The story of Princess Huo’s daughter is a story about a man by the name of Li Yi. Li Yi was from a good family and showed brilliant promise. Even senior scholars admired him. At the age of twenty-one, he hoped for a beautiful and accomplished wife. In Chang’an Li asked a matchmaker by the name of Bao to find him a wife. Li gave her expensive gifts and she was very well inclined to him. One afternoon, some months after talking to Bao Li was sitting in the south pavilion of his lodgings when he heard continuous knocking. Bao entered and Li asked her “What brings you here so unexpectedly, madam”. Boa had found Li a perfect match for a wife, and with the good news Li was ecstatic and leaped for joy. Saying “I shall be your slave as long as I live!” Bao informed him that she was the youngest daughter of prince Huo. Her name is Jade, her mother was the prince’s favorite slave. When the prince died, his sons refused to keep the child, so they gave her a piece of wealth and made her leave. She changed her name, and the people do not know the prince was her father. She is the most beautiful...
Before her first words she is already considered a disappointment, “a girl child is Mo Yung- useless” (32). From the time she is born, her grandmother, “the old one” (choy), relentlessly tells her how the world will treat her as a girl. She explains to Jook-Liang, ‘“If you want a place in this world… ‘do not be born a girl child’”(31). She is cast aside before she is given a chance and is never given the same opportunities as her brothers. Instead she is forced to help take care of her little brother (insert quote). The excitement surrounding a baby is always extreme, and it doubles in Chinese culture when that baby is a boy. When her little brother is born, she is truly considered to be nothing in the family. “ I recalled how Sekky had received twice the number of jade and gold bracelets that I had got as a baby, and how everyone at the baby banquet toasted his arrival and how only the woman noticed me in my new dress, and then only for a few minutes to compare Poh Poh and step mother’s embroidery”(32). She is a ghost in her own family, and treated as nothing from the moment she is born. It is because of her gender that she is looked upon as a burden and never given the same opportunities as her brothers so that she may excel in life. Through the shadowed life of Jook Liang one can see how gender roles are enforced by cultural
Princess Redbird, eldest daughter of king of the people of the Great Forest, or the Hsien, must learn to stay true to herself, while having to cope with the changing times around her. The year is 531 A.D. in Southern China, and Princess Redbird is normally attending the boarding school of Kao-Liang at the Chinese colony. Redbird then only returns to see her family at the Hsien capital, Kingfisher Hill, for holidays. At Kao-Liang she learns to read and write in the Chinese language. Back at her home, the town of Kingfisher Hill, the capitol of the Hsien, everyone is completely illiterate. This makes Redbird's abilities to not only both read and write, but also know about Chinese history very bizarre. At the colony, Redbird stays with the Chens, the family of Chinese nobles whose head, Master Chen, the teacher at Kao-Liang, allowed her to stay. While the Chinese ways are quite different, Redbird admires Master Chen's love for books, literature, and overall taste for Chinese history. She also comes to respect the rest of the Chens. From Madame, Master Chen's daughter in-law, to Madame's children, her son Lin, and her 2 daughters Ch'ai, who is 4 years older than Princess Redbird, and Yü, who is 1 year younger. However when Redbird is unexpectedly summoned home, she fears that it is because the Dog Heads', (who are "a savage folk who take people's heads for the power they symbolize") threat has suddenly grown, as they are seemingly becoming bolder, and increasing in numbers.
Yan Zhitui states that, "women take charge of family affairs, entering into lawsuits, straightening out disagreements, and paying calls to seek favor...the government offices are filled with their fancy silks." (Differences between north and south, 111). Yet, even in the Qing dynasty women were still restricted by and expected to uphold more traditional ideals, especially in the public eye. So, in the end, through her virtue, Hsi-Liu’s two children we able to become upright. Here, there is a split between what a woman is supposed to be according to old Chinese tradition, and the realities facing women in Tancheng. The loss of her husband, and economic hardship had forced His-Liu to behave in a different way, as if she were usurping the power from the eldest son so she could teach the two boys a lesson about being good family members. While she still maintains the ideals of bearing children, and being loyal to her husband, even after he dies, out of necessity she is forced to break from Confucian ideals of being only concerned with the domestic issues. This too put her at odds with the more traditional society around her, as the villagers pitied her sons, but vilified the Hsi-Liu for being so strict with them (Woman Wang, 65). Had she remarried, she would have been looked down upon even more because she would had broken her duty to remain faithful to her deceased
She even married at one point, a man from a circus-- but one day he just never came back. Anyways, Poh-Poh is always telling Liang that she is a useless girlchild.
Lindo’s husnband, Tyan-yu,was a great conflict for lindo to overcome. “He acted like a big warlord”(55). He would make Lindo’s life horrible by putting her down, and trelling her that her cooking was wrong. Even though Tyan-yu made her upset, she would deal with it. She would do what ever he had said withour hesatiating. Eventually she got through that phase. Tyan-yu was not the only one who Lindo had problems with, there was also Huang Taitai.
The bitter cold bit against the starved girl’s skeletal body. She was tired. Her parents discussed ways to get to good lands. They told her the only way to have a better life was to sell her into slavery. The girl, only ten years old was silent. She dreamed of fine clothing and good food. The girl went to the House of Hwang. She was too ugly to be in sight; she was kept in the scullery. All dreams of any kind were lashed out of her young mind. Mistreated, beaten, and underestimated, young O-lan learned to work hard and became resigned to her fate. One day, the Old Mistress summoned her and told her that she was to be married to a poor farmer. The other slaves scoffed, but O-lan was grateful for a chance to be free - they married. O-lan vowed to return to the great house one day in fine clothing with a son. Her resolve was strong; no one could say otherwise. Her years of abuse as a slave had made O-lan wise, stoic, and bitter; whether the events of her life strengthened or weakened her is the question.
