Eileen Chang: Represntative of the Modern Chinese Literature - Essay Example

? Modern Chinese Literature [Institute] Eileen Chang: Represntative of the Modern Chinese Literature Introduction to the Eileen Chang is one of the greatest writers from China. Her work is mianly based upon idealism while the protagonists in her short stories are mostly woman rather than man. born on September 30, 1920 Eileen Chang has been widely regarded as the pioneer of Modern Chinese Literature. Though she was neglected during the 1950 - 1970 era but presently Eileen’s work has come to life again and has become popular after his death also. Despite of writing for a long time, she was obsessed with her early writing fame of 1940 that was celebrated in Shanghai. Love in the fallen city, lust and caution are among her most remarkable works (Trudeau, 1999, p 125). Her writing impressively focus upon the psychological reflection of the relations between man and women in the era of 1940s and onwards. In the twentieth century, only two Chinese writers had a genuine depair, Eileen Chang and Lu Xan (Zaifu, 2009) Highlighting the relations between man and woman was a positive trend of that time covering the social and familial aspects in the society. The shadow of her immigration to Hong Kong can be observed in her works, silhouetting the everyday life realities in contrast with the fairy tales style love. Her famous works as above mentioned includes the love in a fallen city which is satire in the hopeless romantic theme (Chih-tsing, 2001, p91). 2. Early Life Chang was born in 1920 in Shanghai. She was from a cosmopolitan family, but was not a happy child. She married with a Japanese script writer and the marriage ended in divorce. She furthered her studies at Hong Kong but she had to return Shanghai because of the Second World War. (Chih-tsing, 2001, p91). 3. Introduction to her work Chang early life was not very ideal and this is also reflected in her novel, but with hopeful perspective. She wrote her first story at the age of 7 named Dream of Genius (Louie, 2012, p. 76). She got fame in Shanghai in 1943 to 1945 and her works were forbidden after the establishment of people republic of China, in China. As she is from a Chinese background and having a native language Chinese, her works includes abundance of metaphors and symbolism. The Chinese language is not like the other languages but lexicographically, the alphabets of this language are symbolical. When her work was translated, it was actually transliterated from Chinese to English, giving English literature rich experience of symbolism and imagery. Her work is a unique addition to the English language and has added diversification to the existing English literature as being traditional stylistically Chinese literature (Wiles and Stefanowska, 2006, p. 41). 4. Golden Cangue 4.1 Introduction Her novel Golden Cangue was of great quality and adopted from the novel belonged to the eighteenth century and is based upon the contemporary local traditions which was also reflected in her this novel which was based on arrange marriage. The conventional view from Cao Quaqio shows the main character as a terribly bad woman, which does not even do justice with the story of novel itself (Zaifu, 2009.) This is the story of the daughter in law, whose marriage is fixed with an ill man, by her family. Her character is dominated by her husband’s home and she is in quite weak position. As she was a woman, the majority of novels were narrated from the view of the woman. Her creative work has both the reflections of the era and the area from where she belonged to; therefore both the eastern and western cultural insights are covering his novels. 4.2 Human Feelings The human feelings are superseding the nationalism in the majority of the stories of Eileen Chang and the same is in this story, but the story is not a war based story. Alike the love in a fallen city, this novel is also a super hit. Both the Love in a fallen city and the Golden Cangue revolves around the family activities, and the relationships in the backgrounds of the China and Hong Kong (Wiles and Stefanowska, 2006, p. 41). 4.3 Feminism Although in the majority of the novels from the different writers, the male dominance is the key culture. The main role belongs to the man and the woman’s role is either complimentary or just for the need of story, not centrally streamlined as compared to the man’s role. As the writer of this novel is female, Eileen Chang, the main theme of the novel is conglomerated into a woman’s point of view though this trends was not been so common, and not a rare thing in literature but it is quite uncommon. The first person ‘I’ has been used to narrate the story by a woman with the compliments regarding the background provided by the writer to elaborate the detailing (Louie, 2012, p. 76). 