Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China 《桑青与桃红》Nieh Hualing 聂华苓

Big Ideas Mobility and Home The Nation State Ways of Knowing Subversion of the bildungsroman?

Structure ‘Mulberry highlights a non-European

woman’s confinement in forced flight.’ (Cho, 190)

In each part, confinement is broken with the promise of change (Wong, 217)

The Nation State a sovereign state of which most of the

citizens or subjects are united also by factors which define a nation, such as language or common descent.

The Nation State Personified Western propaganda sometimes

personifies the nation state as female (particularly in times of conflict)

Britannia

France (Marianne)

The Motherland Calls Russia (Stalingrad)

In M & P: The bodies of Chinese women are

metaphors for China

Feminist writing and the Phallus Feminist theory argues that males are

pre-occupied with their phallus. The following buildings serve limited

utility and are expressions of greatness

Toronto

Taipei

France (from http://roymarvelous.com/2011/06/phallic-symbols-in-

paris-a-free-walking-tour-france/)

Shanghai And they’re now

building a taller tower.

It’s often competition South Park, a TV show

that satirizes American culture, devotes the episode “T.M.I” to masculine competition.

FYI - It ends with a deus ex machina: everyone (but Cartman) ‘above-average’

Were these buildings built as phallic symbols on purpose? Probably not It’s subconscious, but…

Who were the decision makers? Males or females? Who would you hypothesize commissioned

them?

Prologue

The Man from Immigration He’s faceless and

unnamed for a reason.

Represents the institutionalized state

I’m not Mulberry! (3) This book does not follow a

chronological order. When she lists the list of names that she

could be called, these are all ‘pretty’ names (Wong, 213) Flowers, affectionate nicknames

Names of maidservants or singer-actresses

Just don’t call me Mulberry The immigration officer refuses to

accept Peach’s attempt to define herself The immigration officer (a male) is

threatening, like all the other male characters in the novel.

The axis mundi – Mircea Eliade The anthropologist / religious studies

professor Eliade argues that ancient cultures believed that there was a central pillar (axis mundi) to connect the earth to the heavens

It lies in the middle of our world Axis mundi = cosmic pillar or the world

tree (Eliade, 53)

Examples of the axis mundi Christians = Golgotha (where Christ was

crucified) Jews = Temple of Jerusalem

But Eliade gives an eastern example as well: China = ‘The capital of the perfect

Chinese sovereign is located at the center of the world.’ (39)

In a book about people fighting for control of China (Part I – Japanese & Chinese, Part II – KMP & CCP, Part III – living in exiled China), 中国 as the centre of M/P’s world seems appropriate.

Peach sees the world as myth / religious (Think TOK – Ways of Knowing)

I’d argue: There are religious / mythical figures

Buddha / headless naked figure who isn’t dead

There is also seemingly nonsensical text This text seems does not seem logical. It

seems to be out of our normal experience (ex-stasis)

P states that she was born from the goddess Nüwa

What is myth? ‘[M]yth per se does not deal with merely

the techniqual question of how things come into existence, but exposits the overall sacred purposes and values of things.’ (Paden, 72)

What about the axis mundi & M&P? ‘A gigantic, swollen penis stands like a

pillar in the middle of the floor. A butterfly bow has been tied around the glans and two ends of the ribbon trail to the floor.’ (5) IMO, Peach has appropriated what she

sees as the axis mundi of the world and feminized it.

In short: Peach rejects the masculine world view /

WOK and argues for a feminized world view instead. Rejects the masculine 中国 (Middle

Kingdom) view of the world. Rejects the immigration officer (representative

of America and the institutionalized state) and his way of argumentation.

IMO My thesis: The rest of the novel is her education to this point.

Hélène Cixous and ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’

Who is Medusa? The Medusa was a mythological figure

who had snakes on her head Whoever she looks at turns to stone Perseus kills her by using his shield as a

mirror

It’s a manifesto ‘I shall speak about women’s writing:

about what it will do. Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies… women must put herself into the text… by her own movement.’ (Cixous, 875)

Apartheid ‘As soon as they begin to speak, at the

same time as they’re taught their name, they can be taught that their territory is black: because you are Africa, you are black. Your continent is dark. Dark is dangerous. You can’t see anything in the dark, you’re afraid. Don’t move, you might fall. Most of all, don’t go into the forest.’ (Cixous (877-8)

Women must transform their history: Individually

By writing her self ‘Censor the body and you censor your

breath and speech at the same time.’ (Cixous, 880)

By seizing the occasion to speak History has always been based on the

suppression of women. By writing, and becoming ‘at will the taker and

initiator’ (Cixous, 880)

Women functioning within male discourse Cixous suggests that if women operate

within male discourse, they are cancelled out in the same manner as protons and electrons / matter/anti-matter (887)

Why the Medusa? Cixous argues that woman exists as a

multifaceted sexuality that defies structure i.e. the snakes can’t be controlled

c.f. men and their phallus, which is their signifier

The Medusa and writing The moving snakes are metaphorical for

rejecting stabilized language and structure

Part I

Peach’s mobility She gloats about it, but the immigration

officer is never that far away She is dependent upon others, she’s

never really in charge (hitch-hiking, etc.) (Cho, 165)

Peach and the Vietnam War Peach wanting to wear a dogtag for

Mulberry is a complex action Celebrates Mulberry’s death as America

celebrates the death of its soldiers The war memorial doesn’t usually count

women as victims.

The map Peach includes maps, but they don’t

really help us. In the Chinese version, there are no state

boundaries or borders This challenges traditional exile stories,

because the maps are not an aide. (Cho, 166)

The map as a game The map suggests that it can help us

locate Peach, but it’s essentially useless.

The letter about the Vietnamese war Suggests connections between

Imperialist U.S. policies and Asian immigration to America.

Cho (169) argues that the Chinese female body is the symbolic site where

These powers Japanese

imperialist Chinese

patriarchal Chinese

nationalist US imperialist

Compete through depiction of

Gender Class Sexual Racial relations

Throughout the story ‘Mulberry/Peach’s body is invaded by,

occupied by, or subjected to male sexual violence or manipulation in her various ‘homes’ during her forced flight, especially when Chinese masculinity is under siege.’ (Cho, 169)

When is M/P’s body violated by males? Part I

Refugee student during Japanese bombing Part II

Chia-kang Shen’s forced sex on eve of Communist takeover of Beijing

Part III Chia-kang’s attempt to rescue his masculinity in the

attic Part IV

I-po Chiang attempt rescue his masculinity by having sex with her and forcing her to abort her baby

Recall Perfume Bildungsroman Pastiche Where are there examples of Pastiche in

Part I, chapter 1?

Part I – Mulberry’s Notebook Chü-tang (Qutang) Gorge 瞿塘峡

Yangtze River What is the role of the Yangtze in

Chinese history? Han dynasty has its roots in the Yangtze Border between northern and southern

China

An aside: Vir - virtus Admittedly Latin

Vir = Man Virtus = valor, manliness, excellence,

courage, character, and worth Not sexual in the Latin

Writing Task Part I In her English translation, Nieh includes

character profiles. Choose one of the following characters and write a ~500 word response about how that character is symbolic (what s/he is symbolic of and how that symbolism manifests itself) Refugee student Peach Flower Woman Old-Man

Essay ideas? Bildungsroman Home

Works Cited Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the

Profane. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: 1959.

William E. Paden, "Myth," in Religious Worlds: The Comparative Study of Religion, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), pp. 69-92.