China has had numerous changes in literature, diverse culture and unique etiquette. China has had a great number of amazing works in literature. In “Love Must Not Be Forgotten,” by Zhang Jie demonstrates literature, diverse culture, and unique etiquette.
In “Love Must Not Be Forgotten,” the story is based on the time period of the Cultural Revolution. China has experienced a numerous amount of time being in war, due to the leaders having too much power. One of the leaders, that made the most impact on China’s well being is Kublai Khan, who made the capital of China be Beijing and he rebuilt the Grand Canal. After Tiananmen Square Massacre occurred, China started to decline for the worst. After the massacre happened, China became isolated
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In the Chinese culture, it is uncommon to be older and not married, but Shanshan is afraid that she is going to marry someone that she is not truly in love with. Shanshan’s mom kept a diary, that was about a man who she was in love with but died in the Cultural Revolution, so Shanshan’s mom could not tell him how she really felt. Shanshan read the diary after her mom died, and all the doubts that Shanshan had about marriage went away because she knew one day that she was going to find true love like her mom did. Whenever Shanshan found her true love she was not going to wait like her mom did, she was going to express her feelings toward the person she loved (Jie 1416-1426). “The story suggests that for all the changes effected by the Communists, Chinese women still face centuries-old social pressures to marry and subordinate themselves to their husbands and families (“Reader’s Guide: “Love Must Not Be Forgotten” 1415).
There could be multiple themes in “Love Must Not Be Forgotten.” A theme that sticks out would be “true love never dies.” A quote that supports that theme would be found on page 1426, “I am going there to join you, to be together for eternity” (Jie 1416-1426). Another theme that could be found in “Love Must Not Be Forgotten” is “don't marry for the wrong reason.” A quote that could support the theme would be, “if everyone could wait, instead of rushing into marriage, how many tragedies could be averted!” (Jie 1416-1426) “Love Must Not Be Forgotten,” has numerous amount of themes you could learn
The first chapter begins with an exploration of love and marriage in many ancient and current cultures. Surprisingly many cultures either avoid the discussion of love in marriage or spit on the idea completely. China and other societies believed that love was simply a product of marriage and shouldn’t get too out of hand, while a few Greek and Roman philosophers shunned excessive
Some of the more fascinating documents of the Han period in ancient China were arguably those written by women. The writings were at once contradictory due to the fact that they appeared to destroy the common perceptions of women as uneducated and subservient creatures while simultaneously delivering messages through the texts that demonstrated a strict adherence to traditional values. Those are the paradoxical characteristics of prominent female scholar Ban Zhou’s work called Lesson for a Woman. Because modern opinions on the roles of women in society likely cloud the clear analysis of Zhou’s work, it is necessary to closely examine the Han’s societal norms and popular beliefs that contributed to establishing the author’s perspective and intent.
Because of this, many people snuck off to mountains to sing songs and committing suicide with someone they love, rather than spending the rest of their lives with someone they don’t. This became so well-known across China that Lijiang became known as the city of lover’s suicides. Today these stories are all a thing of the past, and getting married has become a traditional thing. Some even believe that women having multiple lovers and were held to such a high status is all just a made up theory. Years ago anthropologists traveled up the mountain from Lijiang to visit a group of people known as the Moso. The first thing noticed when arriving is the way women acting. Most Chinese women at this time are shy, and don’t speak much, while these women are vocal and open. Also, these women work all day, doing everything that their families require, while the men only work when there is something that needs to be done. When asked about it the women just say that it has always been this way, and actually prefer it, they have a big sense of pride for the work they do. The story this custom is said to originate from is there was one a boy that loved working around the house, but the women teased him for this making him feel weak and
In her book, The House of Lim, author Margery Wolf observes the Lims, a large Chinese family living in a small village in Taiwan in the early 1960s (Wolf iv). She utilizes her book to portray the Lim family through multiple generations. She provides audiences with a firsthand account of the family life and structure within this specific region and offers information on various customs that the Lims and other families participate in. She particularly mentions and explains the marriage customs that are the norm within the society. Through Wolf’s ethnography it can be argued that parents should not dec5pide whom their children marry. This argument is obvious through the decline in marriage to simpua, or little girls taken in and raised as future daughter-in-laws, and the influence parents have over their children (Freedman xi).
June-May fulfills her mother’s name and life goal, her long-cherished wish. She finally meets her twin sisters and in an essence fulfills and reunites her mother with her daughter through her. For when they are all together they are one; they are their mother. It is here that June-May fulfills the family portion of her Chinese culture of family. In addition, she fully embraces herself as Chinese. She realizes that family is made out of love and that family is the key to being Chinese. “And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.” (Tan 159). Finally, her mother’s life burden is lifted and June-May’s doubts of being Chinese are set aside or as she says “After all these years, it can finally be let go,” (Tan 159).