5. Lust, Caution 5.1 Introduction This novel is based on the story of a girl. This novel is in the context of Shanghai during the world war, and the main lead is Mak who plots to kill a Japanese collaborator Yee and starts a love affair with him for this purpose. However she actually falls in his love, let him escape at the last moment from the assault (Chih-tsing, 2001, p91).The story theme is based on the espionage and the romance. These genres have been presented in the scenarios of the turbulent era of 1940s. The story has a strong impact on the reader although the story is a short story, and not a novel, but has more impact than the other long novels. The characters’ sketch and the human feelings combined are quite sophisticated. 5.2 Backgorund The 66 page story was also filmed by the Director who won the Oscar award. The plot is based on the same story. During the Japanese occupation of China and Hongkong, Mr. Yee a strong political person in the era of 1940s, is loved by Mak, who could not help his love at the end. 5.3 Filmography Chinese language is such a beautiful language. The changing feeling of lust and caution has been presented in a single insight within the scope of this story. Both the feelings of lust and cautions are varying with each other; sometimes the caution overwhelms and sometimes the lust. The Hitchcock’s techniques have been used while the film making and the riddle of identity has been set up by the glances of the heroine. Like the original story, the film is espionage based, and the character of a strong political leader with which the heroine falls in love. 5.4 Dilemmas The story is based on the conflicting romance and the ambitious women. The woman which is the heroine plans to assault the Mr. Yee who is the intelligence head as well as a political leader. For this purpose, she plans to make relations with him so that she can complete her mission. This part of the story is based on the exhilarating paradigm of a relationship between man and woman with a positive perspective. The heroine who was pretending to be fallen in love ironically falls in love and finally has two choices, either to let his ambition go or her love. The love wins finally and she had to die. 6. Love in a fallen City 6.1 Introduction Love in a fallen city is one of the bewitching novels of Eileen Chang, which is based on the love of a love. Like a picture which just praises its mirror images rather having with ideal backgrounds ironically deprived of the intended paradigm. The story is based upon the divorced woman who has to come back to her father’s home, but she is not welcomed warmly, because she is considered as a financial burden on the family. Being desperate because of her circumstances, she fearlessly chooses a man who had already proposed her niece, but prefers her and she finally escapes to Hong Kong. Chang has been rediscovered outside China, the ordinary human feelings has been represented beyond the political scenarios and people can know a lot about China through reading his fantastic novels (Chang, 2006, p. 32). 6.2 Idealism The story is based in the idealism and this is the idealism of the people that keeps them away from attaining the ideal life style. The ideal life has been disambiguated with the lifestyle of elite class. Her stories have combined ideological utopian circumstances with the most contemporary human feelings. These are just like the special affects, when an animated affects are incorporated into real characters, the same is for Eileen Chang. Eileen Chang fascinates the reader with sense of grief for the past associating it with exciting fairy tale stories which ends happily. 6.3 Role of economics and Human Feelings Elite class is the class which has a strong financial capability of purchasing thing and in the present of era of capitalism, everything even the running business can be purchased in the form of stock, with the power of money. Money perspective is also found and the desperate feelings of love have been sweetly indulged in the characters, money and love rivaling their powers with each other. The curse of traditions and culture has been presented though the novel is deeply soaked into it, as against the common human liberation. 6.4 Conceptual Sublimation The stimulant of the conservative culture has been transformed in modern culture and bordering the Shanghai and Hong Kong. The heart of Chang’s achievement is her short stories – stories of love, mildly deep in endless life matters, showing contemporary feelings and alertness to sexual and psycholigical ambiguaties (Chang, 2006, p. 32). 