Zhang Ailing's mother
Today I saw this Lianhe Zaobao article about Zhang Ailing's mother Huang Yifan. This Ms. Xing Guangsheng looks very friendly, a bit like my grandmother. It completes the picture of Huang Yifan's life after she left Shanghai for the last time, which is rare new information for me. (Although this report was published in 2019, I will not actively collect auxiliary information about Zhang Ailing. I deliberately leave a lot of blank space. Only when I occasionally see it and think it is good, it will become "new information.")
The information was new, but I was not surprised. Because the Huang Yifan described by Xing Guangsheng did not conflict with my understanding of Huang Yifan. In other words, in Zhang Ailing's own writings, we can actually see her mother's free and easy and tenacious nature, especially her self-reliance as a factory worker in the UK. Women from old-fashioned families in Zhang Ailing's works would want to "find a job" and support themselves. Bai Liusu in "Love in a Fallen City" first wanted to "find a job", and then Mrs. Xu pointed out that "finding a job is all fake, and finding a person is real"; Mrs. Xun in "Meeting Joy" seemed to be angry, but in fact she was very serious. She thought that after her husband died, she could live on her own, "I think I can take care of myself", and she could cook, "even if I can be a second knife in a restaurant!" This kind of woman's longing for freedom from career is naturally most obviously influenced by her aunt Zhang Maoyuan and even Su Qing ("My View of Su Qing"), but her mother's freedom to come and go as a world traveler is also a background.
When Little Reunion was published in 2009, the public's attention naturally focused on Hu Lancheng (Shao Zhiyong), and some more serious comments pointed out that the most important relationship in the novel should be the relationship between Jiuli and her mother. Looking back now, thirteen years later, it is hard to imagine that the consensus at that time was that the relationship between father and son was described and discussed enough in literary works, but the relationship between mother and daughter had almost never been described in such depth. This shows that the relationship between women, at least in the Chinese world, has always been ignored.
When Little Reunion was released, some people, like the Zhu sisters, were extremely disappointed, thinking that it shattered the Zhang Ailing attitude of "looking at flowers by the water" that they had imagined from the writings of Hu Lancheng and others. As for me, except for the comments of the Zhu sisters and Huang Biyun (who also disagreed), I have consistently refused to read anyone else's comments on Little Reunion for more than a decade, and even if I did read them, I would immediately forget them. I can only read Zhang by myself, because all second-hand interpretations are "looking at her once is to misunderstand her" (Little Reunion).
I have no prejudice against Little Reunion, so I have no shock. If there is no fantasy about something, it is easy to accept it as it is. Before Little Reunion, the essays and novels by Eileen Chang that I read when I was a child also made me envy her clever and witty metaphors. The witty words between her and my aunt, and between her and Ying Ying, made me pay more attention to her delicacy and free and easy style. Little Reunion was washed away with all the dross, and the sonorous sound was still there, but the gorgeousness was no longer there, and it became a more refined style. I was immersed in it. I read the same book for thirteen years, and I could recite any page I opened at random.
I am familiar with the material to a certain extent, but because I deliberately "don't explore", I still get surprises from time to time. The biggest surprise of this Lianhe Zaobao article is that I know that Huang Yifan is just like Bian Ruiqiu, a translation of a more elegant and innovative English name. Before, I only saw that Huang Yifan's original name was Huang Suqiong, but I didn't know that Yifan was Yvonne. After watching "Little Reunion" several times, I realized that Ruiqiu Chudi is Rachel and Judy. I also complained because these two English names are too common and even vulgar. Yvonne is of course relatively uncommon, and Yifan is as elegant and generous as Ruiqiu Chudi. In fact, Zhang Ailing had already written about the origin of her name in her essays. It was the product of her mother "randomly translating the English name into two words", which is the same format as Yifan. This report seems to be guiding this format, putting the mother and daughter photos side by side. I am very familiar with the photo of Eileen Chang, but it is the first time I have seen the one of Huang Yifan. It also reminded me of another photo of her that is more common. I have long known that Eileen Chang's mother is very beautiful, with the kind of Western beauty that a mixed-race person has. In this photo, her expression is a bit like Tian Li.
