaven and human beings in an ancient context. These selected cases stimulate scholarly discussions related to the matrilineal nature of primitive societies and the primitive perceptions associated with fatherless beings. For the cases reviewed, the marital condition of the mothers and the involvement of paternity are not directly related to the births of the sages. These observations provide a revoking thought on the revolutionary aspects of the ancient world and the transformation of the conjugal system in the succeeding generations as the Chinese society underwent modernization and resistance. While women in pre-modern China could seldom exercise their free will in love, the influence of Western ideas such as freedom in Republican China led to revolutionary attempts in reforming orthodox marriages. In Chap. 3, Peijie Mao examines some of the major debates and controversies in early Republican China when the society was situated at the junctions of East-West ideologies. In “‘Free Divorce?’ Love, Marriage, and Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Women’s Press”, Mao explains how actions of modernizing the society triggers unethical divorces. The dilemmas of attempting to change marriage as a familial decision into a personal expression arouses questions on whether morality or individual happiness has to be prioritized as the society progresses. In Chap. 4, Tin Kei Wong dissects the evolving basis of marriage when intellectuals in China were infused with the spirits of the May Fourth Movement in the pursuit of independent personhood. “Free Love and Free Marriage: Chinese Writers’ Description and an American Missionary Woman’s Prescription in the 1920s” inspects the journey to gender equality in China through the oppositional views between a group of Chinese male writers who advocated free love and free marriage and a Protestant American missionary woman named Laura M. White who held a conservative view on womanhood. Surprisingly, the Victorian stance of White which emphasizes selfless devotion resembles Chinese feudal ethics regarding the obedience and virtues of women. To achieve a more genuine understanding regarding the complexity of marriage under the evolvement of modernity, Chi Sum Garfield Lau anatomizes the irreconcilable perspectives of marriage when it involves cross-cultural elements that result in mistrust in Chap. 5. Certain ancient communities practiced clan exogamy for the observation of incest law and extending connections outside the tribe through nuptial relations. However, hostile prejudice and xenophobic attitudes in the modern world give rise to resistance against interraciality. “Marriage in Migration and Homecoming: Joseph Conrad’s ‘Amy Foster’ and Ha Jin’s ‘The Woman from New

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York’” investigates the challenges faced by the protagonists when their spouses and townsfolk label them as outsiders either due to the identity as a migrant or the choice of migration. For both cases studied, when the dissimilar behaviors or mentalities of the protagonists are placed within the scale of the bigoted communities, animosities and suspicions arouse regardless of the protagonists’ attempts of reconciliations. Part II: Reassessment of Contemporary Nuptial Discourse in Various Forms travels through the rites and cultures of marriage in several aspects in the daily lives of the contemporary age. All four chapters in this part cover a wide range of topics relevant to the anxieties and dilemmas about marriage experienced by both sides of the couple, the challenges of transnational marriage/remarriage, and the major ritual differentiations between Chinese and Western ways of nuptial ceremonies. The ones by Lee and Wan suggest, interestingly, how a feminine self or such an image could possibly be affirmed or even be embodied in a manner not only tolerated but welcomed, while the chapter by Ho highlights the couple’s delighted selves and positive images to be shown to the world subject to conventional practices when the specific designs of wedding invitations are in question. Though cohabitations and non-marital childbearing are seen as contemporary moves that simplify ritualistic ceremonies in the nuptial context, Blix’s chapter reminds us that they have their origins dating back to the primitive age. One could not reject the idea that there must have been some chemistry inside all these seemingly interrelated threads of significance underlying these themes. In Chap. 6 “Linguacultural Representation of the Cultural Self and Other in Chinese Women’s Discourse on Transnational Remarriage”, Enid Lee expresses how Chinese women’s perceptions on transnational remarriage are to be analyzed through an experimental approach. She gathers together empirical figures by research into the facts and challenges of interracial marriage and divorce. The cultural self and identity of these women, stemming from her research, could be positively reinstated and reasserted. Amic G. Ho, evaluates nonverbal visual elements concerning wedding rituals and ceremonies in Chap. 7 “Visual Interpretations of Eastern and Western Wedding Invitation Designs” through a novel and thought-provoking comparative study of wedding invitations. Eastern and Western visual literary discourses are put to contemplation by the readers, while a specific socio-cultural awareness could be resulted from such a study. To explore how the spread of Chinese culture to the Western shore may have an evolving effect on people’s mentality towards marriage, Chap. 8 demonstrates the study by Bjoern Aage C. Blix regarding the roles played by the circulation of I Ching (a.k.a. The Book of Changes) and its blending with individualist thinking in comprehending divorces and cohabitation in Norway. In “Marriage, Divorce, and Cohabitation: A Reading of Norwegian Fortune-Teller I Ching by Henning Hai Lee Yang”, Blix outlines how Henning Hai Lee Yang’s version of I Ching involves his appropriation for the Norwegian context. Besides, Yang tries to strike a balance between his Chinese traditionalist viewpoint and Norway’s cohabitation culture in an attempt to provide a solution to high divorce rate.

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In Chap. 9 “Happily Ever After? Rethinking Marriage in Contemporary Hong Kong”, Shun Yu Nicola Ulaan Wan portrays a hectic socially collective issue about marriage in contemporary Hong Kong, being featured in a Hong Kong-made movie My Prince Edward 金都 (2019), merging together popular gender theories advocated by Simone de Beauvoir’s transcendence and Judith Butler’s performativity. The chapter author also ponders the subject of marriage from a female’s perspective when facing the notion of male and paternal superiority and authority, which in turn suggests thoughts of resistance against established conventional norms of behavior. A socio-cultural concern is discerned from the dilemma and dichotomy of choosing to be involved in conjugal relationships or not. Having said that, the debate has been considered never-ending as the topic touches upon psychological, ontological, segregational and hierarchical aspects, to name just a few. To observe different challenges revealed in conjugal standpoints is both complicated and challenging. It has never been one single viewpoint to judge upon when discussions on marriage are in question. The editors hope, through presenting this book volume, to be able to demonstrate facets of the issue in myriad presence of forms. Chi Sum Garfield Lau Kelly Kar Yue Chan

Reference Du, Q. (2022). “Marriages fall in 2021 leading to lower birth rates in China, despite declining divorce rate.” Global Times. 20 Mar, 2022. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1255358. shtml

Contents

Part I

Revolutionary Alternatives of Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture

1 Divorce and Remarriage as Revealed in Cantonese Opera: The Phoenix Hairpin and The Return of Lady Wenji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Kar Yue Chan

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2 The “Absence” of Conjugal Relationships in the Myths of Miraculous Births in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey . . . . . . Hin Ming Frankie Chik

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3 “Free Divorce?” Love, Marriage, and Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Women’s Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peijie Mao

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4 Free Love and Free Marriage: Chinese Writers’ Description and an American Missionary Woman’s Prescription in the 1920s . . . Tin Kei Wong

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5 Marriage in Migration and Homecoming: Joseph Conrad’s “Amy Foster” and Ha Jin’s “The Woman from New York” . . . . . . . . . Chi Sum Garfield Lau

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Part II

Reassessment of Contemporary Nuptial Discourse in Various Forms

6 Linguacultural Representation of the Cultural Self and Other in Chinese Women’s Discourse on Transnational Remarriage . . . . . . . Enid Lee

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7 Visual Interpretations of Eastern and Western Wedding Invitation Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Amic G. Ho

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8 Marriage, Divorce, and Cohabitation: A Reading of Norwegian Fortune-Teller I Ching by Henning Hai Lee Yang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Bjoern Aage C. Blix 9 Happily Ever After? Rethinking Marriage in Contemporary Hong Kong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Shun Yu Nicola Ulaan Wan

Editors and Contributors

About the Editors Chi Sum Garfield Lau obtained her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Hong Kong Baptist University. She is an Assistant Professor in Hong Kong Metropolitan University. She is responsible for courses in English Language and Literature at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her areas of interest include Modernism, Psychoanalytic Criticism and Comparative Studies. Kelly Kar Yue Chan completed her undergraduate degree and her master’s degree both in the discipline of Translation and Interpretation at the City University of Hong Kong. She then finished her Ph.D. in Classical Chinese Literature at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. She is currently an Associate Professor in language and translation at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses on culture and translation, and literary translation. Her research interests include literary translation, women’s studies in classical Chinese society, classical Chinese literature (poetry), and translation of Cantonese opera.

Contributors Bjoern Aage C. Blix City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Kelly Kar Yue Chan Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China Hin Ming Frankie Chik University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA Amic G. Ho Department of Creative Arts, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China

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Chi Sum Garfield Lau Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China Enid Lee Department of British and American Language and Culture, Okinawa International University, Ginowan City, Okinawa, Japan Peijie Mao ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China Shun Yu Nicola Ulaan Wan City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Tin Kei Wong Department of Asian Studies, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Part I

Revolutionary Alternatives of Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture

Chapter 1

Divorce and Remarriage as Revealed in Cantonese Opera: The Phoenix Hairpin and The Return of Lady Wenji Kelly Kar Yue Chan

Abstract The art of Cantonese opera features a variety of representations of love through various performance forms and works, irrespective of their distinctive spatial and temporal settings in China. Compared with Western contexts, the traditional Chinese mentality toward depictions of love, whether in literature or any other art form, was delicate and subtle, due to its alignment with conventional Confucian teachings stemming from the past. In this sense, it is feasible to relate the elusive lyrics of Cantonese opera to classical poetry, a connection that can be demonstrated by tracing the refined borrowings of the former from the latter. In relation to this delicacy in the presentation of love, the narration of stories in Cantonese opera associated with conjugal relationships, especially those pertaining to the issue of remarriage, is worth scrutinizing because remarriage (particularly of women) was seen as disgraceful in pre-modern China. There were very infrequent cases of divorce, which was only available to husbands (the action of “xiu” 休 in Chinese). Prominent Cantonese opera plots involving divorce and remarriage include The Phoenix Hairpin [Chai tou feng 釵頭鳳] and The Return of Lady Wenji [Wenji gui Han 文姬歸漢], which are derived from an account of a poet couple in the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) and historical records of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220), respectively. These two stories share a desperate, tantalizing hope by their female characters to be with their true loves (their first husbands), but they are prevented by strong external forces from achieving satisfying conjugal relationships. The slim possibility of divorce from the women’s side has demonstrated different levels of feminine resistance against the established patriarchal norms of dominance. Keywords Cantonese opera · Divorce · Remarriage · The Phoenix Hairpin · The Return of Lady Wenji

K. K. Y. Chan (B) Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 C. S. G. Lau and K. K. Y. Chan (eds.), Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, Chinese Culture 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6_1

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1.1 Introduction Cantonese opera, a refined preforming art that flourished in the southern part of China from the 1930s to the 1970s, has represented several perennial themes derived from classical literary settings. These themes vary from historical incidents to literary adaptations and love stories of different sorts, but usually, the works promote traditional Chinese Confucian values, including filial piety, benevolence and righteousness. Being known as one of the most acclaimed works of Cantonese opera, The Flower Princess [帝女花 Di nü hua] forms a model in exemplifying these qualities mentioned. Pure love stories are less significant in most Chinese literature of the classical period, as romantic love between men and women was considered “unorthodox”: “virtuous women should remain hidden from male view. […] Female virtue became increasingly synonymous with strict observance of the rites, and female education often sought to inculcate these restrictions” (Hinsch, 2016: 42). However, in the performing arts, these love stories held considerable appeal for audiences, given that they could easily relate to the lives of individuals. Prominent operas include The Butterfly Lovers [Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai 梁山伯與祝英台], which was so popular as to have been compared with Shakespeare’s masterpiece Romeo and Juliet in the West, and The Purple Hairpin [Zichai ji 紫釵記], which displays a legendary encounter, betrayal, and final reunion of a couple that is well-known to almost every person of Cantonese origin. Cantonese opera features a variety of representations of love through various works and forms of performing, all of which were designed to appear in distinctive spatial and temporal settings in China. Compared with Western contexts, the traditional Chinese mentality toward depictions of love, whether in literature or any other art form, is delicate and subtle, and is pertained to traditional and conventional Confucian teachings. One can also relate the lyrics of Cantonese opera to classical poetry, a connection that can be demonstrated by tracing the refined borrowings of the former from the latter. One of the reasons for cultivating such subtlety in presentations of love is that in traditional Chinese societies, love ought not to be openly proclaimed or defined, and the relationship in a conjugal family should be kept to the couple concerned only. In pre-modern China, love and the conjugal relationship may in some sense have been a family issue pertaining to the “Five Relationships” [wulun 五倫]: “the relationships of father–son, husband–wife, ruler–subject, friend– friend, and elder–younger [that] are considered the primary relationships of human beings” (Hwang & Meyer, 2019: 937). For example, in Confucian belief, the association between an emperor and his minister should be prioritized over others because it is deemed most important, being implemented for statecraft. Conjugal relationships seem to have had a minor position in this social hierarchy. Taking the famous couple Liang Hong 梁鴻 and Meng Guang 孟光 as an example, the wife “dared not look straight at Hong [her husband] but raised the bowl level with her eyebrows [ju an qi mei 舉案齊眉]”; this symbolized “an ideal couple who treat one another with respect” (Lee & Stefanowska, 2015: 183), and it became a long-cherished and exemplary image for many Chinese couples.

1 Divorce and Remarriage as Revealed in Cantonese Opera: The Phoenix …

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With the above in mind, and in relation to the delicacy of mentioning love and marital issues, the narration of the stories in Cantonese opera associated with conjugal relationships, especially those pertaining to the issue of remarriage, is worth scrutinizing because remarriage (particularly of women) was seen as disgraceful in premodern China. Women were expected to serve their husbands, teach their children properly [xiang fu jiao zi 相夫教子], and “follow” or submit themselves to men [cong 從], which derived from the ideas of the “Three Obediences (san cong 三從, namely, cong fu 從父 [submissive to one’s father], cong fu 從夫 [submissive to one’s husband] and cong zi 從子 [submissive to one’s son]) and Four Virtues,” by which “[s]urvival meant that a woman needed to be pious, domestic, humble, respectful, considerate, subservient, pure, quiet in spirit, and isolated from the outside world” (Lee, 2009: 53). Divorce was very infrequent, and was only available to husbands (i.e., renouncing a wife, the action of “xiu” 休 in Chinese); wives did not have the right to object or resist (they could only resist passively in their own minds): Traditionally, if a woman fails her role or misbehaves, her husband had the right to divorce her based on the Seven Grounds for Divorce (Qichu [七出]). However, a woman never had the right of divorcing her husband in ancient China. A divorced woman is viewed as the shame of her birth family and herself. (Zheng, 2016: 5)

Divorce and remarriage did occur in a more open manner during the Tang (618– 907) and Song dynasties (960–1279), when female remarriage was more tolerated: “[n]otwithstanding vociferous condemnations by Neo-Confucians, remarriage remained legal and common [during the Song Dynasty]” (Hinsch, 2016: 135). Prominent Cantonese opera plots involving divorce and remarriage include The Phoenix Hairpin [Chai tou feng 釵頭鳳] (a.k.a. Forty Years of My Cherished Love [Meng duan xiang xiao sishi nian 夢斷香銷四十年]) and The Return of Lady Wenji [Wenji gui Han 文姬歸漢], which originate from an account of a poet couple in the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) and historical records of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220), respectively. The two stories each portray a significant dilemma for a traditional Chinese woman: to choose between breaking away from the bondage of family [jia 家] and the state [guo 國] and succumbing to them. As Han notes, “the family plays a central role in the social sphere, [… and] in the traditional Chinese world, nation and family were isomorphically structured and family was the smallest nation, so to speak” (Han, 2012: 91). Obviously, in view of the stringent conventional values, the stories tell us that the heroines in both scenarios choose to surrender to bondage. Both of these accounts retell historical encounters in literary and fictional garb using the dramatic effects of on-stage performance and the overall poetic structure of lyrics written specifically for these plays. The female characters display a desperate, tantalizing hope to be with their true loves (i.e., their husbands), but this hope is thwarted by strong external forces, such as the conventional patriarchal norm which is against the primitive feminine desire for free love, that prevent them from achieving satisfying conjugal relationships. The lead characters experience enduring grievances in adhering to the image of the perfect wife in a family while yearning deep in their hearts for dearly loving relationships with their husbands.

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1.2 Widowhood, Abduction, and Remarriage in The Return of Lady Wenji The Return of Lady Wenji is based on the story of Lady Cai Wenji 蔡文姬 [official name Cai Yan 蔡琰] (c. 177?–244?), the daughter of Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133–192), a famous scholar of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220). Wilson suggests how the melancholic aspect of her life enhances the poetic nature of the work: After being widowed at a young age, Cai Wenji was abducted by a nomadic tribe, where she was forced to marry a chieftain and bear his children. The tragedy of her life story, and the songs of lament that have been attributed to her, combine the art of noble suffering with the powerful precision of Chinese poetry at its finest. (Wilson, n.d.)

In spite of this tragedy, Wenji’s individual will was never fulfilled or respected. According to accounts, Cao Cao 曹操 (155–220), the Wei Wu Emperor 魏武帝 of the Eastern Han, “wanted to bring Cai Wenji back to court to finish the work Xu Han shu [續漢書 (Book of the Later Han) started by her father and] ransomed her back through negotiations and gifts” after having been stranded for twelve years in the Hu 胡 land [referring to Xiongnu 匈奴 (a northern ethnic tribe)] (Peterson, 2000: 129). Although appearing to be of kind intention, this move unfortunately also shows that ‘the exchange of women,’ or to be accurate, the commodification of women’s sexuality and reproductive capacity” (Wang, 2020: 3). In the historical record, Wenji, humiliated for having been abducted for such a long period of time, and, been forced to part with her beloved sons, which “caused her tremendous anguish, as she wretched [sic] herself from her children” (Peterson, 2000: 129),1 wrote her well-known poem “Song of Grief and Indignation” [“Beifen shi” 悲憤詩]. A devastating picture of the war-torn town in the Eastern Han touches readers’ hearts: “Men’s heads being hung beside the horses, / Women being captured upon their backs” (translation mine).2 The poem expresses explicitly her major concern about her children, having been released and summoned back to the Han 漢 court after 12 years as a captive in Xiongnu: “Although I am released,/It’d only mean with my children I have to part” (translation mine).3 Toward the later part of her poem, she writes from her children’s point of view, adopting their poetic voice in lamenting her own departure back to Han: Everyone says there’s no way Mother could return if she’s away. Mother! You’ve always practiced sympathy, To us why naught you show any empathy? Far from being grown, we’re still so small, 1

The word “wretched” in the quote might have been a copying error of “wrenched”. The original lines read “馬邊懸男頭, 馬後載婦女” (Han, n.d.: 48). 3 The original lines read “己得自解免, 當復棄兒子” (Han, n.d.: 48). 2

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To us why you care naught at all? Upon hearing this, how broken is my heart! In a state of trance my soul is falling apart! (translation mine)4

The lines assuming her children’s questions show a “twisted emotion” that serves to reveal Wenji’s “self-reproach, ultimate disappointment and heartbreak” about having to separate from them forever (Guo, 2013: 67). This historical story was later adapted into a Peking opera (1926) as well as a Cantonese opera (1958; 1997), both titled Wenji gui Han [The Return of Lady Wenji]. The play demonstrates the frustration of Wenji when patriotism has been prioritized at the expense of her gender roles: depicts the helplessness and sadness of Wenji when she returns from a foreign land to her homeland, leaving her husband and son behind[….] Performing the heart-touching theme song in the final scene, [the actress] brings out the desolation of a mother and a wife who could never reunite with her family. (Cantonese Opera Festival)

The Cantonese opera focuses on two segments of Wenji’s life and is based mainly on narratives of her incarceration in Hu land and being summoned back to the Han court to finish the historical volume Xu Han shu. The lyrics have preserved the two poems attributed to her: the “Song of Grief and Indignation,” mentioned above, and “The Eighteen Laments” [“Hujia shibapai” 胡笳十八拍], which serve as the basis for the final theme song in the play, “The Ultimate Eighteen Laments” [“Juechang hujia shibapai” 絕唱胡笳十八拍]. Unlike her historical biography, the operatic play portrays a true love between Wenji and her Hu husband, the clan chieftain Zuoxian 左 賢王. “The Ultimate Eighteen Laments” foreshadows Wenji’s death when arrangements are made for her to revisit Zuoxian after her return to the Han court and to have an arranged marriage to an official, Dong Si 董祀. In view of this, a central issue for researchers has been how the matter of abduction is to be defined. To a large extent, the abduction of Cai Wenji is held to be through force, and her “marriage” to Zuoxian is also considered to be suspiciously satisfying, as one could imagine that her life in the Hu territory involved “suffering torments from nostalgia and sadness” (Zhou, 2009: 475), mainly because of cultural conflicts. Certainly, it is understandable that operatic plays are adapted dramatically to attract the audience’s attention, and their restricted length prevents complete coverage of the historical story. The adaptation of literary or historical stories into audience-friendly drama is hence quite frequently seen as being focused on theatrical effects and operatic performability. What is controversial in the marriage is also seen in the fact that “[t]hroughout this far-flung disharmony between the two civilizations, the agricultural nation’s imaginations about the nomadic nationality were suffused with enmity and contempt” (Zhou, 2009: 474). With this in mind, the Cantonese opera version of the play has kept the focus on Wenji’s conjugal relationship with Zuoxian and on her response when facing the heartbreak of leaving her children behind but with no apparent ability to reject the invitation to return to court. Her experience of being widowed in her younger The original lines read “人言母當去, 豈復有還時。阿母常仁惻, 今何更不慈。我尚未成人, 奈 何不顧思。見此崩五內, 恍惚生狂癡。” (Guo, 2013: 67).

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days and her remarriage after returning to Han are either ignored or not emphasized in the play, and only the abduction marriage is given a focus (due to the time limitation of a three/four-hour play). Her return to Zuoxian, illustrated in the latter part of the Cantonese opera version, creates a striking effect when she meets her end with everlasting regret upon being unable to reunite with Zuoxian and their children or to prevent her remarriage to Dong Si. Thus, through the theme songs “The Return of Lady Wenji” and “The Ultimate Eighteen Laments,” Cai Wenji is depicted as a gifted woman but without any control over her own life. Even though she is well cared for by her true love (according to historical records, her second husband, Zuoxian), she is kept captive in a northern land, and she is again deprived of any power to master her own life when she is summoned back to Han. Both the historical records and the play represent a feeble and submissive image of Cai Wenji—not to mention that her female persona has already been elevated in the Cantonese opera version when a true love is granted to her by the playwright, greatly contrasting with the real-life Wenji, who was widowed, captured and forced to marry, and subsequently called back for the composition of historical volumes and subjected to an arranged remarriage. Perhaps she is to be seen as a sacrificed object under the traditional Confucian doctrine that “the virtue of a woman is for her to be without talent” [nüzi wu cai bian shi de 女子無 才便是德]. As Lee notes, “[e]ducation for women contradicted Confucianism, which held that the most virtuous woman was uneducated” (Lee, 2009: 55). The debate on female literacy “represented by the maxim ‘only the virtuous man is talented, only the untalented (illiterate) woman is virtuous’ had gained credence, and female literacy in scholarly families may thereafter have declined” (Birge, 1989: 356).5 In the Cantonese opera excerpts, the conjugal love between Wenji and Zuoxian is shown to be sincere and deep, although it is a bond between two people from distinct ethnic origins. Wenji is briefly described as being unable to adapt to life in a foreign land, and her lyric monologues express her perplexed and ambivalent feelings; however, she is eventually convinced by the true love of Zuoxian: 文姬【士工慢板】 蠻邦初入倍驚心, 羌笛胡笳尤惹恨。嘆一朝困處遼西, 還幸胡王非草莽; 同心綰結兩相 依,溫柔熨帖更殷勤。信是前生冤孽賬,竟蒙眷愛情長。既知我滿腹才華, 更求教中原禮 義。真誠感動蔡文姬, 綠葉成蔭徒念漢。(From excerpt “Wenji gui Han,” 1-2) Wenji [sings a slow-pace tone in shigong style] It was so worried when I first arrived in this barbarian territory, the Qiang flute and the reed pipe only sent forth melancholy! I sigh about being captured in this foreign land, but fortunately never rough is my Lord. We love and rely on each other, and he always treats me gently and attentively. Is this something brought down from our predestined lives? How come I could enjoy lasting love from him? Upon knowing I am extraordinarily talented, he even offers to learn our Han rituals. These have all made me touched—only that I am still missing Han even with a loving family with adorable children! (translation mine)

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Although this maxim is said to have been popular in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), it could be applied to different periods of time in imperial China, given the strict limitations of Confucianism.

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文姬【長花下句】十載鳳諧鸞, 情深如海樣, 君王情義重難忘。猶記紫燕離巢心悵惘, 關山遠隔我念爹娘。今日綠葉成蔭多歡暢, 我文姬何幸, 得長伴君王。(From excerpt “Wenji gui Han,” 5) Wenji [sings lower lines, long-styled rolling flower] Having tied the knot for ten years, our love is ocean deep. I could never forget your tender affection! Still remembering how I was perplexed like a startled bird when I had to part with my parents a thousand miles away. Now my family has grown luxuriantly—it’s certainly my pleasure to stay forever with my Lord. (translation mine)

These excerpts show Wenji’s bewilderment and confusion throughout the process: she feels nervous from the time she is taken captive, as her future is uncertain. She is then made to marry Zuoxian, and finally, she becomes reassured about their conjugal love after a decade of marriage in the “barbarian” land. Apart from her “Lord,” Wenji’s most unbreakable bond must have been that with her two children. The burden of parting with them following her formal summons back to Han is explicitly portrayed in the lyrics below: 文姬【二黃教子腔】忍痛別你重回漢, 抗命徒自嘆無望。漢家恩深重, 歸國命駕難延宕 。身雖回故鄉, 我魂縈胡國邦。你詩書休拋荒, 謹遵所訓勿懶惰, 母后便愁眉盡放, 更樂 暢。(From excerpt “Wenji gui Han,” 8) Wenji [sings “Teaching My Son,” erhuang style] I’m heartbroken having to part with you and return to Han! There’s absolutely no way of disobeying this call! The Han court has offered tremendous favor to my family, and delaying my return is just but a dream! Even though I return soon, my soul will always be with this land. My sons, please never give up your studies, and never neglect the doctrines that you’ve learned. Only then will my furrowed brows be relaxed. (translation mine)

In the Cantonese opera version, the love story of Wenji and Zuoxian is recreated in the theme song “The Ultimate Eighteen Laments” as an extension of their relationship even though Wenji is arranged to be remarried after she returns to Han. The Cantonese opera version does not focus on Wenji’s widowhood or remarriage, but rather accentuates her conjugal bond with Zuoxian. Although Wenji appears to be obedient and submissive to the plan for her life, her experience of marrying three times does not illustrate any risk of the assumption of disgrace in the eyes of traditional Confucians. The audience can only feel that the character on the stage was too frail to cope with the circumstances of her sad life: 胡笳本自出胡中, 緣琴翻出音律同。十八拍兮曲雖終, 響有餘兮思無窮。[……] 胡與漢兮異域殊風, 天與地隔兮子西母東。 苦我怨氣兮浩於長空, 六合雖廣兮受之應不容!(Han, n.d.: 48) The reed pipe originates from my foreign home, How could my native lute be on the same string? Even though “The Eighteen Laments” halts, The melodies sound in my mind, everlasting.

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K. K. Y. Chan […] Just as Hu and Han possess distinctive customs, My children and I are far apart yearning! My grudge is as vast as the massive sky, However huge it is, my sorrow is never responding! (translation mine)

The above lines are from Cai Wenji’s poem “The Eighteen Laments,” most of which the playwright of the Cantonese opera version cleverly incorporated into the lyrics of “The Ultimate Eighteen Laments” (“Juechang hujia shibapai,” 12). Wenji’s life has never been free, and she is compelled to leave her husband and children to fulfill the state’s requirement to complete Xu Han shu. Thus, it is appropriate to generalize Cai Wenji as a patriotic female icon who commits herself to her motherland at the expense of her marriage and family. However, she is also considered by the playwright of the Cantonese opera version to be a sad and sacrificial model of this life dilemma.

1.3 Divorce and Remarriage in The Phoenix Hairpin The Phoenix Hairpin is based on two famous classical Chinese lyric poems bearing the same title, one by the poet Lu You 陸游 (1125–1210) and one a response by his wife, Tang Wan 唐琬 (1128–1156). They were cousins who developed an affection since childhood. The “devotion to poetry [of their fathers] influenced both Lu You and Tang Wan,” and they “were married and settled down in wedded bliss” (Peterson, 2000: 278). However, Lu was later forced by his mother to divorce Tang and marry another woman because Tang was considered by her mother-in-law not to have “observe[d] closely enough the feudal rites and rituals expected of a new wife” in traditional Chinese society (Peterson, 2000: 279). In the opera, both Lu and Tang remarry and, without any expectation, they meet each other in Shen’s Garden [Shenyuan 沈園] three years later. Tang reads a poem written by Lu on a wall in the garden, the well-adored poem “The Phoenix Hairpin.” Upon remembering “the cruel separation forced by her former mother-in-law,” Tang “became ill and composed [a poem] from her bed” (Peterson, 2000: 281). This ci 詞 poem, written in response to Lu’s poem, uses the same title. No sooner than she has written her poem than she dies, filled with regret, an emotion that is shared by Lu, who revisits the garden 40 years later and sighs at the poem he had written on the wall, signifying an end to the drama. The original poems by Lu You and Tang Wan are as follows:

1 Divorce and Remarriage as Revealed in Cantonese Opera: The Phoenix … Source Text (釵 釵頭鳳 ‧ 紅酥手 陸游)

Target Text (“The Phoenix Hairpin: From a Warm and Tender Hand,” by Lu You)

紅酥手, 黃縢酒, 滿城春色宮牆柳。 東風惡, 歡情薄。 一懷愁緒, 幾年離索。 錯、錯、錯! 春如舊, 人空瘦, 淚痕紅浥鮫綃透。 桃花落, 閒池閣。 山盟雖在, 錦書難託。 莫、莫、莫! (Gu, Xu and Yuan, 1995: 441)

From a warm and tender hand: This cup to huangteng brew; As spring returns to this land, The willow blooms anew But cruel is the wind that blows, And frail our bonds of bliss; I taste years of parting years of woe, In this cup of bitterness How wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Spring’s unchanged from long ago, But we are thin and pale; Rose-tinted tears on thy kerchief flow, ‘tis all of no avail Pond, pavilion are idle here, Our vows are staunch and true, but where Shall I send my love today?’ Tis through! Through! Through! (qtd. Peterson, 2000: 281)

Source Text (釵 釵頭鳳 ‧ 世情薄 唐琬)

Target Text (“The Phoenix Hairpin: Cruel is the Human Heart,” by Tang Wan)

世情薄, 人情惡, 雨送黃昏花易落。 曉風乾, 淚痕殘。 欲箋心事, 獨語斜闌。 難, 難, 難! 人成各, 今非昨, 病魂常似鞦韆索。 角聲寒, 夜闌珊。 怕人尋問, 咽淚裝歡。 瞞, 瞞, 瞞! (Gu, Xu and Yuan, 1995: 451)

Cruel is the human heart, And frail are worldly ties; In teeming rain the day departs, Too soon the flower dies The evening wind is cold and dry, Flicking a tear or two; By the balustrade along I sigh, I would send my thoughts to you, ‘Tis hard! Hard! Hard! Things are changed from yesterday, And we must live apart; Love lost is like a swing they say Swaying deep in the heart The lonely bugle sounds the morrow, Night is passing away; Lest others know about my sorrow, I must feign a smile by day Feign! Feign! Feign! (qtd. Peterson, 2000: 281–282)

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These poetic lines are well-known to members of the public who love classical Chinese literature, and many of the lines have been adapted into lyrics in the Cantonese opera version, in which the most distressing scenes, such as “Blowing the Sad Flutes” [“Yuandi shuang chui” 怨笛雙吹], “Writing a Poem in Shen’s

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Garden” [“Shenyuan ti bi” 沈園題壁], “Weeping over the Poem at the Fading Night” [“Canye qi zhan” 殘夜泣箋] and “Revisiting Shen’s Garden” [“Zai jin Shenyuan” 再進沈園], are highly appealing to the audience (Yiu, 2017). According to my own theater-going experience, audiences are very moved by the above scenes, especially when the act “Blowing the Sad Flutes” features two separate ensembles onstage at the same time (which the audience can watch from different angles), depicting both Lu’s and Tang’s remarriage ceremonies. The correlation of the poetic lines with the Cantonese opera lyrics suggests a strong appreciation of the original love story, and in the opera play itself, the poetic aspect is emphasized in the scene where Lu writes his poem “The Phoenix Hairpin” directly on the wall in Shen’s Garden (i.e., the well-known scene of “Writing a Poem in Shen’s Garden”), which features “the male writer suppressing the event in his autobiographical writing but quite content to appropriate a woman’s voice and speak on her behalf” (Egan, 2013: 161). Out of a sheer affection toward Tang Wan, perhaps Lu You is making use of this move of shifting his poetic voice in the poem to memorize her in some sense, which also triggers Tang Wan’s ‘replying’ poem later on. The couple’s bond lies in their joint interest since childhood in creating and sharing poetry, and the divorce is forced upon them by the mother/mother-in-law on the grounds of feudal “requirements.” “For a Chinese woman, traditional family life meant suppression of one’s feelings, unquestioned self-sacrificing, and unconditional obedience to men” (Han, 2012: 95). An undutiful married woman in feudal society was considered unforgivable, especially if she committed any of the “seven grounds for divorcing a wife” [qi chu zhi tiao 七出之條] in traditional China.6 Readers of Lu’s and Tang’s poetry cannot be sure whether they actually met each other in Shen’s Garden; but, probably for greater dramatic effect, in the Cantonese opera version, the pair arranges a brief meeting there, which produces an instantaneous impulse for Lu to write the poem “The Phoenix Hairpin” on the wall. The lines sung between the two characters in the excerpt below relate their emotions regarding their forced divorce and remarriage: 唐琬【唱落葉搖情弄】 三年來一日思君百遍,常作夢香茶侍候君前。喜聞君賦得良緣 美眷 [……] 命苦人未敢輕將姑怨, 怨蒼天!生分並蒂紅蓮。 陸游【接唱】三年來日夜為卿腸斷, 姑何惡信讒逼婦參禪, 欣聞妹深得妹夫寵眷, 勝從 前南堂日夜憂煎, [……] 願表妹勿以愚兄為念, 舊巢破新巢更好棲鸞。(From excerpt “Shenyuan ti bi,” 1) Tang Wan [sings “Falling Leaves Move My Emotion”] Missing you a hundred times a day for three years, I’ve been dreaming about serving you tea as always. Glad to hear that my cousin’s got married again. […] An ill-fated person like me dares not put a slight blame on my mother-in-law. Could I just blame the Above? The Above did separate us cruelly! “The Elementary Learning [Xiaoxue 小學] listed the seven reasons for divorcing a wife, quoted as the words of Confucius: disobedience to a husband’s father and mother; being unable to produce children; being licentious; being jealous; having an incurable disease; talking too much; [and] stealing.” The seven reasons for divorcing a wife appear in Chinese as “無子, 淫逸, 不事舅姑, 口 舌招尤, 盜竊, 妬忌, 惡疾。” (Birge, 1989: 342).

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Lu You [continues singing] Having been heartbroken day and night for three years, I couldn’t believe how my fierce mother expelled you to the temple based on mere rumors! Glad to know that you’re being loved by your new husband, that is much more preferable than you being so depressed in the past. […] Wish that my cousin doesn’t miss me that much, and get loving warmth from your new nest. (translation mine)

The audience can figure out easily that the heartbreaking divorce and the remarriages of both characters are not of their own wishes—the action of divorce portrayed in the play pertains to the action of xiu mentioned above (a divorce inflicted on a woman by her husband against her wishes), and in this case, the xiu action has been coerced by the mother/mother-in-law. Even more poignant in the lyrics is when Tang admits that she feels “glad” upon knowing her ex-husband is remarried (as Lu also expresses about Tang in his lyrics). She is also deprived of any ability to “blame” her mother-inlaw, not even “slight[ly].” The only outlet for her grievance is “the Above,” a virtual presence that she places her blame upon. This doctrine of “blaming the Above” [yuantian 怨天] has frequently been adopted in Chinese culture if there is no other target for the victim’s anger. Under traditional ideas of parental authority, the male character is also subject to the substantial power of his family and their desire for him to divorce Tang and marry a woman who is considered more docile. Deep in his heart, he does not want to obey his “fierce mother,” but everything works out in accordance with the authority of the parents, the highest of all relationships in a feudal Chinese family. Therefore, both characters explicitly signify that they are “glad” to accept their fate, although this only highlights the tragic fate of the couple, who are unable to break the conventional restraints set upon them by a paternal society. This situation demonstrates the idea that defiance is of no use, and a subtle acceptance of one’s fate is shown as the most agreeable principle. After the couple meets each other briefly in Shen’s Garden, the scene “Weeping over the Poem at the Fading Night” (serving as one of the theme songs for the whole drama) is played solely by the female character. It has been regarded as the climax of the play, as Tang dies after her final distress over losing her true love, weeping over the poem despite her fragile body. Some lines in the original poems are incorporated into the lyrics in this scene as well as in the final scene, “Revisiting Shen’s Garden,” set 40 years later when Lu has become an old man. The tactful integration of the poetic lines into the lyrics immensely heightens the poignancy of these two hearts, thus appealing to the theater audience, as we can see from Tang’s lyric monologue before her tragic death: 唐琬【反線中板】底事夜夜憑欄,豈貪殘月凍?誰知我有懷難寐, 愁聽五更鐘。春自怡 人, 我自情慘痛。淒酸無過, 那日步芳叢? 【幽夢曲】有詞留壁中, 讀之撕心裂肺, 表哥呀!我知你有淚滿腔、有恨滿懷詩腸痛。 【沈園哀】悲難成誦, 鴛鴦夢已空。錦書難托, 沈園枉重逢。剩有淚痕, 紅泣鮫綃透, 鳳 釵無語緊貼胸, 難忘重逢那日把黃滕酒捧, 便想起書房伴讀, 香茶獻詩翁。(From excerpt “Canye qi zhan,” n. p.) Tang Wan [sings mid-pace tone in fanxian style]

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K. K. Y. Chan For what reason do I lean on the rail every night? Am I greedy about the chill of the fading moonlight? Heaven knows I’m sleepless with my melancholy; I’d only listen to the clock at dawn listlessly. Although spring is brilliant, my heart has been broken. My misery could not be overcome. When will I step upon the fragrant land? [Sings “A Song of Nostalgic Dream”] The wall your poem is inscribed on, into a thousand pieces my heart is torn. My dear cousin! I know your eyes are with tears brimming; your heart is filled with a grudge—as revealed in your poem! [Sings “Sorrow at Shen’s Garden”] How sad that I could never recite the poem! Over, over is our loving dream! Now a letter would be useless, meeting at Shen’s Garden only brings sadness! What is left are the tear stains which soak the kerchief. The phoenix hairpin’s resting speechless on my chest. Meeting you again recalls me bringing you the yellow-corded wine; reminds me of accompanying you at the study, and serving fragrant tea to my dear poet! (translation mine)

Recapturing a number of lines from Tang’s poem “The Phoenix Hairpin: Cruel is the Human Heart,” the above lyrics touch on various forms of sadness: “melancholy” [huai 懷], “listlessly” [chou 愁], “heartbreak” [cantong 慘痛], “misery” [qisuan 淒酸], “torn” [si xin lie fei 撕心裂肺], “over” [kong 空], “tears” [lei 淚], “grudge” [hen 恨] and, certainly, “sadness” [bei 悲]. In such a short excerpt, these numerous references to similar expressions of sadness elevate the experience of the female character to an ultimate level. The emotions take on the female poet’s voice, which has penetrated the lyrics, describing Tang’s dramatic state, as she suffers from a serious illness after meeting her ex-husband in the garden, and her desperate sentiment and lament over having no opportunity to reunite with Lu. In pre-modern Chinese historical and literary records, very seldom is any attention paid to women’s suffering after being divorced, widowed, or forced to be separated. One of the most notable sorrows about widowhood is that of the renowned Song dynasty poet Li Qingzhao 李清照 (1084–1155) following the loss of her husband Zhao Mingcheng 趙明誠 (1081–1129): “her works of this age contain expressions of melancholy. [… She] often refers to late spring and expresses sadness that her husband is unable to share the beautiful season with her” (Heule, 2018: 6). What is so similar between Li Qingzhao and Tang Wan is witnessed in their remarriage, as the former was remarried to Zhang Ruzhou 張汝舟, “who abused her physically and mentally […] so that she sued him for divorce” (ibid.). The dissimilarity between these two women victims lies in their level of resistance to being divorced, with Li being more unyielding and Tang more compliant. Tang’s enduring victimization does not cease until her death at the age of 28 due to her misery upon losing her husband. The play depicts her spiritual sufferings in a vivid way: no matter how talented a woman is in traditional society, she is bound to be regulated (tangibly and intangibly) by the invisible forces of authority. This authoritative power is described overtly in the Cantonese opera lyrics sung by Lu in the final scene of the drama, “Revisiting Shen’s Garden,” set 40 years after Tang Wan’s passing: 陸游【長句二黃】夢斷香銷, 屈指算來四十載; [……] 一個潦倒鄉關,

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【轉反線二黃】一個早被銅棺掩蓋; 真是世情薄, 人情惡, 怨句母兮不諒, 不許並蒂蓮 開。悲賢婦, 無犯七出之條, 慘矣橫遭迫害。

(From excerpt “Zai jin Shenyuan,” 3–4). Lu You [sings long lyrics in erhuang style] Perished are my dream and my lady, and it’s been forty years since then. […] How dejected in the country have I been, [Sings erhuang tone in fanxian style] and long buried in the coffin she’s been! Cruel is the human heart, and frail are worldly ties! I blame my mother who’s never sympathetic, who’s intolerant of us! Regret that my virtuous wife, who’d never violated the Seven Grounds, was victimized brutally! (translation mine)

Monologue lyrics are prominent in expressing the two leading characters’ unhappy feelings in this drama, which signifies and thus enhances the feeling of separation as the characters sing and act in separate sections in most of the scenes. Most of these monologues, although appearing in song, highlight the characters’ regretful sentiments in detail and depth. Following a series of blames and grudges embedded in their relationship, Lu’s self-reflection in Shen’s Garden 40 years later has been seen as a concluding theme song and finale. Lu pours out all his emotions by describing the circumstances affecting his relationship with Tang (a practice that is conventional in a final theme song in the Cantonese opera setting). The audience may notice that Lu has incorporated the first two lines of Tang’s poem “The Phoenix Hairpin: Cruel is the Human Heart” into his song lyrics: “Cruel is the human heart, and frail are worldly ties!” From Lu’s perspective, Tang Wan never neglected to fulfill her wifely duties and never “violated the Seven Grounds [of Divorcing a Wife]”; instead she was “victimized brutally” under the established feudal norms.

