Nostalgia and Feminism in Chinese Literature
Please choose one of the following three topics for your paper. Concentrate on producing good close readings and analysis of primary sources. The essay should have a coherent structure and original argument supported by specific textual analysis. You might want to begin your paper with a short introductory paragraph that concisely presents your main thesis. In the main body of your paper, please elaborate on this thesis and provide evidence to support it, before coming to a concluding paragraph summarizing and reinforcing your thesis.
Remember to avoid unnecessary, lengthy plot summary and refer to events in the plot if they are relevant to your discussion. Please also avoid general information and statements that are not related to your thesis. The more tightly defined and discussed the topic, the better. You are encouraged to draw upon the critical articles assigned for each week. When you make quotations from other people’s writings, please include author’s name, the title of the cited text, publication information (place of publication, publisher, date), and page numbers. Please use footnote.
Both Lu Xun’s “New Year’s Sacrifice” and Han Shaogong’s “Homecoming” have successfully explored the theme of hometown and homecoming. Consider the significance and symbolic implications of “hometown” in these two stories. How do these two authors use homecoming as a narrative device to explore their main protagonists’ identity crisis (“I,” the first person narrator in Lu Xun’s “New Year’s Sacrifice,” and Huang Zhixian in Han Shaogong’s “Homecoming”). How do the authors respond to their respective historical and cultural circumstances?
The theme of nostalgia is prevalent in Bai Xianyong’s (Pai Hsien-yung) “Eternal Snow Beauty” and Zhu Tianwen’s “Fin-de-siecle Splendor.” Please consider the depiction of nostalgic sentiments in both works against the backdrop of their respective socio-political circumstances. Which past are the protagonists recollecting? Furthermore, how are the notions of nostalgia and of femininity connected in these two works, respectively?
Wu Zhuoliu’s Orphan of Asia deals with the split Taiwan subjectivities as stranded among mainland Chinese motherland, Japanese the colonizer, and the local island of Taiwan. Please consider the portrayal of schizophrenic identities in terms of language (dialects), culture, gender, and/or ethnicity as manifested in Chapter 1 and 2.
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Nostalgia and Feminism in Chinese Literature
Feminism and nostalgia often interact in Chinese literature in complex and nuanced ways. In some works, nostalgia may be used as a tool to critique and challenge traditional gender roles and expectations, while in others, it may be used to reinforce and perpetuate these same ideas. The trend is evident in Bai Xianyong’s (Pai Hsien-yung) “Eternal Snow Beauty” and Zhu Tianwen’s “Fin-de-siecle Splendor.” In the present paper, nostalgia and its interaction with feminism based on the historical background of the two works is explored.
In the two short stories, a major element of nostalgia stems from the socio-geographical factors that instill a sense of exile in the characters and their longing to return home. The popularity of Yin Hsueh-yen in Shanghai was attributed to her ability to evoke a feeling of homecoming among her guests. “When they entered her living room and sat down on those sofas with their silk pillows, they had a sense of homecoming, of utter contentment.". Yin Hsueh-yen had adorned her house in such a way that it allowed her visitors to remember their memories. Silk is one of the products that has remained constant in Chinese culture, with minimal changes experienced in its production and usage for more than 3,000 years. By using silk pillows in her sofas, Yin Hsueh-yen evokes a sense of nostalgia among her visitors as they can easily feel that they have traveled back to the Chinese culture.[Pai, Hsien-Yung, Xianyong Bai, and Pai Hsien Yung, Taibei ren, Chinese University Press, 2000, p.1.]