However, this “ladder of success” was not as simple as it seemed. First of all, the class of both families will be a huge barrier. We are not even talking about freedom to love here, there is no such thing in late imperial China. Although we can’t say that love doesn’t exist even in such systems, such as Shen Fu and Chen Yun, but most marriages are not about love. Rather, it was about exchange of values. For example, when two families want to become business partners, the parents of the family will have their son and daughter married, so the two families will have closer bonding which made the business much easier. In this sense, we can see that the couple is simply a tool. In the same sense, the families which has not much “values” can only have marriages with the same class of families. Meaning for a women to climb up the ladder of success is not quite possible as the class of her family is a huge deciding factor for marriage in the
Speaking of the Cultural Revolution, to the generation who has experienced it, it is a nightmare. 10-year Cultural Revolution has gradually been a blur in Chinese people’s mind, especially to the younger generation such as my generation. However, the consequences of Cultural Revolution are profoundly devastating to the Chinese society; as Chinese people said, history is like a mirror in which can reflect many problems that are occurring contemporarily. The same mistake in which we have made can still be made in the future if we do not learn from our past. Unquestionably, the Culture Revolution was, as many people believed, the “darkest 10 years” in the moder...
Today marriage is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the relationship between a husband and a wife or a similar relationship between people of the same sex. For the purposes of this paper, it will focus on marriage between a man and a woman and how marriage is differently defined between the American and Chinese cultures. This paper will discuss the cultural differences found between the American and Chinese culture with emphasis on age and mate-selection. The cultural differences between American and Chinese culture related to marriage practices shows that Americans value individualism and Chinese historically value collectivism.
Power and Money do not Substitute Love and as it denotes, it is a deep feeling expressed by Feng Menglong who was in love with a public figure prostitute at his tender ages. Sadly, Feng Menglong was incapable to bear the expense of repossessing his lover. Eventually, a great merchant repossessed his lover, and that marked the end of their relationship. Feng Menglong was extremely affected through distress and desperation because of the separation and he ultimately, decided to express his desolation through poems. This incidence changed his perception and the way he represents women roles in his stories. In deed, Feng Menglong, is among a small number of writers who portrayed female as being strong and intelligent. We see a different picture build around women by many authors who profoundly tried to ignore the important role played by them in the society. Feng Menglong regards woman as being bright and brave and their value should never be weighed against
Lessons for Women was written by Ban Zhao, the leading female Confucian scholar of classical China, in 100 C.E. It was written to apply Confucian principles to the moral instruction of women, and was particularly addressed to Ban Zhao’s own daughters. As her best remembered work, it allows the reader insight into the common role of a woman during this fascinating time-period. The work starts off by Ban Zhao unconvincingly berating herself, and claiming how she once lived with the constant fear of disgracing her family. This argument is rather implausible, for the reader already knows the credibility of Ban Zhao, and how important her role was in ancient China.
Firstly, the relationship expectations in Chinese customs and traditions were strongly held onto. The daughters of the Chinese family were considered as a shame for the family. The sons of the family were given more honour than the daughters. In addition, some daughters were even discriminated. “If you want a place in this world ... do not be born as a girl child” (Choy 27). The girls from the Chinese family were considered useless. They were always looked down upon in a family; they felt as if the girls cannot provide a family with wealth. Chinese society is throwing away its little girls at an astounding rate. For every 100 girls registered at birth, there are 118 little boys in other words, nearly one seventh of Chinese girl babies are going missing (Baldwin 40). The parents from Chinese family had a preference for boys as they thought; boys could work and provide the family income. Due to Chinese culture preference to having boys, girls often did not have the right to live. In the Chinese ethnicity, the family always obeyed the elder’s decision. When the family was trying to adapt to the new country and they were tryin...
In the beginning of the story, the author describes the Chin Yuen's as American in appearance yet Chinese in customs. Throughout the story she continues to describe the deterioration of the Chinese customs by American ideal. This is pinpointed when Mr. Chin Yuen decides to let his daughter marry the boy that she loves. The conversation that Mr. Spring Fragrance has with Young Carman explains that only in American culture is it customary to find love before marriage; in the Chinese tradition, all marriages are arranged. This clearly exemplifies the manner in which the Chinese characters are more and more disregarding their Chinese culture and taking on this new American standard of living. Ironically, Sui Sin Far conveys the notion that the American tradition is not necessarily better than the Chinese tradition. More so she demonstrates the struggle of identity between two worlds that both make sense. Though Laura and Kai Tzu have found their happiness in the American tradition of marriage, the reader discovers that Mr. and Mrs. Spring Fragrance are equally as happy even through the Chinese tradition of marriage.
Kingston uses the story of her aunt to show the gender roles in China. Women had to take and respect gender roles that they were given. Women roles they had to follow were getting married, obey men, be a mother, and provide food. Women had to get married. Kingston states, “When the family found a young man in the next village to be her husband…she would be the first wife, an advantage secure now” (623). This quote shows how women had to get married, which is a role women in China had to follow. Moreover, marriage is a very important step in women lives. The marriage of a couple in the village where Kingston’s aunt lived was very important because any thing an individual would do would affect the village and create social disorder. Men dominated women physically and mentally. In paragraph eighteen, “they both gav...
“The Bridegroom” by Ha Jin, is a short story about a man struggling with homosexuality in modern day China. The narrator, Old Chang, is the non-biological father of a young woman named Beina. Old Change promised to take care of Beina after her father, a close family friend, passed away. Beina then gets married to a very handsome man named Huang Baowen. Baowen quickly becomes the focus of this story. The climax of this short story is Baowen being revealed as a homosexual. This short story highlights Jin’s theme of homosexuality and shows the internal and external struggles of both Baowen and Old Cheng, through first person narrative, setting, and emotional appeal.