1.4 Conclusion: Perceptions of Marriage in the Two Operas The two stories, as reflected in the performing art form of Cantonese opera, portray two submissive women in traditional society, neither of whom are able to take control of their own lives or to assert their individual will in the face of a societal order marked by male or generational superiority. In “The Return of Lady Wenji,” regardless of the dramatic style or form in which it is presented, “the recurring phenomenon involves a never-changing narrative framework about [Wenji’s] ‘leaving [her] homeland’, ‘parting with [her] son’ and ‘returning to Han’” (Tsai, 2009: 107–108).7 Perhaps owing to the constraints experienced by women in these traditional periods, most playwrights have focused on the aspect of love being perishable under feudal establishments. The story of Lu You and Tang Wan might be a typical example, but Cai Wenji’s case is extremely complicated, as she experienced tremendous difficulties on her conjugal path. She will not be fulfilling her duty to the state if she chooses to stay with her family in the Hu tribe rather than return to the Han court, which The original reads, “在反覆呈現的現象裡, 存在著一個不變的「離鄉、別子、歸漢」的敘述 模子.”

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contributes to her heartbreaking decision for the well-being of the state rather than to secure her own interests. All in all, the play suggests that she does not wish to return but feels that she has no alternative. According to Sun, “[t]here is an abundance of historical materials that illustrate how policies glorified widows’ chastity,” and “scholars of Neo-Confucianism claimed that chastity was the most noble pursuit for a woman” (Sun, 2018: 4). In a number of incidents that scholars and historians have eulogized, women have sacrificed their own interests to contribute to the state. From the feminine perspective, however, “[t]he flow of a female identity is entirely displayed in Zhaojun and Wenji’s dialogues [in the plays…,] and they serve to arouse a kind of ambiguity in the historical story of Cai Wenji” (Tsai, 2009: 127).8 This ambiguity concerns these seemingly feeble women, who are given powerful influence when they are asked to save the reputations of the state and the family by conforming to the doctrines of Confucianism. Marriage was seen as a means of victimizing Chinese women in traditional society if they did not strictly follow the pre-arranged routine of performing appropriate duties, paying due respect to their parents-in-law, and giving birth to a male heir, amid other wifely obligations. In Cantonese opera, these larger-scale topics were generally avoided because of performance time constraints, and the mentioning of the marriage background was usually kept short except for the theme of conjugal love, which was portrayed in greater depth (seen in both Forty Years of My Cherished Love and The Return of Lady Wenji). Love within marriage is also emphasized in the plays, as “[a]lthough human beings are, in theory, capable of deep love, variations in disposition make people unable to achieve it. […] Qing [情, love] can arise only when two equally sensitive and devoted hearts meet” (Lu, 2015: 90). As she is shown to be deep in marital affection, it is logical that Tang Wan (and Li Qingzhao too) is made to feel much suffering, as Lu You had been her love since childhood. In Wenji’s scenario, her sorrow is derived from her need to part with her children, but in the opera drama, her sorrow is also due to her deep love for Zuoxian even though she was abducted into the marriage. If the drama were to illustrate her grief-stricken experiences of being a widow in the first place, then a captive, and finally a remarried wife, it might be rejected by the audience, which may already be overwhelmed by the description of a single relationship. The Cantonese opera versions of both stories are centered on deep conjugal love, which is likely to be expected no matter what dreadful experiences the female characters go through. Specifically, these female characters are hesitant to resist their destinies of being separated from their husbands, and both of them are depicted as being mentally tortured after their unwilling separation. These scenes of torment have created imperishable images in audiences’ minds and have become renowned in the field. The original reads, “女性身分的流動, 在昭君和文姬的對話中, 一覽無遺, [……] 為呈現文 姬歸漢歷史事件時的意義迸發了精彩的歧義性”. Zhaojun 昭君 was “a Han-Chinese woman married to a ‘Hu (also known as Xiongnu) chieftain,’ a prominent female bearing the fate of the ‘state’ to make the ‘aliens’ ‘pay tribute to the imperial court’” (Zhou, 2009: 470).

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References Birge, B. (1989). Chu Hsi and Women’s Education. In W. Theodore de Bary & J.W. Chaffee (Eds.), Neo-confucian education: The formative stage (pp 325–367). Berkeley: University of California Press Cantonese Opera Festival: Cantonese Opera. (2022) The Return of Lady Wenji. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.cof.gov.hk/2018/en/cantonese.html Cantonese opera score. (2022a). Canye qi zhan 殘夜泣箋 [“Weeping over the Poem at the Fading Night”]. Retrieved March 2, 2022a, from https://operawillis.appspot.com/lrc/mengduanxiangxi aosishinian_canyeqijian?tc Cantonese opera score. (2022b). “Juechang hujia shibapai” 絕唱胡笳十八拍 [“The Ultimate Eighteen Laments”]. Retrieved March 2, 2022b, from http://68893333.com/sllyric/Lyric/7121. pdf Cantonese opera score. (2022c). “Shenyuan ti bi” 沈園題壁 [“Writing a Poem in the Shen’s Garden”]. Retrieved March 2, 2022c, from http://www.jianpuw.com/htm/91/462622.htm Cantonese opera score. (2022d). “Wenji gui Han” 文姬歸漢 [“The Return of Lady Wenji”]. Retrieved March 2, 2022d, from http://68893333.com/sllyric/Lyric/40413.pdf Cantonese opera score. (2022e). “Zai jin Shenyuan” 再進沈園 [“Revisiting the Shen’s Garden”]. Retrieved March 15, 2022e, from http://68893333.com/sllyric/Lyric/40610.pdf Egan, R. (2013). The burden of female talent: The Poet Li Qingzhao and Her History in China. Harvard University Asia Center. Gu, Y.S., 顧易生, Xu, P.J., 徐培均, & Yuan, Z.Y., 袁震宇, (eds). (1995). Songci jinghua 宋詞精 華 [The Essence of Song Lyric Poetry]. Sichuan: Bashu. Guo, L.W., 郭玲彣. (2013). “Lun Cai Yan wuyan ‘Beifen shi’ zhong nüxing yu luanshi li butong juese zhuanhuan de chongtu yu zijue yishi” 論蔡琰五言中女性於亂世裡不同角色 轉換的衝突與自覺意識 [“The Controversy and Self-realization of Feminine Identity Transfer amidst Chaos in Cai Yan’s Five-character Poem ‘Song of Grief and Indignation’.”]. Guowen tiandi 國文天地 [Journal of Chinese Language], 29(4), 65–70 Han, M.M., 晗莫莫. (n. d.). Rongmao he caiqi nage dui nüren geng zhongyao 容貌和才氣哪個對 女人更重要 [Is Appearance or Talent More Important for Women?]. Chengdu: Youhui wenhua. Han, Q. J. (2012). The ties that bind: An overview of traditional Chinese ethics. Journal of Chinese Studies, 1(1), 85–99. Heule, F. (2018). War and inner peace: Li Qingzhao, female poet in song China: A biography, poem, and gender analysis. Anthropology Open Access, 2, 1–13. Hinsch, B. (2016). Women in Imperial China. Rowman & Littlefield. Hwang, K., & Meyer, D. S. (2019). Relations as the aim of education in Joseon Neo-Confucianism: The case of the five relationships. Education Philosophy and Theory, 51(9), 936–948. Lee, L. L. (2009). Inventing familial agency from powerlessness: Ban Zhao’s lessons for women. Western Journal of Communication, 73(1), 43–66. Lee, X. H. L., & Stefanowska, A. D. (Eds.). (2015). Biographical dictionary of Chinese women: Antiquity through Sui 1600 B.C.E.–618 C.E. Routledge. Lu, W. J. (2015). Writing Love: The Heming ji by Wang Zhaoyuan and Hao Yixing. In B. Bossler (Ed.), Gender and Chinese history: Transformative encounters (pp. 83–109). University of Washington Press. Peterson, B. B. (Ed.). (2000). Notable women of China: Shang dynasty to the early twentieth century. Routledge. Sun, X. H. (2018). The tragedy of widows in traditional China. Liberated Arts, 4(1), 1–7. Tsai, M.L., 蔡明玲.. (2009). Emotions and form in five Chinese opera works on Cai Yen’s Captivity and Return” 從文姬歸漢看五部戲曲的情感與形式. Xiqu xuebao 戲曲學報 [Journal of Chinese Opera], 106–130. Wang, H. Y. (2020). Chastity as a virtue. Religions, 11(259), 1–13.

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Wilson, J. (n. d.). 263 forgotten women of literature 2—Cai Yan (Wenji). The History of Literature. Apple Podcast. Retrieved Feberuary 22, 2022, from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/263forgotten-women-of-literature-2-cai-yan-wenji/id1048375034?i=1000490744019 Yiu, S. (2017). “Forty Years of My Cherished Love” 夢斷香銷四十年. West Kowloon Blog. Retrieved March 2, 2022, from https://blog.westkowloon.hk/tc/blog/forty-years-of-cherishedlove Zheng, R. W. (2016). The relationships between confucian family values and attitudes toward divorce in mainland China: An exploratory study. Syracuse University. Zhou, J. H. (2009). The Visualization of Wang Zhaojun in the Vicissitude of Time. Frontiers of History in China, 4(3), 470–478.

Kelly Kar Yue Chan completed her undergraduate degree and her master’s degree both in the discipline of Translation and Interpretation at the City University of Hong Kong. She then finished her PhD in Classical Chinese Literature at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. She is currently an Associate Professor in language and translation at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses on culture and translation, and literary translation. Her research interests include literary translation, women’s studies in classical Chinese society, classical Chinese literature (poetry), and translation of Cantonese opera.

Chapter 2

The “Absence” of Conjugal Relationships in the Myths of Miraculous Births in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey Hin Ming Frankie Chik

Abstract This chapter introduces the idea of miraculous birth (gansheng 感生) in ancient Chinese culture and discusses the dominance of Heaven in relation to the mortal mothers who give birth to the ancient sage-kings miraculously. The article begins with a summary of twentieth-century scholars’ discussions about the matrilineal origin of the idea of gansheng before 3000 B.C.E. and analyzes the anachronism of their evidence. It then focuses on Wang Fu’s Qianfu lun 潛夫論, a text dated back to the second century as a treatise of “Wude zhi” 五德志. This text presented a sophisticated scheme of ancient monarchical genealogy within which the mothers had no conjugal relations or husbands. The miraculous births of fatherless sages also point to the passivity of the mortal mothers, who were pregnant without being informed. Thus, Heaven remained dominant in the narrative of the legendary miraculous births. This chapter, therefore, aims to reexamine the relationship between Heaven and human beings in ancient context. Keywords Miraculous births · Fatherless sages · Unmarried mothers · Heavenly mandate · Matrilineality

Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us. Matthew 1:23 H. M. F. Chik (B) University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 C. S. G. Lau and K. K. Y. Chan (eds.), Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, Chinese Culture 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6_2

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2.1 Introduction1 The story about how the blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus is perhaps the most well-known story of miraculous birth among many others in the ancient world. In the pre-modern Chinese context, one can witness numerous narratives about the miraculous births of the founding ancestors of each dynasty (Lü, 2001, 2003; Qian, 2006; Lin, 2017). According to these narratives, the progenitors’ mothers were not impregnated by means of nuptial consummation rituals, but because of various abnormal, supernatural phenomena. These supernatural fertilizations and the subsequent miraculous births were called gansheng 感生 (literally translated as “giving birth after resonation”) in Chinese texts (Mori, 1969). Originated from ancient wu 巫 rituals, the word gan 感 represented a way through which human beings could resonate and communicate with Heaven and other spiritual beings in ancient texts (Jia, 2016). Therefore, the idea of gansheng or miraculous birth represented a correlative association between human beings and Heaven. In ancient Chinese political discourse, as scholars have argued, gansheng was used to legitimate the ruling house’s political authority and government (Yang, 1993; Lin, 2010). As the designation wang 王 suggested, a ruler was supposed to connect with Heaven, human beings, and Earth. By claiming their direct kinship with Heaven, whose command or mandate was repeatedly mentioned as the basis of one’s political authority over others, the ruling houses in pre-modern China distinguished themselves from the mortals as the chosen one to govern all common people under Heaven.2 In the Han dynasty (202 B.C.E.–220 A.D.), a large amount of apocryphal (chenwei 讖緯) texts were produced as a result of the prevalence of the idea of Five Phases (Wang, 2000; Loewe, 2004: 421–456; Jia, 2016). In these apocryphal texts were numerous narratives about ancient sage-kings’ miraculous births (Sun, 1998; Ceng, 2006).3 A major issue about this idea debated by scholars in the Han dynasty was whether the sages with miraculous births had their fathers or not. Taking this debate as its departure point, the relationship between Heaven and the mortal mothers who gave miraculous birth to the sages will be discussed in this chapter, which will first go over twentieth-century scholars’ discussions about the origin of the idea of gansheng or miraculous birth in ancient China. As will be shown, the sages’ fatherlessness was not a remain of the primitive matrilineal society in remote antiquity. In the eyes of the advocates of the sages’ fatherlessness, those unmarried mothers were thought to have a fictitious relationship with an anthropomorphic Heaven who took a leading position in this relationship. 1

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from the Chinese are my own. One significant manifestation of their difference with the mortals is their abnormal and extraordinary physical appearance. As repeated in the “Wude zhi” 五德志 (Treatise on Five Virtues) in the Qianfu lun 潛夫論 (Critical Essays of a Recluse), a treatise this paper will discuss further below, the sages who were born miraculously had physical bodies dramatically different from ordinary people. For example, Shun 舜, whose mother Wo Deng 握登 saw a great rainbow and gave birth to him, had four pupils in total. See Peng, (1985): 8.391. 3 The apocryphal texts from the Han dynasty were collected and collated in Yasui (1960). 2

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2.2 A Remain of Ancient Matrilineality? A Brief Review of Twentieth-Century Scholars’ Argument About the Origin of the Concept of Gansheng In the last century, probably because of the introduction of Western knowledge and Marxism to China, there were certain Chinese scholars tracing the idea of gansheng back to the yet-to-be-proved matrilineal society (muxi shehui 母系社會) in the predynastic and early-dynastic period in China’s history. Among these Chinese scholars, Guo Moruo 郭沫若 (1892–1978) was an outstanding one. In his Zhongguo gudai shehui yanjiu 中國古代社會研究 [A Study of Ancient Chinese Society], Guo Moruo argued that in the Shang-Zhou period, Chinese society transformed from a primitive clan society into a slave society, which also implied the transition from a matrilineal society to a patrilineal society (Guo, 1982: 97–143). Citing examples from oracle inscriptions from the Shang dynasty and transmitted materials such as Shijing 詩 經 (The Odes), Guo further suggested that people knew only their mothers but not their fathers in the matrilineal clan society, and this social phenomenon in the ancient matrilineal society was the source to ancient myths of miraculous birth as seen in various ancient Chinese texts. However, Guo Moruo’s view of Chinese matrilineal society in ancient times has been criticized by many scholars. Dirlik (1978), for example, accused Guo of his confusion about matrilineal society and clan society. Others blamed him for his misuse or misinterpretation of the early texts. Although his argument about ancient matrilineal society as the source of later myths of miraculous birth is debatable, Guo still found various supporters. For instance, Yuan Ke 袁珂 (1916–2001), a major Chinese mythologist, wrote in his study of ancient Chinese myths that in order to trace their familial lineages, ancient people could only attribute the origin of a family to supernatural phenomenon because they did not know who their fathers were (Yuan, 1988: 94). It is observable that their argument about the origin of the ancient idea of miraculous birth was built upon an assumption that ancient people only knew who their mothers were. In fact, we can find examples from available materials that may, at first glance, support their argument. The following are two examples from the Shangjun shu 商君書 (The Book of Lord Shang) and the Lüshi Chunqiu 呂氏春秋 (The Annals of Lü Buwei): When Heaven and Earth were formed, the people were born. At that time, the people knew their mothers but not their fathers. (Pines, 2017: 167) 天地設而民生之, 當此之時也, 民知其母而不知其父. (Jiang, 1986: 2.50) Long ago, in great antiquity, there were no rulers, but people lived together in societies. They knew their mothers but not their fathers. There were no distinctions made between close and distant relatives, older and younger brothers, husbands and wives, and male and female; no Dao for dealing with superiors and inferiors or older and younger; no rituals governing advancement and withdrawal in court or bowing and yielding; nor any such conveniences as clothing, shoes, belts, houses, and storehouses; nor any such facilities as tools and utensils;

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H. M. F. Chik boats and carts, inner and outer city walls, or border fortifications. These hardships existed because there were no rulers. (Knoblock & Riegel, 2000: 511) 昔太古嘗無君矣, 其民聚生群處, 知母不知父, 無親戚兄弟夫妻男女之別, 無上下長幼 之道, 無進退揖讓之禮, 無衣服履帶宮室畜積之便, 無器械舟車城郭險阻之備, 此無君 之患. (Chen, 2002: 20.1330)

However, were all these examples convincing enough to support Guo Moruo’s and others’ arguments? Composed on the eve of the Qin unification in 221 B.C.E., both text records of the social lives in remote antiquity were no more than their composers’ retrospection and were thus anachronistic. Based on what could their composers make such retrospective narratives about the past? It was said in the Lüshi Chunqiu that there was no ruler at the time when the world was first created. Other early Chinese texts described this state of anarchy as a characteristic of barbarian societies. In Sect. 3.5 of the Analects, we have learnt from that Confucius that even if the (uncivilized) yi 夷 and di 狄 barbarians had rulers, they were still unable to compete with the states of xia 夏 (the civilized states) where no ruler was found (Xing, 2001: 3.26a). Section 3B.14 of Mencius further demonstrated that only the bird- and beast-like human beings did not have either a father or a ruler, “[h]aving neither a father nor a ruler is no more than being animals” [無父無君, 是禽獸也] (Sun, 2001: 6B.117b). Ignoring the major two human relationships on which human society was based, the barbarians were identical to animals and thus not the right model to follow. The primitive society described in the Lüshi Chunqiu was indeed an uncivilized society according to later Confucian standards. To guarantee the continuity of a civilized society, in Mencius’ philosophy, rulers must prioritize the importance of human relationships in the state-sponsored schools (Sun, 2001: 5A.9b). It is undeterminable whether the composers of the Shangjun shu and the Lüshi Chunqiu imagined that the primitive society in remote antiquity was based on what they understood about the societies of barbarians in their times. Nevertheless, their retrospective imagination revealed a prevalent evolutionary view of the world among our classical Chinese texts: there was no obvious difference between human beings and animals as both of them were unable to distinguish members of their own; the boundary between human beings and animals was established when human relationships were introduced. If keeping people in the dark about their father’s paternal background was something that only happened to a barbarian or primitive society, applying a concept stemming from this uncivilized practice to explain the origins of the leaders of human society, as Guo Moruo and others suggested, would be a retrogression. Why, then, was the idea of miraculous birth so popular throughout China’s pre-modern history? In addition, how could our texts redefine the relationship between a mortal mother-wife and her human husband (if she had)?

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2.3 The Ancient Sage-Kings’ Unmarried Mothers in the Qianfu Lun: A Discussion on the Sages’ Fatherlessness in the Han Dynasty Although we cannot confirm the association between the idea of gansheng and the alleged ancient people’s ignorance of their fathers, it was said in certain early texts that ancient sage-kings who were born miraculously did not have their fathers. The following is an example from Wang Fu’s 王符 (fl. second century) “Wude zhi” 五德 志 (Treatise on Five Virtues) in his Qianfu lun 潛夫論 (Critical essays of a recluse). In this treatise, Wang Fu presented his imagination of the monarchical genealogy in the ancient times. The treatise divided the monarchical genealogy into five lineages/clans in accordance with the idea of the Five Phases that was prevalent in the Han, with each lineage representing one phase and the virtue the phase embodied. However, Wang Fu stated in the introductive paragraph of the treatise that the genealogy he presented may not be correct: In the past, Heaven and Earth were created since the beginning of antiquity. The Three Thearchs established institutions successively.4 Each of them established their posthumous names in order to record their generations. Heaven gave its mandate to [the ruling houses of] the Five Dynasties.5 The determination of the correct start of the lunar year reverted three times before being repeated.6 The deity impregnated [the mothers of the progenitors of each dynasty] through attraction…. As a result, by roughly relying on the Xici chuan on the Yijing, I make a narrative of the history after Fu Xi for the purpose of handing the history down to later worthy men. Although many of the records may not be conclusive, they can still be read for observing [the worldly affairs] extensively, and we can explore the truth collectively. 「自古在昔」, 天地開闢。三皇迭制, 各樹號謚, 以紀其世。天命五代, 正朔三復。神明感 生……故略依 《易繫》 , 記伏羲以來, 以遺後賢。雖多未必獲正, 然罕可以浮游博觀, 共求 厥真。(Peng, 1985: 8.382–83)

The Fig. 2.1 shows the five lineages recorded in the “Wude zhi.” The names of the males who ascended the throne are marked in blue, while that of their mothers are marked in red. As the figure above indicates, before Yu 禹 established the legendary Xia dynasty, the monarchical power was transmitted by rotation among these five clans which represented five different phases and colors. A sage-ruler of a lineage will be replaced by a candidate from another lineage, just as Fu Xi 伏羲 (marked in blue) being replaced by Kui Wei 魁隗 (marked in red). Going forward one by one after a cycle, the lineage which was first replaced will have a new member who ascends the throne again. Putting Liu Bang 劉邦 (r. 202–195 B.C.E.) in the lineage beginning from There is no conclusive opinion on to whom the term San Huang 三皇 in ancient texts refers. For more detailed discussion on the identities of the Three Sage Kings, see Guo (2008). 5 According to the transmitted materials, the concept of tianming 天命 [heavenly mandate] played an important role in legitimizing a dynasty since the beginning of the Western Zhou. See Yu (2014) and Creel (1970). 6 For more detail, see the “San zheng” 三正 chapter in Baihu tong白虎通 (Discussions of the White Tiger Hall), Chen (1994): 8. 362. 4

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Fig. 2.1 Genealogy of ancient king as demonstrated in the “Wude zhi”7

Ren Si 妊姒, Wang Fu reinforced a widely circulated political legend about the Han ruling house that the Liu family was the descendant of the sage-king Yao 堯 (Ban, 1962: 75.3153; Gong and Zhang, 2013; Wang, 2020; Cui, 2021). This version of the ancient monarchical genealogy was different from what we can see from the Shiji 史記 (Records of the Grand Historian) to certain degrees. In the “Wudi benji” 五帝本紀 (The Annals of the Five Emperors) of the Shiji, Huangdi 黃帝 was placed at the very beginning of the genealogy,8 and the sages whose name appeared in the “Wude zhi” were all Huangdi’s descendants. For example, it was said in the Shiji’s version that Di Ku 帝嚳 was Huangdi’s great-grandson and Di Zhi’s 帝摯 and Yao’s father (Sima, 1959: 1.13–14; Xu, 2020). In the other two annals, Di Ku’s sons also included Qi 啟 and Hou Ji 后稷, the founding ancestors of both the Shang and the Zhou ruling houses (Sima, 1959: 3.91; 4.111). In Wang Fu’s version, these legendary sage-kings were from four different lineages and shared no common origin. The difference between the Qianfu lun and the Shiji points to a major debate on the ancient sages’ miraculous births in the Han: did ancient sages have their mortal fathers? As we can see in the treatise, rather than being the son of a human, each of them was born without having a mortal father in Wang Fu’s reconstruction. As the treatise shows, when a ruler was about to be replaced by another lineage, a female descendant of the next clan was impregnated without undergoing the stage of conjugal consummation, but through three abnormal and mysterious ways. The first and the most frequent way was through attraction/resonation (gan 感). For instance, the treatise recorded that Da Ren 大妊 had a dream about a tall man attracting her, and she gave birth to King Wen [of the Zhou] as a result (Peng, 1985: 34.387). Other examples include—but not limited to—Ren Si, who brought Kui Wei into the world after being attracted by a godly dragon, and Wo Deng 握登, who gave birth to Shun 7

The figure is based on the record of the “Wude zhi,” see Peng (1985): 8.382–400. The Shiji did not include the annals dedicated to the Three Kings. Sima Zhen 司馬貞 (679–732), being dissatisfied with the absence of the records of the Three Kings in the Shiji, composed the “Sanhuang benji” 三皇本紀 (The Annals of the Three Kings). See Schaab-Hanke (2010). 8

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舜 after being attracted by a big rainbow (Peng, 1985: 34.391). The second way was walking on the footprints of giants, through which Hua Xu 華胥 and Jiang Yuan 姜嫄 brought Fu Xi and Ji Qi 姬棄 (i.e., Hou Ji), to the world respectively (Peng, 1985: 34.384, 386). The third method was impregnation related to the swallowing of objects. It was said in the treatise that the Shang’s ancestors Qi 啟 and Liu Bang were born because their mothers swallowed an egg and a pearl respectively (Peng, 1985: 34.390, 398). Despite the difference in the ways of impregnating, it is obvious that a human father was not involved in all cases presented in the treatise. Not only did the female descendants mentioned become pregnant without having sexual intercourse with any male, nor did the treatise mention whether the female descendants were married or not. The absence of the father and conjugal relationships was a topic on which available Han materials debated. In the Shijing, there are four odes talking about the miraculous births of the founding ancestors of both Shang and Zhou ruling houses: the “Xuanniao” 玄鳥 (“Dark Bird,” Mao #303), the “Changfa” 長發 (“Long had Appeared,” Mao #304), the “Sheng min” 生民 (“The Beginning of Our People,” Mao #245), and the “Bigong” 閟宮 (“Solemn Palaces,” Mao #300). The first two odes focused on the birth of Tang 湯, while the other two were dedicated to the birth of Qi. According to the odes, the Shang ruling house began when Jian Di 簡狄 swallowed an egg of a dark bird who descended under Heaven’s command while the Zhou royal house developed since Jiang Yuan put her feet on a giant’s footprints. Both mothers were pregnant without having sexual intercourse with any mortal man. In interpreting the stanza “To walk on the Therach’s footprints quickly” [履帝武敏歆], the Mao commentary, which was one of the four major interpretative traditions in the Han dynasty according to transmitted texts, made the following explanation: “Lu means to step on. Di refers to Gaoxin Therach. Wu means the footprint. Min means being quick” [履、踐也; 帝、高辛氏之帝也; 武、跡; 敏、疾也] (Kong, 2001: 17.587b). Understanding that the footprints on which Jiang Yuan stepped belonged to Gaoxin Therach (i.e., Di Ku), who was said in Wang Fu’s version as the ancestor of Jiang Yuan instead, the Mao commentary followed the Shiji’s narrative and suggested that the sage Hou Ji did have a father, and thus rejected the idea that a sage did not have a father. The Mao Commentary’s stance was supported by Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127–200), whose fragmentary Wujing yiyi 五經異義 (Various meanings of the Five Classics) was cited by Kong Yingda 孔穎達 (574–648) in the Tang dynasty. In the Wujing yiyi, Zheng Xuan argued that a sage with a miraculous birth could also have a father: Yiyi said: “[According to] the Qi, Lu, and Han commentaries on the Shi and the Gongyang commentary on the Chunqiu, all sages did not have a father and were born [because their mothers] were attracted by Heaven. The Zuo [Commentary] said that all sages had fathers. Note: The “Yaoding” said: “To put together the nine degrees of kindred.” If Yao’s mother gave birth to Yao after being attracted by a red dragon, how could Yao have nine degrees of kindred put together? Lichen said, “Tang [Yu] had five ancestors in the ancestral temple.” By which we know that [Yu] was born not because [his mother] was attracted by Heaven. Here is what I, [Zheng] Xuan, have heard. All said that [a sage] should not have a father if he was born because of [his mother] being attracted, and that [a sage] was not born because of [his mother] being attracted if he had a father. These are all biased arguments. Shangsong

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H. M. F. Chik said: “Heaven commanded the dark bird to descend and give birth to [the father of our] Shang.” This [Ode] means that Song Jian swallowed a swallow bird’s son to give birth to Qi. This [ode proves that] a sage was born because of [his mother] being attracted is something explicitly written down in the Classics. Liu Ao was the wife of the Supreme Emperor of the Han. She gave birth to Emperor Gaozu because of being attracted by a red dragon, isn’t it a case of having a father while being born because of [his mother] being attracted? 《異義》 :《詩》 齊魯韓,《春秋公羊》 說, 聖人皆無父, 感天而生。 《左氏》 說聖人皆有父。 謹按,《堯典》 以親九族, 即堯母慶都感赤龍而生堯, 堯安得九族而親之? 《禮讖》 云唐五 廟, 知不感天而生。玄之聞也, 諸言感生得無父, 有父則不感生, 此皆偏見之說也。 《商頌 》 曰: 天命玄鳥, 降而生商。謂娀簡吞鳦子生契, 是聖人感生, 見於經之明文。劉媼是漢太 上皇之妻, 感赤龍而生高祖, 是非有父感神而生者也? (Kong, 2001: 17.590b)

As the first line of this excerpt indicates, Zheng Xuan’s critique was a direct response to other interpretative traditions’ idea that all sages who were born miraculously did not have a father. In the Chinese-speaking world, scholars are inclined to argue that the divergence of opinion on whether sage-kings were fatherless or not was a manifestation of the ancient and modern scripts (jinguwen 今古文) debated in the Han (Qian, 2001). According to their dichotomy, the members who belonged to the modern script faction maintained that sages did not have any father, while members of the ancient script campaign took the opposite side. The above citation is the evidence scholars frequently use to foster their argument, as the interpretative traditions mentioned in the excerpt, including the Gongyang 公羊 tradition of the Chunqiu and the other three transmitted schools of the Shijing beyond the Mao tradition, were traditionally categorized as the traditions of the modern script (Pi, 2011: 2.38–41). In contrast, the Mao commentary on the Shijing was treated as an ancient script tradition within this framework. Because of its use of the apocryphal texts in which the stories of miraculous births are recorded in a large scale, the modern script campaign was understood as superstitious. However, as Michael Nylan and Hans van Ess have argued, the Ancient and Modern Scripts debate did not exist in the Han or, at the least, was not as diametrically opposed as mentioned by certain modern scholars (Nylan, 1994; van Ess, 1994, 1999). Why, then, was there an idea that all sages did not have any father circulating among different scholars in the Han dynasty? How could the advocates of the idea of fatherless sages redefine conjugal relationships as highly esteemed by various early Chinese texts? As we can see from Fig. 2.1, most of the females selected to give birth to the future rulers were the descendants of the fatherless sages. However, the treatise did not explain why it was not other members in the same generation within a lineage but the named females were selected to give birth to future leaders. The fact that having no father as a major feature of a barbarian society may serve as a reason why the Mao Commentary and Zheng Xuan had to assign a father to a miraculous sage. As long as a female who was impregnated after being attracted had a conjugal relation and a husband in the human world, even the sage was born miraculously and would theoretically have a mortal father, the mother and son could still fulfill their duties within the framework of human relationships that defined a civilized society. In fact, when considering the above citation from the Mao Commentary, Di Ku was actually the father of Hou Ji, and it was only the way through which

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Di Ku impregnated Jiang Yuan that made Hou Ji special: while normal people give birth through sexual intercourse, Di Ku left his footprints on the ground and asked his concubine Jiang Yuan to walk on them. Putting all ancient sage-kings into a single lineage starting from Huangdi, the Shiji and other texts sharing the similar genealogy attempted to maintain that there was no big difference between the sages with miraculous births and normal people, for all of them needed to follow the principle of human relationships. But how about the Qianfu lun and other texts which suggested that the sages were fatherless? How were the sages different from the uncivilized and primitive barbarians who did not know their fathers? To answer both questions, we should be aware of the importance of Heaven [tian 天] in the myths of miraculous birth in ancient Chinese texts.

2.4 A Dominant Heaven and the Increasingly Passive Mothers How should the meaning of tian [Heaven] be understood? According to Feng Youlan 馮友蘭 (1895–1990), the term tian was a polysemy and could be interpreted in five different ways in ancient Chinese texts: (1) a material Heaven; (2) a dominant Heaven; (3) an anthropomorphic Heaven; (4) a predetermined Heaven; and (5) a natural Heaven (Feng 1966: vol. 1.55). However, as Cheng Kat Hung 鄭吉雄 recently challenged, the five layers of the meaning of tian that Feng Youlan proposed were hard to be distinguished from each other and were ahistorical (Cheng, 2015: 64).9 Despite the various meanings, in many cases, tian was assumed to have its intention and consciousness.10 We can perceive the dominance and anthropomorphism of Heaven in the ancient myths of gansheng. As the “Xuanniao” suggested, it was Heaven who commanded the dark bird to bring the egg down to the mortal world, “Heaven commands a dark bird to descend and give birth to the Shang” [天命玄鳥, 降而生 商] (Kong, 2001: 20.793a).11 Here, Heaven was described as an anthropomorphic deity,12 and it was because of Heaven’s intentional action (i.e., sending a dark bird) 9

As we can see in ancient Chinese texts, the idea of Heaven changed overtime. This chapter does not attempt to trace this change in detail, as Cheng Kat Hung and other scholars have already done. 10 One exception is from Xunzi 荀子 (Master Xun), where the author of the collection argued that tian was natural and neutral and did not have intention or favor. See Machle (1993) for more information about Xunzi’s view of Heaven and how the text’s idea of Heaven determined its discussion on human nature. 11 The bird cult was one of the major characteristics of the Shang dynasty. For a detailed discussion on the bird cult, see Chen (1999). 12 Although tian was known as a supreme master of the world in the Shang dynasty and was adorned by people, people at that time, according to Cheng’s analysis, did not consider it as an anthropomorphic deity (Cheng, 2015: 85–88). One possible reason for the changing of the concept of tian in the Shang-Zhou interregnum, may be contributed, as many scholars have pointed out, to Zhou borrowing Shang’s concept of di帝 (god) and combining it with the concept of tian (Heaven). See, for example, Creel (1970): 493–506; Hsu and Linduff (1988).

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that Jian Di was successfully impregnated. Heaven, in this sense, seemed to replace the role of a mortal male. However, was being pregnant what the mortal mothers required? In his interpretation of the “Shengmin,” Michael Puett argued that Jiang Yuan took the initiative to invite di 帝 (which became interchangeable with tian in the Zhou context, see Asano, 2006, especially Sect. 1.1) through a sacrifice to descend and walked on di’s footprints (Puett, 2002: 68–73). However, di was not happy with what Jiang Yuan did because her walking on his footprints was not approved. Feeling deceived, di forced Jiang Yuan to abandon Hou Ji. Puett’s interpretation, however, is open to question. The Ode itself did mention that Jiang Yuan prayed for a child, “How did [Jiang Yuan] give birth to our people? She prayed to [Heaven/di] and offered sacrifices to avoid being without offspring” [生民如何, 克禋克祀, 以弗無子] (Kong, 2001: 17.587a). However, the stanza could not prove that Jiang Yuan expected to have a child by walking on the footprints and without copulating with a mortal man. In addition, in other early materials, such as the Lienü zhuan 烈女傳 (Biographies of Exemplary Women), we read that Hou Ji was abandoned not because of di’s dissatisfaction, but because of Jiang Yuan’s fear of her son (Liu, 1936: 1.10). Therefore, an alternative interpretation of this Ode would be that Jiang Yuan herself prayed for a child, but di or Heaven responded to her request in an unexpected way. Nevertheless, in both cases of Jian Di and Jiang Yuan, Heaven was the decision-maker who had the final right to decide whether to answer the request of a mortal mother’s request and who were responsible for giving birth to future rulers of the human world. The mortal mothers, in contrast, could only at best make a prayer to Heaven for a child. If the miraculous pregnancies were expected by the mortal mothers in the Odes, at least to Jiang Yuan, the mothers in Wang Fu’s treatise were not aware of their consequential pregnancies when resonate with Heaven. It was said in the “Wude zhi” that the mothers were pregnant without asking for it. Being the members of the five lineages which took over the power in rotation, the mothers recorded in the treatise accepted their predetermined obligation passively to spawn the leaders of the human world and did not have any chance to reject them. Thus, the relationship between the mortal mothers and Heaven/di in the “Wude zhi” was hardly on an equal basis.