Huang Yifan is the granddaughter of Huang Yisheng, the admiral of the Jiangnan Navy. Huang Yisheng seems to be the only one in the Hunan Army who can be called "Zeng Guofan's personal". Zhang Ailing grew up in Tianjin and became famous in Shanghai, and her uncle's family is also in Shanghai. The Shanghai style is very strong and the hometown style is very weak, but I can still see some details in "Little Reunion", such as Jiuli carrying a bowl of hot red amaranth to her uncle's house across the street for dinner. The red soup was soaked with white garlic. I was surprised to see it. Red amaranth boiled with garlic seeds is what we Hunanese eat. I have loved it since I was a child. I eat a bowl after a bowl and never get enough.
In "Little Reunion", there is a mystery about Ruiqiu's reputation. It was mentioned lightly, "Nai De is good in this respect. Jiulin looks so much like a foreigner, so I don't doubt it. In fact, there was an Italian who taught singing at that time..." It is similar to the question of her uncle's background, pointing out that her brother may also have a questionable background. But I never believed it. This is different from the question of her uncle's background. From the context, I just think it is a purely hypothetical chat.
Actually, it is not easy to explain. I have written such a long paragraph, and the more I explain, the more it seems to be true. But I still stick to my opinion. This sensational unsolved case, the mystery of Sheng Jiulin's life experience, is definitely not true. Thinking deeply, is this paragraph written as a subconscious revenge for being bullied as a girl in childhood, "Your brother's surname is Sheng, and your surname is Peng, whichever family you are from is yours", because of the slander of her by her brother in the letter to the "new house" ("the stain on the family")? This kind of revenge is not explicit, it can only be a subconscious, unconscious, a kind of parallelism that approaches the relationship between her mother and uncle.
I don't think Jiulin looks like a foreigner, which means he was born to a foreigner, because we Hunanese have this kind of thing. In 2018, my mother went to my grandmother's hometown and came back to tell me that some relatives in her hometown have high nose bridges and are very beautiful. My grandmother's home is very close to Zeng Guofan's hometown. In modern times, it can be speculated that there is the influence of the Hunan Army (although Huang Yisheng is from Changsha, Hunan). My grandmother's hometown has the kind of Hunan Army's brutality. There is one thing that I heard my father tell me very late (either in 2019 or 2020). As soon as I heard it, I remembered the story of the cat-for-prince in "Little Reunion" - Jiuli's grandfather died in Yunnan, and the second concubine in the family was pregnant. The relatives were eyeing and waiting to divide the family property. In the end, a girl was born. It was the maid Ling Saozi who went out to find refugees and bought a baby boy. When the old Hunan Army surrounded them, she secretly hid it in a basket and brought it in. It was considered a boy and a girl. This is Jiuli's mother and uncle. Write about Mrs. Ling's wit, "She must have been very popular in the past, flirting with these old Hunan soldiers guarding the door, otherwise why would they let her go in with a basket and not find her?", and write about the dangerous situation, "If she started crying when she entered the door, wouldn't she have been caught and beaten to death immediately?".
The incident my grandmother experienced was not so dramatic, but the situation was similar. At that time, the Communist Party came and wanted to confiscate civilian weapons. My grandmother had a pistol, but the problem was that the pistol had been lent to someone else. It was difficult to get it back at someone else's house. It was the capable sister-in-law of the family who took my grandmother, the young girl and the young wife, to get it. On the way, they met the patrol and questioned them. They also had a conversation, but they didn't find the pistol and let them go.
I think I understand some of Zhang Ailing's subtle and detailed psychological levels and the implied meanings in her language because I have no illusions or prejudices. I have read her materials to such a degree that they have almost become my own materials.