As a young girl, I was never fond of the name Anna. The name came along with too much baggage.. Unknowingly, people would constantly call me the wrong name, and some people, disregarding my opinion, even created strange nicknames for me. Over the years, I have been called a variety of names including Annie, Ann, Anna, Annabelle, Anne Frank, banana, banana boat, etc. Frankly, there are just too many variations of the name “Anna”. Being an extremely common name, almost everywhere I go, whether it be school or the grocery store, I always seem to find another “Anna”. Although nameberry.com tells me that “Anna” means grace, it actually means unique, intelligent, and affectionate.
To understand the story as a whole, it is necessary for us to know the meanings of their names. The mother and daughters' names each bears its individual meaning, but all these names are indeed "intertwined" into a deeper relationship among each other. It is through a deeper understanding of these Chinese characters' names that opens our eyes (readers from different cultural background) to see how mother and daughters are strongly attached emotionally.
Wang Lung needs a wife so saves up the little money he has and buys a woman who is a slave named O-lan. O-lan is sold to Wang Lung so she can take care of the home, cooking and bear children. Wang Lung is disappointed when he first sees O-lan because she does not have bound feet which was a desirable quality at that time but he does enjoy when O-lan has the food ready when he comes in a night from the land. Wang Lung is very proud when O-lan makes cakes that no one else in the village knows how to makes and when his family comes to feast for the new year at their house.
Feng Meng-long’s story, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” authentically represents how money is valued between Du Tenth and Li Jia. The classic story brings forth how tradition and family values are upheld in the highest honor. The young master Li Jia, who is the son of a prominent local official, embarks on a journey to the Ming capitol of Nanjing with the intention of taking exams. During his travels he meets the beautiful courtesan named Du Tenth who is bound to her madam in a house of ill fame in what is known as the pleasure district. Li Jia, being an immature and unmotivated by any type of responsibility, finds himself splurging all of his travel funds on pleasures with the beautiful Du Tenth. The couple find themselves to have fallen in love with one other. Du Tenth proves to be a very smart and loyal character. She cleverly devises a plan to escape her bind to her madam and leave to be with her love. When the couple make their departure, they go on their journey to their new life together as husband and wife. Du Tenth continues to prove how smart she is by showing time and time again to Li Jia that she was very prepared for their future. The story tragically ends when the gullible Li Jia is tricked by the manipulating Sun Fu to trade his love, Du Tenth, for a thousand pieces of white silver.
The first Memoir of 1795 was addressed to the heir of her natal family and took the form of a public appeal in her effort to reestablish her family’s moral legitimacy and honorable family tradition. Before we explore her memoir, it is important to note that she felt responsible for her family’s downfall – believing that her marriage into the royal house had led to directly their suffering and decline. Beyond the scholarly merit of her stories, they are important in the view Lady Hyegyong provides of the court life and the strict Confucian beliefs that stress filial piety, loyalty and virtue. To being with, the move from
Lessons for Women was written by Ban Zhao, the leading female Confucian scholar of classical China, in 100 C.E. It was written to apply Confucian principles to the moral instruction of women, and was particularly addressed to Ban Zhao’s own daughters. As her best remembered work, it allows the reader insight into the common role of a woman during this fascinating time-period. The work starts off by Ban Zhao unconvincingly berating herself, and claiming how she once lived with the constant fear of disgracing her family. This argument is rather implausible, for the reader already knows the credibility of Ban Zhao, and how important her role was in ancient China.
Walking up dilapidated stairs, my friend and I enter into the chapter room of Beta Sigma Psi, where the Little Sisters of the Gold Rose meets every week. The fraternity house smells of stale beer and sweat, and has clear signs of past parties and shenanigans. However, we have officially become activated members of the service sorority and were attending our first chapter meeting with the entire sorority. In that chapter room we discussed future service events, volunteering opportunities, and then went around the room for anyone to share news and announcements with the group. It was at this moment that I felt like a true active member in LSGR, when everyone was interested in hearing about each other’s lives and wellbeing. While as a rushing
The four daughters: Waverly, Lena, Rose, and Jing-Mei are all Americans. Even though they absorb some of the traditions of Chinese culture they are raised in America and American ideals and values. This inability to communicate and the clash between cultures create rifts between mothers and daughters. The hardest problem communicating emerges between Suyuan and Jing-Mei. Suyuan is a very strong woman who lost everything she ever had in China: "her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls" (141).
“I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents’ promise. This means nothing to you, because to you promises mean nothing” (Tan 49). In this quote, Lindo told her American-born daughter, Waverly, that she was blind to what a true promise was. Lindo proved she had a strong sense of obligation when she accepted her undesirable fate as Tyan-yu’s spouse in order to honor her family, and not put them to shame. While she did not want to live with her destined groom and his horrendous mother, Huang Taitai, where she was treated as no more than a servant, she would to honor her family. As Lindo was leaving to live with Tyan-yu and his family, her own mother said, “Obey your family. Do not disgrace us” (Tan 54); Lindo was not willing to disappoint her mother, so she did as she