2.5 Conclusion Influenced by Western theories and Marxism, certain Chinese scholars in the twentieth-century intended to periodize Chinese history into multiple blocks of time, and argued that the myths of miraculous birth (gansheng) as seen in early transmitted texts were evidence of the existence of ancient matrilineal society. This chapter, however, argues that the idea of miraculous birth was not as primitive as suggested by those scholars, even though a group of traditional scholars such as Wang Fu maintained that a sage with miraculous birth did not have a mortal father; rather, this idea

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reflected an ancient Chinese view of the cosmos and the correlation between human beings and Heaven. Although it is ridiculous in a modern sense, the idea of miraculous births lasted for over two millennia in Chinese history. Its longevity indicates its significance in legitimizing the political authority of a ruling house in power. As shown in the analysis above, the mortal mothers whose husbands were absent (or even did not have a husband) became more and more passive in the ancient myths of miraculous birth. They became pregnant without making any requests, and giving birth to future leaders seemed to be their purpose of existence. Heaven’s dominance, therefore, demonstrated the correlation and integration between the human and heavenly realm in ancient Chinese culture.

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Wang, E., 王爾. (2020). “’Si Yao’ huo ‘Si Gaodi’?—Dong Han Jianwu qi nian jiaosi liyi de zhengzhi yihan ji sixiang yuanyuan”「祀堯」或「祀高帝」?——東漢建武七年郊祀禮議的政治意涵 及思想淵源 (Honoring Yao or Emperor Gao? Political Significance and Ideological Origin of the Discussion on the Heavenly Sacrificial Ceremony in the Seventh Year of Jianwu Reign). Zhonghua wenshi luncong 中華文史論叢, 137(1), 41–67. Xing, B., 邢昺 (ed). (2001). Lunyu zhushu 論語注疏 (Commentary and Sub-commentary on the Analects). In Y. Ruan,阮元 (ed.) Shisanjing zhushu 十三經注疏. Taipei: Yiwen yinshu guan yinhang. Xu, X., 徐興無. (2020). “Zuowei pifu de xuansheng suwang—Chenwei wenxian zhong de Kongzi xingxiang yu sixiang” 作為匹夫的玄聖素王——讖緯文獻中的孔子形象與思想. Gudian wenxian yanjiu 古典文獻研究 11, 21–42. Yasui, K., 安居香山. (ed). (1960). Isho sh¯usei緯書集成 (A Collection of Apocrypha). T¯oky¯o: Kan I Bunka Kenky¯ukai. Yu, Y., 余英時. (2014). Lun tianren zhiji: Zhongguo gudai sixiang qiyuan shitan 論天人之際 : 中 國古代思想起源試探. Taibei: Lianjing chuban shiye gufen youxian gongsi. Yang, C.-L., 楊晉龍. (1993). Shentong yu shengtong–Zheng Xuan Wang Su gansheng shuo yijie tanyi 神統與聖統-鄭玄王肅「感生說」異解探義. Zhongguo wenzhe yanjiu jikan 中國文哲 研究集刊3, 487–526. Yuan, K., 袁珂.. (1988). Zhongguo shenhua shi 中國神話史 (A History of Chinese Myths). Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe.

Hin Ming Frankie Chik is Visiting Lecturer of Pre-modern Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Pittsburgh. He studies primarily pre-modern Chinese thoughts, history, and literature (particularly the period between the third century BC and the tenth century AD), and also work in related areas such as Chinese religions, book history, history of translation, and SinoJapanese cultural interactions. His long-term concern is to understand how ancient Chinese traditional heritages formed the basis for the cultural identity of East Asia and set the stage for the emergence of Chinese nationalism in modern history.

Chapter 3

“Free Divorce?” Love, Marriage, and Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Women’s Press Peijie Mao

Abstract The decade following the founding of Republican China witnessed intense public debate about marriage reform and free divorce. Did freedom in love guarantee individual satisfaction and marital happiness? Were couples in arranged marriages capable of creating romantic relations? Was it unethical for an educated man to divorce his illiterate old-style wife to pursue his “true love” and happiness? This paper explores and contextualizes the competing discourses about free divorce in early Republican China and examines how different literary genres interacted in advocating, questioning, and complicating the morality of modernity in the arenas of courtship, marriage, and divorce. I will first examine the essays collected in the Shanghai-based women’s press on marriage and divorce in the early 1920s, which presented divorce as a social problem while endeavoring to propose possible solutions. I will then scrutinize a controversy that appeared in the women’s press in 1923 concerning the case of Zheng Zhenxun, a Chinese professor who decided to divorce his old-style, uneducated wife, who was considered not compatible with him. Zheng’s personal account of his marital problem and the subsequent public debate about his divorce posed questions regarding the new ideas of individual freedom and romantic love. They also problematized the traditional understanding of the marriage institution and representations of femininity and masculinity, revealing how the discourse of marriage reform was inextricably tied to the changing notions of morality, individualism, and gender relations that signaled China’s transition to modernity. Keywords Divorce · Marriage · Freedom of love · Women’s press · Republican China

P. Mao (B) ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 C. S. G. Lau and K. K. Y. Chan (eds.), Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, Chinese Culture 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6_3

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3.1 Introduction We both have a promising future … We are both determined to reform society and improve the well-being of humankind. Therefore, we should set an example with courage and resolution. Giving due respect to our personhoods, we should get a free divorce, as this is how the pain stops and happiness begins. (Xu, 1932/2005: 46)

In early 1922, Zhang Youyi 张幼仪 (1900–1988) received the above letter from her husband, Xu Zhimo 徐志摩 (1897–1931), who was attempting to persuade her to get a divorce. Xu is regarded as one of the most accomplished modern Chinese poets, whose romantic love poems have touched many young souls to this day. After six years of an arranged marriage, the pregnant Zhang was abandoned by Xu while they lived in England, where Xu attended college. Right after she gave birth to their second child, Zhang was asked to sign a divorce settlement prepared by Xu. The reason for the divorce was that Xu had been unhappy with his arranged marriage and his oldstyle wife, but, most importantly, Xu had also fallen in love with Lin Huiyin 林徽 因 (1904–1955), a beautiful and educated young woman who was traveling with her father in England. In his letter, Xu reiterated that one must struggle for “true love” (zhen lian’ai 真恋爱) and happiness, and it was on these grounds that he demanded a divorce. Having just endured a painful childbirth, and feeling betrayed and defeated, Zhang Youyi nevertheless agreed to sign the divorce agreement because, after living in Europe for over a year, she had decided to discard “values of the past” to become “a modern woman, one of the future” (Chang, 2011: 144). A few years later, both Zhang and Xu returned to China: Xu soon remarried and lived the glamorous life of a cultural celebrity until his sudden death in 1931, and Zhang became a successful banker and entrepreneur in Shanghai while raising and educating their son (their second child died at a young age), maintaining a friendship with Xu, and continuing to take care of Xu’s elderly parents. In this sense, she loved Xu in her own way. In her memoir, Zhang shows that love is not only about romantic passion; it also embraces other feelings, such as a sense of duty to one’s family and spouse, devotion, care, friendship, and forgiveness—an understanding of love in the traditional Chinese marriage and family. While Zhang and Xu enacted their peaceful and “civilized” modern divorce in Europe, they were probably unaware that a wave of free divorce had begun to sweep China. New concepts such as freedom of love (lian’ai ziyou 恋爱自由), freedom to marry (ziyou jiehun 自由结婚), free divorce (ziyou lihun 自由离婚), and the modern or new women (xin nüxing 新女性) had spread quickly through intellectual journals and mass media during the May Fourth New Cultural Movement (1915– 1923). People’s views of marriage had changed more in the first half of the twentiethcentury than in the previous millennium. Inspired by the new ideas of individualism, women’s emancipation, gender equality, and a new sexual morality, all imported from the West, young urban intellectuals struggled for their freedom and happiness by rebelling against the authoritarian family and opposing the traditional institution of marriage.

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The issue of marriage reform (hunyin gailiang 婚姻改良) divided public opinion in the decade following the founding of Republican China. The widespread debate over free-choice marriage and divorce in the early 1920s revolved around two sets of questions. First, did freedom in love guarantee individual satisfaction and marital happiness? If so, should people reject arranged marriage and pursue “true love” even if this meant dissolving engagements or getting divorced? If not, were couples in arranged marriages capable of creating satisfying conjugal love? Second, was it unethical for a highly educated man to divorce his illiterate traditional wife? What kind of marriage could be both practical and successful in a transitional society, in which arranged marriage was declining but still prevalent, and male–female social interaction was largely discouraged? This chapter will examine the new concept of free divorce circulated in the Shanghai-based women’s press in the early 1920s, focusing on a controversy , a Chinese professor who concerning the divorce case of Zheng Zhenxun decided to divorce his old-style (jiushi 旧式), uneducated wife. Zheng’s narrative of his marriage attracted widespread attention in the New Culture women’s press, deeply dividing public opinion on the issue of free divorce. The public debate on Zheng’s case posed questions regarding the new idea of freedom of marriage and divorce as much as it problematized the traditional marriage institution, revealing how the discourse of free divorce was inextricably tied to the changing notions of morality, individualism, and gender relations that signaled China’s transition to modernity.

3.2 “Free Divorce” Although Chinese civil law in the early twentieth-century allowed divorce by mutual consent (liangyuan lihun 两愿离婚), it stated that marriage required parental consent; meanwhile, unilateral divorce (danyuan lihun 单愿离婚) and the woman’s right to initiate divorce were suppressed (Daqing minlü caoan, 2002; Zhou, 1922b).1 As more divorce lawsuits were reported in Chinese newspapers, the increasing divorce rate generated anxiety about the possible detriments to the family institution and to wider social mores. However, it was not until the early 1920s that the divorce problem attracted widespread public attention, as evidenced by the special issues (zhuanhao 专号) in Shanghai-based magazines and newspapers edited by influential New Culture intellectuals. These include “Issue of Divorce Problem” (Lihun wenti hao 离婚问题号) in Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi 妇女杂志), a leading women’s magazine in Shanghai under the editorship of Zhang Xichen 章锡琛 (1889–1969) in the early 1920s, and “Issue of Free Divorce” (Ziyou lihun hao 自由离婚号) in “Women’s Critique” (Funü pinglun 妇女评论), a newspaper supplement of Minguo ribao 民国日报 edited by Chen Wangdao 陈望道 (1891–1977). Ladies’ Journal’s special issue on divorce in 1922 quickly sold out and was reprinted twice within the 1

The concept lihun (divorce) became a legal term in the 1911 Qing Civil Laws, most of which were adopted by the Republican government in the following decades.

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next three months (Bianji yulu, 1922), sparking a raging debate on free divorce in New Culture print media. For the rebellious May Fourth generation, the doctrines of romantic love and love marriage became ideologically correct. Romantic love was sublimated into “a politicized symbol of the absolute hypergoods of the May Fourth modern: freedom, equality, rights,” as Haiyan Lee puts it (2007: 105). Swedish feminist Ellen Key (1849–1926) played an essential role in transforming how young intellectuals in China viewed marriage and divorce.2 In one of the earliest translations of Key’s writings on love and marriage, appearing in Ladies’ Journal in 1920, Li Sanji explained that “species of improvement” and “love of happiness” were two essential aspects of Key’s sexual morality. He then summarized Key’s idea as follows: If we want to understand Mrs. Key’s notion of “free divorce,” we should first understand her idea of love and marriage, because free divorce is a new morality that revolutionizes old morality…. Key claims that marriage must be based on love; in other words, men and women without love should not get married. It is reasonable to infer that even for couples who got married for love in the past, if their love burns out and domestic happiness disappears, it would be better for them to separate rather than stay together. (Li, 1920: 1)

Proponents of Key’s “love religion” believed that if people could not choose their own lovers and spouses, they would be unable to maintain a satisfactory personal life and fulfill their individual potential. Neither could they produce happy and healthy children, future generations of citizens who would serve the nation. In addition, this new sexual morality provided a moral ground for educated Chinese men to initiate divorces based on the premise that traditional arranged marriage violated freedom of love. In the years to come, young supporters of marriage reform in China frequently referred to Key’s tenet that “marriage is immoral without love” to defend their pursuit of freedom in marriage and divorce. Wu Juenong 吴觉农 (1897–1989), one of the enthusiastic advocates of Key’s idea, translated her writing and practiced free divorce in real life. A major contributor to Ladies’ Journal, Wu published a partial translation of the “Free Divorce” chapter in Key’s book Love and Marriage, believing that it provided a thorough explanation of the “necessity of divorce, affirmation of individualism, revision of views of female chastity, and the impact of divorce on children” (1922a: 51). Wu’s translation was collected in the special issue on “Divorce Problem” of Ladies’ Journal, together with a real-life divorce story, in which he reported a “living example” of how a man in his hometown successfully achieved a free divorce. He described the marriage as incompatible and anguished: They have been married for four years, and have a son and a daughter. In many people’s view, they are a loving old-style couple. But according to their words, they feel compelled, lacking self-awareness and selfhood. The wife is older than the husband, and they are incompatible in personalities and intelligence. In addition, they suffer from oppression in the family, and there is no way to relieve the pain. (1922b: 146)

2

Part of Ellen Key’s works were first translated by Mao Dun and Li Sanji in 1920. For reception of Ellen Key in China, see Pan, 2015; Yang, 2016.

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The husband once proposed a divorce but was rejected by both his parents and his wife’s family. He then sent his wife to a missionary school and, a year later, explained his reason for divorce and persuaded her to agree to dissolve the marriage. This time he was successful because the wife, now an “awakened” (juewu 觉悟) and “improved” (jinbu 进步) woman who knows that “women are also ‘human beings’ with ‘selfhood’ (ren’ge 人格),” agreed to sign the divorce agreement. However, when the families, feeling humiliated and outraged, forced the couple to cancel the agreement, the husband decided to run away from his family. During the negotiation process, their second child died, causing his wife to change her mind about agreeing to the divorce. Eventually, the two families negotiated and reached a compromise to grant the husband’s divorce request, thus ending their four-year marriage (1922b). In other essays about his family life, published a year later in Ladies’ Journal, Wu confessed that this original story was actually about his own divorce. He admitted that his ex-wife was a clever and dutiful woman, and his first couple of years of marital life were not really unbearable, but he was “lacking awareness” (wu yishi 无意识). It was not until he went to Japan to study agriculture that he began to realize the necessity to solve his “marriage and family problems” in a timely manner so that his individuality and aspirations would not degenerate. Divorce was his first step in challenging the patriarchal family structure, followed by further measures to transform his multigenerational family into individual nuclear families (1923a, 1923b). Wu was annoyed when he found out that the female principal and the teachers at the missionary school that his wife attended were actually against his divorce. Subsequently, his wife was under pressure from both her family and the school not to sign the divorce agreement he proposed (1922b). This incident neatly illustrates the gap between the ideal theory and the social reality: Ellen Key’s ideas of free love and divorce that Wu and other reform-minded male authors championed were simply too advanced for the 1920s China. Nevertheless, these New Culture radicals continued to champion Key’s feminist ideal, not so much as a vision of liberating women but as a way of justifying their own right to pursue happiness and freedom. What Wu Juenong did not mention in these essays, however, is that during his studies in Japan, he had become acquainted with a female fellow student whom he eventually married three years after his divorce (Wang, 2003). Wu’s story is exactly the type of divorce case that particularly caught public attention during the Republican era, one that involved the marital union between an educated and Westernminded young man and his uneducated (or less educated) and family-oriented traditional wife, typically arranged by their parents at an early age. Though presented as a necessary means of reforming family and society, from its inception this new trend of free marriage and divorce in China was motivated by the self-interest of male intellectuals who were eager to revolt against patriarchal family authority. As we can see in both Wu Juenong’s personal history and the letter quoted earlier and eloquently written by the poet Xu Zhimo, even free-will divorces could be dominated by the intellectual husbands who initiated the process and then enlightened, induced, and sometimes compelled their traditional wives to consent to the divorce. Male intellectuals like Wu and Xu were able to manipulate such new concepts as individual freedom, love marriage, self-awareness, and family reform to express both

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their personal crisis and their iconoclastic attitude toward traditional culture and values. In search of a modern self, they claimed that they must free themselves from the patriarchal family that influenced their marital and personal life and restrained their pursuit of romantic love and individual happiness. It is worth mentioning that when Wu Juenong and Xu Zhimo commented on their unhappy marriages and wished for free divorce, they both used the plural (“they” and “we”) to speak for their wives. In Wu’s writing, readers learn that his wife refused the divorce at first, and only after a year of studying at a woman’s school was she “awakened” to understand her husband’s grounds for divorce, but her actual feelings and thoughts about her marriage were never revealed. From what Zhang Youyi recollected about her sudden divorce, one can imagine how devastating it would be for Wu’s wife, who lost her second child in the course of being forced into a divorce. In her memoir, Zhang Youyi expressed how she felt ignored and degraded after she received Xu Zhimo’s divorce ultimatum: I felt that Hsü Chih-mo [Xu Zhimo] was speaking less to me than to a crowd of people, or to historians. What did he mean by our “boundless future” and “our achieving well-being for mankind”? When had I ever displayed any of these potentials? His letter reminded me of that evening in Xiashi when he paced our bedroom and said that he would be the first man in China to get a divorce. (Chang, 2011: 141)

Xu was by no means “the first man in China to get a divorce.” Ladies’ Journal’s special issue on “Divorce Problem,” published in 1922, the same year during which Xu obtained a free divorce in Europe, collected thirteen essays for the column “Guanyu lihun de shishi jiqi piping” 关于离婚的事实及其批评 [Facts and critiques about divorce], Wu Juenong’s story included. In over a dozen divorce stories narrated or reported by different authors, we see that what caused each marriage failure in real life was varied and complex, from incompatibility to absence of mutual affection, from financial troubles to mother-daughter-in-law conflicts, from emotional abuse to extramarital affairs. Moreover, spouses in both arranged and self-selected marriages reported experiencing marital problems, though the former seemed to face more challenges. Xu Zhimo’s letter nevertheless indicated that divorce was not only connected to male intellectuals’ pursuit of a modern identity free from the family order, but also to the reconstruction of their masculinity premised on the submissiveness of women. In these two male-initiated divorce cases, the notion of free divorce enabled educated men to silence their old-style wives, and subsequently reinforced male supremacy in the private sphere of marriage and family. While both intellectuals and popular writers utilized the rhetoric of family reform to link individual fulfillment with the agenda of national strengthening, and developed a cultural imaginary of the ideal womanhood (Glosser, 2003; Mao, 2021), what about the old-style wives? They were typically left home to perform their traditional roles of serving their parents-in-law, raising children, and managing the household, while their high-minded husbands traveled to pursue knowledge, career, social ideals, and even extramarital “true love.” Were the old-style wives part of the traditional family system that needed to be rejected? Or was it possible to include them in the male intellectuals’ pursuit of social reforms and new gender relations? If marriage and

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family reform was imperative, then were these women the victims or beneficiaries of such reform? Furthermore, was there a clear demarcation between the “new women” and the old-style women? If new women were those who were educated and “awakened,” was a married new woman in a threatened marriage supposed to stand up to preserve her union or consent to a divorce? While the new woman was glamorized as a cultural icon of modernity in New Culture literature (Feng, 2004) and a beneficiary of the May Fourth feminist movement (Wang, 1999), millions of old-style women were simultaneously marginalized and objectified by these same forces, remaining in the hopeless darkness. In emergent Chinese progressive feminism, women were construed as foundationally deficient in ren’ge, meaning that they were lacking in personality, individual human qualities, or personal and “social standing” (Barlow, 2004: 116–125). Old-style women, in particular, were silenced, ignored, and despised because of their bound feet, lack of modern education, and obedience to their families and husbands. Physically and mentally confined, and dependent on their fathers, brothers, and husbands, their voice was mostly unheard and unrecorded in history. Without modern education, it was impossible for them to acquire the new knowledge of romantic love, women’s rights, and freedom, which might enable them to speak for themselves. In most cases, they were pitied as victims of the patriarchal society, but in other cases, they were criticized for being ignorant, submissive, incapable, and dependent. They seemed to have no choice but to resign themselves to fate and wait to be either saved or abandoned by men. Either way, as the following divorce case suggests, old-style women were the victims of both the traditional family institution and the new culture that espoused marriage and family reform.

3.3 The Debate About Zheng Zhenxun’s Divorce During the May Fourth era, divorce was viewed not only as a pressing societal issue but also as integral to the woman question (funü wenti 妇女问题). Ladies’ Journal launched the special issue on “Divorce Problem,” first, because the editors desired to alleviate the social anxiety about the recent surge in divorces, and second, to support women’s right to divorce as part of women’s emancipation (Fakan zhiqu, 1922). Although the editors welcomed “a fair discussion,” the magazine obviously took a pro-free-divorce stance, with the majority of its works endorsing the freedom of marriage and divorce. In the column “Duiyu ziyou lihun de zhuzhang he fandui” 对于自由离婚的主张和反对 [Pros and cons of free divorce], all of the nineteen contributors agreed that true love and freedom to choose one’s spouse were essential components of marriage. Nine of these contributors championed absolute freedom of divorce, while ten approved free divorce with some reservations—they maintained that, in principle, people in a loveless marriage should get a divorce, but in reality, couples who are unsatisfied with their marriage ought to take a cautious approach when they decide to act upon such a principle. In addition, according to some contributors, divorce due to extramarital affairs should be restrained.

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In Minguo ribao’s 1922 “Women’s Critique” supplement, four of the six contributors to the special issue on “Free Divorce,” including the editor Chen Wangdao, championed the principle of unilateral divorce, but argued against men’s freedom (1886–1946) wrote that free at the cost of women’s suffering. Xia Mianzun divorce would not truly be possible until remarriage for women was not scorned, children were not discriminated against by their step-parents, and the life of women was not dependent on men (1922). Most of the contributors who conditionally supported free divorce were concerned about its impact on disadvantaged, vulnerable women. Because women in traditional society were dependent on their husbands, divorced women often could not support themselves financially. In addition, the social stigma attached to divorced women made it almost impossible for them to remarry. Several discussants pointed out that if women did not gain economic independence, they would not enjoy the right to divorce; therefore, free divorce remained a man’s privilege in China. Because men predominated in marital relations, unilateral divorce proposed by men should be restricted in the transitional period of China in order to protect women’s rights (Gu, 1922; Liu, 1922). The issue of free divorce—in particular, men’s choice to divorce their oldstyle wives—revealed the chasm between the new imported ideology of love-based marriage and the lived experiences of the Chinese in a transitional society. This chasm was especially pronounced in the controversy surrounding Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce case, which drew extensive attention in the women’s press and popular media in 1923. Zheng was a graduate of Peking University, with a bachelor’s degree in science, and a faculty member at Dongnan University in Nanjing.3 He published an article entitled “Wo ziji de hunyin shi” 我自己的婚姻史 [The history of my own marriage] in Ladies’ Journal, under the pen name Kuangfu 旷夫 (literally, “unmarried man”), in which he described in vivid detail his troubled marital life and announced his decision to escape from his marriage (taohun 逃婚) as an alternative to divorce. Following Zheng’s article, the journal editors posed four questions about Zheng’s marriage and invited readers to contribute their answers and comments. Two months later, the journal published eighteen articles in the column “Duiyu Zheng [Critiques of Mr. Zhenxun jun hunyin shi de piping” Zheng Zhenxun’s marriage]. Meanwhile, argumentative essays on Zheng’s divorce case appeared in newspaper supplements, including “Modern Women” (Xiandai funü 现代妇女) of Shishi xinbao 时事新报, also edited by Zhang Xichen, “Women’s 3

In Zhou Xuqi’s article, she speculates that Zheng Zhenxun was a pen name, and questions his identity as a college professor (2005). Although we cannot find relevant information about his profession, Zheng Zhenxun was a real name, and both Zheng Yueping 郑岳平 and Kuangfu were his pen names. In the “New faculty at Dongnan University” announcement published in Shishi xinbao on October 8th, 1922, Zheng Zhenxun was listed as an Instructor of Physics. As he mentioned in his article “The history of my own marriage,” he had been working on inventing a new kind of sundial since graduation and applied for a patent, from which he made profit. Zheng also published his research in professional journals, which may have helped him obtain academic positions. After his article was published in Ladies’ Journal in February 1923, Zheng wrote to the editors to request unpublished essays about his divorce and to explain that he desired to publish his articles in response to several essays in the column “Critiques of Mr. Zheng Zhenxun’s marriage.” The editors declined his request, and instead, his articles were published in Shishi xinbao and Minguo ribao in June.

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Critique” of Minguo ribao, and other journals. Zheng continued to publish several essays and short comments to defend himself and respond to criticism, stirring up a heated public discussion about his divorce.

3.3.1 Zheng Zhenxun’s Divorce Case Before discussing the media response to Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce case in detail, it is worthwhile to examine Zheng’s own account of his marriage first. At the beginning of his article “The history of my own marriage,” Zheng admitted that though people in China rarely talked about their sufferings in marriage, he believed that people should discuss marriage problems more openly. He then divided his marital years into four phases: separation, newly-married period, time of suffering, and reunion. Zheng’s family arranged his marriage when he was sixteen years old and attending the First Hangzhou School. At that time, he wrote a letter to request to unbind his fiancée’s feet and send her to school, but both families ignored him. He was disappointed but dared not break off the engagement. After graduating from high school, Zheng tested into Peking University and, during the winter break, he came home to marry his fiancée, whom he had never met. In spite of the differences in their level of education, the couple maintained a loving relationship for the first few years of their marriage. Soon after the wedding, Zheng began to carry out a plan for transforming his wife. The first step was to teach her common knowledge and ask her to liberate her feet and remove her makeup. While his wife followed his suggestions in part, he was not pleased that his opinions were not taken seriously and that his wife’s transformation (gailiang 改良) was not thorough. As a result, his feelings for her gradually dwindled. Zheng stayed at home for several months after graduating from Peking University, but the couple continued to drift apart nevertheless. He complained that his wife prioritized the care of his extended family over his emotional needs, and that she hardly cared about his feelings. Zheng concluded that old-style women who grew up in traditional families were “emotionless” (wuqing 无情): they did not understand what love is, they were trained to serve their husbands instead of loving them, and they were accustomed to restraining their sexuality and their affection for their husbands. Feeling that his love was not reciprocated, he began to harbor resentment toward his wife and insisted on moving away from his family. He told her that he wanted a divorce; she wept, but all she said was: “I did not disobey you” (Zheng, 1923a). Their relationship was moderately improved after Zheng took a teaching position in a middle school and his wife gave birth to a son. She made up with him by promising that she would unconditionally obey him from then on, and he agreed to take her back. A year later, Zheng found a position at Peking University and took his wife and son to Beijing. While they lived in Beijing, he attempted to train his wife to be an independent woman by compelling her to go shopping and go to the hospital alone, asking her to manage the household entirely by herself, teaching her reading and bookkeeping, and even giving her a new name, Qiru 启如. Nevertheless, their relationship was never repaired. During their two years in Beijing, their son died

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of illness, and Qiru gave birth to a girl. The couple often quarreled over household chores, and Zheng was disappointed that his wife did not keep her promise to defer to him completely. Qiru once asked Zheng to let her attend a school, but Zheng intentionally made it difficult and discouraged her. Zheng devoted himself to a horological invention he had devised, and ordered his wife to assist him, but Qiru had no interest in participating. This conflict became the last straw: Zheng decided to divorce Qiru and then sent her back home. In the conclusion to his article, Zheng blamed arranged marriage, his wife’s lack of emotion, and her adherence to old values and customs for causing his marital failure. Qiru was a half-old, half-new-style woman and a dutiful wife, he admitted, but he simply could not love and tolerate her anymore. He knew that his wife and family would not consent to the divorce, so he decided to “escape” from the marriage, that is, to end their marital relationship unilaterally by severing emotional and physical bonds with his wife. He was willing to give his inheritance to his wife to support her life in exchange for his freedom (Zheng, 1923a). Zheng Zhenxun’s painstaking account of his marital problems soon attracted strong criticism, generating dozens of articles about his divorce in print media. Almost all the important New Culture male feminists participated in this debate, including Zhang Xichen, Zhou Jianren 周建人 (1888–1984), Wu Juenong, Mao Dun 茅盾(1896–1981), Zhou Zuoren 周作人 (1885–1967), Chen Wangdao, and many others. In introducing Zheng’s article to the readers, Zi Hu (probably one of Zhang Xichen’s pen names) viewed this story as a proxy battle between men and women, familism and individualism, old and new ideas (Zi, 1923). Indeed, whether Zheng should divorce his wife became a subject of significant controversy. Advocates of free love and divorce expressed sympathy for Zheng, applauded his courage, sincerity, and efforts to educate and transform his wife, and fully supported his divorce. In contrast, many critics disapproved of Zheng’s decision to abandon his old-style wife in order to pursue his own happiness and freedom, even though they generally endorsed the ideals of love marriage and free divorce. In addition to discussing the morality of divorce, female authors and some male feminists were immensely critical of gender bias in Zheng’s narrative of his marriage.

3.3.2 Women’s Education and Marriage Quite a few male authors held that because husbands usually had a higher level of education than their wives, they should help their wives improve their general intelligence in order to maintain a successful marriage. A contributor analyzed Zheng Zhenxun’s situation and concluded that Zheng’s marital problems were caused by the couple’s differences in intellectual capacity and family environment. If Zheng could support his wife’s education, she would acquire knowledge and become a new-style woman who could reciprocate her husband’s love (Yang, 1923). Another discussant expressed his opinion in the same vein, remarking that if a couple had a difference in educational background, the husband should take responsibility for guiding the wife

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and helping her receive an education. He asserted that as long as educated wives had “noble minds and rich knowledge,” conjugal love would last (Wei, 1923: 53). Wu Juenong, who went through a similar divorce process, wrote to share his experience and thoughts in support of Zheng Zhenxun’s decision. Like Zheng, Wu persuaded his old-style wife to wear less makeup and unbind her feet, and tried to teach her, but he realized that a marital relationship without the basis of love would only provide a sexual outlet and practical aid in daily life. After he failed in his first attempt to get a divorce, he sent his wife to a school so that she could learn to be a self-reliant “human being” (Wu, 1922b, 1923b). As discussed earlier, Wu’s solution was not as altruistic as he claimed. He supported his wife’s education in the hope of negotiating his divorce settlement with her, assuming that an enlightened woman would understand the meaning of freedom and independence and thus would be more likely to consent to the divorce. The importance of women’s education was a dominant motif in the New Culture Movement, which stressed that modern education would help achieve women’s realization of their potential and individual purpose in life. The perception that women’s education also played an important role in marital success was confirmed by social surveys. Sociologist Chen Heqin 陈鹤琴 (1892–1982) published a survey about male students’ views on marriage in 1921. Of his respondents, 29% were married, and the most unsatisfactory factor that affected the married life of these male students was their wives’ “lack of knowledge.” Interestingly, this factor was voted as being much more dissatisfying than “lack of self-choice in marriage.” Chen concluded that young men who had received a modern education were surely discontented with the uneducated and unawakened women with whom they were partnered, and suggested that women’s education was the key to family happiness (1921/2008). In 1923, Ladies’ Journal conducted its own survey of readers’ expectations for ideal spouses, receiving 155 responses from both male and female readers. Two-thirds of the male readers surveyed believed that their ideal spouse should have received at least some degree of formal education (Zhang, 1923). Male intellectuals tried to establish a correlation between women’s education level and marital satisfaction based on two premises. First, as discussed earlier, they assumed that traditional Chinese women were physically and morally weak, economically dependent, and intellectually inferior to men. Second, they maintained that modern education would help women minimize their imperfections, develop their knowledge and self-awareness, and ultimately free themselves from the patriarchal family structure to become self-respecting, autonomous human beings. Ideally, an educated new woman would understand love’s true value and thus deserve a modern man’s affection and respect. An awakened woman would also be able to choose the right partner for marriage and, if the relationship did not work out, she would be less dependent on her husband. However, the premise that wives’ increasing educational attainment would strengthen the marital union was questionable. While educated young men viewed women’s learning as a prerequisite for a successful marriage, Zheng Zhenxun’s and Wu Juenong’s candid accounts of their troubled marriages indicated that what

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had caused problems seemed to be emotional disconnection, lack of mutual understanding, and differences in values. Both men made efforts to teach their wives to read, but the learning process did not help improve emotional communication and intimacy within the marriage. While Wu successfully turned his wife into an “awakened” woman student who eventually agreed to sign the divorce agreement, Zheng’s efforts to create an ideal new-style wife were in vain, and he decided to end his marriage unilaterally. In both cases, the educated husbands sought women’s education to benefit themselves more than their wives. Zheng, in particular, bemoaned the fact that his wife still failed to comply with his instructions and, thus, was unable to transform herself into a new woman who could deserve and reciprocate his love. In his 1928 short story “Chuangzao” 创造 [Creation], Mao Dun mocked this New Culture male fantasy by portraying an “ideal wife” who was created by the husband but ultimately surpassed her creator. In this satirical story, a husband attempts to get rid of his wife’s old habits and cultivate an enlightened, elegant, and suitable wife, only to find that his wife has deviated from his guidance and become a new woman with independent thoughts and feelings (1928/1985). Mao Dun implied that an enlightened woman would leave her husband, like Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s (1828– 1906) A Doll’s House. But when “Creation” is read against the personal histories of male writers, it points to the paradox of women’s education promoted by these male feminists. If the goal of women’s education and emancipation was to achieve equality between men and women, did divorce serve to liberate and benefit women at large or merely increase the existing gender inequality in the institution of marriage? The alleged correlation between women’s education and marital success was based on a stereotypical image of the old-style wife who was devalued by the new culture. Therefore, this relationship model of educated husbands enlightening and transforming old-style wives only served to highlight the continuation of the supremacy of husbands over wives in the New Culture era, reinforcing the traditional pattern of gendered power relations within marriage.

3.3.3 The Morality of Divorce Although most people who participated in the media discussion of divorce did not oppose the idea of free divorce, the morality of unilateral divorce was a focus of controversy. Among the eighteen authors whose articles were collected in the Ladies’ Journal’s column “Critiques of Mr. Zheng Zhenxun’s marriage,” about two-thirds disapproved of how Zheng treated his wife in their married life. Zheng’s personal history resonated with many male readers seeking solutions to their own marital issues. In addition to Wu Juenong, three male authors stated that they were in a similar situation, but they all disagreed with Zheng’s decision to dissolve his marriage without his wife’s consent, and managed to deal with their marriage problems in different, less unilateral ways. Unlike Zheng, who poured out his dissatisfaction with his marital strife and old-style wife, He Zhangqin 何章钦 was optimistic about his arranged marriage: he had overcome challenges in his marital relationship and

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brought his wife to Shanghai to build a half-old, half-new small family (He, 1923). Likewise, Zhang Yanru 张厌如 admitted that he was unhappy about his arranged marriage and had not returned home for three years. Despite his disappointment, he decided to work on his marriage because his friends convinced him that couples should seek opportunities to increase their conjugal love and relationship compatibility (Zhang, 1923). Their perception of marriage and men’s duties was consonant with that of Shaosong 少松, who was empathic with his old-style wife and treated her with patience and kindness (Shaosong, 1923). Critics of Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce argued that on humanitarian grounds, it is morally problematic, if not wrong, for a husband to initiate a divorce in order to pursue his own happiness regardless of the misery and disgrace that a divorce case could bring to his wife. Old-style women were victims of the patriarchal society that was responsible for their footbinding, illiteracy, and narrow-mindedness. Therefore, He Zhangqin asserted that male-initiated divorce without mutual consent is essentially an unjust, forced divorce that discriminates against women for not having the very qualities that society prevented them from cultivating (He, 1923). Furthermore, critics of Zheng’s divorce claimed that an educated man had a social obligation to help his traditional wife renew herself and live a meaningful life, for her own sake. He Zhangqin continued to argue that, as a young man with the privilege of education in China, he should fulfill his civic duties of reforming his own family and society at large. Divorcing an unwanted old-style wife, he maintained, is no different from avoiding one’s social responsibility by passing on one’s personal duties to others (He, 1923). Shaosong made a similar point about men’s responsibilities, believing that “new men in the transitional society” were obligated to create a path to guide and enlighten their wives and gradually raise public awareness about other social issues (Shaosong, 1923: 12). Sun Benwen 孙本文 (1892–1979), a sociology student at Columbia University, raised two points against the contemporary trend of educated husbands divorcing their old-style wives. The first point was that if all educated young men wished to marry educated women, there were simply not enough unmarried, new-style women available in China. The continuance of such a divorce trend, due to men’s fascination with new women, would threaten the social and moral order. The second point concerned the unequal and inhuman treatment of old-style women who had to face cultural discrimination and economic hardship after divorce. Sun encouraged young men in China to build a free, just society for future generations instead of pursuing personal interests that made innocent others miserable (1923). In a response to Sun’s article, Zheng Zhenxun defended his freedom to divorce, insisting that old customs were the only obstacle to free divorce and that both traditional morality and laws need to be reevaluated in modern times. He thereby refused to sacrifice his personal choice for the humanitarian concern for the suffering of divorced women (Zheng, 1923b). Those who supported Zheng, including Zhou Jianren, coeditor of Ladies’ Journal, argued that divorce had nothing to do with morality and female chastity. Zhou championed free divorce as it encouraged individuals to pursue freedom, equality, and happiness, which marked the modern transition from familism

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to individualism. Although Zhou was aware of women’s vulnerability and victimization in divorce cases, he concluded that there was no better solution for Zheng than divorcing and compensating his wife (Zhou, 1922a; 1923). Another important male feminist writer, Mao Dun, published two articles in Minguo ribao in support of Zheng’s right to divorce and in response to the debate on Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce in Ladies’ Journal. He disagreed with those who persuaded Zheng to love his wife on humanitarian grounds, as he believed that they did not treat women as equal partners with men (Mao, 1923b). In his analysis and summary of people’s attitudes toward Zheng’s divorce, Mao Dun singled out the writings of Wu Juenong, He Zhangqin, and Zhang Yanru, who treated their old-style wives differently. Mao Dun applauded the decision of Wu to end his loveless marriage for the reason that “We [modern Chinese youth] believe in the religion of love and we are convinced that marriage must be based on mutual love” (Mao, 1923a: 1). In contrast, he argued against the ways in which He and Zhang resolved their marriage issues through self-sacrifice, kindness, and tolerance, reiterating that young people must face their problems and fight for their faith. Regardless of their positions, all critics agreed that Chinese society was undergoing a period of crucial transition, during which new ideas were spreading and reaching certain groups but the old habits and customs prevailed and were practiced by the majority of the society. A critical issue here was how to justify the new ideology of individualism and free choice when the century-old moral values were under attack, but the new ones had not yet been established. On the one hand, these writers acknowledged the rationale of individual freedom and self-fulfillment, which approved of divorce as a way to pursue personal happiness; on the other, a unilateral divorce which disregarded the agony of abandoned women and children not only violated one’s individual conscience but also undermined the stability of family and society. Facing such a dilemma, one had to learn how to balance personal interests and social obligations and decide who would make the sacrifice. Zhou Zuoren’s comments on the issue epitomized the dilemma between this rationale and moral sentiments. After reading Zheng Zhenxun’s story, though Zhou ultimately decided Zheng’s divorce was unavoidable, his impression was that Zheng was a self-righteous man obsessed with principles while lacking human sympathy: “Mr. Zheng may not know that we all have to accommodate ourselves to circumstances; if he is not willing to compromise, then he should be prepared to sacrifice himself instead of others” (Zhou, 1923/2009: 132). In a loveless and unhappy marital union, both husband and wife were victims of traditional arranged marriages. However, many authors participating in the debate pointed out that because women faced distinct disadvantages in education, occupation, and relationships in patriarchal Chinese society, men who enjoyed privileges in these areas should make some sacrifices in their marriages to mitigate gender inequality. A year after the public debate about Zheng’s divorce, Ladies’ Journal published a series of short essays responding to a question posed by the editors: “Can men who respect women divorce their unsatisfactory wives?” Responses remained deeply divided on this subject, with five authors in favor of this kind of divorce and five firmly against it, while the remaining four supported or opposed it with reservations. The conflict between the pursuit of

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individual fulfillment and social morality remained an unsettled issue, forming the bifurcated opinion on divorce among the New Culture exponents.