After having life experience, reading Zhang Ailing's novel again will be more thrilling. The true meaning between the words is not something you can understand when you are a child. In recent years, I have read "Little Reunion" again and finally understood what Ruiqiu's "romance" really means, and why this kind of "romance" has become an indelible ghost that torments Jiuli. Some possibilities between the words are even more frightening. Ni Xi in The Serial Trap has a shadow of her mother, which is almost stated from the beginning. (The second cousin-in-law mentioned at the beginning is, of course, the second aunt - her mother. Later, in the preface to Zhang Kan, the origin of the story was explained in detail: "Mi Ni looks to be in her twenties or thirties, wearing a Western dress, of medium build, light body, with deep eyes, high nose, and thin lips, very much like my mother. After a meal, I still think she looks like her. Yan Ying has met my mother, and I later asked her if she looks like her. She also said "they are of the same type", but probably not as similar as I think."), and Mrs. Liang in The First Incense Burner, the relationship between Mrs. Liang and Ge Weilong, if you think about it carefully, may not be derived from the summer vacation she spent with her mother in Hong Kong. This is certainly not to say that Zhang Ailing's mother wanted to use her as a socialite as Mrs. Liang did. But the writer's sedimentation and development from the prototype to the literary image is to pursue a clue that is abstract and illusory, but also directly points to the essence. Zhang Ailing discovered a possibility in her relationship with her mother. Based on the assumption of this possibility and her mother's "romantic" behavior, her mother's friends she met in Hong Kong, her classmates from local prominent families when she was studying at the University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong-style "upper class" they represented, Zhang Ailing created the character of Mrs. Liang and the relationship between Mrs. Liang and Ge Weilong.
This is another point that needs to be defended. I do not think that Little Reunion is the truth, but the fact here refers to the objective level. On the subjective level, Little Reunion is a faithful record of Zhang Ailing's feelings about her life and the materials she repeatedly ruminated on, using the most cruel and realistic dissection. On this level, Little Reunion is a documentary.
The summer vacation that Zhang Ailing spent with her mother in Hong Kong was undoubtedly a turning point in their relationship. The opening of "Little Reunion" is about Ruiqiu going to Hong Kong to see Jiuli, and the story is full of stories. The "800 yuan incident" cannot be avoided. Ruiqiu just lost the 800 yuan scholarship given to her by Anzhusi in mahjong. Was it intentional or just a coincidence? Why did she lose her daughter's scholarship? This incident is a sign that Jiuli was completely hurt. Of course, it was because the affirmation of the professor she was proud of was completely denied by her mother, but what was Ruiqiu's motive? Did she think that everything about her daughter was entirely up to her? Did she misunderstand the relationship between Mr. Anzhusi and Jiuli and deliberately wanted to teach her a lesson? Was it unintentional? I have a point of view: we need to take Ruiqiu's background into consideration. She has never been to school formally and does not have a diploma. Then, her understanding of the relationship between men and women, limited by her usual cognition, naturally believes that it must involve "romance", and even if she misunderstood the relationship between Mr. Anzhusi and Jiuli - perhaps it reminded her of the German doctor who was willing to treat Jiuli for free - it was not necessarily intentional, but a deeper unconsciousness, a kind of out of sight, out of mind to eliminate "bad" things. Jiuli's mother did not want Jiuli to "learn from her" and had such a relationship between men and women in the professor, so she wanted to wake her up and punish her.
But for Jiuli, this is about her dignity, the foundation of her independence, and her self-identity. Jiuli grew up in an upper-class Chinese family, and her self-worth was denied ("My brother's surname is Sheng, and your surname is Peng, so whichever family you meet is yours", "In fact, I can marry you off, young girls won't be unwanted." - "Little Reunion"), and these words came from her brother's nanny and her closest protector, her mother, who she had lived with day and night since she was a child. Jiuli went to Victoria University, and she earned "favor" for herself by breaking the record. This is the foundation of her life, a foundation for not being married off and not dragging down her mother. So in the third chapter of "Little Reunion", it is said that after the Japanese attacked Hong Kong, her competitor Yan Mingsheng came to tell her that the school's grades were burned, and she felt that "all her fame and success was gone." - Jiuli has repeatedly felt that she is not the beautiful girl in her mother's ideal, and feels that her existence is a burden to her mother. This time, her mother even denied her dignity of independence.
