Introduction
In Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, the people of China are under the reign of Chairman Mao and there is a vivid realistic portrait of life in modern China during Chairman Mao’s reign. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant depicts the life of Xu Sanguan, a factory worker during the early 1950s and thereby traces the history of China when socialism burgeoned, when there was the disastrously ambitious economic collectivization of the Great Leap Forward in 1958, the aftermath of the 3-year famine, and the factional violence of Cultural Revolution in 1966 to 1976. As the subject is family oriented the author explores the social aspects of Chinese life during the period as well.
Main body
The book is set in the 1950s, the time China under the grip of Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. In the backdrop of poverty, Yu Hua explores the social and economic aspects of Chinese life under the red flag. Men sold blood to survive and to prove their masculinity. In the countryside men who had not sold blood could not even get themselves a wife. Unable to sustain his family, Xu Sanguan, a cart pusher at a silk mill sells blood in order to feed his family. Blood being a limited resource – it takes a huge physical and emotional toll on him. Politics and social relations are intertwined. During the collectivization of the Great Leap Forward, when public institutions were turned into canteens, Xu Sanguan explains to his wife that they will now eat dinner at the opera house: “You know where the kitchen is? Right on the stage.” During the famine, the family of Xu Sanguan is able to rise only twice a day from their beds to eat watery rations of corn gruel. This plot allows the author to trace the history of China under Mao while studying human life as well.
Xu Sanguan love for Xu Yulan, his pain at finding out that Yiles is not born to him and finally his overwhelming love for him offer a rich framework to study interpersonal relations. The dynamics of the family continue to change throughout the novel. Xu Sanguan’s relationship with Yile is tested and changes over time. The novel is basically sentiment based. When Xu Sanguan finds out that Yiles is not his legitimate son, he leaves him at home while he takes the rest of the family out to eat during the famine. He explains his action to Yile that if he allowed him to eat noodles with the rest of the family he will be benefiting He Xiaoyong, his wife’s ex-lover whom he now loathes. Ultimately Xu Sanguan is reconciled with Yile by saving him from hepatitis using his blood money. Social relations in China are well explored through the interpersonal relationships of Xu Sanguan.
The May Fourth movement of 1919 was responsible for the political shift in China. But more than its political shift towards the Left, the movement is known for the cultural shift towards intellectualism. In this book, we can find evidences of the May Fourth Movement in the description of workers life in modern China, how they had to have connections with people higher in the hierarchy to gets things done and how socially, people experimented intellectually. Xu Sanguan applied his intellect rather than his sentiment to resolve the one major personal crisis in his life – his unresolved feelings for Yiles. He used his connections with a senior Blood Officer in order to sell blood more often. The fight for survival through intellect captures the essence of both the May Fourth movement and the theme of the book.
Conclusion
The novel focuses more on external relationships – familial bonds and community ties. Often choices are made where individual desires are suppressed and society is given most importance. This is just as would happen in a pre-Communist Confucian society. The suppression of the individual is brought out symbolically in the names of the Xu Sanguan’s sons who are called Yile, Erle, and Sanle, meaning First Son, Second Son, and Third Son. The book even has a Fourth Uncle. This symbolically indicates a society where family roles and responsibilities are more important than individual personality and desires. The book “Chronicle of the Blood Merchant” explores the societal roles and relationships “once strictly defined by Confucian hierarchy and structure and later unmoored by the Communist Revolution” (Hsu 1).
Works Cited
Hua, Yu (2007). Chronicle of a Blood Merchant. Anchor Books.
Hsu, Shirley (2004). Thicker than Water. UCLA publication. 2008. Web.