3.3.4 Creating Conjugal Love The May Fourth era witnessed an outcry against traditional marriage, but were these kinds of marriages always loveless or against the couple’s will? Chinese sociologist Pan Guangdan 潘光旦 (1899–1967) surveyed people’s views on family in the 1920s. This survey showed that although almost all of the respondents opposed arranged marriage, the majority of them also disagreed with the idea that marriage should be completely autonomous. In fact, 80.6% of the respondents held that an ideal marriage would be a combination of individual choice and parents’ approval (Pan, 1928/1993). Those who questioned free marriage and divorce often took the high divorce rate in America as an example to contend that love marriages did not guarantee marital happiness. Sun Benwen had been highly critical of Zheng Zhenxun’s preconception about arranged marriages, the assumption that an old-style wife had no knowledge and feelings and thereby deserved a divorce. Using the divorce statistics in the United States, where people married for love, he warned young readers that romantic love could be so irrational and volatile that the new-style marriage solely based on love would be fragile and unreliable (Sun, 1923). Zheng Zhenxun was a member of the May Fourth generation who embraced the new culture of love marriage and yearned for romantic love in married life. He wrote that his perception of ideal conjugal love came from “The Wife” by Washington Irving (1783–1859). This short story portrays a loving, spirited, and courageous young wife who becomes a “comforter and support of her husband under misfortune” when her husband loses all of his property in speculations (Irving, 1819/2002: 33). Even though a friend of Zheng reminded him that this ideal wife was merely a literary imagination, Zheng insisted on cultivating such an ideal wife in his traditional joint family, and felt discouraged when his wife did not display emotional and physical intimacy with him as a Western wife would do (Zheng, 1923a). Sun Benwen’s critique of Zheng’s case was a self-reflection of the New Culture trend of love marriage that idealized emotional attraction between men and women, and the wholesale adoption of Western ideas of romantic love and conjugal family. If marriage is to be more than romantic feelings, then marital relationships need to be nurtured and cultivated, especially from the husband’s side, as the husband was traditionally expected to play a more active role in maintaining the stability of the family. In their critique of Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce, He Zhangqin, Zhang Yanru, and Shaosong, who all chose to stay in their arranged marriages, proposed several measures intended to deal with conflicts between the new and old, addressing the relationship problem between educated husbands and old-style wives in particular. Instead of viewing the practice of arranged marriage as suppression of individuality, critics of Zheng’s divorce put more emphasis on how couples forged satisfying marital bonds within China’s cultural tradition. They maintained that traditional marriage

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does not imply the absence of self-fulfillment, and that love can be defined and understood in many different ways. According to Shaosong, true love is a spiritual connection, and though a loving wife in traditional Chinese society had to restrain herself from expressing her emotions verbally, this did not mean that a traditional wife did not understand love; instead, she had her own way of communicating love through care, loyalty, and companionship. Shaosong differentiated two types of love: “spiritual love” which is noble but implicit, and “expressive love” which is less restrained. Reading Zheng Zhenxun’s story, he believed that Zheng’s wife showed pure and honorable spiritual love; in contrast, Zheng’s love was sexual and condescending. Shaosong continued to write about his own marital life: his old-style wife was similar to Zheng’s wife, who was unaccustomed to open expression of affection, but he was confident that they had successfully built a loving relationship (Shaosong, 1923). Zhang Yanru quoted a letter from one of his female friends that convinced him to reconcile with his wife, in which his friend wrote: “Old-style women firmly believe that they love their husbands… this is the most moving side of them. If you talk to them, you would know that their mind deserves love and respect.” Zhang suggested Zheng Zhenxun look at the positive aspects of marriage to “create romance” (Zhang, 1923). “Creating romance” (renzao aiqing 人造爱情, or zhizao aiqing 制造爱情) was proposed by a few writers as a way to resolve the incompatibility between an educated husband and his old-style wife. As discussed earlier, the first and most critical step to creating romance was to enrich old-style wives’ general knowledge. For husbands, building a strong and relatively equal relationship also included making efforts to understand wives’ needs, treat them with respect and patience, tolerate their imperfections, and show them care and affection. These efforts, or the lack thereof, were evinced in the way educated husbands dealt with their old-style wives’ now-undesirable bound feet. In Zheng Zhenxun’s narrative of his marriage, he repeatedly complained about his wife’s bound feet, denouncing her reluctance to liberate her feet and believing that it was evidence of her weak mind and adherence to the old customs. Before his marriage, he tried to persuade his future parents-in-law to unbind the girl’s feet because he preferred women with “natural feet.” He saw his wife’s feet wrapped in clothes during the wedding night and asked her: “Why don’t you let them out?” When his wife replied, “I have done that, and my feet are larger than before,” he was disappointed and continued trying to persuade her to unwrap her feet completely. From then on, he kept checking the size of her feet, which grew larger but never reached a normal size, and he was discontent with his wife’s “incomplete transformation.” “At night, when my feet accidentally touched her pointed feet, my love disappeared suddenly,” wrote Zheng (Zheng, 1923a: 11). Zheng’s honest narrative of his marital conflict surrounding footbinding should be read against the backdrop of the anti-footbinding movement in early twentiethcentury China. In her study of China’s history of footbinding, Dorothy Ko reconstructs the unbinding experience for adult women as a “difficult, painful, and incomplete” process (2005: 49), and illuminates how the anti-footbinding rhetoric was integrated into the modern nationalist discourse by elite male writers. Zheng was

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one of these male reformists who compelled his wife to reform her body and mind as a gesture of embracing the modern new culture that associated women’s small feet with shameful old customs, which had to be eradicated immediately. According to Zheng, this process took at least four to five years, but by the time his wife had eventually liberated her feet, he had lost interest in her and any desire to improve his marriage. He Zhangqin and Shaosong, who also married old-style women with bound feet, wrote to share their marital experiences. When touching his wife’s pointed halfunbound feet at night, instead of feeling disgust, He Zhangqin showed concern for his wife’s needs and tried to find effective methods to help her unbind her feet. Like other anti-footbinding advocates, He viewed bound feet as a “societal stigma,” but he argued that “if we are not repulsed by this stigma, and try to turn the two hundred million pointed feet to round ones, our country would be more respectable” (He, 1923: 55). While He used the popular nationalistic rhetoric to link family reform with national strengthening, Shaosong referred to women’s experience of footbinding to comment on Zheng Zhenxun’s egoism and indifference to his wife’s suffering. Shaosong provided a lengthy explanation of women’s experience of pain during the procedures of footbinding and unbinding, and why it was impossible for women to achieve natural feet even after they unwrapped their binding clothes. He suspected that for adult women like Zheng’s wife, the liberation of feet caused more pain than footbinding, and therefore forcing one’s wife to unbind her feet immediately was unreasonable, disrespectful, and insensitive (Shaosong, 1923). Shaosong’s narrative of women’s bodily experience, likely based on his own wife’s testimony, exhibited a male understanding of women’s emotional needs and respect for women’s will, which were essential for building intimate, loving relationships. Historians of Chinese women and marriage have pointed out that the ideal of companionate marriage blossomed since the seventeenth-century, which celebrated companionate love in arranged marriages and considered “marriage as a moral, intellectual, emotional, and intimate companionship” (Lu, 2021: 190; see also Ko, 1994). In Ladies’ Journal’s special issue on “Divorce Problem,” published a year before Zheng’s divorce case drew public attention, some discussants expressed a similar opinion about companionate marriage and placed a new value on marital satisfaction. One author, Li Xiangjie 李相傑, asserted that romantic love was not the only element of a marital bond—responsibilities, sympathy, and economic partnership also helped build a successful marriage (1922). Another discussant, Dai Bingheng 戴秉衡, argued that freedom of love was not a good reason for divorcing old-style wives, because conjugal love could be created. He quoted a letter from a friend to demonstrate how couples could forge marital affection through sharing familial responsibilities and caring for each other. In this letter, his friend confessed to discovering his love for his old-style wife when she went away to attend school, an affection that he was unaware of before (1922). While some young radical writers advocated love marriage and free divorce, critics against unilateral divorce championed a companionate love based on mutual respect, caring, and commitment, which was more likely to be cultivated gradually during long-term marital relationships. Critics of free divorce held that conjugal affection could be developed after marriage if the

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husband endeavored to accept, educate, understand, and respect his old-style wife. The marital relation in an arranged marriage—contrary to what many New Culture writers claimed—could be fulfilling and meaningful.

3.3.5 The Female Voice in the Trend of Divorce In discussing Zheng Zhenxun’s case, as we have seen, some male writers shared their emotional life and marital practices—satisfactory or otherwise—which provided a rich source for understanding intimate relationships in early twentieth-century China. But what about women, whose image remained paradoxical in this heated public debate? Unlettered, old-style wives were obviously silenced in this discussion because they could not read and write; neither did they have access to modern print media as an outlet to voice their opinions. But if they received education and learned to express themselves through writing, they were no longer “old-style” women. As so many male authors reiterated in their writings, what differentiated the old from the new women, the unenlightened from the enlightened, was whether they attended schools. The new-style education enabled women to familiarize themselves with written Chinese to discuss the “woman question,” a modern male-initiated discourse developed in New Culture print media. In spite of this apparent paradox, there were some female critics who spoke out, and the female critiques of Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce case that appeared in New Culture women’s press exhibited a gendered understanding of free divorce and marital relations. Three female authors participated in Ladies’ Journal’s discussion, and another female author, M. L. Nüshi (M. L. 女士), published a response in Shishi xinbao’s supplement “Modern Women.”4 Analyzing two argumentative essays by female authors Lianshi 莲史 and Xu Hemei 陈呵梅, Hui-Chi Hsu argues that these authors revealed dissonant female voices that spoke out against male prejudice and “highlighted the substantial gender gap governing the practice of free divorce” (Hsu, 2018: 166; see also Hsu, 2004). Indeed, the dissenting voice of female authors found in their denunciation of Zheng Zhenxun’s male bias disturbed the male editorial intention for “gender corporation.” In addition to publishing Zheng’s “The history of my own marriage,” Issue 4 of Ladies’ Journal in 1923 included an essay by Wei Ruizhi 4

According to Mao Dun, three of the eighteen contributors to Ladies’ Journal’s column “Critiques of Mr. Zheng Zhenxun’s marriage” were female. He also concluded that five contributors denounced Zheng Zhenxun’s behavior the most vehemently, and three of these were female (Mao, 1923a). Two contributors, Lianshi and Xu Hemei, clearly wrote their articles from a female perspective. Xu Hemei was a regular contributor to Minguo ribao and other women’s publications in the 1920s, whose writings centered on women’s rights and movement. The third female contributor is probably Zhao Xiaoqing, whose article expressed a similar biting criticism against Zheng. According to “Editors’ words” in Ladies’ Journal, several articles arrived after Issue 4 was published, including M. L. Nüshi’s. Later, M. L. Nüshi’s article was published in Shishi xinbao. According to the short note by Y. D. (Wu Juenong) appearing before the article, the writing was an excerpt from a letter from Lady M. L., a female friend who lived in Japan, which he believed would represent a feminine voice on the subject (M. L. Nüshi, 1923).

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魏瑞芝, a female student from Zhejiang Women’s Normal School. Wei deplored the miserable marriages that many married women had to endure and opposed both traditional marriage and the idea of freedom of love and marriage. Discerning that neither could relieve women from oppression and family bondage, she determined to remain celibate and pursue a career in education (Wei, 1923). The editor of this issue juxtaposed Zheng’s divorce story with Wei’s essay about celibacy as two examples of the “competition between men and women” in modern society. He then called for gender cooperation, to be achieved by breaking the patriarchal family system in order to eliminate gender struggle and inequality (Zi, 1923: 6). As we have seen, what the male editors of Ladies’ Journal did not realize was that the very new practice of freedom of love, marriage, and divorce could also serve to exacerbate women’s subjugation in marital relationships. In her essay for this publication, M. L. Nüshi refuted the editors’ theory of gender competition, calling attention to the fact that women were still subject to male dominance even during the New Culture era. She challenged the prevalent new concepts of women’s right to remarriage, self-awareness, and self-reliance, disclosing that old-style women, in reality, had nothing to rely on and no opportunities to remarry. She wrote with indignation to condemn the trend of male-initiated free divorce that overlooked women’s socio-economic and cultural disadvantages: What a pity that Mrs. Zheng cannot write, and [if she could], her writing would be more miserable [than her husband’s]! She suffered more than Mr. Zheng did! … After I read Mr. Zheng’s article, I do not feel sad for him at all; instead, I feel angry on behalf of his wife! … Women were suppressed and suffocated by the traditional ethics in the past. This obstacle has been partially overcome, but the wave of divorce and abandonment is coming now…. Men do not lose anything after the divorce: they can still find a lover—they may have already found one—and start a happy life again. But what about women? Nowadays, Chinese women have almost become victims because of men! (1923, April 6: 2)

Female authors discussed the topic of free divorce on the same grounds of gender equality, humanitarianism, and rejection of patriarchal family order, but they contributed to the public debate by bringing in their distinct female perspectives and experiences. They were more sensitive to gender inequality in marital relationships due to the hierarchy of power between the couple. Through a detailed analysis of Zheng’s narrative of his marital life, especially when it came to how he interacted with his wife in daily family life, female writers underscored the pattern of male dominance and female submissiveness in Zheng’s marriage. Lianshi was infuriated that a college professor could mistreat his wife as if women were experimental objects without feelings and thoughts. “The old customs prevail, but the new ones are out of reach; the disadvantaged are victimized and tortured. Isn’t it an age of inhumanity for women?” she lamented (Lianshi, 1923: 46). In a similar vein, Zhao Xiaoqing 赵孝清 extensively quoted Zheng’s autobiographical account and the conversations he related between himself and his wife to accuse him of hypocrisy and championing male supremacy (Zhao, 1923). Written in a sarcastic tone, Xu Hemei’s article specifically targeted the deeprooted gender prejudice held by educated men, which denied women’s will, dignity, and equal status in intimate relationships. In particular, she noticed emotional abuse

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in Zheng’s narrative of his marriage. According to her, Zheng’s “male bias” (nanxing pianjian 男性偏见) was most evident in his demand for complete wifely submission and the use of divorce to intimidate his wife into loving and obeying him. Xu scrutinized Zheng’s story and pointed out evidence that showcased Zheng’s male prejudice through his constant manipulating, rejecting, and degrading of his wife in daily life. If this kind of male bias persisted, she warned, marital success would not be possible (Xu, 1923). Both Xu and Lianshi agreed that Zheng and his wife should get a divorce, but it was not because divorce promoted individual freedom, but because it would free his wife from an abusive marriage. There are three things worth noting in the responses of women writers to Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce case. First, unlike male authors, who generally expressed their sympathy for Zheng’s dilemma, these female authors launched scathing attacks on Zheng’s misconduct and gender discrimination against women. While male authors’ attitudes toward Zheng and his wife were varied, a unified female voice can be heard in women’s comments on this case. As Mao Dun and some readers of Ladies’ Journal noticed, Zheng’s story drew the sharpest criticism from female contributors to the journal (Mao, 1923a). A male reader singled out Lianshi’s and Xu Hemei’s essays to take issue with their gender-specific criticism, while another reader, probably female, admired them for their protest against male domination and “representation of our women’s appeal and castigation” (Du qian hao, 1923: 121–122). Second, while some male writers believed that highly educated men like Zheng Zhenxun could reform their families and improve their marital relations, female authors refused the romanticized image that marriage could be saved through romantic love and women’s education. In Wei Ruizhi’s article that championed female singlehood, she retold several tragic stories of educated new women marrying for love: in each case, they had to either sacrifice their future careers for the family or suffer mental anguish because of their husbands’ infidelity (Wei, 1923). In addition, female authors noticed that Zheng’s ideal marriage was established on a false premise that women were malleable by nature and willingly subject to transformation guided by men. As Xu Hemei remarked, Zheng’s assumption of his intellectual superiority and husband’s predominance led him to devalue and dominate his illiterate wife in the name of transforming her (Xu, 1923). Therefore, female authors were particularly critical of the model of new men educating old-style wives, believing that this relationship pattern sustained women’s marital subordination. Third, female authors tended to use more examples, details, and emotionally charged language, rather than the theory and abstract concepts preferred by male authors. Drawing upon their own experiences, they wrote to speak for the subdued and deserted old-style women like Zheng’s wife, and to defend their feminist position. The extensive use of exclamation points, as shown in M. L. Nüshi’s essay quoted above, rhetorical questions, and expressive style in their writings helped female authors convey their anger and feelings of frustration. Furthermore, each of these authors devoted their attention to Zheng’s obsession with the “new trend” (shimao ), as a symbol of the masculine-dominated discourse of women’s liberation. [Trend and In Zhao Xiaoqing’s article entitled “Shimao yu gailiang”

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transformation], she questioned and mocked the male-initiated rhetoric of women’s education, improvement, and enlightenment (Zhao, 1923). Lianshi and Xu Hemei went further to admonish that constantly chasing after the new would only further drive the enslavement of women in marital relations. “Mr. Zheng seemed to treat us women as goods; the more fashionable and newer, the better,” Xu observed (Xu, 1923: 50). Female authors suggested that this commodification of women further manifested the male-biased hierarchy justified by the pursuit of the new culture and modern mode of life. However, it should also be noted that there were a few shortcomings in female authors’ critique of Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce. In most cases, the authors concentrated on Zheng’s personal flaws and the power imbalance in his marriage. Their arguments elucidated gender discrimination in the prevalent love-based marriage ideal, but they did little to challenge the conventional understanding of male–female differences and the notion of femininity. Their wholesale rejection of both the new ideal of love marriage and the traditional marriage institution made it difficult for them to suggest possible remedies to aid socially disadvantaged women. Ironically, their sympathy for these old-style women seemed to foreground the stereotypical characteristics of women, and perpetuated the dichotomies not only between modern men and old-style women, but also between “awakened” new women and unenlightened traditional women.

3.4 Conclusion During the New Culture Movement, the trend was to discredit the traditional arranged marriages and old-style women in favor of the new idea of freedom of marriage and divorce. For the educated younger generation in China, marriage based on love had replaced arranged marriage as a social ideal, but these young people soon found that they faced a dilemma. On the one hand, male intellectuals desired to resist the patriarchal family order and choose their partners on the basis of mutual love and intellectual compatibility; on the other hand, they often had to compromise in reality and struggled to deal with marriages arranged by their parents. They found their options were limited not only because social norms and laws protected traditional marriage and family institutions, but also because it was impractical for them to find suitably educated wives due to the lack of open male–female social interaction and the high female illiteracy rate in early twentieth-century China. One of the most hotly-debated subjects at the time was free divorce—unilateral divorces initiated by men, to be exact—and public opinions were polarized on the issue of educated men divorcing their old-style wives. In one of his articles about free divorce, Mao Dun asserted that the divorce issue had become the main focus of the conflict between the old and new generations in China. In defending what he maintained were Zheng Zhenxun’s legitimate reasons for proposing a divorce, Mao Dun reiterated love as a prerequisite for marriage and urged the younger generation to eliminate the old system (Mao, 1922; 1923a). Supporters of free divorce held that

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divorce was necessary, as it was part of the iconoclastic agenda of reforming and modernizing the Chinese society in the New Culture Movement. Divorcing old-style wives and ending marriages arranged by families was thus a symbolic gesture of breaking with the patriarchal tradition. In contrast, their opponents argued that, at the present time, divorce victimized old-style women and confirmed male privilege, though many still envisioned a future in which free divorce would be practiced. Critics against free divorce insisted that abandoning unwanted wives to pursue individual happiness was unethical and irresponsible. The appropriate way to obliterate the arranged marriage practice, according to Sun Benwen, would be to dissolve improper engagements while maintaining the existing marital union with certain exceptions. From a sociological point of view, he claimed that neither the conservative tradition of marriage nor the Western divorce laws would work in Chinese transitional society (Sun, 1923). Beneath the debate on Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce lies significant ramifications for how Chinese intellectuals thought about the morality of modernity, the tension between individual choice and social conventions, and what divorce meant for women, family, and society. The bifurcation between those who objected to and those who supported Zheng’s divorce manifested the internal divergence among the New Culture intellectuals on the woman question: radical male reformers idealized love marriage and sought immediate solutions to their marital problems; male liberal feminists and sociologists realized the dilemma while attempting to strike a balance between individual freedom and social morality; and female authors foregrounded the male hierarchy of power in the discourse of free divorce. The ideal of freedom of love and marriage was a double-edged sword: it was key to individual happiness and the New Cultural anti-traditional agenda, but, meanwhile, it both romanticized and cemented male domination and female subordination in relationships. Just as traditional arranged marriage was rooted in the patriarchal family structure, the modern idea of free divorce could link to gender hierarchy and inequality inside and outside the family structure. Nevertheless, the general agreement in this public debate on men’s social duties to improve women’s education and work on their marital relationships paved the way for a more equitable attitude toward gender relations and an increased awareness of the woman question in the period that followed.

References Barlow, T. E. (2004). The question of women in Chinese feminism. Duke University Press. Bianji yulu [Editors’ words]. (1922). Funü zazhi, 8(8), 126. Chang, P.-M.N. (2011). Feet and western dress: a memoir. Anchor Books. Chen, H. (2008). Xuesheng hunyin wenti zhi yanjiu [A study of students’ marriage problem]. In X. Chen & Y. Chen (Eds.), Chen Heqin quanji [Complete works of Chen Heqin] (vol. 6, pp. 7–47). Nanjing: Jiangsu jiaoyu chuban she (Original work published 1921). Dai, B. (1922). Lihun zhi zhunze [Rules for divorce]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), 183–185. Daqing minlü caoan minguo minlü caoan [Qing civil laws and Republican China civil laws]. (2002). Changchun: Jilin renmin chubanshe.

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Du qian hao [Reading the previous issues]. (1923). Funü zazhi, 9(6), 121–123. Fakan zhiqu [Objectives of publication]. (1922). Funü zazhi, 8(4), 1. Feng, J. (2004). New woman in early twentieth-century Chinese fiction. Purdue University Press. Glosser, S. L. (2003). Chinese visions of family and state, 1915–1953. University of California Press. Gu, Q. (1922). Ziyou lihun de jiazhi [The value of free divorce]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), 175–176. Ko, D. (1994). Teachers of the inner chambers: Women and culture in seventeenth-century China. Stanford University Press. Ko, D. (2005). Cinderella’s sisters: A revisionist history of footbinding. University of California Press. He, Z. (1923). Qing kan wo dui ta [Please observe how I treat her]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 53–57. Hsu, R.H.-C. (2004). Funü zazhi suo fanying de ziyou lihun sixiang jiqi shijian: Cong xingbie chayi tanqi [Free divorce in thought and practice: Gender differences in the Ladies’ Journal]. Jindai Zhongguo funü shi yanjiu, 12, 69–113. Hsu, R.H.-C. (2018). Rebellious yet constrained: Dissenting women’s views on love and sexual morality in the Ladies’ Journal and the New Woman. In M. Hockx, J. Judge, & B. Mittler (Eds.), Women and the periodical press in China’s long twentieth century: A space of their own? (pp. 158–175) Cambridge University Press. Irving, W. (2018). The wife. In The sketch book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent (pp. 33–39). http://books. google.com/books (Original work published 1819). Lee, H. (2007). Revolution of the heart: A genealogy of love in China, 1900–1950. Stanford University Press. Li, S. (1920). Ziyou lihun lun [On free divorce]. Funü zazhi, 6(7), 1–8. Li, X. (1922). Lihun zhi biaozhun: Aiqing he rendao [Criteria for divorce: Love and humanity]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), 185–187. Lianshi. (1923). Furen de feiren shidai: Cu putianxia nanxing fanxing [Inhumane time for women: Urging introspection of men]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 44–46. Liu, X. (1922, September 6). Danyuan de lihun wenti [Problems of unilateral divorce]. Minguo ribao, pp. 2–3. Lu, W. (2021). Arranged companions: Marriage and intimacy in Qing China. University of Washington Press. M. L. Nüshi. (1923, April 6). Dule eryue hao de Funü zazhi yihou [Reading the February issue of Ladies’ Journal]. Shishi xinbao, p. 2. Mao, D. (1922). Lihun yu daode wenti [Divorce and moral issues]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), pp. 13–16. Mao, D. (1923a, April 25). Du duiyu Zheng Zhenxun jun hunyin shi de piping yihou [Reading “Critiques of Mr. Zheng Zhenxun’s marriage”]. Minguo ribao, p. 1–2. Mao, D. (1923b, May 16). Ping Zheng Zhenxun jun suo zhuzhang de taohun [On Mr. Zheng Zhenxun’s idea of escaping from marriage]. Minguo ribao, p. 1. Mao, D. (1985). Chuangzao [Creation]. In Mao Dun quanji [Complete works of Mao Dun] (vol. 8, pp. 1–32). Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe (Original work published 1928). Mao, P. (2021). Popular magazines and fiction in Shanghai, 1914–1925: Modernity, the cultural imaginary, and the middle society. Lexington Books. Pan, G. (1993). Zhongguo zhi jiating wenti [Problems of Chinese families]. In Pan Guangdan wenji [Works of Pan Guangdan] (vol. 1, pp. 69–241). Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe (Original work published 1928). Pan, L. (2015). When true love came to China. Hong Kong University Press. Shaosong. (1923). Du Kuangfu jun wo ziji de hunyin shi de wo jian [My view on Mr. Kuangfu’s “The history of my own marriage”]. Jiming, 1, 6–13. Sun, B. (1923, June 6). Wo duiyu Zheng Zhenxun yi lei hunyin wenti de yijian [My view on marital problems of Zheng Zhenxun]. Shishi xinbao, p. 1–2. Wang, X. (2003). Chazhe sheng: Wu Juenong zhuan [Tea master: A biography of Wu Juenong]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe.

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Wang, Z. (1999). Women in the Chinese enlightenment: Oral and textual histories. University of California Press. Wei, R. (1923a). Wu zhi dushen zhuyi guan [My view of celibacy]. Funü zazhi, 9(2), 25–28. Wei, S. (1923b). Tai fuyu kexuejia secai de Zheng xiansheng [Mr. Zheng is science-oriented]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 50–53. Wu, J. (1922a). Ailunkai de ziyou lihun lun [Ellen Key’s theory of free divorce]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), 51–57. Wu, J. (1922b). Yijian tuoxie de lihun [An amicable divorce]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), 145–148. Wu, J. (1923a). Cong dajiating shenghuo dao geren shenghuo [From life in a big family to individual life]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 71–75. Wu, J. (1923b). Wo de lihun de qianhou: Jian zhi Zheng Zhenxun xiansheng [Before and after my divorce: Questions for Mr. Zheng Zhenxun]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 41–43. Xia, M. (1922, September 6). Nanzi duiyu nüzi de ziyou lihun [Male-initiated free divorce]. Minguo ribao, p. 2. Xu, H. (1923). Pianjian de nanxing zhi pianjian: Ze Kuangfu xiansheng [The bias of a biased man: Criticizing Mr. Kuangfu]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 46–50. Xu, Z. (2005). Zhi Zhang Youyi [To Zhang Youyi]. In S. Han (Ed.), Xu Zhimo quanji [Complete works of Xu Zhimo] (vol. 6, p. 46). Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe (Original work published 1932). Yang, L. (2016). Langman de Zhongguo: Xingbie shijiao xia jijin zhuyi sichao yu wenxue 1890–1940 [Romantic China: Radical ideas and literature from a gender perspective: 1890–1940]. Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe. Yang, S. (1923). Chongyuan de xiwang: Gailiang huanjing he zengjin xueshi [Hopes of reunion: Reforming the social environment and enhancing knowledge]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 30–32. Zhang, X. (1923). Xiandai qingnian nannü pei’ou xuanze de qingxiang [Tendencies in selecting spouses among young people of today]. Funü zazhi, 9(11), 43–54. Zhang, Y. (1923). Nüzi shi youqing de [Women have feelings]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 62–65. Zhao, X. (1923). Shimao yu gailiang [Trend and transformation]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 65–67. Zheng, Z. (1923a). Wo ziji de hunyin shi [The history of my own marriage]. Funü zazhi, 9(2), 7–24. Zheng, Z. (1923b, June 20). Lihun yu daode wenti shehui wenti jiqi zhang’ai [Divorce, moral issues, social issues, and its obstacles]. Minguo ribao, p. 1–3. Zhou, J. (1922a). Lihun wenti shiyi [Explanation for divorce]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), 2–5. Zhou, J. (1922b). Zhongguo de lihun fa [Divorce law in China]. Funü zazhi, 8(4), 86–90. Zhou, J. (1923). Aiqing de biaoxian yu jiehun shenghuo [Expression of love and marital life]. Funü zazhi, 9(4), 22–24. Zhou, X. (2005). Minguo chunian xin jiu chongtu xia de hunyin nanti: Yi Dongnan daxue Zheng Zhenxun jiaoshou de lihun shijian wei fenxi shili [Marriage problems and the conflicts between the new and old in early Republican China: A case study of Dongnan University Professor Zheng Zhenxun’s divorce]. In Z. Wang & Y. Chen (Eds.), Bainian Zhongguo nüquan sichao yanjiu [Research on 100 years of feminist thought in China] (pp. 88–107). Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe. Zhou, Z. (2009). Lihun yu jiehun [Divorce and marriage]. In S. Zhong (Ed.), Zhou Zuoren sanwen quanji [Complete essays of Zhou Zuoren] (vol. 3, pp. 131–134). Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe (Original work published 1924). Zi, H. (1923). Xiandai de nannü zhengdou [Modern-day battle between men and women]. Funü zazhi, 9(2), 2–6.

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Peijie Mao received a PhD in Chinese from Stanford University. She is currently Associate Professor of Chinese at ShanghaiTech University (China), and the author of Popular Magazines and Fiction in Shanghai, 1914–1925: Modernity, the Cultural Imaginary, and the Middle Society (Lexington Books, 2021). Her research interests include modern Chinese fiction, popular culture, and media studies.

Chapter 4

Free Love and Free Marriage: Chinese Writers’ Description and an American Missionary Woman’s Prescription in the 1920s Tin Kei Wong Abstract May Fourth Chinese intellectuals celebrated women’s free choice of partners as one of the Western notions closely tied to gender equality and modernity. Previous studies have shown that The Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi, 1915–1931) championed freedom of love, marriage, and divorce under Zhang Xichen’s (1889– 1969) editorship from 1921 to 1925. This chapter introduces an underexplored perspective on these issues from Laura M. White (1867–1937), the founding editor of The Woman’s Messenger (Nüduo, 1912–1951) and a Protestant American missionary woman. In her twin roles as an educator and an editor in China since 1891, she wrote numerous articles to teach Chinese women certain Western concepts on womanhood she perceived suitable for them. When the Chinese yearned for Western models to emulate, American missionary women such as White, who closely interacted with Chinese women, might have been viewed as exemplars. However, this chapter illustrates that White’s ideas were much more conservative than the Western ideas reformist writers had described. By juxtaposing the concepts of love and marriage prescribed by an American missionary woman with those described and campaigned by Chinese writers, predominantly male intellectuals represented by Zhang Xichen, this study aims to portray how Chinese women were positioned as the subject of this dynamic discussion of conjugal relationships from two groups other than themselves in the rapidly changing social and cultural landscapes of the 1920s. Keywords The Woman’s Messenger · The Ladies’ Journal · Laura M. White · Zhang Xichen · Free love · Free marriage · Women’s magazines

T. K. Wong (B) Department of Asian Studies, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 C. S. G. Lau and K. K. Y. Chan (eds.), Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, Chinese Culture 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6_4

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4.1 Introduction At the turn of the twentieth century, China was undergoing drastic political and social changes, particularly during the turbulent years around the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 that resulted in a fallen Qing dynasty and a fragile Republican China. Facing encroaching foreign powers, paradoxically, Chinese people craved knowledge and models from the West to achieve modernization as a way to revive and strengthen their nation. With the increased encounters between China and the West, Chinese intellectuals in the early twentieth century gradually realized that Western learning should not be limited to borrowing tangible Western technology for military and industrial development. Attributing China’s weakness to its traditional Confucian ideas, reformists maintained that China should adopt Western values and ideologies to survive. The May Fourth Movement, part of the New Culture Movement of the late 1910s and early 1920s, was the culmination of this realization. The May Fourth period in the early Republican era witnessed constant cries for an iconoclastic cultural reform that adopted Western ideas, with a heavy emphasis on science and democracy.1 During this time, publications, periodicals in particular, played a significant role in spreading ideas and keeping the momentum of the intellectuals’ discussion of these ideas. In the press, reformists criticized the social institutions and gender inequality in traditional Chinese culture and started to discuss “the woman question” (funü wenti 婦女問題). Between 1898 and 1911, around 44 Chinese women’s journals were published; another 30 were launched between 1912 and 1915 (Judge et al., 2018: 3). Addressing the woman question, these women’s magazines spread notions such as women’s independence, women’s education, gender equality, and women’s participation in political and social movements, many of which were foreign ideas from the West (Ma, 2010: 1–24). An essential aspect of the woman question is a woman’s independent personhood (duli renge 獨立人格). Chinese women, for many years, were seen as submissive property under the Confucian patriarchal social structure. They had no access to education and were homebound. They carried the role of serving the male members of the family by performing domestic duties with no autonomy for themselves. One of the May Fourth reformists’ notions on gender equality, therefore, demanded that women, just as their male counterparts, should be able to exercise free will as individuals to make their own choices in life. Choosing a partner by free will was one of the most significant decisions in a woman’s life. Not only was this significant to an individual, the concomitant concepts of “free love” (ziyou lian’ai自由戀愛) and “free marriage” (ziyou jiehun自由結婚) subverted the entire Chinese social institution that was built on the patriarchal practice of arranged marriage for thousands of years. This chapter juxtaposes the concepts of free love and free marriage depicted and discussed in two of the longest-running women’s magazines in China, The Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi 婦女雜誌, 1915–1931) and The Woman’s Messenger (Nüduo 女鐸, 1912–1951). While The Ladies’ Journal was a secular commercial women’s magazine founded by Chinese locals, The Woman’s Messenger was the first Christian 1

For more on the May Fourth period, see Chow (2013) and Schwarcz (1986).

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women’s magazine in China founded by American Protestant missionary Laura M. White (1867–1937). These are two of the most long-standing women’s journals that had witnessed critical historical events. Besides, their content reflected contemporary ideologies on the woman question alongside the rapid socio-political changes. The Ladies’ Journal is abundant with articles that celebrated foreign ideas on womanhood, including women’s free will to love, marry, and divorce, some of which quoted the experience of American women, whom Hu Shi 胡適 (1891–1962) praised for their self-reliance and exemplary spirit to be free and independent human beings (Hu, 1918: 223). Paradoxically, White, as one of the American women on Chinese soil and in the vicinity of Chinese women, held conservative views on free love and free marriage, drastically different from what the Chinese writers had depicted. While Hockx, Judge, and Mittler’s volume (2018) has adequately substantiated their claim that “Chinese women’s journals offer unparalleled access to the intricacies of China’s gendered past” (Judge et al., 2018: 1), when they provide a brief chronology and a bibliographic overview of women’s magazines in China from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century, The Woman’s Messenger is not included. To address this gap, this chapter seeks to introduce White and this first Christian women’s magazine in China into the discussion of free love and free marriage in women’s periodicals. The Ladies’ Journal is one of the most studied women’s magazines of the Republican era. There are numerous previous studies on the discourse of love and marriage in the magazine, which Zhang Xichen’s 章錫琛 (1889–1969) editorship from 1921 to 1925 distinctively championed.2 This chapter provides a brief overview of the overarching outlook during Zhang’s tenure which captures some of the characteristic ideas that sharply contrast with those in The Woman’s Messenger under White’s editorship. White’s ideas as a dissenting voice toward free love and free marriage, from another long-running women’s journal at the time, are discussed in more detail because they have barely been explored.3 This study employs the combined approach of integrated reading and situated reading, two methods of studying journals. While an integrated reading examines a journal against other contemporary periodicals and publications in the wider print culture, a situated reading studies other source materials that inform a journal’s broader context (Judge et al., 2018: 9–10). To complement the integrated reading performed by the juxtaposition holding The Woman’s Messenger against The Ladies’ Journal, this study uses situated reading to consider other source materials, including White’s speech, missionary correspondence, and one of her published monographs, that informed White’s broader context in which she expressed her ideas through The Woman’s Messenger. By depicting the missionary’s prescription of ideals about love and marriage, this chapter aims to portray how Chinese women were positioned as the subject of this dynamic discussion of conjugal relationships in the 1920s by two groups other than themselves.

2

For example, Hsu (2008) and Huang (2017). To date, Zhou’s (2019) doctoral thesis is the only comprehensive study on The Woman’s Messenger that includes detailed analysis of White’s Victorian discourse targeted at Chinese women.

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4.2 The Two Longest-Running Women’s Magazines: The Ladies’ Journal and the Woman’s Messenger 4.2.1 The Ladies’ Journal The Ladies’ Journal was established by the Shanghai Commerical Press in 1915. It was a monthly magazine for women that enjoyed a wide circulation in major Chinese cities for 17 years until the Japanese army bombed the Commercial Press in January 1932. The early twentieth century witnessed the blooming of Chinese women’s magazines, although many were short-lived. The Ladies’ Journal was perceived as one of the most impactful women’s magazines because of its lengthy running time and wide distribution and readership. Across the span of its publication, The Ladies’ Journal is divided into several periods according to the shifting editing direction and foci with the change of chief editors (Nivard, 1984). During the editorship (1915–1920) of Wang Yunzhang 王蕴 章 (1884–1942) and Zhu-Hu Binxia 朱胡彬夏 (1888–1931), The Ladies’ Journal emphasized the significance of women’s education that taught women to be virtuous mothers and good wives, for the benefit of the Chinese nation. Wang Zheng illustrates that, during the May Fourth era, the magazine promoted both feminine virtues that aligned with the traditional gender discourse and progressive feminist ideas that were in line with foreign notions of women’s individuality (Wang, 1999: 68). Moving toward the peak of the May Fourth movement, The Ladies’ Journal shifted toward the liberal end of the spectrum, away from the virtuous motherhood it initially advocated.4 This shift was evident in the magazine’s second period (1921–1925) when Zhang Xichen took over the editorship in 1921. Compared to his predecessors, Zhang Xichen was avant-garde in his overall approach during the editorship. In the early 1920s, The Ladies’ Journal had a reform to place the focus on gender relations and women’s issues. The content under Zhang’s editorship was characterized by topics on free love, free marriage, freedom to divorce, relationships, and sexuality, based on the imported ideas of romantic love (lian’ai 戀愛) and new sexual morality (xin xingdaode 新性 道德), which will be further discussed below.

