Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Chang

Author:Pang-Mei Chang [Chang, Pang-Mei Natasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-79224-2
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

As early as London, I suspected that Hsü Chih-mo had a girlfriend. We were on a bus—I think it was the one we took to Southampton for a visit—and I was sitting alone toward the back of the bus, while Hsü Chih-mo and a male friend sat up near the driver in the front of the bus. In the reflection of the driver’s big rearview mirror, I could see Hsü Chih-mo and his friend engaged in deep conversation. At one point, and I was not even aware till then that I had been watching them, Hsü Chih-mo motioned his friend to silence, pointing toward me at the rear of the bus. What else would Hsü Chih-mo care to keep from me?

At the same time, I wondered why he would bother to hide it from me. Perhaps he was being very Western about it. In China it was very normal for a man to na qie, take a concubine. His family chose the Da Taitai, the principal wife, but the man himself picked the Xiao Taitai, concubine or concubines, depending on his wealth. The principal wife could not object. In fact it was considered her duty to welcome a concubine into the house. Jealousy was one of the Qi Chu, one of the seven reasons a man could divorce a woman.

A man took on a concubine for two reasons. The main one was if the principal wife could not bear a son. Take, for instance, the principal wife of Liang Qichao, Hsü Chih-mo’s mentor. She had not borne a son—only a daughter—by her late thirties when she and Liang Qichao were living abroad in Japan. Unable to fulfill her duty to the Liang family this woman returned to China, chose a concubine, and took this second wife with her back to Japan. She was raised correctly, this principal wife, and knew her responsibilities to the Liang family.

The second reason a man took on a concubine was because he desired her. Lao Ye wanted many women—one each for the north, south, east and west—as the servants used to say. He could have easily invited one of the women to live in the house with us. It would have been Lao Taitai’s duty to accept her.

That day on the bus I hated how disappointment rose within me. I tried to keep my eyes fixed on the scenery outside the window. I should have predicted that Hsü Chih-mo had found a girlfriend. Why else had he not sent for me during his past two years in the West?

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