Love in a Fallen City is Eileen Chang’s Chinese novel that primarily focuses on two individuals’ love affairs during the Sino-Japanese war. During the wartime period, both characters’ cities. Hong Kong and Shanghai were occupied by the Japanese due to invasion. The main character undergoes several difficult challenges to survive and achieve some form of stability. The novel explores a wide range of interesting topics, but three are the most critical, which are marriage-related anxiety, patriarchal structure, and collectivism.
Marriage-Related Anxiety
The institute of marriage in Chinese culture is not only an expression of commitment and love but also the main way for women to achieve financial stability and ensure retirement. The Third Master states: “Breaking up other peoples’ marriages means there won’t be any sons or grandsons. I, the third son of the Bai family, am a man with sons, and I fully expect their support in my old age” (Chang, 1943, p. 3). The statement from the Third Master reveals that the institute of marriage is a centerpiece of stability for not only women and wives, but also aging men, who perceive their children as future caregivers. Therefore, it is evident that Chinese culture is heavily reliant on reciprocity within the family structure, where parents provide for their young, who give that care back during their adulthood (Tang, 2015). This outstandingly explains the reason behind the main character’s matrimonial stress, because the lacking husband will result in not having a man for financial stability and children for future caregiving. Recognizing the stabilizing nature of marriage, it is clear that women of that era highlighted both material benefits and the social feasibility of ensuring the strength of union.
Marriage is an institution that not only focuses on love and feelings but also brings material benefits both for each person and for the state. The benefits of marriage for Chinese women have tangible consequences, and above all, this institution guarantees population growth and helps strengthen the nation. In this context, marriage favors the preservation of offspring, the growth of wealth, prevents disease, protects morals, and promotes the rise of production. In my experience, recognizing the notions of the emotional relationship of spouses in Chinese society, it can be assumed that love and excessive emotional attachment in marriage lead to rash acts and destroy the foundation of marriage (Tang, 2015). In both Chinese and North American cultures, the vitality of marriage was initially determined by the pragmatic goals that a marriage contract implied. However, Western culture shifted the core of marriage to become an expression of love, whereas in Eastern societies, women needs family to ensure her future. From the short story, it is clear that advice to daughters and young girls is replete with remarks about the merits of marrying a rich bridegroom. If there is no material benefit, then the marriage will be unhappy, since poverty and a lack of stability negatively affect the most virtuous wives.
Patriarchal Structure
Chang gradually reveals the intricacies of the Chinese sociocultural environment, where patriarchy is more prominent compared to North American culture. For instance, Liusu claims: “It’s the useless women who are the most formidable” (Chang, 1943, p. 13). The given excerpt elaborates on the notion of women being submissive and lacking any employable skills. The quote was told by Liusu to Liuyuan in order to show the readers that Chinese women are aware of their role in society, which means that patriarchy is far more explicit and direct than in North American culture. Through the story, patriarchy can be observed in every instance of Chinese culture, where women and men are obliged to perform different tasks and evaluated on divergent metrics. Thus, the ethnic characteristics of Chinese sexism in determining male and female roles can be found precisely in the diversity of world views. This emerging aesthetic composition can be recognized in the dynamics that underlie Confucian society. The latter includes behaviors that are most consistent with the definition of the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, husband, and wife. This is the context of the difference between man and woman.
Throughout the story, a reader can easily observe the manifestations of patriarchy in the main character’s relationship with other family members. There is a deep sense of respect for elders that sits deeply in the gender consciousness of traditional Chinese people. The purpose of the family was to design such a micro-society that would fulfill all the necessary functions for preparing each subsequent generation to create a new family structure with all the essential knowledge and skills. This involves economic knowledge and material support of the family necessary, professional, which would bring her income. The book also shows the functions of the family, such as legal, that is, an understanding of what everyone has the right to and what is not, and the political, that is, how to create a family so that marriage is mutually beneficial. The family played an indispensable role in spiritual education, where an atmosphere of mutual assistance was created, everyone’s responsibility for everyone, and the protection of the younger ones.
It is important to note that gender specifications were clearly outlined in the book, which indicates the further propagation of the patriarchal family structure. Of particular importance in the Chinese family were gender roles, and such a traditional family consists of representatives of both sexes and several generations (Tang, 2015). The closely related men and women have gender statuses, which are prescribed certain status roles. However, I have not experienced such a strong manifestation of patriarchy, because in North American culture, women can easily take on traditionally male roles of proving the family. In addition, there is a major difference in expected feminine behavior between Chinese and Western cultures, because Eastern women are expected to be submissive.
Collectivism
Collectivism and the lack of individualism is a less prominent topic, but it affects the main characters and many other members of such social structures. In order to support the statement, the author writes: “She didn’t want anyone now—hateful people, lovable people—she didn’t want any of them. From her earliest youth, she’d lived in an overcrowded world. Pushing, squeezing, trampling, hugging, hauling, old people, young people, people everywhere” (Chang, 1943, p. 25). Chinese culture is an epitome of a collectivistic society, which is radically different from the North American one, where individualism is cherished. From the author’s narration, readers can be easily observed how the main character lacked any form of personal space and individuality. This is a manifestation of collectivism, where people might feel overwhelmed with the constant presence of other individuals without a moment for themselves.
The historical process of the development of civilizations has given rise to two main forms of the production and socio-cultural paradigms of social beings, such as collectivism and individualism. Their formation and existence in society at the stage of historical development is determined by a complex of natural, economic, ideological, and other factors. Collectivism is, first of all, a type of social structure, where the interests of a group of people or society as a whole are more important than the interests of an individual person (Chen-Bouck et al., 2019). In other words, this is a special structure and psychological atmosphere, where a person feels a member of a community, and activity is part of a collective business. The story outstandingly conveys the core collectivism, which is one of the most central features of Asian societies.
However, individualism is, in my experience, a juxtaposition of the interests and views of an individual person to the interests of the collective, that is, the preference for personal interests over public ones. It is important to note the fact that the principle of collectivism in social life has several disadvantages. The following example can be given when the collective system of public relations blurs the line between public and private life, or when the interests of the individual are sacrificed to the collective. This is what happens to the main character as the story progresses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the book Love in a Fallen City explores the socio-cultural structure of Chinese people and the issues of the women involved that include marriage-related anxiety, patriarchy, and collectivism. Throughout the story, the heroine seeks to find and marry a prosperous husband. Her desperation is due to the fact that the institute of marriage in China is the only way to ensure stability for females. The story also reveals the clear indications of patriarchic structure, because both men and women clearly know their gender roles, and thus, express appropriate behavior. After careful observation, one can see the negative aspects of collectivism, where a person’s individuality is undermined. The book is well-written, because it was successful at revealing intricacies of Chinese culture alongside its problems.
References
Chang, E. (1943). Love in a fallen city. Penguin.
Chen-Bouck, L., Patterson, M. M., & Chen, J. (2019). Relations of collectivism socialization goals and training beliefs to Chinese parenting. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50(3), 396-418.
Tang, Y. (2015). Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity and Chinese culture. Springer.