4.2.2 The Woman’s Messenger The Christian Literature Society for China (Guangxue Hui 廣學會, hereafter “the CLS”) published The Woman’s Messenger as the first Christian women’s magazine in China in 1912. Since the late-Qing dynasty, Protestant missionaries started to utilize

4

For an overview of the shifting foci of The Ladies’ Journal over its span of publication, see Jin (2004).

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the press as a tool to spread the gospel indirectly.5 The CLS, founded initially as the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese, was the most prominent Protestant publisher in China with the longest history (Ho, 1988: 65). Founded by Alexander Williamson in 1887, the CLS focused on publishing books and journals on Western knowledge targeting the influential class in Chinese society, primarily officials of the Qing government and literati. Williamson had the vision to extend the Society’s influence to the families of these elites by publishing “a periodical for the women and children,” but this was only realized 22 years after he died in 1890 (Brown, 1938: 111). In 1912, when the CLS celebrated its semijubilee, The Woman’s Messenger was launched. Timothy Richard (1845–1919), who succeeded Williamson in taking charge of the CLS, invited Laura M. White to be the founding editor-in-chief (White, 1929: 904). White was considered the most suitable person to be the founding editor because of her “Power of the Pen,” as well as her “love and enthusiasm” for Chinese girls and women (MacGillivray, 1938: 39). Before this, the CLS had planned to launch a periodical for women and children as far back as 1895, but this only happened 17 years later when White emerged to be the ideal founding editor. The CLS committee eventually commissioned White to take on this crucial role (Isham, 1936: 220). White’s fellow missionaries were confident in her abilities, and they asserted that “no other woman in China” would be so suitable for the task or “could secure such results” (Knowles, 1915: 300). The missionary circle’s confidence in White was rooted in her achievement in the education of Chinese girls since she arrived in China in 1891. When she became the principal of the Nanjing Huiwen Girls’ School 南京市匯文女子中學, White implemented a successful reform to raise the school’s standard and curriculum to the college level. As soon as she took office, White efficiently established a teachertraining department in which students studied college-level materials. Within two years, the school was already applying for a college charter (Isham, 1936: 217). Her experience and achievement demonstrated her worth as a capable pioneer in new ventures. In addition, she established a translation department in the school where she not only endeavored in translation activities herself but also trained her students to be translators. These endeavors since the early 1900s proved White’s literary skills, which justified her to be the right candidate for such a significant position. The overtly positive comments about White’s suitability as the founding editor of the first Christian women’s magazine in China reflected the missionaries’ overjoy in having a solution to counter the influence of the booming secular women’s periodicals, many of which spread certain ideas that contradicted the Protestant ideals. Although some of the Western reformist ideas and exemplary stories featured in these secular journals were from the United States, The Woman’s Messenger, edited by White as an American woman, presented notions on womanhood that were far more conservative, which will be illustrated by her discourse on freedom of love and marriage discussed below.

5

For a detailed history of Protestant missionaries’ press and publishing industry, see Ho (1988) and see Zhao and Wu (2011).

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4.3 Free Love and Free Marriage in the Ladies’ Journal Under Zhang’s Editorship Broadly speaking, the ideas of free love and free marriage denote that women had the freedom and free will to choose whom to love and marry, which were progressive ideas that would revolutionize the practice of arranged marriage in feudal China. In traditional Chinese culture, conjugal relations functioned as the apparatus to connect clans for a stable social institution. In an arranged marriage, the family was the primary concern over the relationship between husband and wife. Any affection or love between the couple was downplayed as a by-product. During the May Fourth period, free love and free marriage were introduced as foreign ideas that provided abundant theories for the revolution of the marriage system. Romantic love used to be only depicted in literature as a fictional element. However, in the 1920s, it was well justified to appear as a social issue openly discussed in journals and public discourse. Free love and free marriage, and the concomitant free divorce, became popular concepts when women started to embrace their natural emotional needs as individual human beings. Those women who used to celebrate female celibacy as an expression of independence began to support the ideas of free love and consensual marriage as well. To fight for freedom of love and marriage became one of the most tangible requests from young people to rebel against the feudal family system and pass on the May Fourth spirit. Particularly after 1919, freedom to love (lian’ai ziyou 戀愛自由), freedom to marry (hunyin ziyou 婚姻 自由), and freedom to divorce (lihun ziyou 離婚自由) became three of the most substantial rights May Fourth reformists advocated for women. In her study of the texts about free love, Huang performed a search for the term “romantic love” (lian’ai) in periodicals from 1833 to 1949. She found that 99.5% of some 6000 articles in the result appeared after 1919, while there were less than 40 before 1919 (Huang, 2017: 292). The Chinese contributors to The Ladies’ Journal during Zhang’s editorship had undoubtedly contributed to a significant portion of this sheer amount of articles. When Zhang became the chief editor of The Ladies’ Journal in 1921, he felt the pressing need to address the woman question as a social issue with great concern at the time and started to seek inspiration from Japanese works. Soon, he gathered a group of contributors who shared his liberal idea of feminism, including Zhou Jianren 周建人 (1888–1984), who joined Zhang as an assistant editor in early 1922 (Wang, 1999: 67–116). Since then, he set the tone of The Ladies’ Journal to be a voice advocating freedoms to love, marry, and divorce.

4.3.1 Sanctity of Romantic Love The Ladies’ Journal collected articles regarding love and marriage from all over the world, particularly from the West, to introduce different novel perspectives and theories to Chinese readers. Those who frequently appeared as supporters of free love and

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free marriage included Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), Ellen Key (1849–1926), Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Edward Carpenter (1844– 1929) and August Bebel (1840–1913). Western thinkers who opposed free love and free marriage included Charles Abram Ellwood (1873–1946) and Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster (1869–1966). However, even when the opposing voices were published, the overall editing direction made The Ladies’ Journal a publication that fervently supported the freedom of love, marriage, and divorce. Zhang translated Foerster’s Sexualethik und Sexualpadagogik (1913) as a gesture to cover diverse perspectives on the freedom to divorce, but his comments as the editor and translator following the translation showed that he did not consider Foerster’s notion applicable to Chinese society, even it appeared to be sound. It was not surprising because Foerster was presented as the primary opponent of Ellen Key, whom Zhang held in high esteem. Swedish woman writer Ellen Key was the most quoted thinker in articles on free love in The Ladies’ Journal. The contributors led by Zhang fully adopted Key’s ideas on their interpretation of love and new moral concepts on sex. Collectively, Zhang and the contributors embraced and echoed Key’s notions on free love, which made The Ladies’ Journal the most important medium to disseminate Key’s ideas during this period (Hsu, 2008: 41). The most notable notions Key advocated included the freedom and morality of romantic love and the significance of love-based marriage for the survival of the race.6 The discourse in the magazine exalted her thought and coined the term “Love Religion” (lian’ai jiao 戀愛教) (Li, 1920), which was also expanded to the sanctity of romantic love (lian’ai shensheng 戀愛神聖). Key and her Chinese supporters sanctified romantic love and even developed new concepts of morality from it. They declared that romantic love should be the only rationale for marriage because it nurtured the spirit of independence and the will to love and give (Hsu, 2018: 161). Key opposed marriage without love and stated that it was immoral. Even if two people had married because of love, it was immoral to continue the marriage unwillingly when love did not exist anymore.7 In contrast to the traditional Chinese thought, which posited romantic love as a by-product of marriage, Key declared romantic love as the essential element in marriage.8 This theory, using romantic love to determine the validity and morality of marriage, was a subversive ideology for Chinese society at the time. This new sexual morality based on liberal love frequently appeared in the discussion of free love, sometimes as the new interpretation of chastity (zhencao 貞操).9 Delving into the discussion, Zhang and his fellow intellectuals ventured to introduce a new concept of chastity, dubbed “love morality” (lian’ai daode 戀愛道德), which was bound to love instead of marriage (Hsu, 2018: 161). In other words, the mutual affection between a man and a woman, rather than marriage, obliged them to be sexually loyal to each other.

6

For a thorough discussion of how Ellen Key’s ideas were adopted and appropriated in diverse discourses, see Hsu (2021). 7 For detailed discussions, see Wu (1922a) and Dong (1923). 8 For the development of the concept of romantic love in modern China, see Lee (2007). 9 For a thorough discussion on this new sexual morality, see Hsu (2008).

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Another ideal was the “unification of soul and flesh” (lingrou yizhi 靈肉一致), which dictated that love must exist in sexual relationships.

4.3.2 Free Love: Essential to Women’s Liberation and Humanity It was evident that Zhang was obsessed with the ideals of free love and free marriage. In Zhang’s open letter to Wang Pingling 王平陵 (1898–1964), Zhang addressed the latter’s concern that there were too many articles on romantic love in the magazine. Zhang explained the rationale of his firm stance on disseminating the freedom of love (Wang & Zhang, 1922: 121–122). Anticipating that people might be shocked and surprised upon hearing his idea, Zhang continued to declare that the woman question needed to be solved by the advocacy of free love. It was the only solution to promote women’s education and economic independence, defend against old laws and morals, and reform the institutions of the family (Wang & Zhang, 1922: 121). Free love enabled young men and women to claim back the “individual personhood” and “free will” so that they could be the decision-makers in their relationships and lives. Especially for a woman, when she had her own will and individual identity, she would no longer be objectified as the property of men. In this sense, free love would become the most powerful expression of “individual personhood” and “free will”, as well as an ideology to achieve gender equality by breaking the shackles of family domination, financial dependence, and lack of education. Therefore, Zhang’s goal in editing The Ladies’ Journal was to solve the woman’s question with free love. While promoting freedom of love as the unrestrained free will, Zhang and the contributors emphasized that the free love they proposed was a kind of emotional freedom to love the opposite sex that involved a responsibility to children and society instead of over-indulgence (Zhang, 1923: 49). However, some young people abused the notion of free love to engage in free sex, indulging in carnal desires because they lacked self-control. In addition, they were not informed about how love was significant to life, children, society, and the world (Wu, 1923: 42). Zhang recognized that Chinese people needed to be educated about the notion of free love. Zhang explained that, in China, there was no such concept or term as “love.” The term lian’ai was a translated word in Chinese from Japanese, but there was never a corresponding concept for this term in Chinese society. Therefore, some Chinese people mistook adultery (jianyin 姦淫) for lian’ai and committed adultery in the name of love. To remedy this misconception, Chinese people should advocate the notions of romantic love and free love even more so that everyone would understand the significance of these notions through education and practice (Wang & Zhang, 1922: 121). Indeed, The Ladies’ Journal contributed to part of this education by publishing real cases of free love and free marriage, both successful and unsuccessful ones. In successful stories, Key’s theory was quoted frequently to strengthen the notion of

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love-based marriage being the only moralistic marriage.10 While successful stories were published to provide role models for young men and women, the unsuccessful cases provided Zhang with opportunities to make asides to point out what went wrong and encouraged readers not to give up on the practice of free love. For example, in an article titled “The failure of a love-based marriage,” the author narrated two cases of her acquaintances (Dan, 1923). Wang decided to become a nun because her husband, whom she married for love, left her after she lost her eyesight in one eye due to illness. Yang, another woman, attempted suicide after moving to a Western country to live with her fiancé, only to discover that he had already been engaged with another woman. In conclusion, the author condemned the fancy notion of free love as detrimental and called for fellow women to wake up from the addiction to romantic love. Zhang wrote his comments in response, providing an analysis of the cause of the failure (Dan, 1923: 46). Zhang did not consider these cases genuine lovebased marriages because of the dishonesty involved. While deception was the main culprit, the two women should have carefully observed the love in the relationships. Zhang especially pointed to the fact that Yang’s purpose of the engagement was to travel abroad, denouncing that she violated the true meaning of love. Again, even when Zhang included diverse opinions on free love and free marriage to show a superficially unbiased discussion, his advocacy always prevailed. Zhang’s and the contributors’ canonization of free love can be encapsulated in the claim that “love is life” and “people must live for love” (Wu, 1923: 41). Although love was tied with sexuality, true love was the noble “unification of soul and flesh” instead of “adultery.” Embracing Key’s notion, Zhang and the contributors declared the significance of love-based sex, which was beneficial to the improvement of the human race because healthy offspring would be created and nurtured in a loving environment (Wu, 1922b: 8). Throughout the 1920s, Zhang was dedicated to advocating freedom of love, marriage, and divorce. After he resigned from the editorship of The Ladies’ Journal due to the backlash from the Chinese intelligentsia for his bold notions on new sexual morality in 1925, he became the editor-in-chief of another magazine, The New Woman (Xin nüxing 新女性). He continued his advocacy there from 1926 to 1929.11

4.4 Laura M. White’s Victorian View of Love and Marriage Contradicting the avant-garde Western notions introduced and celebrated by the Chinese writers, White’s views on love and marriage were rooted in Victorian womanhood, similar to the conservative Confucian teaching regarding women’s domestic roles and duties. Indeed, White was subject to such Victorian ideals of femininity that were imbued in her upbringing and education. 10

Two examples are Gu and Zhang (1922) and “Lian’ai jiehun chenggong shi” (1922). For more details of the dispute between Zhang and the Chinese intelligentsia and Zhang’s editorship in The New Woman, see Hsu (2008).

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Laura M. White (born Laura Marsden White, commonly known as Liang Leyue 亮 樂月in China) was born in Baltimore, the United States. She was baptized at the age of 11 years and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at the age of 18 years.12 After graduating from the Philadelphia High School and Normal School in 1882, White worked as a teacher in public schools for five years until she decided to become a missionary in response to “the feeling of a divine call.” White received special training at Wellesley Preparatory School for a year and Chicago Training School for Home and Foreign Missions for another year. After she completed the preparation in 1890, she was appointed to China under the auspices of the Philadelphia Branch of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society and sailed to the mission field in 1891. White shared a similar early life with her fellow missionary women, who typically were dedicated to church work and teaching before they embarked on missions (Hunter, 1984: 30). White was one of the many young single American women joining the mission force following the American Civil War (1861–1865) in response to the evangelical Student Volunteer Movement, which had recruited nearly half the missionary volunteers at the turn of the century (Phillips, 2013). As I have argued elsewhere, the missionary movement was closely motivated by an array of national, political, gender, and cultural ideologies prevalent in American society at the time (Wong, 2020: 26–29). Victorian womanhood, one of such ideologies, was the key notion that profoundly informed White’s ideas of freedom, love, and marriage.

4.4.1 Victorian Womanhood White sailed to China from a background of American Victorianism. Although the United States declared independence in 1776, many parts of the country were still under heavy British cultural influence during the Victorian period (1837–1901). Discussing how Victorianism was a transatlantic culture that developed within different contexts in Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century, Howe demonstrated that the United States observed Victorian culture even more strongly than Britain (Howe, 1975: 508). The Victorian ideal of womanhood, which originated from traditional ideas about women’s inferiority and subjection that accompanied the arrival of English colonists in North America, governed the lifestyle and behavior of American women as an integral part of Victorianism (Harris, 1978:16). Victorian womanhood entailed a notion of “separate spheres” for each sex that resembled the Confucian teaching of “men leading the outer domain and women leading the inner domain” (nan zhu wai, nü zhu nei 男主外, 女主內). While the competitive, assertive, and rational man earned a living in the public sphere, the virtuous, weak, and submissive woman stayed inside the private sphere to manage the household. Mid-nineteenth-century writers called this ideal woman the “true woman” 12

Unless otherwise referenced, White’s background is written according to her personal biographical file collected in the United Methodist Church Archives of General Commission on Archives and History (United Methodist Church Archives, 2016).

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(Welter, 1966: 151). Welter studied this cult of true womanhood and concluded that the true woman was expected to embrace the four virtues of “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity” to fulfill her feminine role (Welter, 1966: 152). As “piety” hints, American Victorianism was so closely linked to evangelical Protestantism that Howe describes Victorianism as “essentially Protestant” (Howe, 1975: 513). Protestant Victorian womanhood informed White’s gender notions, which influenced her views on freedom of love and marriage.

4.4.2 Love as Self-sacrifice and Freedom as Service To White, the notions of freedom, love, and marriage were encapsulated in the spirit of “service” and “self-sacrifice.” Her ideas mirrored the self-denial spirit reflected in the motto of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, “Saved for Service.” As Hill notes, the theological assumptions of the Society emphasized women’s capability to practice self-sacrifice as a virtue (Hill, 1985: 69). In White’s discourse, love was entwined with motherhood, and she saw love as sacrifice and freedom as service. Her model of motherhood and love was based on the concept of “the struggle for the life of others,” which she saw as a noble female principle (White, 1910: 10). In a 1911 speech, she elaborated on this model and stated that it would be the goal of education for Chinese women. She first spoke of the three periods she claimed every woman would experience in her life (White, 1911: 645): George Matheson says that the life-history of every woman, as well as that of her sex, may be divided into three periods. First, comes the period of innocence; of naiveté in the individual corresponding with that early stage, the primitive woman in the history of her sociological development. This is followed by an awakening to self-consciousness, to a realization of her powers; personal vanity, ambition, and a desire for self-expansion are aroused. This second period is in its turn followed by the third; that of voluntary self-contraction and sacrifice. [Punctuation as in the original]

White added that in the third stage, “[t]he struggle for the development and expression of her own personality is merged into a struggle for the life of others” (White, 1911: 645).The two ideas, a woman’s three stages and “a struggle for the life of others,” were put forth respectively by George Matheson (1842–1906) and Henry Drummond (1851–1897), two Scottish male theologians known for their studies that attempted to explicate evolution from a Christian perspective. Adopting these two ideas, White elaborated on self-sacrifice further in “scientific” terms in her 1913 book The Ascent of Woman, or The Struggle for the Life of Others, and evaluated Chinese and American women according to the three-stage categorization. The central argument in the book was that the self-abnegating spirit to serve others was essentially the spirit of womanhood and motherhood. She explained that God endowed a tiny protoplasmic cell with the ability of “nutrition” and “reproduction.” While nutrition was for the cell’s own good, reproduction was for the good of other cells. Therefore, she referred to nutrition as “the struggle for the life of self” and reproduction as “the struggle for the life of others.” Seeing women’s reproductive role as their primary responsibility,

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White saw “the struggle for the life of others” as “the female principle,” which was the prototype of all motherhood (White, 1913: 2). In White’s words, “[t]he spirit of womanhood, of motherhood is not of ambition, but of sacrificial service. It prompts to raise, rather than to rise” (Brown, 1938: 114). White stated that Chinese women, who finally had the opportunity to receive public education, had yet to enter the third, most advanced stage of womanhood because “the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge” from the “Western Paradise” enticed them and made them too self-assertive to sacrifice themselves (White, 1911: 645). In White’s view, Chinese women could only achieve “true freedom” in the third stage, and she pledged her task of “lifting” Chinese women to the third stage as the primary objective of American women missionaries. While Chinese reformists saw “freedom” as a free will to make choices without interference, to White, the correct pathway for women to achieve authentic “freedom” was through domesticity. Paradoxically, while the home was considered a place that had confined Chinese women for thousands of years under Confucian values, it was the place White saw as a “kingdom” instead of a “prison.” White admitted that she understood how Chinese women would want to escape from the home, but she insisted that educated Chinese women must learn the art of “reigning over this kingdom” (White, 1911: 645). To White, “freedom” meant “service,” inferring that the “true freedom” meant the liberation from a woman’s own desire and pride with the dedication to domestic service. White explained this with the story of Eve, the first woman of humanity in Christian belief. Eve was driven out from an “illusive Paradise to a real home” because of her sin. Although domesticity might have been perceived as a penalty, White saw the domestic confinement as a “blessed punishment” because Eve’s “personal vanity was transformed into nobler ambitions” in the realm of the home (White, 1911: 645). Therefore, unbeknownst to Chinese women was that “it is only as a woman exchanges the earthly for the heavenly, as the Eve within is converted into the Mary, that the Truth makes her free in that service which perfect freedom” (White, 1911: 645). In other words, only when the vanity and pride like that of Eve transformed into the selflessness and sacrifice like that of Mary could a woman obtain “true freedom.” White’s concept of freedom illustrated her belief that Christianity liberated women by bestowing them with the responsibility and significance within the home to serve others, which was a paradox. While this Christian “true freedom” was spiritual and “heavenly,” the freedom Chinese women pursued, which demanded gender equality and political engagement, was “earthly” freedom that reflected vanity. These Chinese women, White argued, mistook this “earthly” freedom as the true freedom and therefore abandoned morality and broke social rules. In White’s eyes, although “power and freedom” seemed to be “glorious gifts,” the gender equality and freedom that Chinese women demanded were “dangerous unless safeguarded by goodness and a desire to serve” (White, 1913: 23). White attributed this to a lack of appropriate education for Chinese girls, which was the training for homemakers who dedicated themselves to service within the home (White, 1912a: 5). In this sense, White applied her devotion to Christian service to the domestic obligation in the Chinese context.

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4.4.3 White’s View on Free Love and Free Marriage for Chinese Women In the 1920s, when the discussion of freedom for Chinese women was heated, White’s female students asked her when they could have freedom. In response, White answered in terms of the “earthly” kind of freedom that enabled women to make decisions in their life. White stated that the students should not have freedom at that age because they had limited knowledge and experience to make crucial decisions. Parents and teachers were responsible for deciding on critical matters until young people were well into their twenties (White, 1926a: 4). Nonetheless, in a 1925 article titled “Mothers and daughters,” White discussed mothers’ vital role in educating daughters by granting them freedom appropriately (White, 1925). White declared that one of the significant drawbacks of China was that young girls did not have autonomy as their mothers made every decision for them. The lack of autonomy led to two outcomes: one was that the girls could not learn through experience, and the second was that the girls would respond with extreme rebellion because they were oppressed, manifested in the contemporary radical fads for women’s liberation. Therefore, mothers and teachers needed relevant knowledge and experience to decide the suitable time to grant appropriate freedom to young women (White, 1925: 8–9). Although White encouraged mothers to grant daughters some autonomy in certain aspects, she specified that the selection of a husband was a critical matter of which the decision-making must be guided and overseen by mothers. The motherly guidance became increasingly crucial because young women would easily make mistakes when social life became more open and susceptible to Western influence in the 1920s. Young women must consult their parents regarding engagement and marriage because their experience was too limited to make an informed decision on a lifelong relationship (White, 1925: 11). Protestant missionaries had advocated self-selection for a spouse, in other words, free marriage, since their enterprise started in China. Arranged marriage was one of the social practices targeted for reform on the missionary agenda (Chin, 2003: 336). While Chinese intellectuals like Zhang rejected arranged marriage due to the belief that romantic love and individual choice should be the basis for marriage, American missionaries did not share this rationale. The marriages of many missionary couples had been arranged to provide an organizational affiliation for the female missionary and an assistant to the male missionary (Chin, 2003: 336). Protestant missionaries opposed arranged marriage for Chinese women because the family commitments posed obstacles to female students potentially marrying Chinese Christian men, which in turn obstructed the evangelization of the Chinese nation. As many Chinese Christian young men were trained to become native pastors, it would be ideal for women to marry them to form a Christian family in which the couple would be involved in church work. As a godly household was the fundamental unit in the Christian commonwealth, a Christian arranged marriage was apparently acceptable and even desirable. In fact, some missionaries selected husbands they deemed suitable for

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Chinese women and accepted financial gifts not declared in their annual reports from these “son-in-laws” (Gronewold, 2014: 288). While missionaries opposed arranged marriage and taught Chinese women to choose spouses by free will based on love, the freedom was only to a certain extent to serve the missionaries’ agenda. The purpose of the freedom was to avoid non-Christian marriage, and that of marriage was to form a Christian nation. In effect, “free marriage” involved a pseudo-freedom controlled by parents (ideally Christian mothers) and missionary teachers. In effect, these missionaries had reconstructed the Confucian concept of parental control on marriage. Ironically, when missionaries claimed to have liberated Chinese women from the crippling Confucian traditions, they imported yet another institution in which the Christian instructions strikingly resembled Confucian ideas. Many missionary couples who married to facilitate evangelical work on the mission field believed that affection could grow from their shared dedication to work (Chin, 2003: 336). To Protestant missionaries, love was not a private romantic affection but a notion that entailed family responsibility and contribution to conjugal relationships, which contributed to the grand cause of the Christianization of a nation. For women, this responsibility and contribution were self-abnegating in nature. Women’s submissiveness, one of the four cardinal virtues specified in the ideal Victorian womanhood, was based on the biblical interpretation that men and women were created differently. White’s writings constantly reflected her belief in women’s submissiveness to men in marital relationships. In her 1912 editorial, White blamed women for not managing the home well enough if their husbands decided to leave the house (White, 1912b: 6). White claimed that it was inevitable for men to behave selfishly and neglect their wives at times, but a man’s favorite woman was his wife, and all men loved their families. After over a decade, White wrote a short story in 1926 to preach the selflessness of an ideal wife to the female students who were busy campaigning for freedoms in various aspects (White, 1926b). It showed the positive, if not wishful, thinking that a husband would be touched and enlightened by the wife’s self-abnegating effort that made him love the wife and the family. In the story, the wife, a brilliant student, gives up the government scholarship to study abroad. She sacrifices the opportunity and stays in China to care for her children while her husband goes to the United States for doctoral studies. She manages to deal with the difficulties on her own in her domestic life with two children and keeps the suffering to herself, as she wants her husband to focus on his studies. When her husband finds out what she has been through, he is guilty of having the thought of divorce and asks his wife and children to forgive his foolishness and selfishness. Although 14 years apart, these two writings commonly reflect White’s hopeful thinking that husbands would be responsible to the family and love their wives for their devotion to domestic duties. This thinking reflected the Biblical teaching which dictates that “[a husband] must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (New International Version, 1978/2011, Ephesians 5:33). Having such Christian ideas of love in her mind, it was not surprising to see how White opposed the prevalent kind of “free love” depicted in secular women’s magazines such as The Ladies’ Journal. In 1928, White wrote an essay addressing free love as a contemporary issue (White, 1928). In White’s mind, free love was one of the

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absurd ideas rooted in the socialist ideas of Russia. She started by criticizing the socalled liberal ideas from Russia, which denied the existence of God and abandoned the Ten Commandments. With loosened morals and social regulations in the name of freedom, there existed no justice nor righteousness: people took whatever they wanted to take, and it was not considered theft; people did whatever they wanted to do to satiate their carnal desire, and it was not considered adultery. White called this ideology of freedom “evil” and claimed that many countries, including the United States, were suffering from its destructive influence. Many American girls born into Christian families were snared by this evil notion and became beguiled by trendy ideas such as free love and gender equality (White, 1928: 9). After describing the background of free love, which she perceived disapprovingly, White then narrated a tragic story of a girl pursuing free love who gets estranged from her boyfriend after falling pregnant, which leads her to commit suicide in the end. Through the boyfriend’s words, White depicted the prevalent persuasive discourse that contemporary Chinese supporters used to define free love: 不必失去我們的自由, 不受禮教的束縛, 沒有結婚的儀式。為什麼你要立誓終身愛我, 服侍我呢?你知道你能終身愛我麼?萬一你將來竟厭惡我了呢? 所以我們在互相愛Ě, 兩 人都很滿意的時候, 就同一個窠裏住, 誰願意走時, 就說一聲再會, 客客氣氣地分手 了, 並不傷感情。沒有束縛, 沒有強迫, 像飛鳥或蝴蝶這樣自由, 這就是自由戀愛。...... 像你這樣一個見識高超, 思想開通的人, 當然不會盲從世俗之見, 情願受婚禮的束縛。 我們須大膽地宣傳自由戀愛, 須有革命的精神, 由懦弱而產生的道德乃是一種假面具。 (White, 1928: 11–12) (We do not have to lose our freedom. With no formality of marriage, we are not bound by social mores. Why do you have to pledge to love and serve me all your life? Can you know that you will keep loving me forever? What if you hate me in the future? So, at this time, when we are so in love and happy with each other, we can live in the same nest. When one of us wants to leave, we will politely say goodbye and part ways, and no feelings will be hurt. There is no bondage or coercion; we are free like birds and butterflies. This is what free love is. ...... A person like you who is knowledgeable and open-minded, of course, would not blindly follow worldly opinions and rather be bound by marriage. We must boldly advocate free love. We must have a revolutionary spirit. The morality produced by cowardice is a façade. [Translation mine])

The ending of the story proves that this boyfriend’s words have lured the girl to fall into the deadly trap of free love. As the narrator, White gave the counterargument to the persuasive speech of the boyfriend. 在這一切新花樣中, 總是有男子創言拋棄一切禮教的約束, 也總是那最懦弱最愚蠢的 女子受他們的騙。男子儘可以對着女子談自由戀愛, 談男女平等, 可是其中有這樣一個 大不同點。男子可恣情取樂, 女子卻須受十月懷胎之苦, 且有生產時的危險, 提攜鞠育 的辛勞。既有這一種天然的不同處, 男女是永不會平等的。(White, 1928: 25) (In all these new tricks, there are always men who create discourse to renounce all the constraints of social mores, and it is always the weakest and stupidest women they deceive. Men can talk to women about free love and gender equality, but there is this big difference: men can have as much fun as they want, but women have to suffer from the ten months of pain during pregnancy, risk the danger of giving birth, and do all the hard work of raising and nurturing children. Given this inborn difference, men and women will never be equal. [Translation mine])

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In White’s view, under the guise of free love and gender equality, men beguiled women into giving up morality. The freedom in “free love” could only be enjoyed by men, while women were confined by its product, children. Marriage to a woman was not bondage but protection that aimed to lock a man up (suozhu nanzi 鎖住 男子), preventing him from evading the responsibility to his family (White, 1928: 13). In White’s discourse, new ideas emphasizing liberalism and freedoms were unorthodox. She explicitly dismissed “free love” as a notion of the “evil ideologies and fallacies” that “lured” Chinese women and prevented them from recognizing the “real road to freedom” (White, 1928: 15). At the end of the article, White hoped that Chinese women could distinguish the real road to freedom without being tempted by evil ideologies and fallacies. In this way, not only could Chinese women liberate themselves, but the future of China as a nation would also be bright and optimistic (White, 1928: 16).

4.4.4 White’s Polemic with Chinese Writers: The Tragedy of Han Duanci The tragedy of a Chinese woman named Han Duanci 韓端慈 (1893–1923) in 1923 illustrated the conflict between the Chinese writers’ and White’s ideas of a woman’s freedom to love and marry. Feeling dissatisfied with her husband of an arranged marriage, Han left home to attend an art school soon after the wedding. When Han started her career as a teacher upon graduation, she requested a divorce but to no avail. The failed divorce caused Han to suffer from depression, and she died in January 1923. In the same month, the weekly Women’s Review (Funü pinglun 婦女評論), a supplement of The Republican Daily (Minguo ribao 民國日報), published a special issue commemorating Han’s life (“Han Duanci nüshi zhuidaohao” 韓端慈女士追 悼號, 1923). The issue praised Han for her courage to challenge traditional gender ethics and arranged marriage, independence, and benevolence in serving society. Concerned with the influence this praise would cause, White published an editorial two months after to criticize Han’s behavior, particularly her attitude to marriage, and gave the editorial an English title of “A tragedy of misdirected energy” (White, 1923). White placed the responsibility for Han’s death on herself and listed some actions she should have done to avoid such tragic death. Most important of all, Han should have rejected the arranged marriage. While the special issue praised Han for her courage to pursue independence, White denounced Han for not fighting for her own independence in the first place. However, even though White recognized that the arranged marriage was wrong, she insisted that Han should have stayed in the union. White criticized Han for not fulfilling her wifely duty, saying that she was far from being “virtuous” (xianshu 賢淑) (White, 1923: 4). In contrast, White saw Han’s husband as a wise and loving man because he attempted to save the marriage from divorce by asking for Han’s return and forgiveness. Nonetheless, Han had too much pride in her career and education, which made

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her disregard and despise her husband whom she thought was untalented. Given that her husband had never been abusive, Han was neither wise nor reasonable to ask for a divorce. White lamented that Han had failed to understand the importance of love and service as two crucial elements in life. White claimed that there were solutions even if the marriage was a mismatch. She drew on examples in the United States, saying that many talented American women married less-educated men for their decent character. Some well-educated women were willing to display a selfabnegating spirit by leading a frugal domestic life, despite ridicule, to support their husbands’ further education. In China, however, educated women became too proud of themselves and asked for divorce casually. White harshly rebuked them as women who “received education but forgot the sense of shame” (White, 1923: 5). White’s criticism raised the attention of Xi Ming 奚明, a Chinese writer, who published an article in Modern Women (Xiandai funü 現代婦女) in the same month (Xi, 1923). Xi started by a saying, “people of different beliefs will not get along together” (dao butong bu xiang weimou 道不同不相為謀), pinpointing the fundamental differences between White’s and Xi’s opinions because Xi was not a Christian. That being said, Xi used certain Christian ideas to show the logical flaws and irony in White’s claims. While White acknowledged that Han’s marriage was wrong, the way White argued that Han should have stayed in the marriage contradicted Jesus’s decree of forgiving people and allowing them to correct their wrongdoings. Asking for a divorce was a way to remedy the mistake, but White was forbidding it. Xi then continued to allege White for misunderstanding Han’s experience directly. Han wanted a divorce not because her husband was not as talented as herself but because the couple shared different hobbies and beliefs. Xi disagreed with White’s comment that Han understood neither love nor service. Xi said Han could only love a husband she loved, and there was no way she could fall in love with a person she did not love. Xi maintained that there would be no service in the marriage if no love existed. In old Chinese society, many women unwillingly served husbands whom they did not love, but Han was not such a woman from the past. She refused to serve a person she did not love, and her refusal was perfectly appropriate. Addressing White’s harsh remark on educated women who asked for a divorce, Xi asked White a rhetorical question in response, “Do women really have to stay with the men they do not love for their whole lives, only to be humiliated or abandoned?”(Xi, 1923: 1) This discussion shows that White’s concepts of love and marriage were so different from those advocated by Chinese reformists that they raised concerns and criticisms from the Chinese readership. White joined the dynamic discussion on foreign concepts at an opportunistic time. The timing allowed her to spread her relatively conservative Victorian views of love and marriage to counter the liberal ideas of free love and free marriage, which she considered radical. Although White advocated Victorian womanhood that dictated women to stay inside the domestic sphere as dutiful mothers, she adventured to a foreign heathen land, assumed leading positions in the missionary enterprise, and remained single and childless. Many American missionary women did work in the public sphere on the international stage, and they saw the space as an extended private sphere. They justified their work with a loose interpretation of the private

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sphere, arguing that “their inherent traits of nurturance, morality, and compassion made them uniquely fit to serve in this expanded sphere” (Graham, 1995: 74–75). Therefore, paradoxically, White was bound by her piety to her religious belief and advocated domesticity that contradicted her actual life experience. Perhaps, the loss of opportunity to be a dutiful wife and mother would be seen by White as a selfabnegating sacrifice. She gave up the chance of fulfilling women’s sacred and unique role as mothers and wives to take on the mission so that she could educate her Chinese sisters and daughters about what love and freedom meant: self-sacrifice and service.

4.5 Conclusion The gender discourse in the women’s press during the Republican era was astonishingly cacophonous. While it has been known that Zhang and the contributors to The Ladies’ Journal championed the freedom of love and marriage, this chapter has introduced an understudied voice into the debate from an American woman missionary journalist who held a conservative attitude that resembled Chinese feudal ethics. The divergence boils down to the different functions and meanings Chinese writers and American missionaries saw in love and marriage. To Chinese reformists, freedom of love and marriage would be a solution to solve the woman question and benefit the nation as a whole. To White, as a representative of American missionaries, marriage was a tool to evangelize a nation with the belief that women were the moral guardians that kept the piety of a Christian family, which was the basic unit forming a Christian commonwealth. Love, for women, was interpreted as self-sacrifice and obligations in the domestic sphere. While Chinese writers were describing Western ideals, White was prescribing the American Victorian ideals from an authoritative position as a Western teacher to educate her “heathen” sisters and daughters, aspiring to “lift” them up to “the most advanced stage of women’s development.” Chinese reformists had looked up to American women as a significant group of Western models to emulate. White and her fellow unmarried American missionaries showed independence and capability in their endeavor to educate Chinese women and fight against crippling traditions such as foot-binding and arranged marriage. Their work would make them match the description of the model American women celebrated by Chinese reformists such as Hu Shi. However, as this chapter has illustrated, these Victorian American missionaries, physically and personally close to Chinese women as teachers, were acting as a force to counter the advancement the reformist Chinese writers intended to achieve. When China was heightened by a hunger for foreign ideas, American missionaries such as White took the opportunity to advocate a kind of ideal womanhood and concepts of conjugal relationships in education and publications. As only a few Chinese women were literate then, male intellectuals dominated the editorial positions in periodicals. They initiated and led the discussion on the woman question, to which most of the contributors were male scholars, too: only three of the 32 articles in the special issue on divorce of The Ladies’ Journal were authored by

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women (Hsu, 2004: 76). In addition, White was not the only one who preached ideas that contradicted her real-life experience. Many male liberals preaching progressive freedom of love and marriage in journals accepted arranged marriages in real life (Hsu, 2018: 175). As the subject of discussion, Chinese women started to increasingly participate in the discourse of love and marriage by responding with their dissenting views on the ideas advocated by the male intellectuals, but the male editorship often muffled their voices.13 The May Fourth period witnessed the first systematic movements in Chinese history that challenged the gender hierarchy and advocated women’s emancipation. After this period, however, these movements faded out due to the eruption of World War II (1939–1945) and the Chinese Civil War (1929–1949). Women’s independence was only materialized into rights to education, employment, political participation, and free marriage when the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 (Li, 2000: 31). This chapter has illustrated that, before this achievement, two groups of journalists dedicated themselves to disseminating their notions about the woman question during the 1920s: the male-dominated group of Chinese intellectuals and the Victorian women missionaries. These two groups positioned Chinese women as the subject of discussion, describing and prescribing ideas according to their different agendas, even though those ideas contradicted their real-life experiences.

References Brown, M. (1938). Our periodicals. In Christian Literature Society for China (Ed.), No speedier way: A volume commemorating the golden jubilee of Christian Literature Society for China, 1887–1937 (pp. 97–127). Shanghai: Christian Literature Society For China. Chin, C. (2003). Beneficent imperialists: American women missionaries in China at the turn of the twentieth century. Diplomatic History, 27(3), 327–352. Chow, T. (2013). The May Fourth movement: Intellectual revolution in modern China. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674283404 Dan, R. (1923). Lian’ai jiehun de shibai [The failure of a love-based marriage]. The Ladies’ Journal, 9(10), 46–49. Dong, X. (1923). Furen daode [Women’s ethics]. The Ladies’ Journal, 8(7), 16–23. Graham, G. (1995). Gender, culture, and Christianity: American Protestant mission schools in China, 1880–1930 (Asian thought and culture, vol. 25). New York: Peter Lang. Gronewold, S. (2014). A new family: Domesticity and sentiment among Chinese and Western women at Shanghai’s Door of Hope. In H. Choi & M. Jolly (Eds.), Divine domesticities: Christian paradoxes in Asia and the Pacific (pp. 281–298). ANU Press. Gu, Q., & Zhang, M. (1922). Women de jiehun [Our marriage]. The Ladies’ Journal, 8(1), 32–41. Han Duanci nüshi zhuidaohao [The special issue commemorating the life of Ms. Han Duanci]. (1923). Women’s Review, 77. Harris, B. (1978). Beyond her sphere: Women and the professions in American history. Greenwood Press. Hill, P. (1985). The world their household: The American Woman’s Foreign Mission movement and cultural transformation 1870–1920. University of Michigan Press.

