When reading novels, I have always had the viewpoint that one should focus on what the author wants to write, how they write it, and why they write it that way. This is closely related to the author's experiences, personality, and worldview.
For writers, I believe that the most important quality is authenticity. This authenticity is not about the reality of the world, as reality is so complex and diverse. Instead, it is about being able to achieve a true understanding of the world and see through illusions. As Zhang Ailing once said, "Life is a gorgeous robe crawling with lice." Zhang Ailing aims to puncture the illusions people have about the world. In her novels, women who are alone and trying to survive often have to pay a great price. The calculations of interests in love and relationships between men and women are like lions on the African savannah, coming together and separating for the sake of survival. The pressures of the environment, the calculations made for survival, and human desires all complement each other, creating a cruel, real, and compassionate world. Ignoring any of these aspects means not understanding Zhang Ailing's intentions. Zhang Ailing's own life experiences were similar to those of the characters in her novels, and she made her own choices, choices that were dignified.
There are similarities in the themes of Zhang Ailing's early novels, and I will mainly discuss "The First Incense Burner".
Please find the moldy and colorful copper incense burner passed down in the family, light a burner of agarwood shavings, and listen to me tell a story about pre-war Hong Kong.
The novel begins by providing the historical background. The old era of large families has just passed, and women can now leave their homes, but they still cannot achieve independence through work. At this time, there is frequent warfare. The protagonist's family came to Hong Kong as refugees due to the Japanese invasion of China, and they decide to return to Shanghai because of the soaring prices in Hong Kong. However, the female protagonist, Ge Weilong, does not want to go back. When she arrives at her aunt's house, she sees her aunt's exquisite garden.
The garden at her aunt's house is just a rectangular lawn surrounded by short white stone railings, beyond which is a barren mountain. This garden seems like a golden lacquer tray lifted out of the chaotic mountains. There is also a row of neatly trimmed evergreen trees in the garden, two sparsely populated flower beds planted with beautiful English roses, all arranged meticulously and orderly, like the delicate brushwork on a lacquer tray.
In one corner of the lawn, a small azalea tree is planted, currently in bloom. The flowers are pink with a hint of yellow, a bright shrimp red. The spring inside the wall is just a fake scene, but who knows that a spark can start a prairie fire? The spring inside the wall extends outside, and wild azaleas bloom vigorously on the mountainside, their burning red color spreading down the slope. Beyond the azaleas is the deep blue sea, with white ships moored in it. Here, the strong contrast of colors creates a dizzying and unreal feeling for the viewer - everything is a contrast; various incompatible backgrounds and the atmosphere of the era are forcibly mixed together, creating a fantastical realm.
The white house on the mountainside has a streamlined, geometric design, similar to the most modern cinemas. However, the roof is covered with antique blue glazed tiles. The glass windows are also green, framed with narrow red borders. There are carved iron grilles on the windows, painted with yellow paint. The house is surrounded by wide corridors paved with red bricks, supported by towering white stone columns, reminiscent of early American Southern architecture. Going through the glass door on the corridor leads to the guest room, which is decorated in a three-dimensional Western style, but also includes several Chinese decorations that can be appreciated by both the refined and the vulgar. On the hearth, there are jade snuff bottles and ivory Guanyin statues, and in front of the sofa, there is a bamboo screen. However, the presence of these Oriental elements is clearly for the sake of foreign friends. When the British come from afar to see China, they must be shown some Chinese things. But this China here is the China in the minds of Westerners - absurd, exquisite, and comical.
The descriptions of the scenery have two layers of meaning. The first is what the author wants to convey to the readers - the ecological environment in which the aunt lives is an artificially created landscape under colonial conditions. The author even jumps out to explain, "Here, the strong contrast of colors creates a dizzying and unreal feeling for the viewer - everything is a contrast; various incompatible backgrounds and the atmosphere of the era are forcibly mixed together, creating a fantastical realm." The second layer is the beginning of the second paragraph of the quoted passage, with its intense, spreading, blue sea and white ships, like scenes from a movie. This represents Wei Long's subjective view, her longing for a broader and freer world.
The author is afraid that the readers will not understand, so she specifically describes:
Wei Long caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the glass door - she herself is also a part of the Oriental color unique to the colony. She is wearing a unique uniform from South England Middle School, a blue bamboo cloth shirt that reaches her knees, with narrow pant legs underneath, in the style of the late Qing Dynasty; she is dressed like a flower girl, which is one of the various facilities provided by the Hong Kong authorities to please European and American tourists. However, Wei Long, like other girls, loves fashion. She adds a knitted vest outside the bamboo cloth shirt, and under the short vest, a large section of the shirt is exposed, making her feel even more like a hybrid.
The story has a winding and circuitous path. The first detour: Wei Long arrives at her aunt's house, but her aunt is not home, so she goes swimming with the thirteenth young master of the Qiao family and is ignored by two maids. From the maids' words, she realizes that her aunt is indeed from an unclean family and decides to leave in disappointment. Then, coincidentally, she meets her aunt on her way back.
Immediately after is the second detour: The thirteenth young master of the Qiao family invites her aunt out, but it is actually a cover for him to meet Miss Zhao from the Zhao family. He returns in anger. It is revealed that her aunt insisted on becoming a concubine to a wealthy businessman and had a falling out with her own family. Her aunt scolds Wei Long's father, and Wei Long wants to leave. This also reveals the background of the male protagonist.
Then comes the third detour: Her aunt discovers that one of the maids is having an affair with Sir Qiao Cheng, and feeling that the maid is unreliable, she wants to use her niece, who is a female student. Her aunt finally accepts her and trains her to become a socialite.