6.5 Neutral Thinking. Neutral thinking is most effective mode of influential communication. For instance, this is the neutron which starts the nuclear chain reactions, although nuclear physics is not the scope of this topic, but the importance of neutral particle in starting a nuclear reaction is vital, and the energy resulting from these reactions is immensely material. Same like that this neutral thinking accounts for her globalization perspective as she has denied patriotism in the end of her novel Lust, Caution. Both the Golden Cangue and Love in a Fallen city put lights on the family activities, marriages and love relationships but they infact reveals the eternal mysteries of Human Nature (Louie, 2012, p. 76). 7. Comparative study The above mentioned synopses of the three novels are richly satire with imagery and the love in a fallen city and her others mentioned novels. Both of her short stories are characterized for the philosophical awareness rather than historical awareness, and she is a genius philosopher rather than a historian (Zaifu, 2009) The love in a fallen city is the story of a woman who marries with a millionaire where she can find money but no love because her husband tend to be involved in parties and getting drunk and for this reason she leaves his husband, causing a great grief to her family. 7.1 Traditional Thinking V Modern Thinking There are strong cultural connections in her novels with the contemporary traditions. The conservative thought tends to provoke in both her novel Golden Cangue and love in the fallen city whereas the Lust, caution is a war story. There is an anxious soul in the characters sketched in her novels which are also rebellious, strongly conflicting against the existing traditions, the cultural and communal bounds. The concepts of love and patriotism have been redefined by her as she was opposed by her fellow writers of not being patriotic with her country. This was also the reason of her immigration to the America and Hong Kong (Chih-tsing, 2001, p91). 7.2 Pictorial Language The Chinese language is a pictorial language where the words do not just represents the prose, but the characters itself are the pictorial illustrations of the underlying knowledge of the nouns. Though the metaphors and similes are common in English fiction but they are not deep as those of Chinese metaphors. 7.3 Idealism v Realism The stories are based on the idealism. Idealism is the search of perfect things, where as the realism considers the imperfections as the perfections. The impurities are considered as the purities. The natural algorithms are followed all around in the realism whereas in the idealism the stories divert from the ground realities. The fairy tale style of the love in a fallen city reveals the strong sense of deprival of love, rather than just gratifying the gender needs through relationships. In the short story of Lust caution, the Heroine had to die opposed to the Hero which she loved. The end is tragic and the triumph of love is the end which is the brilliant impure combination of the tragedy and romance. In this novel, the preference has been given to the soft corners of the human emotions rather than the nationalism and patriotism hence proving that the language of love is stronger than the language of prejudice and ethnicity. In her other novels like the Golden Cangue and the love in a fallen city, the perspective of the position of a weak girl in a strong family has been forwarded, surrounding the regional customs, traditions, the human psychology, emotions, selfishness and romance (Chang and Ling, 2008, p12). 8. Conclusion The chang’s wrok has been rediscovered presently and she was neglected in her lifetime except her early fame in the 1940s. The Chang was forgotten by the Chinese literatures circles but her importance and impact was reminded again by the literature researchers and the film producers. Eileen Chang faced the opposition by her country’s writer as she was ready to be part of the socialist reforms evolving in China in the 1940s. The world war and the socialist movements in China have stroke her stories. Her novels represents the true state of human feelings and the emotional intelligence has been intentionally neglected as shown in the end of one of her novels; Lust, Caution. References Chang, E. 2006. Love in a Fallen City (New York Review Books Classics). NY: NYRB Classics. Chang, E. and Ling, E. 2008. Lust, Caution: The Story, the Screenplay, and the Making of the Film. London:  Pantheon. Louie K. 2012. Eileen Chang: Romancing Languages, Cultures and Genres. Illustrated. Hong Kong University Press. Wiles, S. and Stefanowska, H. L. 2006. Biographical dictionary of Chinese women, Volume 2. California: University of California Press. Zaifu, L. 2009. MCLC. Eileen Chang’s Fiction and C.T. Hsia’s: AHistory of Modern Chinese Fiction. Web. < http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/pubs/liuzaifu.htm > [Accessed 25 May 25, 2013] Chih-tsing. H. 2001. A History of Modern Chinese Fiction. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Trudeau, L. J. 1999. Asian American Literature: Reviews and Criticism of Works by American Writers of Asian Descent. Detroit: Gale Research. Read More