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Ho, H. (1988). Protestant missionary publications in modern China, 1912–1949: A study of their programs, operations and trends. Chinese Church Research Centre. Howe, D. (1975). American victorianism as a culture. American Quarterly, 27(5), 507–532. Hsu, H. (2004). Funü zazhi suo fanying de ziyou lihun sixiang jiqi shijian: Cong xingbie chayi tanqi [Free divorce in thought and practice: Gender differences in the Ladies’ Journal]. Jindai Zhongguo Funüshi Yanjiu, 12, 65–114. https://doi.org/10.6352/mhwomen.200412.0069 Hsu, H. (2008). 1920 niandai de lian’ai yu xin xingdaode lunshu: Cong Zhang Xichen canyu de sanci lunzhan tanqi [Discourses on romantic love and new sexual morality of the 1920s: Exemplified by three debates in which Zhang Xichen took part]. Jindai Zhongguo Funüshi Yanjiu, 16, 29–92. https://doi.org/10.6352/mhwomen.200812.0029 Hsu, H. (2021). Ai Lunkai zai Zhongguo: Wenhua zhuanyi yu xingbiehua lunshu [Ellen Key in China: Cultural translation and gendered discourses]. Jindai Zhongguo Funüshi Yanjiu, 37, 1–69. Hsu, H. (2018). Rebellious yet constrained: Dissenting women’s views on love and sexual morality in The Ladies’ Journal and The New Woman. In M. Hockx, J. Judge, & B. Mittler (Eds.), Women and the periodical press in China’s long twentieth century: A space of their own? (pp. 158–175). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108304085.013 Hu, S. (1918). Meiguo de furen [American women]. Xin Qingnian, 5(3), 213–224. Huang, J. (2017). Cong ernü zhisi dao nannü lian’ai: Wusi shiqi funü baokan shang de lian’ai wenti [From Reserved Affairs to Free Love: The Love Discussion in Women’s Magazines during the May Fourth Period]. Journal of the History of Ideas in East Asia, 12, 287–319. https://doi.org/ 10.29425/JHIEA.201706_12.0008 Hunter, J. (1984). The gospel of gentility: American women missionaries in turn-of-the-century China. Yale University Press. Isham, M. (1936). Valorous ventures: A record of sixty and six years of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal Church. Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. Jin, J. (2004). Funü zazhi (1915–1931) shiqi nian jianshi: Funü zazhi heyi mingwei funü [Of the women, by the women, or for the women?—Rewriting a brief history of the seventeen-year run of the Ladies’ Journal, 1915–1931]. Jindai Zhongguo Funüshi Yanjiu, 12, 1–36. Judge, J., Mittler, B., & Hockx, M. (2018). Women’s journals as multigeneric artefacts. In M. Hockx, J. Judge, and B. Mittler (Eds.), Women and the periodical press in China’s long twentieth century: A space of their own? (pp. 1–18). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi. org/10.1017/9781108304085.002 Knowles, J. (1915). New York brank quarterly: Foreign notes. Woman’s Missionary Friend, 47, 299–301. Lee, H. (2007). Revolution of the heart: A genealogy of love in China, 1900–1950. Stanford University Press. Li, S. (1920). Ziyou lihun lun [Theory on free divorce]. The Ladies’ Journal, 6(7), 1–8. Li, Y. (2000). Women’s movement and change of women’s status in China. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 1(1), 30–40. Lian’ai jiehun chenggong shi—Zhou Songjiu xiansheng Xia Yunyu nüshi jiehun de jingguo [A history of a loving marriage—the story of the marriage of Mr. Zhou Songjiu and Ms. Xia Yunyu]. (1922). The Ladies’ Journal, 8(3), 8–10. Ma, Y. (2010). Women journalists and feminism in China, 1898–1937. Cambria Press. MacGillivray, D. (1938). What the society has done for women and children. In Christian Literature Society for China (Ed.), No speedier way: A volume commemorating the golden jubilee of Christian Literature Society for China, 1887–1937 (pp. 32–46). Shanghai: Christian Literature Society For China. New International Version Bible. (2011). The NIV Bible. https://www.thenivbible.com (Original work published 1978) Nivard, J. (1984). Women and the women’s press: The case of the Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi) 1915–1931. Republican China, 10(1), 37–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/08932344.1984.11720055 Phillips, C. (2013). The student volunteer movement and its role in China Missions, 1886–1920. In J. Fairbank (Ed.), The missionary enterprise in China and America (pp. 91–109). Cambridge,

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MA and London, England: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.978067433 3505.c6 Schwarcz, V. (1986). The Chinese enlightenment: Intellectuals and the legacy of the May Fourth movement of 1919. University of California Press. United Methodist Church Archives. (2016). [1467–7–4:08 White, Laura M. Undated (1979–016) mission bio]. General Commission on Archives and History (Microfilm edition of the mission biographical reference files, 1880s–1969). Madison, New Jersey, United States. Wang, Z. (1999). Women in the Chinese enlightenment: Oral and textual histories. University of California Press. Wang, P., & Zhang, X. (1922). Tongxin: Lian’ai wenti de taolun [Correspondence: Discussion about the issue of romantic love]. The Ladies’ Journal, 8(9), 120–123. Welter, B. (1966). The cult of true womanhood: 1820–1860. American Quarterly, 18(2), 151–174. White, L. (1912a). Jinggao xinminguo nüzi [Editorial—the woman China needs]. The Woman’s Messenger, 1(1), 3–6. White, L. (1912b). Neizhu tan [Why some good women lose their husbands’ respect]. The Woman’s Messenger, 1(6), 5–7. White, L. (1913). The ascent of woman, or the struggle for the life of others. Christian Literature Society Book Depot. White, L. (1923). Du Minguo ribao Han nüshi zhuankan shu hou [Editorial—A tragedy of misdirected energy]. The Woman’s Messenger, 11(12), 1–6. White, L. (1925). Xinshidai de jiaonü fangzhen [Mothers and daughters]. The Woman’s Messenger, 14(9), 6–12. White, L. (1926a). Wo duiyu xuesheng de zhonggao [Advice to students]. The Woman’s Messenger, 14(10), 3–7. White, L. (1926b). Yige you Mei gui guo de liuxuesheng [The returned student—short story]. The Woman’s Messenger, 14(11), 45–51. White, L. (1928). Ziyou lian’ai de wojian [Free love]. The Woman’s Messenger, 16(10), 8–16. White, L. (1929). Women and children last: The story of Christian literature to the Chinese. The Missionary Review of the World, 52(12), 904. White, L. (1910). Thirty-seven golden years. Woman’s Missionary Friend, 42, 9–10. White, L. (1911). A union woman’s college. Chinese Recorder, 11, 644–648. Wong, T. (2020). From Renaissance heroine to May Fourth female paragon: Laura M. White’s recreation of Romola (1863) in her Chinese translation Luanshi Nühao (1923). In Y. Chan, & F. Chen (Eds.), Alternative representations of the past: The politics of history in modern China (pp. 23–48). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. Wu, J. (1922b). Jindai de zhencaoguan [Modern views of chastity]. The Ladies’ Journal, 8(12), 5–8. Wu, J. (1922a). Ai Lunkai de ziyou lihun lun [Ellen Key’s theory on free divorce]. The Ladies’ Journal, 8(4), 51–52. Wu, J. (1923). Ziyou lian’ai yu lian’ai ziyou: Dule Fengzi nüshi de “dakewen” yihou [Free love and freedom to love: After reading Ms. Fengzi’s “Q and A”]. The Ladies’ Journal, 8(7), 41–43. Xi, M. (1923). Du Nüduo bao [Reading Nü duo]. Modern Women, 20, 1. Zhang, X. (1923). Du Fengzi nüshi he YD xiansheng de taolun [Reading the discussions between Ms. Fengzi and Mr. YD]. The Ladies’ Journal, 9(2), 48–49. Zhao, X., and Wu, C. (2011). Chuanjiaoshi zhongwen baokan shi [A history of the missionaries’ Chinese press]. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe. Zhou, Y. (2019). Christian women and the making of a modern Chinese family: An exploration of Nüduo, 1912–1951. (Doctoral dissertation, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia). https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/165157

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Tin Kei Wong is a Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Her primary research interests are translation studies and cross-cultural communication. She has published on a wide range of topics in these two areas in both English and Chinese. Currently, she is working on a book manuscript based on her Ph.D. thesis titled Preaching womanhood: American Protestant missionary Laura M. White and her Chinese translations of English fiction, which is supported by the National Library Australia Asia Study Grant 2020 and the 2021 Capstone Editing Early Career Academic Research Grant for Women.

Chapter 5

Marriage in Migration and Homecoming: Joseph Conrad’s “Amy Foster” and Ha Jin’s “The Woman from New York” Chi Sum Garfield Lau

Abstract The individual act of marriage is often perceived as carrying collective implications, ranging from kinship continuity to communal progress and national well-being. As a result, cross-cultural marriage carries the significance of questioning one’s loyalty to the state and sacrificing self-identity by expanding progeny beyond the level of the state. This chapter analyses how the experience of migration and homecoming can further complicate these possible interpretations. In the short story “Amy Foster” (1901) by Joseph Conrad (1857–1924), a shipwreck accidentally brings the protagonist, Yanko, from his home in Eastern Europe to the English shore. Despite hostile responses from locals and the language barrier he faces in the new community, Yanko becomes involved in a romantic relationship with a local inhabitant named Amy Foster. While Amy’s love motivates Yanko to try to integrate with the hostile local community, her mistrust of him once the two are married leads to his heartbroken frustration. Ha Jin (1956–) portrays the homecoming voyage of Chen Jinli in “The Woman from New York” (2000). Far from the traditional Chinese portrayal of a glorious homecoming, Jinli’s return to her native land after a four-year absence brings the recognition that she is ostracised by her townsfolk as a traitor to her Chinese identity and to the gender roles she is expected to fulfil as a wife and mother. Yanko’s conjugal relations with Amy fail to give him a proper identity in Britain, and Jinli’s choice to return to China has a disastrous effect on her family and friends. Keywords Joseph Conrad · Ha Jin · Migrant experience · Marriage · Homecoming · National identity

C. S. G. Lau (B) Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 C. S. G. Lau and K. K. Y. Chan (eds.), Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, Chinese Culture 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6_5

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5.1 Introduction Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) and Ha Jin 哈金 (1956–) are Anglophone writers with very different historical and cultural backgrounds. Nonetheless, they show biographical similarities, particularly in terms of their writing journey and choice of language. These life experiences are occasionally mirrored in their work, through which the shared migrant experience of the two writers and their characters is demonstrated. As a semi-autobiographical account of Joseph Conrad’s own experience as a migrant to his adopted home of England, the short story “Amy Foster” (1901) narrates how the protagonist, Yanko Gooral, becomes the object of xenophobic racism and social alienation. The joy of romantic infatuation initially saves him from desperate loneliness, but mistrust in his marriage leads to frustration and ultimately to his death. Taking the intriguing works of non-native English writers such as Conrad and Nabokov as his inspiration, Ha Jin is determined to become an Anglophone writer, even though this choice is seen as a betrayal of his Chinese identity. In “The Woman from New York” (2000), he portrays the homecoming voyage of Chen Jinli, a Chinese woman who has spent four years in America chasing her dreams. Although it remains doubtful whether she has achieved her goals in America, the rights that she must reluctantly sacrifice at home are clear, with her marriage, her relationship with her daughter and even her civil identity all at risk. In both cases, “Easterners” are stereotyped as ignorant people with little understanding of the remote lands of their dreams beyond an impression of material abundance. Through analysing the context of these two short stories, this chapter explores how the migrant experience influences the prerogatives and obligations of marriage. Specifically, the allegorical link between faithfulness to national identity and mistrust in conjugal relations is studied.

5.2 Conrad and Ha Jin as Migrant Authors To demonstrate the different experiences of the protagonists of these two stories in their pursuit of financial security away from their homes, I first outline the migrant experience of the two writers to aid comprehension of how their own journeys in pursuit of a new home differ in motives and outcomes. Joseph Conrad is the pen name of the Polish writer Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, whose personal experience as a migrant in Britain is reflected in “Amy Foster”: “Amy Foster”, the tale of a castaway swept up on the Kentish coast and abused and rejected by the local population, draws upon memories of [Conrad’s] illness during his honeymoon in Brittany and, surprisingly, features the actual names of the Conrads’ neighbors in Postling. Conrad made its central tragic character a góral, a Polish highlander from the Carpathian mountains […] (Stape, 2007: 123).

My analysis begins with the mirrored elements in the story as originating from Conrad’s identity as a Pole in his birthplace, Berdichev. Berdichev was a Polish

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territory until 1793 and is now a Ukrainian city, but at the time of Conrad’s birth it was part of the Russian Empire. The demographic composition of Berdichev as chiefly Jewish allows us to understand how Conrad began a peripheralised experience as part of a foreign minority under foreign oppression. The subsequent years of exile and refugee experience led to Conrad’s ultimate choice to set up a real home in a stable country. Due to his father’s patriotic involvement in national insurrections against the Tsarist autocracy, young Conrad moved home frequently. With the deaths of his parents, he became an orphan under the foster care of his maternal uncle in Cracow. These tragic experiences at a young age help us to understand Conrad’s pursuit of physical and psychological safety, which is a goal shared by Conradian heroes and one that often ultimately leaves them disillusioned. Conrad did not end his quest for security on witnessing his father’s imprisonment amidst political turmoil and Russian oppression. On the contrary, at that time he had just embarked on a career at sea. Conrad’s maritime life equipped him with the sailing skills, raw material and inspiration needed to write stories about sea voyages to different corners of the world. He also acquired English-language skills while serving on British vessels. The year 1896 marked a turning point in Conrad’s life. Following his marriage proposal to Jessie George (1873–1936) in January and civil ceremony in March, Conrad explored the possibilities of providing a stable home for his new family. The couple first found a home in Île-Grande in Brittany, but set out for England in September 1896, where they lived in Stanford-le-Hope before moving into their permanent home in Kent two years later. “Amy Foster” is often said to resemble Conrad’s own migrant experience. The story’s protagonist is Yanko, a man from Eastern Europe who intends to sail to America to fulfil his dreams of wealth. The biographical connection between Yanko and Conrad creates a cultural link between them: It was the fact of Conrad’s being a Pole, an émigré, forced to “find himself, or put himself through imagination, in a situation at the farthest limits from kinship,” which made it possible for him to appreciate […] the idea of “being-together” (Yamamoto, 2010: 89).

However, Yanko’s plans are upset by a shipwreck. Washed ashore, he arrives at an isolated community in England. The xenophobic attitudes of the inhabitants prevent them from ever accepting Yanko as one of them. The discussion of Conrad’s story to follow later in this chapter examines how Yanko’s hope of attaining security in this foreign land through romance and marriage leads him to ruin when his role is usurped by his own offspring. Ha Jin is the pen name of the Chinese writer Jin Xuefei 金雪飛. Different from Conrad’s oppressed childhood as a wandering Pole without a country, Ha Jin was born and raised within the mainstream. Following his parents’ choice for him to join the military, Ha Jin spent his adolescence serving in the People’s Liberation Army during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) in China, when schools and universities were closed. This stern upbringing, together with his subsequent choice to focus on developing his intellect by pursuing undergraduate and master’s degrees in English language and literature, equipped him with the potential to join the country’s ruling elite. Clearly, Ha Jin’s early life could not in any way be associated with that of

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Conrad, who was in exile and under strict Tsarist surveillance. Having spent his youth under the nurturing protection of the state, Ha Jin’s perceptions changed in 1989 with the Chinese government’s suppression of student protests. He then decided to leave China and write in English. There are several similarities in the lives of Conrad and Ha Jin, despite their vastly different backgrounds. For both, the determination to become a foreign writer producing literary works in a foreign language originated from a quest for a writers’ sanctuary beyond the framework of the state. During 123 years of partition by foreign powers, Poland disappeared from the map of Europe until its re-establishment as a sovereign state after the First World War (1914–1918). Instead of returning to his motherland, Conrad stayed in England, where he had by then established a home and had literary friends and acquaintances. Ha Jin’s ideas about the defining quality of migrant writers aid understanding of Conrad’s decision to maintain his marginality: To migrant writers, the periphery is their working space, much more essential for their existence than the other areas. They should not strive to join the mainstream or to attain a place in the cultural centre of a nation. They must hold on to their in-betweenness, tapping various sources, including the foreign, and making the best of their losses. They should accept their marginality, which shapes their ambitions differently from native writers (Ha Jin, 2010: 468).

Conrad’s decision to become a migrant writer can be compared with Ha Jin’s selfexile. Ha Jin went to America in 1986 to pursue a doctorate at Brandeis University. In an interview with Dave Weich, Ha Jin explained that his initial wish was not to stay in America. His doctoral dissertation on four key Modernist poets, namely Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats, would have prepared him for a career in China upon graduation. He stated that “[t]hose four have poems which are related to Chinese texts and poems that reference the culture. My dissertation was aimed at a Chinese job market. I planned to return to China” (Weich, 2000: 175). His decision to stay in America and become a dissident Anglophone writer aroused much criticism and controversy in China. The envious and sceptical attitudes of the Chinese public towards overseas citizens can be seen in “The Woman from New York”. Claims that the choice of language made by these two writers were part of a commercial strategy to enhance their marketability are not rare. Some Chinese readers consider Ha Jin treasonous as a locally raised writer who uses his writing as a weapon against the Chinese Communist Party. Echoing Razumov’s confession to Nathalie in Conrad’s Under Western Eyes (1911) that “the only thing needed to make me safe–a trusted revolutionist for ever” (Conrad, 2007b: 296), Ha Jin overrides self-preservation with emotional security. Ha Jin explained his choice of writing in English to The New York Times in this way: To some Chinese, my choice of English is a kind of betrayal. But loyalty is a two-way street. I feel I have been betrayed by China, which has suppressed its people and made artistic freedom unavailable. I have tried to write honestly about China and preserve its real history. As a result, most of my work cannot be published in China (Cheung, 2018: 65).

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While Chinese people fail to understand Ha Jin’s unwillingness to betray his conscience, he is also accused of having failed to master English as an acquired language. His English expression has been criticised for lacking native proficiency, being “too poor and too simple” (Ha Jin, 2010: 468). A prominent characteristic of Ha Jin’s works is the translation of local expressions directly from Chinese into English; Gong Haomin observed that “Ha Jin’s stylish inscription of Chinese proverbs and idioms directly into English” serves as a means “to make clear the difficulty and awkwardness of the characters’ linguistic as well as ideological transition from one culture to another” (Gong, 2014: 158). Some notable examples of such phrases are “stinking broken shoe,” which appears in his short story “Broken” (2000), and “the son of a turtle,” in his novel In the Pond (1998) (Ha Jin, 2000a: 75; Ha Jin, 1998: 97); these offensive terms respectively correspond to “slut” and “coward”. “The Woman from New York” is one of the short stories collected in The Bridegroom (2000). It begins with a Chinese woman, Chen Jinli, who returns to her hometown after spending four years in New York. Although she has returned as a transformed person, outfitted as a modern woman and with much material wealth, nobody in Jinli’s hometown associates her with success at having achieved the American dream; instead, they view her with suspicion and distrust. In the following section, the situation faced by Yanko in Conrad’s story will be distinguished from the case of Chen Jinli in Ha Jin’s work. The main objective of my discussion is to investigate how the alienation experienced by the two protagonists is related to their failure to maintain their exchange relations through marriage. In particular, Conrad’s imputation to the local people of a disposition of “inertness that one would think made it everlasting safe from all the surprises of imagination” is used to connect my analyses of the selected works (Conrad, 2007a: 89).

5.3 Yanko as an Agent of Exchange In “Amy Foster,” the residents of Colebrook live in a small, old-fashioned and isolated community. Given their rather minimal notions of the world outside of their own town, it is easy to comprehend their rejection of Yanko as a poverty-stricken and linguistically deprived foreigner whose appearance and manners are very much different from theirs. Yanko arrives in Colebrook as a haggard shipwreck survivor. With his “inexplicable strangeness” and “senseless speech,” he is treated as an “escaped lunatic” (Conrad, 2007a: 99). Doctor Kennedy, the diegetic narrator of the story, believes that the people of Colebrook “couldn’t possibly have connected this troublesome lunatic with the sinking of a ship in Eastbay, of which there had been a rumor in the Darnford market-place” (Conrad, 2007a: 100). Douglas Kerr connects the people’s absence of imagination with their impotence in adopting a humanistic approach: The local people’s ignorance is diagnosed by Dr Kennedy as a lack of imagination, a deficit which makes them unable to see the outlandish stranger as a human being, or indeed to see him at all, because they will not look (Kerr, 2016: 337).

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The locals’ innate lack of sensitivity and human sympathy make them immensely fearful of Yanko and incapable of treating him in any way except as an intruder. For analysing Yanko’s ultimate failure to dismantle the dichotomy of self and other in Colebrook, much insight is provided by observations on their hypothesised polarity. Richard Kearney put forward the idea that “Ever since early Western thought equated the God with notions of self-identity and sameness, the experience of evil has often been linked with notions of exteriority” (Kearney, 2003: 65). Fredric Jameson also affirmed the derogatory perception of the other: Or in our own time, the avenger of accumulated resentments from some oppressed class or race, or else that alien being, Jew or Communist, behind whose apparently human features and malignant and preternatural intelligence is thought to lurk: these are some of the archetypal figures of the Other, about whom the essential point to be made is not so much that he is feared because he is evil; rather he is evil because he is Other, alien, different, strange, unclean, and unfamiliar (Jameson, 1981: 115).

Owing to mistrust stemming from prejudice, Yanko is viewed as a deceptive foreigner, as can be seen from Mr Smith’s repeated warning to Mr Swaffer: “Mind, sir! It may be all his cunning” (Conrad, 2007a: 103). Ironically, it is instead Yanko who is, perhaps unknowingly, subject to the oppression of his cunning hosts. Specifically, when Yanko is assisted to express his identity by the more knowledgeable members of the community, such as some young ladies from the Rectory with foreign language competence, the revelation of his farming skills leads to Yanko’s exploitation, as Swaffer employs him as an agricultural worker without paying regular wages. This treatment of Yanko as an outsider reflects Conrad’s allegorical vision of the subjugation of imported labourers as a tragic marker of modernity. As a result of Yanko’s subordinate status, the only possible relationship between Yahoo and Colebrook is one of exchange. Yanko offers his agricultural labour and receives refuge from Swaffer in return. After he saves Swaffer’s grandchild from accidental drowning, Yanko’s treatment improves. In addition to laying out Yanko’s meals on the kitchen table, Swaffer also pays him regular wages from that time onwards. In exchange for his heroic rescue effort, Yanko becomes recognised as a hired employee, but this exchange relationship objectifies Yanko and his existence as a living being. In examining the possibility of an exchange relationship between Yanko and Colebrook, Angelika Bammer’s study of the interaction between power and the sense of otherness foreshadows the eventual collapse of Yanko’s relationship with Colebrook and Amy Foster as the plot approaches its end. Her study also complements Jameson’s ideas about otherness mentioned above: The equation of power with oppression—an equation that renders power “bad” while equating powerlessness with goodness—is often the beginning of this slide. A good other, in these terms, is a victimized other; powerlessness is recast as the moral high ground. The danger of this position becomes evident in the backlash reaction when these “poor, but good” folk—whether they be Native Americans, Black South Africans, or Turkish migrant workers in Germany—begin to speak out, not as victims, but as subjects in their own right who know and watch out for their own interests (Bammer, 1995: 52–53).

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Because Yanko’s otherness meant that he is perceived as innately evil, Yanko “meant no harm” only in serving as an agent giving rise to exchange relations (Conrad, 2007a: 99), whether as a farm worker for Swaffer or as the rescuer of his grandchild. Adopting Bammer’s findings, Yanko can only be “good” when powerless and rendered subordinate. It is necessary for him to maintain his status as a disempowered agent whose survival depends upon his host. In Yanko’s case, both his labour and attempt of saving the child require acknowledgement from Swaffer. Even a cottage given to Yanko later as a wedding gift is offered “in consideration of saving the life of [his] beloved grandchild, Bertha Willcox” (Conrad, 2007a: 112). Therefore, neither the remuneration nor the cottage should be interpreted as proof of Yanko’s acceptance. Although Yanko is initially perceived as devious by the townsfolk, Amy offers him both physical nourishment and affection. Her behaviour seems inconsistent with the above analysis. Amongst the violent and unwelcome behaviour he suffers from others, Yanko is mesmerised by Amy’s gracious act of giving him “half a loaf of white bread,” described later by Yanko as “such bread as the rich eat in my country” (Conrad, 2007a: 102). It is not difficult to perceive Yanko’s attraction to Amy, given her angelic qualities, but it is more challenging to understand the rationale behind Amy’s kindness. At a time when the community had viewed the survivor of the sea disaster as an insidious intruder, Amy “had not been able to sleep for thinking of the poor man” (Conrad, 2007a: 102). Her sympathy then extends to the kindness of supplying Yanko with food. That Yanko is motivated to keep living because of the spiritual concern that lies behind Amy’s provision of bread is acknowledged by the narrator, who wonders “whether the memory of her compassion prevented him from cutting his throat” (Conrad, 2007a: 107). To understand Amy’s benevolent act amongst a community of indifferent townsfolk and her eventual acceptance of Yanko’s marriage proposal, her sentimental compassion and obsession towards Yanko’s foreignness must be recognised, before turning to evaluate how her conjugal relations with Yanko give rise to a turning point that overrides this compassion and obsession. Amy is described as “swim[ming] with pity for a poor mouse in a trap” and “helping a toad in difficulties” (Conrad, 2007a: 90); her interactions with Yanko illustrate her sympathy but are related to those that a person would extend to a child or an animal—in other words, to those who deserve compassion because of their limited power or position of weakness. Therefore, her “act of impulsive pity” towards Yanko could be performed out of sentimentality when coming across an inferior being (Conrad, 2007a: 103). Among the animals that surround Amy, Mrs Smith’s grey parrot arouses in her a “positive fascination” because of its “outlandish” qualities (Conrad, 2007a: 90). Amy’s sympathy for Yanko is thus consistent with her compassion for inferior creatures. Meanwhile, her attraction to him is also related to his foreign nature—it is noted that in “his forlorn condition she had observed that he was good-looking” (Conrad, 2007a: 103). Amy’s infatuation with Yanko thus develops chiefly through his exotic and handsome qualities, whereas the narrator believes that, for his part, Yanko is solely “seduced by the divine quality of her pity” (Conrad, 2007a: 111).

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Yanko’s legitimate marital status with Amy is unable to affect an upgrade of his peripheral identity. His role as an agent of merely exchange relations in Colebrook means that conjugal relations cannot turn him into one of the locals. Meanwhile, whereas the attitudes of the other townsfolk are gradually transformed from rejection to acceptance of exchange relations, Amy displays an unexpected shift from acceptance to abandonment. Bammer’s suggestion that “this conflict between fear of and desire for the other—between the impulse to destroy and the counterimpulse to embrace” offers a response to the case (Bammer, 1995: 48), as the behaviour of Amy and of the other townspeople demonstrate the incompatibility of the fear and desire that are felt towards the other. Going beyond an expression of gratitude for Amy’s benevolence, Yanko provides her not only with marriage but also with a family. However, a shift in the domestic relationship occurs soon after the birth of their son. Amy is portrayed by Conrad as “a dull creature” (Conrad, 2007a: 102); it seems that she had just enough imagination to fall in love with Yanko but is not capable of managing both maternal and wifely duties. With the birth of her son, the growth of her maternal passion obviates the need for romance, as suggested by Amy’s incomprehensible failure to prevent a cat from attacking Mr Smith’s grey parrot, even though she adores the exotic bird. Amy’s “dull” personality confines her to playing only one role at a time. Therefore, as Yanko tries to raise their son according to his own cultural traditions, Amy views him as a rival for her maternal role: His wife had snatched the child out of his arms one day as he sat on the doorstep crooning to it a song such as the mothers sing to babies in his mountains. She seemed to think he was doing it some harm. Women are funny. And she had objected to him praying aloud in the evening. Why? He expected the boy to repeat the prayer aloud after him by-and-by, as he used to do after his old father when he was a child—in his own country (Conrad, 2007a: 113).

Yanko’s intention to educate the child according to his own traditions demonstrates the instinct to preserve cultural tradition as a crucial attempt to combat a crisis of identity when making a life a long way from home. Confirming that Yanko is subordinated as an object with only exchange relations in Colebrook, his role is easily substituted by his son. Bernard Constant Meyer examines a similar pattern in “Amy Foster” and The Secret Agent regarding the essential elimination of a family member: In both “Amy Foster” and The Secret Agent, a family of three—man, woman, and boy— constitutes an inherently intolerable situation demanding the elimination of one of the males in order to permit the remaining two to enjoy an unmolested mutual possession. In the former story, it is the “good” passive father who is eliminated; in the latter, it is the “son” (Meyer, 1967: 191).

As already stated, the survival of Yanko in Colebrook is a product of Amy’s physical nourishment and affection. After the birth of their son, however, when Yanko falls ill and asks for a glass of water, Amy abandons him out of her fear of this new rival. Her earlier desire for exotic romance has been replaced by fear that Yanko and his culture will influence her child and upset the host–guest relations. Romance and marriage fail to transform Yanko’s subjugated identity.

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5.4 Ha Jin’s Disillusioned Chinese Homecoming In Conrad’s “Amy Foster,” the notion of inadequate imagination giving rise to dubious perceptions is essential to Amy and Yanko’s failed cross-cultural marriage. A similar point is made in Ha Jin’s “The Woman from New York,” the discussion of which requires some background information on culture and politics for diagnosing the Chinese mentality. In Conrad’s story, Yanko and his people from Eastern Europe are largely ignorant about America. For example, they believe that “if you were clever you could find places where true gold could be picked up on the ground” (Conrad, 2007a: 96). The term “American Kaiser” is another example, illustrating the projection of their own culture upon the unknown world (Conrad, 2007a: 96). With the hope of achieving their American dream away from the poverty of their native land, some develop the courage to make tremendous sacrifices. Yanko’s family gives up a large part of their property for his passage: His father sold an old cow, a pair of piebald mountain ponies of his own raising, and a cleared plot of fair pasture land on the sunny slope of a pine-clad pass to a Jew inn-keeper, in order to pay the people of the ship that took men to American to get rich in a short time. (Conrad, 2007a: 96–97)

Going to America is understood as a large but worthwhile investment by these unknowledgeable folk. In Ha Jin’s story, some local Chinese are described as sceptical about the promises of America. “Although it was rumored [in Chen Jinli’s neighbourhood] that in America banknotes were as abundant as tree leaves, who would believe that?” (Ha Jin, 2000b: 171). Nonetheless, Chinese adolescents are portrayed as people “who believed Wall Street was paved with gold bricks” (Ha Jin, 2000b: 173). The inexperience and the simplicity of the thinking of these young people sharpen the contrast between them and the older generation. The story offers an explanation for the dilemma faced by homecoming migrants in China. Even if they have achieved their dreams, their return triggers envy and other negative responses in the institutionalised Chinese setting. It is true that young people fervently admire Jinli’s American experience. Generally, however, the people in her neighbourhood disapprove of her choice to leave. Undaunted, Jinli is determined to follow her desire: In spite of others’ admonition, she left early that summer. Soon afterwards, her parents-inlaw, both being high-ranking officials in Muji City Administration, told their colleagues and friends that Jinli wouldn’t come back anymore. Old people would say, “What a heartless woman. How could she abandon her family like that? What’s so good in America?” (Ha Jin, 2000b: 172)

As her parents-in-law are connected to the state through their posts as regional administrators, it is necessary under the collective system for them to declare that they have terminated their connection with Jinli: Thus for some Marxists, the main social classes in capitalism were certainly becoming radically different in terms of their political interests and their whole consciousness. For example, the working class was the only genuine universal class with some perception of

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Under the Marxist framework, the pursuit of wealth is only possible for a particular social class, and married women are excluded under hierarchal misogynism. The prevailing gender hegemony leaves people unable to comprehend why Jinli, as a married woman in her early thirties with a toddler, should give up everything to go to America. For them, her pursuit necessarily conflicts with her gender role obligations as the wife of Chigan and mother of her daughter Dandan. Meanwhile, gossip is spread regarding her improper relationship with a wealthy Chinese man in New York. Constrained by stereotypes aligning women’s earning power with their bodies, Jinli’s unexpected homecoming, armed with a modern outlook and a great sum of wealth, confirms to the people of the neighbourhood that the rumours are true. Like the people in Colebrook, the Chinese townsfolk have no imaginative space to accept reasons beyond their own preconceived assumptions. Although the American dream is often presented as a common set of ideals held by less privileged groups in developing countries, as shown in Conrad’s depiction of Yanko in pre-modern Europe and Ha Jin’s portrayal of China in the 1980s, these two groups of people have dissimilar mentalities towards those bold adventurers who choose to pursue their goals. Yanko’s American dream is defined by a conventional materialist drive. Although he is regrettably unable to return home, it is also clear that his family and friends long for him to return with a considerable fortune to improve their lives. As Yanko explains to Kennedy, given the huge discrepancy between expectations and reality, it is impossible to return home with one’s hands empty. In contrast, the Chinese townsfolk do not really anticipate Jinli’s return, and even her parents-in-law perceive her return as unwelcome. Right before she arrives home, they even move out with Dandan and deny Jinli access to her daughter: They despised Jinli, declaring they had no such daughter-in-law, even calling her “hussy” in the presence of others. Naturally, when Jinli stood at their doorstep one evening and begged them to allow her to say a word to Dandan, her mother-in-law refused to let her in, saying, “She doesn’t want to see you. She had no such mother as you. Get away with your penciled eyes” (Ha Jin, 2000b: 174).

As a married woman in the Chinese setting, Jinli’s perceived irresponsibility in discarding her husband and daughter is regarded as unpardonable. When, for the purpose of reuniting her family, Jinli reminds Chigan that her motive for travelling to America was “to look for a new life for our family four years ago” (Ha Jin, 2000b: 179), Chigan remembers these words but interprets Jinli’s efforts as seeking to pursue her own desires, rather than exploring future possibilities for them as a family. Although it has never been her husband’s intention to leave China, he is tempted by Jinli’s reminder that they will be able to have more children in America: “You know, Chigan, we can have more kids there.” She winked again and smiled with a dimple on her chin. This seemed to sink in, because he always wanted a son but wasn’t allowed to have another child here. Yet after a moment’s silence, he said, “Dandan is enough for me. I don’t want another kid” (Ha Jin, 2000b: 180).

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The one-child policy was first implemented in China in 1979 as an institutional family planning programme. Given the conservative morality of preferring a male heir, it is easy to discern Chigan’s secret wish. Even so, Jinli is unsuccessful in persuading her husband. Chen Jinli’s foreign experience also leads to her ostracism in the workplace. Owing to her acquisition of American citizenship, she is expelled from her old position in the city’s Teachers College and is unable to find employment. Under the Party-state’s governance, there is little connection between professional expertise and employability. Although Jinli’s English-language proficiency qualifies her to work as a tourist guide for the city’s Bureau of Foreign Affairs, she is rejected for the position on the basis of “trust”: You’re already a permanent resident in the United States, aren’t you? Yes, but I’m still a Chinese citizen. This has nothing to do with citizenship. We don’t know what you did in New York, or how you lived in the past few years. How can we trust you? (Jin, 2000b: 178).

This episode shows that Jinli’s choice to leave China for America, regardless of its purpose, leaves her subject to suspicion and exclusion in the domains of family and society. As stated by Ha Jin in The Writer as Migrant (2008), the collective experience of suffering is crucial in differentiating outsiders from insiders. He writes that “If you have not suffered together with us, you have just appropriated our miseries for your personal gain. You sell your country and your people abroad” (Jin, 2008: 4). At the domestic level, Jinli is penalised by being denied custody of her own child; meanwhile, it is impossible for her to develop a career path. Her foreign exposure is thus perceived as a crime in China. Ha Jin’s story illustrates how youngsters in China are eager to learn about Jinli’s adventures in America, just as her retribution poses a warning to these potential elites. The story ends with Jinli’s desperate departure from China after her divorce. Meyer (1967) suggests how Yanko’s death ironically sets the stage for fruitful companionship for Amy and her son (Meyer, 1967: 172). Likewise, Jinli’s withdrawal from the situation is presented as a happy ending for her family, as Chigan remarries and has a dutiful wife who gives birth to a male heir. Jinli’s dismissal is a prerequisite for Chigan to remarry and gain an exemption to the one-child policy, thus allowing him to have a son. Although Muji city is a fictional place, used as the main setting of many stories by Ha Jin, the real exemptions to the one-child policy give us some ideas about the scenario facing Chigan: The birth policy for remarried couples is an important element in the regional policy of making allowances for couples to have two children. All the 28 regional regulations stipulated that if one of the two parties of a remarried couple had only had one child and the other party was childless, then they could have another child (Immigration & Refugee Board of Canada, 2000).

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Furthermore, Dandan now has a new mother who adores her. The disappearance of Jinli, a wicked woman under this cultural framework, indicates that the country can only accommodate unambitious women who submit to the confines of their patriarchal gendered roles.

5.5 Conclusion This chapter begins with a discussion of the decision to investigate these two seemingly unrelated authors. “Amy Foster” and “The Woman from New York” both demonstrate certain reflections by the writers on their own lives. In comparing Yanko’s xenophobic migrant experience with Chen Jinli’s ostracism and victimisation, I identify the crucial factor responsible for their respective rejections by the community. Yanko’s foreignness and the unimaginative nature of Colebrook mean that his survival in the community depends entirely on his exchange value. Whenever his role in exchange relationships can be substituted, his existence becomes superfluous. In the case of Jinli, her voyage to New York and her eventual return both arouse suspicion among her neighbourhood. The pursuit of a foreign identity and material comfort is seen as an act of betrayal. The price that Jinli must pay symbolises the punishment for disobeying the state. In both cases, the protagonists’ hopes of saving their failing marriages are dashed by a lack of understanding on the part of their spouses and their townsfolk’s sceptical alignment of foreignness with conspiracy.

References Bammer, A. (1995). Xenophobia, Xenophilia, and No Place to Rest. In G. Brinker-Gabler (Ed.), Encountering the other(s): Studies in literature, history and culture (pp. 45–62). State University of New York. Cheung, K. K. (2018). Fate or state: The double life of a composite Chinese spy in A Map of Betrayal. In J. Y. C. Wong (Ed.), Asia and the historical imagination (pp. 59–84). Palgrave Macmillan. Conrad, J. (2007a). Amy Foster. Typhoon and Other Stories (pp. 85–118). London: Penguin. Conrad, J. (2007b). Under western eyes. Penguin. Gong, H. (2014). Language, migrancy, and the literal: Ha Jin’s translation literature. Concentric, 40(1), 147–167. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. (2000). China: One-child policies’ with respect to persons who remarry. Retrieved from https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad5218.html. Isherwood, L., & Harris, D. (2014). Radical Otherness: Sociological and theological approaches. Routledge. Jameson, F. (1981). The political unconscious. Cornell University Press. Jin, H. (1998). In the Pond. Vintage. Jin, H. (2000a). Broken. In The bridegroom (pp. 71–90). Vintage. Jin, H. (2000b). The woman from New York. In The bridegroom (pp. 171–183). Vintage. Jin, H. (2008). The writer as migrant. The University of Chicago Press.