Further, Yin Hsueh-yen evoked a sense of nostalgia in her visitors by using food that allowed the visitors to travel back to various regions in Mainland China. "At noon she might serve Ningpo New Year's pudding or stuffed rice dumplings Huchow style; for supper, her chef prepared Nanking and Shanghai dishes: gold-and-silver ham, Imperial Favorite chicken, prawns eaten raw with soya sauce, and crabs marinated in wine. Yin Hsueh-yen herself designed a sort of rotating menu; each day a new and delectable array of dishes materialized”. Food can evoke a sense of nostalgia by reminding us of a specific place or culture. For example, eating a traditional dish from a person's home country or region may transport them back to that place in their memories and inspire feelings of longing for the familiar tastes and traditions of that place. From the quote, Yin Hsueh-yen prepares dishes from all major Chinese regions, which effectively makes it easy to evoke a feeling of nostalgia in the visitors.[Pai, Hsien-Yung, Xianyong Bai, and Pai Hsien Yung, Taibei ren, Chinese University Press, 2000, p. 8]
Comparatively, the narrator in Tianwen’s short story suggests that smell serves to trigger the feeling of nostalgia in Mia. At the beginning of the story, Tianwen narrates, “Mia is a fervent believer in the sense of smell; her life is dependent on memories evoked by different smells.". The smell is closely linked to memory and can often evoke strong feelings of nostalgia because the olfactory bulb, which is responsible for processing smells, is directly connected to the brain's hippocampus and amygdala, both of which play important roles in memory and emotion. When you encounter a familiar smell, it can trigger a recollection of an experience or event, which can bring about feelings of nostalgia. Mia notes that even though colors play a role in evoking nostalgia, she considers smell to be a more accurate trigger of nostalgia, given that it is sharp and accurate.[Zhu, Tianwen, Fin de Siècle Splendor, 1999, p. 458]
When approaching the evoking of nostalgia in Chinese literature, it is essential to consider the role of time in Chinese traditions. Xiang notes that nostalgia in the Chinese tradition is considered metaphysical that is tied to how the Chinese understand and express time. In Chinese culture, change is considered as becoming in the sense that the process of remembering mainly involves the re-situating of oneself within the Heraclitean stream of becoming. Consequently, the Chinese need to recall the past, given that it is akin to dwelling on the process of change. Using nostalgia, Chinese people can recall the pivots of change within their lives by evoking it in the transformation process.
In “Eternal Snow Beauty,” the narrator frequently uses a reference to time to evoke a sense of nostalgia in the reader. At the beginning of the short story, the narrator notes that Yin Hsueh-yen does not seem to age as others around her felt the effect of time on their lives.
"Of those fashionable young men who had been her admirers more than a dozen years ago in Shanghai's Paramount Ballroom, some had grown bald on top, and some were graying at the temples; some, on coming to Taiwan, had been downgraded to the level of "consultants" in the foundries, cement works, or synthetic-fabric factories, while a small number had risen to become bank presidents or top executives in the,"-' government. But however the affairs of men fluctuated, and Yin Hsueh-yen remained forever Yin Hsueh-yen, the "Snow Beauty" of Shanghai fame.".[Pai, Hsien-Yung, Xianyong Bai, and Pai Hsien Yung, Taibei ren, Chinese University Press, 2000, p.1]
Xiang notes that the Chinese consider time as largely a process that is formed from within and rooted in human actions. Yin Hsueh-yen's ability to remain the same over time evokes a sense of nostalgia among close acquaintances as she seems stuck in time and does not go through the changes experienced by others around her. Nostalgia, in its essence, describes feelings of longing or wistfulness for the past, often for a time that one remembers as being happier or simpler. People may idealize the past because they have fond memories of it and may feel that things were better in the past than they are now. By remaining the same over a long period, Yin Hsueh-yen reminds those who knew her of a period when life was simpler.
In the same way, time plays a key role in Tianwen’s short story and its exploration of nostalgia. While Yin Hsueh-yen in Xianyong’s short story serves as the central agent of the subsidence of time, Mia’s recognition that he can rely upon her sense of smell to evoke nostalgia offers her a sense of “permanence” that he feels he can rely upon. At the end of the story, the narrator notes that "The abyssal blue of the lake tells her that the world men have built with theories and systems will collapse, and she with her memory of smells and colors, will survive and rebuild the world from here.". The author considers smell and colors as the two triggers that will linger on in Mia’s life to ensure that she has an endless supply of memories that can help Mia transform her life over time.[Zhu, Tianwen, Fin de Siècle Splendor, 1999, p. 459]
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