Another incident was the Miss Xiang Ba incident. This was a defeat for Rachel. Ambassador Bi came to Hong Kong for Rachel, but she did not come for him. Rachel did not even tell Jiuli about her destination or her fellow travelers. Rachel was obviously distracted by other things (Jiuli, the young British officer) and did not spend much time on Ambassador Bi. So Miss Xiang Ba, who was also a divorced relative and said she wanted to remarry, took action, and when they met again, Ambassador Bi had become her property.
This subtle competition between women is called "female competition" according to the current popular term. But we must not simply label it as the stigmatization of women by patriarchy. It is undeniable that, especially in an era when men control all social resources, women's only "way out" is marriage. When resources are scarce, they naturally have to compete. But this competition is not the same for everyone. There is a type that only exists in secret, with extremely slight movements and never made clear. Ruiqiu and Miss Xiang Ba are such subtle and tactful "competitions" that will not be put on the surface. Ruiqiu may not love Ambassador Bi, but she may not not love Ambassador Bi. Ambassador Bi is obviously an ideal marriage partner in terms of material status - although he is old and unattractive. Ruiqiu still wants to talk about feelings and the most essential attraction between two people - her situation is not as urgent as Miss Xiang Ba. So you haven't made a decision yet, and you are still hesitating, right? Someone will help you make the decision. (I have previously talked about the story of Wei Dajie snatching Li Shen from Gao Yang’s “Moling Spring”. It is a story like this. The means of a woman forced out.) The pair of Miss Xiang Ba and Ambassador Bi also became the archetype of Zhang Ailing’s later works—they appeared in “Love in a Fallen City” and “Relieving” with a new look. Miss Xiang Ba’s situation is an example of how women of that era and class could only use marriage as a way to make a living in order to maintain a decent status in the family.
Jiuli witnessed her mother's rare defeat in "romance" and the embarrassment associated with it ("Rui Qiu was wearing an egg-yolk-colored transparent nightgown. When the servant knocked on the door, she suddenly put her hands on her throat and shrank back, her arms covering her chest. Jiuli was very surprised. She had never seen her mother being ungenerous. She had never seen her wear inappropriate clothes, but this time she wore several, as if she had lost her composure when she became haggard." - "Small Reunion"). The illusion of the fairy godmother who was pure, unrestrained, Western-style, and always noble and beautiful also began to crack. During a summer vacation in Hong Kong, Jiuli got to know the mother she had never known before, and realized that she could not get the degree of love she wanted from her mother.
There is a sentence in "Little Reunion" that was ridiculed by Huang Biyun when it was first published, "You hope your nanny loves you" - "In the past, I thought that only Han's mother liked her, just because she was alive and growing up, not weighing her future all day long." This sentence is not worth ridiculing. The reason for this sentence is that Zhang Ailing is an absolutely real person. She wrote out the deepest desire of such a childhood, while others are used to hiding, and when they first see the truth, they feel uncomfortable and disgusted. How many people have not experienced unconditional love?
But Zhang Ailing's mother, Huang Yifan, was a rebel and a loner of the times. The most prominent image in her life, or the image that Zhang Ailing remembers most, is "beauty". Beauty is the self-protection of a rebel. When she insisted on going abroad, getting divorced, traveling, wandering, being unacceptable to the world, and fighting against tradition, this beauty could bring her some admiration and recognition.
Now we know that the so-called "beauty", especially the beauty of women in a patriarchal society, is a property of being gazed at as an object. However, Huang Yifan's beauty gave Zhang Ailing her first childhood admiration, and also made her proud and inferior. I wonder if Zhang Ailing knew that her mother "earned her own living" and worked in a textile factory when she was separated from her mother in LA. But noble beauty and labor are not contradictory. Even if Zhang Ailing saw her mother working in a textile factory, she would think she was beautiful and decent. Women should be independent, which is the progressive truth that her mother taught her since she was a child. Even though they are mother and daughter, they still seek love all their lives. ——But seeking love and needing love, is it worth ridiculing? Isn't it independence? The understanding they need and the deep and strong attraction between people are already contradictory to the marriage in a patriarchal society, but the society makes women enter into marriages from generation to generation, and regards marriage as a support, a way out, and a way to make a living. Zhang Ailing, like her mother, actually fought against the so-called "mainstream" tradition all her life. Huang Yifan was beautiful, but Zhang Ailing always felt guilty towards her mother for not being beautiful.