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Jin, H. (2010). In defence of foreignness. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of world Englishes (pp. 461–470). Routledge. Kearney, R. (2003). Strangers, gods, and monsters: Interpreting otherness. Routledge. Kerr, D. (2016). Conrad and the immigrant: The drama of hospitality. The Review of English Studies, 67(279), 334–348. Meyer, B. C. (1967). Joseph Conrad: A psychoanalytic biography. Princeton University Press. Stape, J. (2007). The several lives of Joseph Conrad. Arrow Books. Weich, D. (2000). The Powells.com interviews: 22 authors and artists talk about their books. iUniverse. Yamamoto, K. (2010). The warrior’s soul’ and the question of community. The Conradian, 35(1), 78–91.

Chi Sum Garfield Lau obtained her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Hong Kong Baptist University. She is an Assistant Professor in Hong Kong Metropolitan University. She is responsible for courses in English Language and Literature at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her areas of interest include Modernism, Psychoanalytic Criticism and Comparative Studies.

Part II

Reassessment of Contemporary Nuptial Discourse in Various Forms

Chapter 6

Linguacultural Representation of the Cultural Self and Other in Chinese Women’s Discourse on Transnational Remarriage Enid Lee Abstract This chapter explores how the cultural self and other are represented in Chinese women’s discourse on transnational remarriage by applying a netnographic approach. A total of 118 videos posted by three Chinese women vloggers and 15,140 viewer comments were gathered for participant observation and thematic analysis. All vloggers, aged mid-30s to late 50s, were once divorced, remarried to an American or Japanese, and currently living in their foreign husband’s home country. Their videos were autobiographical accounts of personal lived experiences that conveyed not only their private thoughts and emotions but also valuable information and insights relevant to the understanding of different cultural norms and expectations, particularly from a comparative intercultural perspective as both insiders and outsiders. Three major themes were generated from the video data: (1) creation of a positive self-image; (2) differentiation between past and present selves; and (3) preservation and reassertion of cultural identity. The discussion addresses the prevalence of stereotypical thinking about the cultural self and other in the discourse co-produced by the vloggers and their viewers around these themes and related issues, focusing on their language practice and the linguistic and cultural resources they brought into the discourse. Keywords Linguaculture · Women’s discourse · Transnational remarriage · Self and other · Chinese identity

6.1 Introduction With the world becoming more and more connected by the increased mobility of people and opportunity for interaction between different cultures through various traditional and social media, the number of interracial and interethnic marriages is rising dramatically in some countries. A survey of US married couples in 2015 found E. Lee (B) Department of British and American Language and Culture, Okinawa International University, Ginowan City, Okinawa, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 C. S. G. Lau and K. K. Y. Chan (eds.), Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, Chinese Culture 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6_6

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that one in six of American newlyweds had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, a more than fivefold growth from 3% in 1967 (Livingston & Brown, 2017). Asian– Americans stood out as being the most likely to intermarry—three in ten Asian newlyweds married out of their race or ethnicity and almost half of the US-born Asian newlyweds were intermarried, which is more than 2.5 times the national average. Compared to the US, intermarriage in Japan is substantially less common. In 2018, marriages involving a Japanese and a non-Japanese accounted for only 3.7%, yet still a steep increase from 0.4% in 1965. As far as ethnicity is concerned, Chinese wives (37.2%) were the most common marriage partners for Japanese men and Korean husbands (25.7%) for Japanese women. Japanese men tended to be much older than their foreign spouses compared to their female counterparts and the age gap between Japanese husbands and their foreign wives in remarriages was much larger than in first marriages. The mean age difference between Japanese men and their foreign wives in 2015 was the greatest among Japanese-Filipina couples (16.6 years), followed by Japanese-Chinese (13.0 years) and Japanese-Thai couples (12.8 years). These gaps were 6–12 times larger than those between Japanese wives and their foreign husbands of the same ethnic origins (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, 2016, 2018). While foreign spouses may not feel equally welcomed and respected in all societies, the level of prevalence and incidence of intermarriage is often seen as both an indication of the progress of integration and a positive contribution to the enhancement of cultural diversity (Alba & Nee, 2003; Bean et al., 2004). A nationwide attitude survey conducted in 2017 revealed that the share of Americans saying intermarriage was beneficial for society had risen 15 points to 39% in just seven years (Livingston & Brown, 2017). Despite the lower intermarriage rate in Japan, there has been a long-standing interest in marriage with foreigners among the public, as evidenced by the popularity of TV programs focusing on international couples and the abundance of dating websites that help people find foreign spouses. Even though intermarriage is no longer a taboo topic for open discussion in many societies, it is often overly romanticized and idealized. Several studies have reported higher divorce rates among couples who married out than among those who married in Wang (2012, 2015). This trend is largely due to the fact that intermarried couples are likely to encounter more challenges and higher levels of stress and conflicts than couples of similar cultures because of greater differences in values, beliefs, attitudes, and habits (Fu et al., 2001; Hsu, 2001). Piller writes, “Intercultural love and romance are embedded in cultural discourses of the self and other that produce intercultural desires. Particularly, when people from different cultural backgrounds first meet [sic] they may see each other partly through the lens of national, cultural or ethnic stereotypes. At the same time, discourses of contemporary love are deeply individual and often predicated on the idea of meeting the uniquely right person” (Piller, 2017: 171). Similarly, Visson observes that partners in an intermarriage initially tended to see themselves as individuals but their spouses in cultural terms as “products of a ‘foreign’ culture” (Visson, 1998: 102). There is no doubt that the notion of cultural/national stereotypes plays a significant role in intermarried couples’ negotiation of their identity, intimacy, relationships, and daily

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lives (Dervin, 2013; Piller, 2017). When cultural difference is used as a rationale to explain and justify things such as a habit, a way of thinking, traditions, or conflicts in a relationship, it is called “cultural camouflage” (Monila et al., 2004) or “cultural alibi” (Abdallah-Pretceille, 1986). This chapter offers new insights into Chinese women’s perceptions of their cultural selves and others by examining the linguacultural aspects of such camouflage and alibi. The term “linguacultural” is used here to denote that the study highlights the strong nexus between language and culture. The concept of linguaculture (or languaculture) was proposed by Friedrich (1989) and Agar (1994), both of whom regard language and culture as inseparable. Risager (2006, 2015) expands the scope of linguaculture by introducing a transnational and global perspective to capture the cultural dimensions of language in a globalized world characterized by migrations of people. She identifies three interrelated loci for linguaculture, namely, linguistic practice, linguistic resources, and the language system. Linguistic practice refers to written and spoken behavior in interaction, or flows and change in social networks of people and speech communities. When people migrate or learn new languages, these networks develop further and their linguistic resources are carried from one cultural context to another and grow as part of the life history of the communicator. The idea of the language system is separated from culture. As such, it has a deliberately constructed artificial nature and is conceived as a family of historically and discursively constructed notions that interacts with linguistic practice and resources. In the following sections, stereotypical thinking about the cultural self and other in the discourse co-produced by Chinese women vloggers and their viewers will be discussed, with a focus on their language practice and the linguistic and cultural resources they brought into the discourse.

6.2 Method This study adopts a netnographic approach (Kozinets, 2010; Kozinets et al., 2014) using YouTube as the primary data source for participant observation and thematic analysis. As one of the world’s most successful social media and content-sharing platforms, YouTube allows content creators to express their views through an individualized format, share their experiences by engaging with like-minded users, and be part of a socially co-constructed space that fosters mutual understandings and collaborative interactions. Various researchers have noted that not only the creative content but comments posted by viewers may also contain valuable information that provides access to wider societal understanding and meaning-making around a topic (e.g., Giles, 2017; McCay-Peet & Quan-Haase, 2017). Over the past decade, a considerable amount of research based on YouTube data has emerged in various fields, proving the viability of the uses of social media platforms as a rich source and an effective research tool for collecting authentic materials, opinion mining, sentiment analysis, and educational training.

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For this study, a total of 118 YouTube videos (17:55:10) created by three Chinese women vloggers and 15,140 viewer comments were gathered during December 2021—February 2022. These videos, uploaded between May 2021 and February 2022, were randomly selected from all the videos available on each respective channel. They were produced in Putonghua but sometimes included words, phrases, or utterances in English, Japanese, or the informants’ dialects (Hunan, Sichuan, Shandong) in their monologues or conversations with family members or other people in their local areas. Viewer comments were mostly written in Chinese (including dialects) and many of them seemed to come from Chinese female viewers living in various parts of the world. Since the videos and comments were completely self-initiated and unelicited by the researcher, they constitute authentic, naturalistic discourse data. The women vloggers (hereafter “informants”), aged roughly mid-30s to late 50s with no more than a high school education, were all born and raised in China. Although their life stories were quite different from one another, they experienced similar marital transitions: all of them were once divorced, remarried to a Japanese or American who was 18–23 years older than themselves, and currently living in their foreign husband’s home country (range: 3–7 years). In addition to these similarities, they were chosen for this study for the following reasons. First, each of them had uploaded over 70 videos to their own channels and allowed viewers to provide feedback, thereby making it possible to obtain an amount of data sufficiently large for analysis. Second, their videos were autobiographical accounts of their first-hand experiences not only in different cultures but also in endogamous and exogamous marriages. Third, unlike most diasporic vloggers who focused mainly on food, travel and customs, these women shared stories about their marital and family lives in a relatively open and frank manner and interacted with their viewers either through the comment section or in later videos. This does not mean, of course, that there was no exaggeration or inaccurate information whatsoever on the part of the informants or their viewers. However, since it was not our intention to make moral or ethical judgements about anyone or anything, mis/disinformation unrelated to the study was deemed irrelevant. Furthermore, although the informants differed greatly in the numbers of videos, views and subscribers,1 they were equally informative for our purpose. Most importantly, all of them conveyed not only their private thoughts and emotions but also valuable information and insights regarding cultural norms, beliefs, and values from a comparative intercultural perspective as both insiders and outsiders. To ensure their anonymity, each informant was assigned a pseudonym and commenters were all unnamed. Table 6.1 provides brief profiles of the informants.

1

As of February 2022, the three channels, created between mid-2020 and end of 2021, had uploaded approximately 80–200 videos, and accumulated 1.3–19 K subscribers and 0.3–12 million views.

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Table 6.1 Brief profiles of informants Informant Brief profile SY

– Aged early 40s; housewife – Japanese husband in late 50s; construction foreman – Has a 1-year-old daughter from current marriage, a 10-year-old son from previous marriage, four grown-up stepchildren, and three step grandchildren

NC

– Aged late 50s; housewife – American husband in late 60s; British-born; retired airport manager – Has two grown-up sons from previous marriage and two grown-up stepsons

LM

– Aged mid-30s; housewife – American husband in late 50s; Jewish; lawyer – Has a 10-year-old son from previous marriage and three stepchildren

6.3 Data Analysis The data were transcribed and analyzed by myself following the six-step procedure outlined by Braun and Clarke (2022) for reflexive thematic analysis. My starting point for reflecting on the data was established based on several commonalities I shared with the informants. In addition to being a researcher with the same ethnicity and similar linguacultural background as the informants, I am also a migrant parent myself and have lived in both Japan and the US for a number of years. Together with my professional experiences and knowledge, these commonalities enabled me to reflect on the complexities of the data, comprehend the informants’ sociocultural and situational contexts, analyze their discourse, and bring insight into the meanings of their linguistic signals and cultural beliefs and practices. While I was examining the data, I took fieldnotes and highlighted any words or phrases that appeared to be relevant and meaningful for the study. I then compiled and categorized data related to the same or similar topics. Through coding and analyzing the highlighted parts in each category, I was able to identify a set of recurrent themes and subthemes across informants. For the sake of economy of space and clarity, all examples are given in English (translation mine); original texts are provided only when needed.

6.4 Results and Discussion Three major themes associated with the self and other were generated from the video data. Each theme consists of several subthemes, as shown in Table 6.2. Since all videos were mainly concerned with the informants’ personal experiences and their thoughts on topics of their choice, their narratives were essentially selffocused. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that these (sub)themes initially appear to be more relevant to the self than the other and more so with the individual self than the collective self. Nevertheless, the self and the other are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and neither are the individual self and the collective self. In fact, the

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Table 6.2 Major themes and subthemes associated with the self and other Major theme

Subtheme

1. Creation of a positive self-image

a. I’m a winner, not a loser b. I’m a good wife and a good mother c. I have a great husband d. I have a great (step) child

2. Differentiation between past and present selves

a. I’m a different person

3. Preservation and reassertion of Chinese cultural identify

a. I’m Chinese

b. I’m glad I got divorced and remarried b. I’m proud of being Chinese c. I’ll always be Chinese

informants’ perceptions and descriptions of their selves, individual or collective, were often based on comparisons with cultural others, as evidenced by the fact that the narrative focus shown in the informants’ discourse constantly shifted back and forth between “me/us” and “him/them.” These (sub)themes can thus be seen as interwoven with one another, reflecting a high awareness of self versus other and similarities/differences between the two in shared norms and expectations. Another point worth noting is that although viewer comments were generally empathetic and supportive and some even reflected similar experiences and a personal bond with the informants, there were mixed opinions about certain topics or aspects of the informants’ private lives or ways of thinking. For example, whether it is suitable to brag about money and material possessions, to criticize one’s (ex-)husband, (step)children or (ex)in-laws, or to do or not to do certain things in certain ways. The comments were mainly directed toward the informants but some were responses to other viewers’ reactions. Negative comments on personal topics or sensitive issues sometimes evoked strong replies and led to fiery exchanges among some viewers. Despite diversity of backgrounds and opinions, the informants and their viewers together produced a discourse replete with practices of cultural camouflage/alibi, revealing deeply ingrained stereotypical thinking about their Chinese selves and the Western (American)/Asian (Japanese) others. Of particular interest are cultural stereotypes and stereotyping regarding gender roles in marriage and family, childrearing and parenting, femininity and masculinity, and national character. To illustrate how stereotypes were questioned, debunked, perpetuated, reinforced, or created through the informants’ and their viewers’ language practice and the linguistic and cultural resources they brought into the discourse, typical examples were selected. They include keywords, phrases, quotes, idioms, proverbs, and popular sayings surrounding the above themes and related issues. The examples are presented under six headings: (1) terms of address for the Chinese wife and her foreign husband; (2) creation of a positive self-image; (3) differentiation between past and present selves; (4) preservation and reassertion of cultural identity; (5) Chinese proverbs and popular sayings; and (6) positive and negative evaluations of self and other.

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6.4.1 Terms of Address for the Chinese Wife and Her Foreign Husband The discussion will begin with terms of address. Table 6.3 shows a great variety of address terms the informants used to refer to themselves and their spouses in their video titles. To a large extent, these terms signify the roles in which the informants positioned themselves and their spouses in relation to each other and how they were perceived by others. Based on their lexical components, the terms are divided into five major types: Type A includes terms containing common nouns such as 老公 [‘hubby’], 少妻 [‘young wife’], 机场高管 [‘airport senior manager’], 家庭主妇 [‘housewife’], or 白胡子老头 [‘white-bearded old man’], that indicate one’s status as a spouse, job title, and/or physical traits. Type B comprises terms that denote one’s nationality, place of origin, or whether one is a Chinese or a foreigner, such [‘Chinese wife’], 美国老公 as XX姑娘 [‘young lady from (place name)’], [‘American hubby’], and 日本老头 [‘Japanese old man’]. Types C and D consist of personal names and kinship terms (e.g., 后妈 [‘stepmom’] 爷爷 [‘grandpa’]), respectively. Type E contains terms that specify one’s marital status (e.g., 单亲妈 妈 [‘single mom’], 二婚女人 [‘remarried woman’]). Among all types, Type B has the largest number of terms and is the most frequently used, suggesting that culture was considered a chief factor that differentiates between the informants and their husbands.

6.4.2 Creation of a Positive Self-image Just like most vloggers, all three informants strove to build and maintain a positive self-image. Being remarried to an older foreigner, they understood that they could easily become the target of criticism. In fact, some commenters did accuse them of being gold diggers. It is no coincidence, therefore, that one of the things they all did was to deny getting remarried for money. They talked frequently about putting time, energy, effort, and thought into their marriage and family, their daily responsibilities as housewives, and the various challenges they faced as foreign spouses and (step)mothers. At the same time, they liked to boast about their generous foreign husbands and their good marital relationships. The informants saw themselves as winners, not losers, and earned praise and admiration from their viewers. Positive comments from their fans include “you’re a good mother and a good wife,” “you got a good husband and a good son,” “you’re so brave and positive,” “your marriage is a win–win,” and “you’re a true winner in life.” The informants embraced the stability and satisfaction in their remarriage and attributed their happy life experiences to their own abilities, efforts, actions and good luck. As reflected in many of their video titles (see ex. 1–12), they portrayed themselves as 贤妻良母 ‘good wives and good mothers’ by constantly, albeit not always explicitly, evaluating and complimenting themselves, their husbands, and (step)children in domains such as

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Table 6.3 Terms of address for the Chinese wife and her foreign husband in video titles Type

Chinese wife (Self)

Foreign husband (Other)

A

少妻 ‘young wife’ 保姆 ‘nanny’ 家庭主妇 ‘housewife’ 全职主妇 ‘full-time housewife’ 全职保姆 ‘full-time nanny’ 农村大妞 ‘farm woman’

老公 ‘hubby’ 老头 ‘old man’ 老夫 ‘old husband’ 机场高管 ‘airport senior manager’ 律师老公 ‘lawyer husband’ 白头发老头 ‘white-haired old man’ 白胡子老头 ‘white-bearded old man’

B

中国人 ‘Chinese person’ 中国女人 ‘Chinese woman’ ‘Chinese wife’ XX姑娘 ‘young lady from (place name)’ XX大姐 ‘young lady from (place name)’ XX ‘woman from (place name)’ XX后妈 ‘stepmom from (place name)’

老美 ‘American person’ 老外 ‘Western white foreigner’ 老外老公 ‘foreign husband’ 美国老公 ‘American hubby’ 日本老公 ‘Japanese hubby’ 美国律师 ‘American lawyer’ 日本农民 ‘Japanese farmer’ 日本老头 ‘Japanese old man’ 美国老头 ‘American old man’ 日本农村大叔 ‘Japanese farmer uncle’ 日本农村老公 ‘Japanese farmer husband’

C

XX (wife’s nickname) XX (wife’s nickname)

XX (husband’s name) XX老公 (Hubby + husband’s name)

D

妈妈 ‘mom’ 后妈 ‘stepmom’ 奶奶 ‘grandma’

爸爸 ‘daddy’ 后爸 ‘stepdad’ 爷爷 ‘grandpa’

E

单亲妈妈 ‘single mom’ 二婚女人 ‘remarried woman’

Note XX represents names of people or places

affluence, social status, intelligence, popularity, physical attractiveness, good health, obedience, diligence, generosity, and kindness. 1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Why did I come all the way to Japan to marry an old man in a rural town? Marrying someone who cares for you is more important than marrying someone rich! (SY) I serve my hubby and take care his three meals every day. I feel like a nanny. (SY) I gave birth to my hubby’s fifth child for his sake. (SY) My Japanese hubby is an honest, reliable man. He works hard and helps me take care of our daughter after work. She’s the apple of his eye. (SY) He does the dishes in the kitchen, hands over his paycheck to me, and loves me dearly. (SY) My American hubby spends too much money. 150,000 USD to buy a yacht and $40,000 to build a dock. I can’t stop him! (LM) After marriage, my hubby paid off 1 million RMB of my debt. (NC) He bought me a BMW X5. (NC) My own son is less obedient than my stepdaughter. (LM)

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10. As one would expect from a lawyer, everything he says makes sense. (LM) 11. My American hubby bought his Chinese wife [i.e., me] a smart phone that cost him 10,000 RMB. [He says,] “I fully support your business!” (NC) 12. My American hubby married a Chinese wife [i.e., me] who can squander 300 thousand dollars within a year. (LM) These examples illustrate that evaluations were often based on the informants’ own cultural values, which may not be congruent with those of their host societies. For example, they defined a good child as someone who always obeys and respects their parents [听话, 孝順] and a good husband as a man who loves his wife dearly which may mean to share the duties of childrearing and household chores with the wife, to shower her with expensive gifts, to pay her debts, or to treat her like a queen and cook for her. The informants presented themselves as happy stay-at-home wives and moms who were busy taking care of their house and family every day and would not mind being called 全职保姆 [‘full-time nannies’]. One of [‘to serve the husband’] to the informants (SY) even used the expression explicitly characterize herself as a virtuous and submissive wife. To further declare her acceptance of traditional gender roles and values of a patrilineal society, she entitled one of her videos 为老公生了第五个孩子 [‘I gave birth to my husband’s fifth child for his sake’]. On several occasions, she surprised her Japanese husband by acting like a traditional Japanese wife: she welcomed him home by kneeling down at the entrance and giving him a deep, reverent bow, while saying Laogong, okaerinasai [‘Darling, welcome home’ (Putonghua + Japanese)]. Such thoughts and behaviors may seem frivolous and old-fashioned to most Japanese and Chinese men and women today, but viewer comments suggested that they are still considered by many to be appropriate, acceptable, or even admirable. Interestingly, and ironically, SY was the one who bragged about her husband’s handing over his paycheck to her [工资上交] as if she were the real boss in their marriage, even though it is merely an old custom in Japan for men to do so because the wife is expected to manage the family’s bills and balance the books—it does not mean she can spend all the money freely. She was also the one who expressed dissatisfaction about her husband’s disregarding her objection when making an expensive purchase. The other informants were equally, if not more, interested in showing off their husbands’ expensive purchases, while complaining that they had no control over their husbands’ money and thus were unable to stop them from living extravagantly [老公太奢侈, 管不住他]. These indicate inequalities of power in their marriages and the wives’ desire to take a more active role in household decision-making and handling family finances, including the husband’s own money. All three informants were trying to use their free time to generate extra income by creating videos for their channels, doing odd jobs, or starting small business ventures. Overall, these observations give a contradictory picture of contemporary Chinese wives in transnational remarriage. On the one hand, being full-time housewives, they were financially and emotionally dependent on their foreign husbands and tolerant of the entrenched power imbalances in their relationships, as shown by their willingness to assume the traditional subservient role that is often expected of Chinese/Asian

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women. On the other hand, they wanted a more egalitarian position in their marriage which would allow them to be more respected by their husbands, gain more control over the purse-strings, and be more independent financially.

6.4.3 Differentiation Between Past and Present Selves All three informants talked about their first marriage and shared how previous experiences had impacted their decision to pursue personal happiness in an intercultural relationship and the way they coped with the new challenges in their lives after remarriage. Despite feeling stigmatized and misunderstood sometimes, they had no regrets about their divorce and remarriage. By reflecting on their present and past selves and comparing their current husbands with their ex-husbands, they reassured themselves that their choice of remarrying a foreigner and starting a new life in a foreign country was the correct one. The following video titles (ex. 13–17) indicated that they viewed transnational remarriage as a journey toward self-transformation and positive changes in their lives. 13. Divorce was the best decision I ever made! (SY) 14. My ex-husband earned only 2000 yuan a month so I became the breadwinner. I had had enough for five years. (SY) 15. After divorce, I had a short haircut and remarried my Japanese hubby. I’m a different person now. I’m gonna live my life the way I want. (SY) 16. He has turned me into a feminine woman. (NC) 17. I divorced my former husband, didn’t ask for alimony, and started a new life. (NC) Like many other Asian cultures, Chinese people tend to avoid public displays of affection, both verbally and nonverbally. However, all informants acted rather uninhibitedly when expressing love to their foreign husbands through spoken words and acts of physical intimacy. Although they might not be kissing or hugging their spouses in public as often as Western women, they were not shy about intimate touching in their videos, sometimes accompanied by the phrase “I love you” in English or Japanese. One of the informants even asked her husband to say those words to her in front of the camera. Moreover, all informants addressed their spouses directly using affectionate terms such as “baby” (English), 老公 laogong [‘my hubby, my darling husband’] (Putonghua), and anata [‘dear’] (Japanese). Of these, laogong was the most frequently used by all of them to refer to their husbands both directly and indirectly. They also taught their husbands to call them 老婆 laopo [‘sweetie, honey’]. It is worth mentioning that laogong and laopo, which literally mean ‘old man’ and ‘old woman’ respectively, are borrowed from Cantonese where they are used as casual, but not particularly intimate, forms of address for other people’s spouses as well as their own. Thanks to the popularity of Hong Kong Cantonese movies and TV dramas, both terms are now widely used by Putonghua speaking couples, especially

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among younger generations, but with an additional nuance similar to the English “dear,” “sweetie,” or “honey.” One of the informants (SY) recalled that she used to find it weird to call one’s own husband laogong and thus never used it with her exhusband, but to her own surprise, she now loved calling her foreign husband laogong. This can be seen as an example of voluntary attitudinal and behavioral adaptations resulting from dramatic contextual changes entailed in transnational (re)marriage. We do not know whether the other informants had similar experiences or feelings about the term, but as shown in their videos, laogong was undoubtedly their favorite direct address form for their foreign husbands and it was almost always said in a soft, high-pitched, flirtatious voice. Considering the intimate nuance laogong carries in Putonghua and the accompanying paralanguage features exhibited by the informants, it is possible that the term was favored by all three informants not only because it sounds modern, but also because it can be used to communicate a sense of intimacy and emotional closeness to their husbands. In that sense, the term serves a vital function analogous with the display of affection in physical forms.

6.4.4 Preservation and Reassertion of Cultural Identity All informants expressed pride in being Chinese and a desire to preserve and reassert a sense of cultural selfhood distinguishable from that of their spouses and those around them. Throughout their narratives about interpersonal relationships and interactions with their foreign husbands, new family, in-laws, friends, neighbors, and all the changes in lifestyle after remarriage, they made many references to various aspects of Chinese culture, such as food, language, beliefs, superstitions, attitudes, activities, moral obligations, and family and social responsibilities. Their positive attitudes toward Chinese culture and pride in being Chinese were succinctly expressed in video titles such as the following (ex. 18–25): 18. My American hubby started looking for a new partner three years after he lost his first wife. Why did choose me out of the three marriage candidates? Special characteristics of Chinese women. (NC) 19. After marrying a Chinese wife [i.e., me], my foreign husband has become superstitious, too. (LM) 20. My lawyer hubby and I have different ideas about parenting. He gives the kids too much freedom. (LM) 21. My hubby learns to cook Chinese food for me. [He says,] “I wanna be a good Chinese husband.” (LM) 22. I teach my hubby Chinese at dinner. (SY) 23. My Japanese hubby says Happy New Year in Chinese. (SY) 24. Don’t worry. I’ll always be Chinese. (SY) 25. My stepdaughter is half-American half-Chinese. She says hello in Chinese. (LM)

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Not surprisingly, all informants mentioned that they liked Western/Japanese food but Chinese food was still their favorite and that their family, friends, and neighbors were all fans of Chinese food. They also shared that they tried to speak Chinese to their children at home and taught their husbands some Chinese words and phrases with varying degrees of success. As shown in the viewer comments (see ex. 26–37), many Chinese today are still significantly influenced by traditional beliefs such as 命 ming [‘fate; destiny’], 面 相 mianxiang [‘face reading’], 缘分 yuanfen [‘predestined affinity; fateful coincidence’], and 风水 fengshui [‘geomancy’]. They believe that human connections, particularly marriages and family relationships, are predetermined and that while facial characteristics reveal personality traits and can be used as the basis for predictions about one’s future, good fengshui can alter the forces of luck and fate, and bring wealth, success and happiness. 26. You’re born to live a happy life. A good woman who deserves future rewards 27. You’re so lucky you hit the jackpot! 28. You’re lucky to have someone who cooks for you. You’ve got lucky in the second half of your life 29. You two are made for each other 30. The mole below your mouth is a good one. It signifies that you’ll never starve and that you’ll have a lot of delicious food to eat. People who have a mole like that are destined to have a good life 31. I can tell you’re a lucky person simply by looking at your earlobes 32. Your face has the shape of an olive seed. It’s not the kind of face that brings your husband good luck 33. Don’t hit your daughter. This child brings you good luck. She’s a good kid. Very smart. Big ears, big face. That’s a lucky face 34. Don’t keep saying what if he gets older, what if he’s gone, and stuff like that. Especially not during the Chinese New Year. It’ll bring bad luck 35. Don’t be too superstitious! Baby girls who walk early aren’t doomed to live a hard life 36. An ancient Chinese saying goes, “Marriages are predestined.” You two are a match made in heaven. You should cherish the yuanfen that brought you two together 37. You have a rich, loving husband and smart, obedient children in your life. It’s all because of the good deeds you did in your previous life. Luck is also predestined. One informant (LM) was proud to admit that she was a fengshui believer and that her foreign husband became superstitious under her influence [娶了个中国媳 妇老外老公也变得迷信了]. Such statements, together with the ones given above, reinforce the stereotypical perception of the Chinese people as superstitious and irrational.

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Another informant (SY) talked repeatedly about her desire to make a lot of money and save it for the future. She said that while she was thankful to her husband for working hard to provide for her and their daughter, she could not stop worrying about the future because of the large age difference between her and her husband. Since the older spouse is usually presumed to predecease the younger one, she feared that once her husband died, she would have a difficult time supporting her family. Her strong sense of insecurity was what drove her to start vlogging and moonlighting. The other informants also expressed similar concerns and believed that the best way to prepare for the future was to save as much money as possible now. This is consistent with the finding reported by Hofstede and his colleagues that the Chinese are among the most long-term oriented people in the world (Hofstede, 1991; Minkov & Hofstede, 2012).

6.4.5 Chinese Proverbs and Popular Sayings Table 6.4 presents a list of Chinese proverbs and popular sayings found in the viewer comments. They reflect Chinese traditional beliefs and cultural values related to a wide variety of themes, including gender roles in marriage and family, childrearing and parenting, wisdom, happiness, long-term orientation, positive thinking, selfdiscipline, forgiveness, human relations, aspiration, money, and destiny. The fact that many of these proverbs and sayings appeared multiple times in the comment sections of different videos and received positive feedback from other viewers indicates that their underlying values, beliefs, and attitudes are commonly shared by many, if not most, of the viewers. These proverbs and popular sayings clearly illustrate the major features traditionally expected of married women and practical wisdom to deal with life’s challenges such as problems with interpersonal relationships, money matters, and personal growth. Many of them contain stereotypes, both positive and negative, of the Chinese people and Chinese culture. Take, for example, the issues of gender inequality in marriage and family relationships. In traditional Chinese culture, married women are expected to be submissively obedient to their husbands [嫁鸡随鸡, 嫁狗随狗; 夫唱妇随], stay home and care for the household and children while their husbands go out to work [男主外女主内]. The key to a successful marriage is to treat the partner with respect like a guest [相敬如宾] and all parents are supposed to love their children selflessly [可怜天下父母心]. The most important aspect of women’s role as wives and mothers is to serve their husbands and educate their children [相 夫教子]. If a father is unkind to his children, he will lose their respect [父不慈, 子 不孝]. If a mother is too kind to her children, they will fail and the mother is the one to blame [慈母多败儿]. Although some of these proverbs and popular sayings may sound incredibly outdated and sexist today, the data suggest that they are still being taken for granted by many, as exemplified in the following quotes from two viewers (ex. 38–39):

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Table 6.4 Chinese proverbs and popular sayings found in viewer comments Theme

Chinese proverbs and sayings

Gender roles in marriage and family

贤妻良母 A good wife and a devoted mother 相夫教子 Help the husband and educate the children 嫁鸡随鸡, 嫁狗随狗 If you marry a chicken, follow the chicken. If you marry a dog, follow the dog 夫唱妇随 Husband sings, wife follows 相敬如宾 Husband and wife should respect each other like guests 男主外女主内 Men go out to work, while women stay home and take care of the family

Childrearing/parenting/family 有女万事足 Having a daughter makes everything alright values 父不慈, 子不孝 An unkind father makes an unfilial son 家家有本难念的经 Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard 可怜天下父母心 Selfless parental love 柴米油盐酱醋茶 Daily household necessities 家和万事兴 Harmony in a family makes everything successful 慈母多败儿 A loving mother makes a spoiled child Wisdom

入境随俗or入乡随俗 When in Rome, do as the Romans do 长命工夫长命做 Some tasks take a long time to complete 千金难买少年穷 Living with hardship and poverty in one’s early youth is a precious experience 留得青山在, 不怕没柴烧 While there are green hills, there will be wood to burn 人心隔肚皮 There is no knowing what is in a man’s heart 贪字得个贫 Greed leads to poverty 小树不撅不直溜 A young tree won’t grow straight without pruning 江山易改本性难移 A leopard never changes its spots 花无百日红 All good things come to an end 人生不如意十之八九 Life is full of difficulties

Pleasure/happiness

知足(者)常乐 A contented mind is a perpetual feast 比上不足, 比下有余To fall short of the best but be better than the worst 平淡是福 Simplicity is true delight

Long-term orientation

居安思危 Be prepared for danger in times of peace 未雨绸缪 Save it for a rainy day

Positive thinking

苦尽甘来 All sufferings have their reward 否极泰来 After rain comes fair weather 往事不堪回首 Let bygones be bygones 忘却过往 勇往直前 Forget the past and move forward

Self-discipline; self-restraint

沉默是金 Silence is golden 祸从口出 Loose lips sink ships 人品值千金 Righteousness is precious (continued)

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Table 6.4 (continued) Theme

Chinese proverbs and sayings

Forgiveness

大人不记小人过 A great man rarely stoops to pettiness

Human relations (politeness, moderation, reciprocation of favors)

礼尚往来 Courtesy demands reciprocity 君子之交淡如水 A gentleman’s friendship is as insipid as water 日久见人心 Time reveals a person’s heart 人言可畏 Gossip is a fearful thing 礼下于人必有所求 When someone humbles himself before you, he must have a favor to ask of you 一样米养百样人 It takes all kinds to make a world 拿人手短, 吃人嘴軟 Kind words can warm for three winters, while harsh words can chill even in the heat of summer

Aspiration

有志者事竟成 Where there is a will, there is a way

Importance of money and wealth

亲生儿不如近身钱 Having one’s own money is safer than relying on one’s own children 有钱隔千山万水也来相认, 没钱住隔壁也许不一定来相认 If you are rich, people would come from far away to acknowledge an old relationship. If you are poor, even your next-door neighbors might not say they know you 生不带来死不带去 We bring nothing at birth; we take nothing with us at death 财去人安乐 When money is spent, peace of mind is possible 有钱好办事 Money talks 钱不是万能, 没钱万万不能 Money doesn’t make everything possible but having no money makes many things impossible

Belief in the divine will or fate 人在做, 天在看 No human deeds can escape God’s eye 人在江湖身不由己 One has to compromise in this world 天经地义 A matter of course 人算不如天算 Man proposes, God disposes 儿孙自有儿孙福 The younger generations will take care of themselves 命中有时终须有, 命中无时莫强求 Whatever will be, will be Miscellaneous

工欲善其事必先利其器 Sharp tools make good work 不是一家人不进一家门 Birds of a feather flock together 老鼠掉进米缸里 A blessing in disguise 傻人有傻福 Fortune favors fools 人生苦短 Life is short 冷暖自知 Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches 外国的月亮比较园 The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence 忠言逆耳 Good advice jars the ear 语重心长 Heartfelt words 寄人篱下 To depend on somebody for a living 身体力行 Practice what you preach 食得咸鱼抵得渴 One must bear the consequences of one’s own actions

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38. Every housewife is a nanny. This is called division of labor in the home. Men go out to work, while women stay home and take care of the family. Women are supposed to do household chores no matter when 39. If you marry a chicken, follow the chicken. If you marry a dog, follow the dog. That’s what our culture teaches us.

6.4.6 Positive and Negative Evaluations of Self and Other The videos have also generated a large number of comments from the viewers regarding their perceptions of Chinese, Japanese, Americans (including British and Jewish Americans), and their respective cultures. Overall, positive comments outnumbered negative ones but there were as many positive and negative depictions and evaluations of Chinese as of American/Westerners and Japanese. The examples given in Table 6.5 indicate that some pre-existing cultural stereotypes were questioned or debunked, some were reinforced, and some new ones were created. For example, there was general agreement among the viewers that both Chinese and Japanese are kind, polite, frugal, hardworking, family-oriented people who respect their parents and worship their ancestors. Compared to Asians, Americans and Westerners in general were perceived as more cheerful, optimistic, independent, openminded, but wasteful, self-centered, and overly self-confident. The British were said to be gentlemanlike while Jews were seen as smart businesspeople who are good with money but stingy and dominant. Generally, Japanese men were viewed as sexists and male chauvinists but the only Japanese husband in this study broke the stereotype by making a favorable impression on many viewers by being shy, softspoken, and diligent. One commenter wrote, 请告诉XX先生, 他改观了我对日本 男人的坏印象 [“Please tell Mr. (name) he’s changed my bad impression of Japanese men”]. Another added, 真羡慕, 我也想去找一个日本人 [“Lucky you! I want to get a Japanese husband, too”]. Other stereotypical views are summarized as follows: (1) Women from Northern China are more hardworking than women from other parts of the country. (2) Chinese women prefer foreign men to Chinese men. (3) Chinese women make good wives. (4) Japanese are tidy and scrupulous, but too serious. (5) Unlike Chinese, Japanese treat their siblings and grown-up children like strangers. (6) Americans and Westerners are more honest, cultivated, progressive, and broadminded than Chinese and other Asians but they eat less healthy and age faster.