The benefit of these detours is that they increase the density of information in a very short period of time. "Dream of the Red Chamber" also uses this technique, such as when Daiyu first enters the Jia family. Zhang Ailing intentionally imitated the writing style of "Dream of the Red Chamber" in her early works, but there are not many similar examples in her later works.
Wei Long's thoughts gradually change. At first, she only wants her aunt's help to complete her education, although she is well aware of what kind of person her aunt is. She thinks:
As long as I behave properly and uprightly, I won't be afraid of her treating me disrespectfully. Let people gossip outside, let them say whatever they want, I will focus on my studies. In the future, when I meet someone who truly loves me, they will naturally understand and won't believe those boring rumors.
Why does she endure the humiliation and seek help from her aunt instead of returning to Shanghai? In her own words, she wants to stay in Hong Kong to continue her studies. In her eyes, Hong Kong is a more beautiful and free world. When she is sick and misses her home in Shanghai:
In her home, the black iron bed she shared with her sister, the white and red striped mattress, the old-fashioned mahogany dressing table, the lovely peach-shaped porcelain jar shining in the sunlight, filled with refreshing body powder; the monthly calendar of beautiful women hanging on the wall, with her mother's pencil annotations for hairdressing, bean curd jelly, tofu pudding, her aunt's and third aunt's phone numbers.
Her home is warm, but there is no future there, far from the glamorous world. When she falls asleep on her first night at her aunt's house:
Wei Long didn't close her eyes all night. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she seemed to be trying on clothes, trying on one after another - woolen fabrics, soft and fluffy like provocative jazz music; thick and heavy velvet, like melancholic classical opera theme songs; smooth satin, like "The Blue Danube," cool and shady, flowing all over her body. Just as she was dozing off, the music changed, and she woke up again. Downstairs, a breathless rumba was playing, and Wei Long couldn't help but think of the purple electric silk dress in the wardrobe, dancing the rumba, kicking and kicking, making a rustling sound. Thinking of this, she whispered to everything downstairs, "It's good to take a look!" She said this, only her lips moved, and she didn't make a sound. However, she still reached out to pull the blanket over her, covered her head, but no one could hear it. She quietly said again, "It's good to take a look!" and fell asleep with a smile.
But even if she studies well in Hong Kong, what can she achieve? Borrowing the words of the maid, "I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but what's the use of finishing your studies? This is just middle school, and there is only one university in Hong Kong. Even university graduates can't find jobs! There are jobs, earning fifty or sixty dollars a month, teaching in a small school run by a convent, constantly being oppressed by foreign nuns. It's really not worth it!" So Wei Long thinks that after finishing her studies, going out into society and finding a job may not be a suitable path for a girl like her, who is beautiful but lacks special skills. Naturally, getting married would be better. So she starts looking for a suitable partner and sets her sights on Qiao Qiqiao.
As for Qiao Qiqiao's background, it was revealed even before he appeared, through the words of her aunt: "That Qiao kid, your father tried to please the British and got a knighthood, but your mother is an unknown Portuguese prostitute who counts chips at the Macau gambling tables."
Qiao Qiqiao is by no means a suitable match, but in the Lanruo Temple set up by her aunt, there are no proper families. At least compared to those old men, Qiao Qiqiao arouses Wei Long's desires more:
After shaking hands with Wei Long, Qiqiao still kept his hands in his pockets, standing there smiling, looking her up and down. Wei Long was wearing a light blue thin silk cheongsam that day. When he looked at her with his green eyes, she felt her arms were like hot milk poured out of a blue pot, uncontrollable, pouring out her entire self.
Regardless of whether she is willing or not, "From then on, Wei Long is equivalent to being sold to Mrs. Liang and Qiao Qiqiao, busy either making money for Mrs. Liang or finding people for Mrs. Liang."
Wei Long comes from a middle-class family, although her aunt scolds them as "fallen families," they are still educated and refined. So why does she choose this path? It is similar to her aunt's insistence on becoming a concubine to a wealthy businessman - it is the great desire of human beings. In their eyes, it is a way to break free from the lack of freedom in their original class and move up. Assuming Wei Long returns to Shanghai, what can she do? In the end, she will still have to marry someone from a similar family background and become a full-time housewife.
But for those from lower classes, being a full-time housewife is also unattainable. In "Days of Being Wild," the female protagonist, played by Maggie Cheung, is a ticket seller, and she can only hope that Yuddy, played by Leslie Cheung, will marry her. As for Yuddy, his mother married a foreign rich man and refused to see him, dying on the way back from seeing his mother fail.
As a mirror story, in Marguerite Duras' "The Lover," the female protagonist, a poor French-Vietnamese high school student, can only rely on the son of a Chinese businessman for support.
These three stories all come from a colonial background. The characteristic of colonies is the collapse of the original social structure, with different classes eroding each other, creating a novel and kaleidoscopic world. Outstanding authors naturally observe the uniqueness and universality within this world.
After the old order collapses, they see hope and despair. They cannot return to their homeland, so they are rootless and adrift. As in "Days of Being Wild," there is a famous line: "There is a kind of bird in the world that has no feet, it can only fly and fly, and when it gets tired, it sleeps in the wind. This kind of bird can only land once in its lifetime, and that is when it dies."
These young men and women are dependent on a structure rooted in power, wealth, and desire. This is the root of the tragedy of their lives. For ordinary men and women within this structure, if they want to take risks and win the opportunity to fly, they can only rely on their will to live.
Zhang Ailing's early novels are cold and ruthless, never giving false hope. In her later works, the endings are gentle and warm, but they are actually more desperate and provide false comfort. This will be discussed later.