"A Little Reunion" ends in a dream: "A movie from 20 years ago, a person from 10 years ago. She woke up and was happy for a long, long time." In the penultimate chapter, Ruiqiu came back for the last time and watched the movie written by Jiuli. She seemed very satisfied - she gave Jiuli her approval, but Jiuli's feelings had long been exhausted, which meant that she no longer had them.
"Jiuli herself was in her thirties. She cried and almost cried when she saw the biopic of baseball player Jimmy Pearce. Anthony Perkins played Jimmy, whose father had trained him to play baseball since he was a child. He was under too much pressure and could not please his father no matter how hard he tried. After he succeeded, he finally went crazy. After winning a game, he climbed the wire fence along the stands and shouted, "Did you see it? I hit it, I hit it!"
And Rachel never understood Jiuli. She actually thought Jiuli's estrangement from her was a judgment that she had too many men! In fact, it was just the opposite. How could Jiuli judge her with so-called "morality"? Jiuli might be the only person in the world who could understand Rachel's need for affection and love. "She needs a little warm memory when she is surrounded by enemies. That is her life." - Fairy Godmother lost her beauty, but still had a little love from men, which was her support and warmth. Jiuli lived with her mother in her childhood. Her mother paid for her to study abroad. When there were guests at home - actually a date, Jiuli hid on the roof to read. Under the psychological pressure, she was so embarrassed that she almost jumped off the building. She felt guilty all her life. She was the evidence of her mother's forced marriage and hindered her mother's love.
Let's put Jiuli aside and return to Zhang Ailing. Zhang Ailing wrote her brother to death in the novels "Leifeng Pagoda" and "The Book of Changes" written in English later, which were based on her childhood. It is almost a joke in a sitcom, "I wrote you to death in the novel!" (Lü Xiucai in "Wulin Wai Zhuan"), but it does reflect the author's secret psychology. Similarly, the mother in "Jasmine Tea" married Nie Chuanqing's father due to family pressure, and the beautiful and poetic image of Feng Biluo who died young came from Zhang Ailing's mother, which is also self-evident. So why did Feng Biluo also die young? Is it the same reason as the death of the younger brother in "Leifeng Pagoda" and "The Book of Changes"? Zhang Ailing's mother and aunt have always been regarded as one, even in "Little Reunion" they are "Second Aunt and Third Aunt", but her mother and brother also have a certain degree of integrity. From a modern perspective, or the "anti-feudal" cliché that exists in "Jasmine Tea", it is natural to say that her mother and brother are both victims of the feudal old family. However, this kind of "sacrifice" and "victimization" is proletarian cultural propaganda, which is one-sided. "Looking at people through the crack of the door and looking down on them" is an extraction of typical images. The "victims" in the real world are never perfect. Zhang Ailing's mother and brother, especially her mother, who are related by blood, accumulated little things, which only made her feel emotionally betrayed. When her brother was a child, he falsely accused her of "staining the family" behind her back, and her mother cursed her "you are harming people when you live". She remembered these things for a lifetime. She had deep feelings for these two people who were closest to her in the world, the people she once loved the most, so the thorns were deep. "Writing to death" the two closest people, mother and brother, represents a considerable degree of disappointment, and then escape, emotional separation, and self-protection. She had no way and was unwilling to write their "afterwards" into the story, but she could not make up another "better" version, so she could only cut it off and write it to death. Using her pen to kill the closest relatives in the world was "unavoidable".
Like my work? Don't forget to support and clap, let me know that you are with me on the road of creation. Keep this enthusiasm together!