6.5 Conclusion To conclude, the findings of this study contribute to our understanding of Chinese women’s perceptions of their selves and others shaped by their firsthand experiences in transnational remarriage and day-to-day encounters. The fact that the sentiments

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Table 6.5 Positive and negative comments about national/regional character and values Positive statements Chinese (general, Northerners, Northeasterners)

– – – –

Japanese

– – – –

People from Hunan Province work hard Women from Northeastern China are smart and classy Chinese women are kind and hard-working You’ve shown us how Chinese people run a household with all their heart – You sure are a typical Northern Chinese woman. You are honest, straightforward, and hard-working – You’re frugal and optimistic. You’ve shown people how Chinese women devote themselves to their family – You should’ve given them red envelopes [i.e., money gifts]. We Chinese respect the importance of this custom

– – – –

–

Westerners/American (general, British American, Jewish American)

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Japanese people are very good at keeping things tidy Japanese people are diligent and scrupulous Japan is renowned for politeness Japanese people respect their parents and honor their ancestors. They often burn incense in honor of the dead and pray for them (Husband’s name) doesn’t have a male chauvinist attitude Making the chauvinistic Japanese men do the dishes every day is no easy task It’s many Japanese women’s dream to become a housewife I see the kindness and innocence of the Japanese people in (husband’s name). Japanese people value the importance of education and raising good children They say Japanese husbands are hard to serve. (Husband’s name) is the most honest, sincere, hard-working husband I’ve ever seen. He treats his wife with respect. Japanese men don’t talk much. That’s why they don’t easily get into fights Your husband is a typical American. Cheerful and optimistic Foreigners are more accepting of single mothers Americans like kind and honest people American men are a little simpler and more generous Older Americans are generally optimistic and highly independent European and American men have a strong sense of responsibility toward their family after marriage American men like Chinese women’s traditional views, their kindness and devotion to their family American men won’t become good husbands until after they retire. When they’re young, they’re usually more self-centered The Brits are gentlemen No wonder your husband is so good at making money. He’s Jewish The Jewish are very smart. There’re many of them in the US. They know how to make money and are very clever Most of the Jewish people are very clever (continued)

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Table 6.5 (continued) Negative statements Chinese

– Chinese men are uncultivated – Asian men are generally less broadminded than European and American men – The wife is from China. She always worries about being shortchanged – Chinese women will marry any rich foreigner – The average Chinese woman likes to marry a foreigner because it makes her feel good and proud

Japanese

– – – –

Westerners/American (general, British American, Jewish American)

– – – –

After work, most Japanese men do nothing but smoke and drink Japanese men are dead serious male chauvinists Japanese brothers don’t communicate or visit each other often Didn’t they say the Japanese are very polite people? How come they treat their own family like strangers? They’re very cold people

Westerners look older than their age Americans like fried foods. That’s why 90% of them are overweight Americans don’t eat healthy Every American spends money they haven’t earned. Even if they’re broke, they buy things they don’t need – Americans are overly self-confident and self-assertive – Jewish men are dominant. They are male chauvinists – Jewish people are notorious for their stinginess

Crosscultural comparisons: positive and negative statements Chinese versus Japanese

– Both Japanese and Chinese worship their ancestors – Like us, Japanese believe good manners are important – Unlike what we do in China, the Japanese don’t leave everything only to their sons – The Japanese are very warm-hearted people. They are very genuine and unpretentious. They don’t like to compare with others or cause trouble for other people. They help and support each other in times of difficulties. Chinese people talk a lot but most of it is rubbish. The Japanese don’t beat around the bush and they don’t talk rubbish – Japanese culture is awesome. The Japanese way of thinking is modern, progressive, and great. The Japanese are so different from the Chinese, who are conservative, hypercritical, and picky about small things

Chinese/Asian versus – Westerners spend money like water and live beyond their means whereas Chinese people live within their means and save for a rainy American/Westerners day – If you want to find a rich husband in China, you need to be very outstanding, whereas in the US, even a mediocre village girl could become the wife of a rich man – Americans pursue a high-quality marriage, whereas Chinese married couples would rather live a lie – Compared to Asians, Westerners find the quality and loyalty in a marriage more important – To Westerners, family ties are noble. Chinese people use family ties to take advantage of one another – Western education is all about respect and right and wrong. Who cares about “let the king be a king, the minister a minister, the father a father, the son a son”? To err is human. It is a noble thing to do to admit your own faults

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and opinions reflected in the videos were largely shared among their viewers indicates that many of those thoughts and feelings are in fact quite common. Without data on audience demographics, we cannot be certain about the viewers’ age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, or educational background. However, based on the content of their comments and their linguistic practice, we can nonetheless speculate that a considerable proportion of the viewers were Chinese females between early 30s and late 60s living in different parts of the world. Their reactions suggest that some traditional views and beliefs, particularly those pertaining to gender roles in marriage and family, are still being held today by many within the “transnational Chinese cultural sphere” (Yang, 2003). Moreover, this study opens new avenues for future research on transnational relations and women discourse by showing that netnographic data offer insights that cannot be gained through traditional qualitative methods such as naturalistic observation, interviews, and surveys. Since social media are business tools that can help people become famous and make money, we cannot exclude the possibility that culture might have been used as a commodity for sale on the channels studied. Even if that is the case, we cannot underestimate the role of culture in intercultural relationships. Indeed, culture can often be conveniently used and applied to rationalize oneself, to dissociate oneself from others, to antagonize others, or simply to make sense of a variety of issues and conflicts. Even after several years of marriage, intercultural couples may still see each other as representatives of their cultures rather than two individuals (cf. Piller, 2008; Visson, 1998). One thing, however, is certain: the three vloggers included in this study, knowingly or not, presented themselves and their foreign spouses as cultural products that are neither complete nor static, but mutually adjustable and evolvable, as can be seen by their mutual adaptations and changes in language practice and the growth and integration of their linguistic and cultural resources. As suggested by our data, being a Chinese wife in one cultural context is not the same as in another. No matter which countries the foreign spouses come from, where they live, and whatever their family make-up is, there is no formula for a successful transnational (re)marriage as there is no such thing for any relationship. The selfother dynamics and expectations of transnational (re)marriage depend upon a myriad of factors such as one’s age, gender, education, financial ability, prior relationships, linguistic and cultural repertoires, and intercultural competence. Future research in this area should broaden its scope to include comparable discourses by first-married women and women who are younger, better educated, financially more independent, and linguistically and culturally more resourceful.

References Abdallah-Pretceille, M. (1986). Vers une pédagogie interculturelle. Anthropos. Agar, M. (1994). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation. William Morrow. Alba, R. D., & Nee, V. (2003). Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and contemporary immigration. Harvard University Press.

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Bean, F. D., Lee, J., Batalova, J., & Leach, M. (2004). Immigration and fading color lines in America. Russel Sage Foundation and Population Reference Bureau. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. Sage. Dervin, F. (2013). Do intercultural couples “see culture everywhere”? Case studies from couples who share a Lingua Franca in Finland and Hong Kong. Civilisations, 62, 131–148. Friedrich, P. (1989). Language, ideology, and political economy. American Anthropologist, 91(2), 295–312. Fu, X., Tora, J., & Kendall, H. (2001). Marital happiness and interracial marriage: A study in a multi-ethnic community in Hawaii. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 32, 47–60. Giles, D. (2017). Online discussion forums: A rich and vibrant source of data. In V. Braun, V. Clarke, & D. Gray (Eds.), Collecting qualitative data: A practical guide to textual, media and virtual techniques (pp. 189–210). Cambridge University Press. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. McGraw-Hill. Hsu, J. (2001). Marital therapy for intercultural couples. In W. S. Tseng & J. Streltzer (Eds.), Culture and psychology: A guide to clinical practice (pp. 225–242). American Psychiatric Press. Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography. Sage. Kozinets, R. V., Dolbec, P.-Y., & Earley, A. (2014). Netnographic analysis: Understanding culture through social media data. In U. Flick (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 262–275). Sage. Livingston, G.. & Brown, A. (2017). Intermarriage in the U.S. 50 years after Loving v. Virginia. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-tends/2017/05/18/intermarriage-in-the-u-s50-years-after-loving-v-virginia/. McCay-Peet, L., & Quan-Haase, A. (2017). What is social media and what questions can social media research help us answer? In L. Sloan & A. Quan-Haase (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of social media research (pp. 13–26). Sage. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. (2016). Special report of vital statistics in FY2016. Retrieved from https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/database/dbhw/dl/vs06_3_Marriages_ by_nationalities_of_partners.pdf. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. (2018). Vital statistics of Japan, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/database/db-hw/dl/81-1a2en.pdf. Minkov, M., & Hofstede, G. (2012). Hofstede’s fifth dimension: New evidence from the World Values Survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(1), 3–14. Molina, B., Estrada, D., & Burnett, J. A. (2004). Cultural communities: Challenges and opportunities in the creation of ‘Happily Ever After’ stories of intercultural couplehood. The Family Journal, 12(2), 139–147. Piller, I. (2008). ‘I’ve always wanted to marry a cowboy’: Bilingual couples, language and desire. In T. A. Karis & K. D. Killian (Eds.), Intercultural couples: Exploring diversity in intimate relationships (pp. 53–70). Routledge. Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural communication: A critical introduction. Edinburgh University Press. Risager, K. (2006). Language and culture: Global flows and local complexity. Multilingual Matters. Risager, K. (2015). Linguaculture: The language-culture nexus in transnational perspective. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 87–99). Routledge. Visson, L. (1998). Wedded strangers: The challenges of Russian-American marriages. Hippocrene. Wang, W. (2012). The rise of intermarriage rates, characteristics vary by race and gender. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/02/16/the-rise-of-intermarriage/. Wang, W. (2015). Interracial marriage: Who is “marrying out”? Retrieved from http://www.pewres earch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/12/interracial-marriage-who-is-marrying-out/. Yang, G. (2003). The Internet and the rise of a transnational Chinese culture sphere. Media, Culture and Society, 25, 469–490.

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Enid Lee is Professor in the Department of British and American Language and Culture at the Okinawa International University, Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and an M.A. in English as a Second Language from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has taught in the areas of English, linguistics, intercultural communication, and multilingual education at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Japan and Hong Kong for over twenty years. Her research interests include second language learning and teaching, intercultural communication, nonverbal communication, heritage language maintenance, and multilingual/multicultural education.

Chapter 7

Visual Interpretations of Eastern and Western Wedding Invitation Designs Amic G. Ho

Abstract Eastern and Western cultures both observe various traditional rituals at weddings. Wedding invitations contain written information such as the bride and groom’s names, the wedding location and the ceremony time, as well as nonverbal visual elements in the design that can signal certain rituals. The nonverbal visual elements spread the couples’ delight and reflect their positive emotions. The visual elements are arranged on the wedding invitations based on symbolic meanings and information hierarchy. The aesthetic components and visual language applications such as typeface, colour and typographic arrangement of the wedding invitations represent socio-cultural and emotional links. Few comprehensive studies of wedding invitation designs have been undertaken. This chapter will examine the visual interpretations associated with the design of both Eastern and Western wedding invitations. An interactionist review of visual attributes has been conducted to comprehend the Eastern and Western visual literary discourses. Wedding invitations from both cultures are selected and used as visual literary discourse analysis examples. Keywords Wedding invitation design · Visual interpretation · Socio-cultural connections · Positive emotions · Visual attributes

7.1 Introduction Printed wedding invitations are an important social phenomenon and traditional ritual that reflect the hosts’ reputations, social positions and financial standings. People in East Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea use this social document to define social relationships and status in accordance with Confucianism. Households will go to any lengths to arrange decent and dignified wedding ceremonies because marriage is a significant event in Eastern people’s lives. Communitarianism is the belief that individuals are members of a community and that everyone must adhere to various social norms; it instils in Chinese people the critical need to ‘take A. G. Ho (B) Department of Creative Arts, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 C. S. G. Lau and K. K. Y. Chan (eds.), Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture, Chinese Culture 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9841-6_7

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a wife and establish a family’ (Hsu, 1985: 98). This is reflected in the way families conduct weddings because the ceremonies denote their responsibilities, human resource contributions and social and financial status. The ceremonies also demonstrate their abilities to plan and arrange wedding ceremonies of significance. Wedding arrangements can thus be viewed as a part of community construction. Traditional Chinese people are primarily concerned with when to hold a wedding to ensure that the couple receives the most blessings, whereas Eastern people view wedding ceremony planning more in terms of social management. The social structures in both types of ceremony accommodate family, affiliations, state and living systems. Since the 1980s, wedding invitations have become increasingly popular in China, Japan and Korea, following the trend of increased focus on detailed wedding planning because all aspects of planning determine the ceremony’s success. As a result, wedding invitations have significantly evolved over the past forty years because they forecast the ceremonies. Wedding invitations are communication design tools that contain a great deal of wedding ceremony information and visual elements. These visual communication processes rely on visual interpretation of the symbolism, visual arrangement and graphic elements presented in the visual discursive environment to achieve information construction. The information construction in the wedding invitations’ visual elements is formed by the grouping of pre-determined and predictable methods of communication that arise from changing socio-cultural contexts and demands. The assumption is that the functional and linguistic components of information in the wedding invitations are dynamically linked. At the same time, this information organisation and arrangement (i.e. the communication design) reflects people’s ideas about wedding ceremonies. The information construction in the wedding invitations evolves in tandem with social change and, most likely, the reinterpretation of the visual arrangement’s purpose (Van Ruler, 2018). Since the invitations visibly represent people’s social positions, reputations and prestige, the visual elements on the wedding invitations also reflect their views on marriage. It is essential to investigate the genre of wedding invitation conventions over time (Worth & Worth, 2016) to understand the social phenomenon of how, triggered by societal constraints and desires, wedding invitations evolved through community members’ organisation and communication. Using content analysis, this chapter will attempt to answer the following questions: What graphic elements and visual arrangements do Eastern and Western wedding invitations share? How do they change visually, graphically and contextually? Additionally, through a visual communication analytical lens, the reason behind research attempts to explore and explain the graphical, visual and information construction processes that occur in the development of printed Eastern and Western wedding invitations will be examined.

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7.2 the Nature of Eastern and Western Weddings 7.2.1 The Origin of Eastern Weddings A wedding is a ritual that commemorates the beginning of a marriage. Legal notarization procedures and religious celebrations are central components of commemorating the start of Western marriages (Zhu, 2018). Each ethnic group and country has its own traditional wedding ceremonies that pass on folk culture and cultural education to its members. Most societies have established certain marital rituals and practices, many of which have lost their original symbolic significance in contemporary society. Weddings are also significant milestones in a person’s life, and as such, they fall under the category of life etiquette. Weddings were dubbed “black rituals” in ancient China because they were often performed after twilight. The marriage ceremony is one of the Zhou Dynasty’s rites and rituals (Xia & Zhou, 2003). The “Da Ming Law” (大明 律)1 (Huang, 2021) and the “Song Xing Tong” (宋刑統)2 code also gained popularity and impacted countries including North Korea and Vietnam (Birge, 2017). According to the “Da Ming Law”, traditional Eastern marriages were held at the man’s residence at nightfall because the ancients believed its auspiciousness would bring the couple good fortune. Dubbing the “Dark Ceremony”, the service required six rituals (六禮), which “Song Xing Tong” claims denote the six stages that occur between the proposal and the wedding. The six stages (Qiao & Wang, 2022: 36) are as follows: accepting, requesting the name, acknowledging, recognising the levy, requesting an appointment and a personalised greeting. Several wedding styles have existed since then, and now the time, location, and wedding style can all be customised to suit the new couple’s preferences (Adrian, 2006). Furthermore, Eastern weddings place a greater focus on unity than individuality, as seen by the behaviour of Eastern guests during weddings. They should present the red package to the new couple during Eastern weddings. This red package serves as a symbol of celebration and respect. Because it is a time for relatives to gather together and rejoice, Eastern weddings are generally focused on the pleasure of two families. This focus was put on group members’ sentiments and ideas, as well as the psychological intimacy between a person and others.

1

Da Ming Law (大明律). The Ming Dynasty’s laws and regulations documented the codes of marriage for ancient Ming Chinese people in their daily practice. 2 Song Xing Tong (宋刑統). The Song Dynasty code recorded the wedding preparations and arrangements that were practised routinely. During China’s Tang Dynasty, definite legislative regulations governed citizens’ social construction.

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7.2.2 The Origin of Western Weddings Western weddings are often religious ceremonies held in churches (Garrido & Davidson, 2019). The bride’s father escorts her into the chapel and presents her to the intended husband. The priest delivers a speech, and the newlyweds make vows, exchange rings, pray and sing hymns. In addition to wearing a new white wedding gown to symbolise purity, the bride must borrow an old garter from a married woman, a gold coin to represent the sun and a blue object to represent the moon. It is thought that Diana, the moon goddess, is the defender of women and that couples who marry with these four items will receive good fortune (Garrido & Davidson, 2019; Nash, 2013). Furthermore, many brides subscribe to a unique Old English rhyme, ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, a sixpence in your shoe’ (Thomas, 2016: 711), a Western tradition that dates back to Victorian England (Thomas, 2016). It symbolises the bride’s good fortune and the couple’s unification. For centuries, brides have incorporated these items into their gowns or carried them on their wedding day in the hope that they will bring happiness and good fortune to their union. According to De Sio et al. (2014), the rhyme originated in Lancashire, England, during the Victorian era. Western weddings are sometimes referred to as “white weddings” in reference to the bride’s traditional white bridal gown. Unadulterated by any colour, unblemished white signifies purity (Kelly & Neville-Shepard, 2020: 4) and is emblematic of everything good and decent. White is the colour of assurance, enlightenment and insight and is associated with intelligence and knowledge (McGrath, 2002). Brides in Western nations often wear white, off-white or silver gowns. Although other colours are available, brides utilise white as a counterpoint to black, usually avoiding it owing to its association with sorrow. Religious, garden and country house weddings are popular options in Western nations. There is usually a celebration after the ceremony that includes cake cutting, bouquet tossing and the wedding dance. Typically, guests bring practical presents to the couple’s home, although cash gifts are prevalent (Greenhill & Magnusson, 2010). Wedding guests are expected to arrive at the wedding on time, and female guests should avoid wearing white. While several customs are associated with Western weddings, many people are altering those customs to create much more personalised ceremonies and celebrations that have more significance.

7.3 The Nature of Wedding Invitations According to preliminary research on the origins of Eastern and Western weddings, the weddings’ settings and arrangements involved several elements, including traditional wedding customs, social status and individual beliefs such as religious and family ideology. These represent the hosts’ reputations, social status and financial situations. Especially in the East, Asians emphasise Communitarianism’s social

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ties and position, and they apply the concepts through wedding arrangements, including wedding invitation designs. Thus, families strive to make their wedding rituals honourable. In both the East and the West, everyone is expected to follow certain social norms in various facets of life. Wedding ceremonies demonstrate responsibilities, human resource contributions and family social and financial status. An essential part of wedding arrangements in both the East and the West, wedding invitations should incorporate: • Traditional wedding customs • Social status • Individual beliefs such as religion and family ideologies.

7.3.1 Traditional Wedding Customs Following the macro-structure of the wedding invitations, designers, community and discourse ideology will be discussed. In China, weddings are spiritual and religious occasions (Lee, 2019) where people are invited to pray for everlasting marriages and partake in the joy of the occasion. However, guests should note that accepting wedding invitations implies donating money or gifts such as wine or cruises to the hosts. According to Xiao and Tessema (2019), a strong sense of materialism has permeated the Eastern culture. In addition, the requirement to accommodate diasporic families’ desire to display photographs of the bride’s parents as a motivator for guests to attend the wedding supports Hurst and Johnston’s (2021) claim that communities’ conventionalised and predictable modes of goal-oriented communicative action emerged as a result of the imperatives presented by an ever-changing socio-cultural environment. The current analysis of printed Chinese wedding invitations supports Miller’s (1994) claim that the genre is a fluid concept that changes with the times and the preferences of its audience. As one of the tools for manipulating the wedding arrangements, the wedding invitations deliver information about the ceremony. They confirm the guests’ invitations to the wedding and hint at what is to come in terms of planning and management. In Western weddings, what was once a community-based activity has evolved into a professional activity for the wealthy. Potential hosts can conveniently make arrangements (such as wedding invitation designs) with the help of digital wedding services advertisements. There has been an increase in occurrences in the discourse community of users. Some wedding invitation publishing businesses (such as Hallmark Cards and Pumpkin Wedding Designs) presented the manufacturing process development of wedding invitations. These invitations were pre-printed and sold in markets and kiosks, with the potential host simply filling in the addressers and addressees manually. Western wedding invitations are more creative in shape and colour application than that of Eastern ones. When traditional invitations no longer met young Western people’s requirements for new and ever-changing designs that reflected their personalities, fashion elements that combined Eastern and Western tastes came into

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being. Modern technology has also brought about changes in wedding paper craftsmanship. For example, butter paper, Japanese paper and Western-style papers are used in the design of Eastern-style invitations because their translucent effects can better convey the romantic atmosphere of the wedding. The use of folded A4-sized sheets and cellulose papers for wedding invitations evolved in the 1970s. The information on the invitations was printed using a template, and the attendees’ names were handwritten. The style and material used for wedding invitations improved in the early 1990s (Kristina & Saptaningsih, 2019). Wedding invitations became available in a variety of forms, including embossed gold lettering and scented sheets. Doves, bunches of flowers, diamond rings and couples in relationships were some of this era’s most well-known romantic Western symbols. Since the 1990s, grand-style photographs or images and golden bronzing flower branches, luxury decorations and decent cuisine have been used to inform guests to value the wedding ceremony (Also & Kaigama, 2019). “One hundred years of harmony” (Eastern) and “Best wishes of wedding happiness” (Western) are usually written on wedding invitations. A closer examination reveals a connection between consumerism and global patterns of anticipating gifts from wedding invitation recipients.

7.3.2 Social Status Particularly after the year 2000, a wedding invitation’s physical appearance was likely to reveal the host’s social and economic status (Wang & Xia, 2020) through its intricacy, and the quality of the invitation design (including paper and the colours applied). Wedding invitation designers produced invitations with traditional layouts and images such as flowers depending on consumers’ tastes and preferences. When clients did not specify design concepts (Fu et al., 2018), publishers gave alternative templates based on the clients’ careers, wedding budgets and social status. These aspects dictated the wedding invitations’ main design concepts, the format utilised and the connection between the couples and their audiences. Since the selection and reflective process of balancing budgets for wedding invitations were completed, there has been a steady shift away from wedding planning as a purely social and community-based activity towards a more achievement-focused, material-driven and professional-seeking activity.

7.3.3 Individual Beliefs Such as Religious and Family Ideology Both Eastern and Western people today prefer to express themselves publicly. This is more popular in the Eastern community where guests are expected to attend public weddings rather than be welcomed in the hosts’ homes. This could be explained by

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two major reasons: society status construction and psychological closeness. First, it pertains to the hosts’ prestige (Krotov et al., 2020) which emphasises on the family support behind the couple. Second, they prefer monetary gifts over material goods. Most invitations featured prominent images of the bride on the front covers. From 2000 onwards, they included additional images of the bride’s parents. Starting from 2009, there appeared a trend for using a couple’s pre-wedding photos, particularly among middle-class and wealthy families (Xiao & Tessema, 2019). However, budgetconscious families can break this trend and will purchase invitations according to what they can afford. Moreover, hosts or consumers may now purchase personalised wedding invitations depending on their budget. The invitation publisher and the client negotiate during the planning phase. For example, the publisher will decide whether to include a map of the wedding location, poetry and pre-wedding images, as well as negotiate the invitations’ colour, typefaces, thickness and complexity. Preparing wedding invitations usually involves the client providing their images to the printing company and working with the printing/publishing agency on design (Clunas, 1997). After all parties have approved the template, the draft is ready to print. Some wedding hosts also distribute presents such as cards and wedding cakes as a pre-engagement strategy, putting psychological or ethical pressure on the recipients to attend the wedding (Kakhramonovich, 2021). However, geographic distance, time and energy constraints can make it difficult to distribute these gifts. Most Mainland Chinese residents have an agricultural ideology. Their main agricultural products include fruits, vegetables, snacks and homemade cuisine. Some Japanese cities are becoming increasingly desolate, with most residents migrating to other parts of Tokyo or working in cities. As a result, most invitees might be unfamiliar with the bride and groom. This has prompted wedding hosts to include images of the couple on the invitation’s cover to engage the guests psychologically.

7.4 Socio-cultural Positive Emotional Changes According to the findings, wedding invitations are a vital component of wedding planning in the Eastern and Western worlds. Traditional wedding customs, social status and individual beliefs should all be incorporated into the invitations’ designs. Further theoretical understanding of how the visual attributes are applied in wedding invitations’ designs plays a role in the visual interpretation process for visual communication and elicits socio-cultural positive emotional changes that will be explained as follows.

7.4.1 Information Received from Wedding Invitations The visual attributes applied in the design of wedding invitations have revealed the application of attribution theory in the visual interpretation process for visual

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communication (Graham, 2020) of Eastern and Western relationships. The basic concept of attribution theory developed in social psychological studies illustrated how individuals tend to underestimate environmental elements while simultaneously making strong disposition-based or personal attributions to account for observed actions (Hewett et al., 2018). When an external environment changes, people seek to comprehend the cause. Attribution theory evaluates the focus, stability and controllability of the causes (Markham & Trower, 2003). The audience’s perception of the cause is determined by whether it is perceived to be internal or external to the individual. Stability refers to the apparent inertia of an event’s cause. Controllability refers to people’s convictions being conducted in their ability to influence the situation’s cause. These attributional responses result in the perception of a range of emotions and subsequent behaviours. Hence, the attribution theory mentioned above would become an indicative reference for further research into how visual attributes in visual communication design influence individuals’ emotional changes to their external environment during the preliminary stimulation stages. Therefore, attribution theory applies visual attributes to influence the cause of people’s behaviour. People read wedding invitations to understand the circumstances surrounding their design. The visual attributes (such as heart shapes representing love and white representing purity and religion) could carry some distinct meanings understood by society and thus contribute to weddings’ social stereotypes. As a result, the role of visual attributes in leading the audience to consider perceptions and hopes in the wedding (mostly the general understanding among society) would be identified. At the same time, certain common perceptions of weddings shape how others perceive the visual elements applied in the design of wedding invitations.

7.4.2 Information Understanding from Wedding Invitations’ Visual Attributes Following the preliminary stimulation stages with the attribution theory approach, it would be beneficial to investigate the visual attributes that generate positive emotional changes from the design studies through Gestalt principles (Read et al., 1997) and impression formation (Uleman & Kressel, 2013). Gestalt principles (Read et al., 1997) emphasise holistic processing and the interplay of psychological forces domains. Gestalt processes enable the integration of several interacting pieces of information within the constrained social interaction frame using these principles. It also explains how visual attributions stimulate thought (Wagemans et al., 2012). The principles reveal how metaphorical interpretations involving an immense variety and complexity of social interaction would influence the audience’s perception.

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The impression formation theory is required to further explain how visual attributes are employed during the visual interpretation process. Perceived from the Gestalt principles, it explains how understanding occurrences may frequently be the result of relatively automatic processes that do not need much conscious judgement. The visual characteristics applied in wedding invitation designs appear to be controlled processes requiring cognitive inference and complex causal reasoning within the information process (Castro-Alonso et al., 2021), with socio-cultural positive emotional changes being aroused as attached functions. This suggests that the visual attributes applied in the design of wedding invitations could deliver information about wedding ceremonies, elicit socio-cultural positive emotional changes such as interest, pleasantness, surprise and desire, and further shape perceptions of weddings (Field, 2017). The visual interpretation process for visual communication and eliciting sociocultural positive emotional changes could be explained using these two principles. Gestalt principles explain how the audience would perceive the information in a relatively short period, whereas impression formation explains how this understanding is accumulated as an impression formatted over a relatively long period.

7.4.3 Emotional Changes Through Visual Attributions on Wedding Invitations Audiences decode the information they read similarly (such as images of hearts, flowers, church bells and a happy couple) when there is no individuating information available to them. The strength of information’s influence is determined by the degree of impression and judgment, as well as the presence of individuating information. When diagnostic information is clear, impressions have a minor impact on the audience’s understanding of the information. Nonetheless, when diagnostic information is ambiguous, impressions affect audience conduct evaluations by influencing the constructability of this information (Schneider et al., 2018). Based on the above elaboration, Eastern and Western people might visually interpret wedding invitations differently based on perceived positive emotions about the wedding. Hence, the visual attributes of the three aspects (traditional wedding customs, social status and individual beliefs such as religion and family ideologies) have created socio-cultural positive emotional changes. As a result, these changes in weddings would clarify the visual interpretation of wedding invitations in the same way that the above theoretical explanation of the causes of audience emotional changes and behaviour did.

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7.5 The Reflected Emotion of the Visual Attributes According to the above literature review, manipulating visual interpretations of wedding invitations can stimulate positive emotions. Further investigation of how visual interpretations of wedding invitations are designed in the East and West would allow comprehension of Eastern and Western visual literary discourses. It is crucial to evaluate how visual attributes such as format, typographic elements, colours and symbols might increase positive-activating affective-motivational states while increasing the cognitive burden on graphics (involving visual attributes). The most common and noticeable of these alterations are those involving anthropomorphisms in the process of symbolising (schematic versus anthropomorphic)3 (Kühn et al., 2014) or colouring (black-and-white/greyscale versus pleasant/aesthetic hues). It is hypothesised that communication design may positively energise audiences. Since visual aspects excite and convey emotions, and because some conventional impact variables (from valenced responses) respond favourably to the associated ideas, the following typical visual attribute categories (i.e. format, typographic elements, colours and symbol) would be adopted for content analysis.

7.5.1 Format Individuals commonly mention size, area and shape when asked to describe their impression of a communication design (Cleveland & McGill, 1984). Ekman and Junge (1961) discovered that size and shape have a strong connection with the users’ perceptions. Therefore, they advised designers to base their assessments on accurate utilising size rather than perceiving size. When applying this concern to the design of wedding invitations, the shape of the invitation is mostly basic (for example, square, rectangular, diamond, heart or circular), which suggests advantages of both function and apparel (Collier, 1996). Large shapes, upward-pointing lines, thin lines, smooth lines, squares or circles would stimulate positive and highactivity emotions such as happiness and joy. Diamonds, squares, circles and curves would stimulate romantic associations. Curved, medium-sized, upward directions would stimulate cheer. Collier’s study investigates the relationships between basic forms and emotions, revealing that the formation of visual attributes would elicit emotional changes in the audience. The visual attributes under the Format heading include orientation, package, folding, faces and post-production effects (see Table 7.1). Orientation includes features such as portrait and landscape. Package includes options such as that with or without envelopes. Folding refers to folding or unfolding.

3

Schematism versus anthropomorphisms: Schematism refers to depicting the components of a system using abstract, visual symbols rather than realistic humanisation. In contrast to Schematism, anthropomorphisms refer to the symbolising of an animal, a deity or an object having sentiments or qualities similar to those of a human being.

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Table 7.1 The analysis matrix of the visual interpretation attached with Eastern and Western wedding invitation design Visual interpretation Format

Typographic elements

Colours

Symbols

Visual attributes

Features

Orientation

Landscape/portrait

Package

With/without envelopes

Folding

Folding/unfolding

Faces

Single/double printing faces

Post-production effect

Bronzing/embossed or debossed/spot UV/die-cut

Types classification

Old style/transitional style/modern style

Font family

Light/italic/bold/regular/condensed

Font types

Serif/sans serif/script

Typestyles

Handwriting/computer-generated /humanistic/geometric

Typographic alignment

Centred, flush left ragged right, flush right ragged left, horizontal/vertical alignments

Hue

Warm/neutral/cold colours

Intensity

Scale of adding grey to the colour

Colour scheme types

Monochromatic/analogous/complementary

Brightness

Bright/dark colours

Saturation

High/low intensity

Symbolic elements

Abstract/physical

Religious

Christian symbols

Information

Numerals (numbers and letters)/authority

Logotype

‘Double happiness’ symbol

Motif

Traditional symbols

symbol/surname

Faces include features such as single or double printing faces. Post-production effects include bronzing, embossed or debossed, spot UV and die-cut. Table 7.1 shows the features and visual attributes under the visual interpretation.

7.5.2 Typographic Elements Typographic elements as a design object can impede or facilitate users’ relationships with items. Typographic elements are practically ubiquitous in people’s lives, and since they are so adept at creating symbols, they are also susceptible to interpretation. Regardless of any medium, typographic elements are an effective tool designed to convey something more than physical forms or concepts. They have

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distinct personalities that might inspire trust and confidence, clarify instruction or enhance flavour. Apart from typographic fonts and typefaces, typographic elements can convey meaning beyond the limitations of linguistic symbols. In addition to the sheer abstraction of visual shapes, typographic typefaces and text compositions (within the group of typographic elements) have several levels of meaning from verbal to visual. Given the variety of visual aesthetic characteristics linked with typographic element designs, it is understandable that typographic elements (including typefaces) may also relate to certain emotional characteristics. One might wonder whether viewing texts presented in a rounder typeface, instead of viewing the same information in a more angular typeface, might inspire positive emotions and thoughts of love. Understanding how typographic elements link with emotion would affect what the audience reads. The audience obtains information and ideas from the lettering— before being decoded or read, the type catches the audience’s attention. Reading the information on the wedding invitations relinquishes the audience’s attention to an individual subjective point of view, and then creates the interpretation. There are many distinct categories of typographic elements because each one inspires different feelings or impressions in the audience (Tschichold, 1991). For example, Old Style typefaces like Garamond provide a sense of being humanistic and organic, while Transitional Style typefaces like Times New Roman provide clarity and reliability. Modern Style is more contemporary and can convey feelings of “starting new” if selected correctly. Sans serif typefaces are sometimes associated with more emotion and tend to be exciting and surprising. They are typically clean, straightforward, easy to read, and relevant to a wide range of situations. Serifs are often seen as being conversational. They have a more vintage appearance and feel and are easier to read for longer format material such as blogs and novels. Script typefaces have a more handmade and personal feel; they may be anything from adorable contemporary brush fonts to exquisite, fine calligraphy in their beauty and variety. The font family is generally the first thing that readers notice. The main varieties of font weight are light, normal and bold. Regular font types deliver neutral emotions; they are least impacted by optical distortion or inadequate sharpness and have the most readable font weight. Light and strong font types are more expressive since they communicate a full spectrum of emotions, from sadness to anger. Typographic elements elicit memories, connecting associations to traditional, religious or multisensory experiences. Typestyle can elicit emotional reactions and disclose personalities (Ho, 2013). The typographic arrangement could also create the rhythm of the text content, evoking different moods from the audience. The visual attributes under typographic elements are Type Classification, Font Family, Font Type, Typestyle and Typographic Arrangement (see Table 7.1). Type Classification includes features like Old Style, Transitional Style, Model Style, etc. Font Family includes Light, Italic, Bold, Regular, Condensed, etc. Font Type includes Serif, Sans Serif, Script, etc. Type Style has features like Handwriting, Computergenerated, Humanistic, Geometric, etc. Typographic Arrangement includes Centred, Flush left ragged right, Flush right ragged left, and horizontal or vertical alignments, etc.

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7.5.3 Colours Colours have varying meanings, depending on the culture; they are a tool that can elicit emotional reactions (Sawalmeh, 2020). Individuals may obtain messages from colours via cultural references. For example, in Eastern countries, red is regarded as an impressive colour worn by couples and expresses pleasure and happiness. In Western cultures, it is a symbol of satisfy, threat and desire. The visual designer applies the association to give forth favourable reactions. Colour association tables for various nations or places may be a valuable tool for selecting colour and, more importantly, avoiding negative connotations. Certain colours reveal the symbolism’s origins of symbolism (Schirpke et al., 2018). For example, green is associated with nature, plants, vegetation, growth and health. Additionally, cool colours such as blue and green are typically associated with tranquillity and relaxation, while warm hues such as red and orange frequently have a more emotional connotation. The topic or purpose of the website also influences the colour chosen, which may obtain widespread cultural or international approbation. Thus, warm colours (including red, yellow and orange) should create positive affective-motivational states since colour influences human emotion, cognition and behaviour. While cool colour (including blue and green) manipulations are possible and tend to imply calmness and logical thinking,; emotional design on wedding invitations has primarily focused on positive design modifications, such as the predominant use of warm, bright, saturated colours. The visual attributes under colours are Hue, Intensity, Colour scheme types, Brightness and Saturation (see Table 7.1). Hue includes features like warm/neutral/cool colour, etc. Intensity determines the degree of purity (mainly influenced by the addition of black, grey, or white) in colour, etc. Colour Scheme types include monochromatic, analogous and complementary, etc. Brightness includes features like bright and dark colours, etc. Saturation includes features like high and low intensity and so forth.

7.5.4 Symbols Symbols are a dynamic imagery structure of the interaction between an organism and its surroundings. Biagetti et al. (2017) discovered that images and symbols provide context for an experience arising from physical contact between humans and their surroundings. Signs and symbols, embedded in their cultural place and time, are applied in the network of meanings that the audience and creatives weave together. These links provide symbolic value to the product within a specific cultural environment (Gottdiener, 1985). Consumers develop distinct views about items and advertise as a result of these cultural links. Divergent views of the symbolic connotations associated with abstract concepts (abstract symbols) and physical objects (physical symbols). These symbols themselves may also have a significant impact on buying choices. Associating a product with fundamental traditional symbols and religious

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symbols, such as the Christian cross, will likely influence the audience’s emotional changes and behaviours toward the information. Over time, the audience’s subconscious establishes a link between these repeating events and the observed (i.e. the symbols). These connections are referred to as the repeating metaphoric extensions experience. For example, Western symbols of marriage, including doves, flowers and rings, might be found in the design. With the cognitive information process, the audience’s accumulated experiences may reveal fascinating patterns and attract engagement (Coyle & Kaschak, 2008). According to the design studies, the visual attributes under symbols (Moritz et al., 2008) are symbolic elements, religious symbols, information, logotypes and motif (see Table 7.1). Symbolic elements include features like abstract symbols and physical symbols, etc. Religious symbols include features like Christian symbols. Information symbols include numerals (numbers and letters), authority symbols, etc. Logotype symbols include features like ‘Double happiness’ (囍) symbols and surname symbols, etc. Motif symbols include features like traditional symbols and so forth.

7.6 Research Design To investigate the connection between printed wedding invitation design and emotion in the East and West, this chapter has adopted a content analysis approach. Through comparison and analysis, information regarding wedding invitation design is collected and categorised. The findings would compare the Eastern (see Table 7.2) and Western (see Table 7.3) visual literary discourses. Content analysis is a common qualitative research method, generally used in three approaches: traditional, guided and summative (Lindgren et al., 2020). Traditional content analysis derives coding categories directly from the collected items. Guided content analysis using a theory or pertinent research results as a starting point for further data analysis. The summative content analysis (Torrens, 2018) counts and compares keywords or material and interprets the context. The summative content analysis would be preferred, as it effectively describes the observed design content on wedding invitations and the implied underlying meanings. Hence, the summative content analysis would be applied as the research method of this study. With the employment of the content analysis research methods, the quantitative findings from the wedding invitation card content were interpreted. The information received from the wedding invitation card design and the corresponding emotions elicited in socio-cultural interactions are revealed in this study.

Fold

Both faces

Folding

Faces

Fold

Serif

Letterform

Serif

Regular

Regular

Type classification

Vertical alignments

Bronzing, UV

Both faces

Han Serif (思源宋體)

Vertical alignments

Portrait Comes with a wedding invitation envelope and envelope sticker

Typeface family Microsoft Yahei

Typographic Alignments elements

Post-production Bronzing effect

Landscape

Comes with a wedding invitation envelope and envelope sticker

Orientation

Format

Package

Krismile 12 red elegant handmade laser cut Chinese wedding invitation card printable

Traditional Chinese red wedding invitation card with embossed flowers Wishmade brand wedding invitations CW6062

Weddingshopworld.com Aliexpress.com

Source reference name/no.

Sample 2

Sources

Sample 1

Table 7.2 Gathering data for content analysis on Eastern wedding invitations

Serif

Regular

Simsun (宋體)

Vertical alignments

Die-cut

Both faces

Fold

Comes with a wedding invitation envelope and envelope sticker

Portrait

Chinese traditional wedding invitation-luxury A56028

Uu-lian.com

Sample 3

Sample 5

Serif

Bold

Noto Serif traditional Chinese

Horizontal alignments

Die-cut and Bronzing

Both faces

Fold

Comes with a wedding invitation envelope and envelope sticker

Portrait

Chinese laser cut wedding invitation set with main invite and envelope

Serif

Regular

(continued)

Han Serif (思源宋體)

Horizontal alignments

Bronzing

Both faces

Fold

Comes with a wedding invitation envelope and envelope sticker

Portrait

Chinese wedding invitation number HA5490

Weddingshopworld.com Pumpkin Card.com

Sample 4

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Symbols

Colours

Map

Double happiness (囍) symbol

Traditional flowers

Information

Logotype

Motif

No

Religious symbols

High

Abstract (flowers)

Saturation

Symbolic elements

Bright

Brightness

NA

Double happiness (囍) symbol

Map

No

Abstract (flowers)

High

Bright

Monochromatic

Added