Li Ang's Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics by Wu Yenna;Li Fang-yu;Liao Ping-hui;Pao Tao Chia-lin;Rubinstein Murray A.;Tang Aubrey;Wu Yenna;

Author:Wu, Yenna;Li, Fang-yu;Liao, Ping-hui;Pao Tao, Chia-lin;Rubinstein, Murray A.;Tang, Aubrey;Wu, Yenna;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Significant Moments of Transition in the Relationships Among Lin Shi, Chen Jiangshui,

and Awang

If we discuss the fictional problematic marriage as a real-life case from our contemporary sociological perspective, we might wonder why neither Chen Jiangshui nor Lin Shi has a healthy sex education, why they fail to communicate with each other, why neither of them seeks counseling, why the battered wife does not ask for assistance or for a divorce, and so forth. Marriage counseling, sex education, and shelters for abused wives were rarely available at that time. Divorce was not an option because it was socially stigmatized, especially for the wife, and it most likely would deprive the wife of her livelihood. Li Ang uses her fictional representation to raise the readers’ awareness of these problems and the need for a solution. This chapter, however, cannot discuss these interesting topics inspired by work in the areas of social studies and activism.

In this section I would like to explore the relationship dynamics among the three protagonists, especially the changes in the couple’s conjugal relationship. I argue that the characters develop and change, and their relationships are not static and fixed, but rather dynamic and fluctuating. Li Ang strategically arranges different incidents and provides detailed circumstances (and occasionally motives) for the twists and turns in the relationships, thereby making her novel dramatic and realistic. I would examine the relationships from this angle, focusing on some of the key moments of transition.

Most critics have emphasized Chen Jiangshui’s abuse of Lin Shi. True, Lin Shi’s marriage is far from ideal. Yet, it is not altogether intolerable either. Since Chen Jiangshui appears to have premarital sexual experience only with prostitutes, he treats his wife somewhat like a prostitute: he demands that she obeys him in gratifying his desire, yet he would also “pay” her (by food) for her sexual service. On their wedding night, when Lin Shi complains of hunger after he ravishes her, he stuffs a big piece of pork into her mouth (84). The following morning after he returns from work, he forces himself upon her again. When she wakes up afterward at noon, he offers her a big bowl of rice and food—and she gulps down “the fullest meal she ever had” (90–91). When Lin Shi is serving Chen dinner that evening, Chen asks her to eat and accompany him in drinking (95–96)—though he seems disappointed by Lin perhaps because Lin, unlike the prostitutes he was used to, does not know how to flirt with and entertain him. Again treating Lin like a prostitute, he gives her some coins as “defloration money” (97). Though Chen is uncouth, gruff, and insolent in his attitude toward Lin, it is only after marrying Chen that Lin has the opportunity to eat to her full, to eat pork—an expensive item at that time—and to earn money. As Li Ang relates perhaps with some sense of irony, Lin is “overjoyed” (98) to own money for the first time in her life.

Li Ang’s depiction of the couple, particularly the battered wife, shows the importance of human adaptability in survival.

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