The Past and the Punishments by YU Hua (book cover)
Please respond to two short stories from Taiwan and one short story from the Mainland spanning a few decades (available on Blackboard). When were the stories written? What do they have in common? How do they differ from each other? Use quotes with page numbers from each story to support your analysis. Carefully cite any sources you use to avoid plagiarizing others. Due Wednesday November 20 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due Nov. 20 by 10 pm.
The stories that were told during the period of the reform tend to show a sense of struggle between two opposing sides while looking forward at what life would be like after the reform takes place. In “The Wall,” two youths are considering all the prospects that living in a place like America can bring. “My Kid Brother” by Zhang Dachun’s, on the other hand, is a story about a youth’s philosophies on the contradictory issues of poverty and money, and nihilism as well as anarchy.
In “The Wall,” the time period that was characterized by the reform was full of clashing ideologies and attitudes, with two completely opposing perspectives. This separation or mutual blindness was embodied by a wall. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Chen Yingzhen , 1). For the author, this period was full of debate. There were two ideological sides which were divided, symbolized by a wall. This quote means that the old-thinkers and the new-thinkers needed to have that space to debate and not be able to see each other's perspectives.
In “My Kid Brother,” two conflicting ideas are also in opposition. The author records two dualistic views in his journal. In the beginning, he suggests that money is a downfall for the human spirit. He then contradicts himself by saying that lack of wealth degrades the character and emphasizes our faults. He also swings from preaching anarchy to becoming nihilistic, saying that even radical action can be futile.
Nice quotation of "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other." I think it is kind like the relationship between Mainland and Taiwan. People behind this side of the wall cannot be able to see the other side.
I also used this quote. I thought it was great symbolism separating the 2 sides and not allowing one side to know what the other side is doing. i actually said this could be another symbolism of the way women were also viewed at the time.
This quote clearly separates the two sides and shows its symbolism. you also caught very well on how women were viewed and treaded during this time which adds to your response.
“My Kid Brother” was written in 1960s. Kang is a kind and aspiring young man, and he set up clinics, schools, and orphanages for the poor in his imaginary utopia. But finally “K’ang-hsiung died in a mournful spirit of self-rebuke.” (Chen, pp.31) He had pursued nihilism for so long, but ended up unable to escape religion’s moral law. I think this is the reason why the narrator decided to marry a rich man she didn’t love after her brother died. She compromised and lived a mundane life. I think the story shows us that people in Taiwan wanted to live their “ideal life” at that time.
“The Wall” was written in 1980s around Taiwan’s democracy movement. The same as “My Kid Brother”, “The Wall” is written by a male writer from the viewpoint of woman. They both detailed described the females’ mentation. The Wall tells a story about men, women, love and revolution also. “In that case why did you ask me about my inspiration?” Tsao Ti-yi added quickly, “You! Undemocratic!” (Zhang, pp.6) The background of this story is Taiwan’s democracy movement. I think the Wall is kind of implying democracy.
. The Past and Punishment was written in 1980s after the Cultural Revolution, and this short novel is marked by the Cultural Revolution. I think the punishment expert implies the government while the stranger implies the common people. The short novel talks about the past and the body punishment, violence. It also discusses how the Cultural Revolution affects the characters’ minds. “The content that the four dates concealed had hollowed, crumbled to dust and nothingness. But their aroma lingered on, and the stranger had the vague impression that if it weren’t for these four dates, his strange encounter with the punishment expert would never have transpired” (Yu, pp.121) “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” (Yu, pp. 117) I think this is an interesting viewpoint of “past” from the author and he wants to remind the readers of past. It is necessary for us to remind of the past.
Part agree with your opinion that "the story shows us that people in Taiwan wanted to live their 'ideal life' at that time." Some of the scholars, who have complex feelings about the "ideal life," but for most normal people, all they want is to live without hunger and poverty.
"Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” Great quote! The author continuously talks about the past and how we should remember it and learn from it,
I like your emphasis on the female writers' voice. This is something I could have focused on in my response. It seems like female voices and perspectives were being considered more in this period of history.
I really like the quote you used, “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” It's telling the readers not to just forget what has happen in the past because it affects their future. They should keep the past in mind and learn from it.
I think at that time the "ideal life" is not life what people love to choose. It is the life that people have to choose. Like his sister married a man who she was not love, but she could have a good life. This was not a real "ideal life".
“My Kid Brother” was a saddening story of a woman to be wed and her younger brother who dies by suicide. He was a young man who begins as an anarchist but then moves into nihilism. Being unable to find work he begins living in a Church. He makes the claim that even a man like him cannot escape the moral law of religion. Upon the woman’s wedding day, she sees the image of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, and is reminded of a scene of her brother’s pale, lifeless body being prepared to be buried.
The third short story “The Past and the Punishments” was quite a macabre read of gruesome “punishments” of various forms of providing death. A stranger was plagued with the memory of 5 dates of death. After meeting the “punishment expert”, the stranger believed he could be “reunited” with his memories. Perhaps the stranger was feeling remorse over these executions and sought to be redeemed.
Nice interpretation of the stranger feeling remorse over these deaths. There is definitely a lot of significance and meaning behind the 5 dates and the corresponding styles of death.
I agree with your idea that moral law of religion influence our life. It makes us know the social norm that a good act will be reward and bad act will be punished.
"My kid brother" was written between mid 1950s to 1960s. Kang- Hsiung is "my" brother. He dreamed about the Utopian world and believed that one day the society could be the fair, happy and free one. But when he met the real society, he felt despair. So he end up his life. But "I" choose to yield to the real world. "I" married a rich man and do not want to suffer with "my" dream. "I could get my powerful father-in-law to use his influence in the church so that Kang- Hsiung might have a cross over his grave; I want to make up for the feeling of inferiority and humiliation that is deep within me." ( Chen, p.34) The two main characters reflected the conflicts of the author. During this period, the Taiwan Island was under the control of KMT party. The whole society was confusing about the future. So the two feelings of the author made this short story.
"The walls" was written in 1980s. The woman actually was cheated by two men. They identified the importance her work for the island's democracy but in fact they are just want to have sex with her. Things happened behind the wall just played an ironic role in the story. "There are more exciting and more worthwhile jobs waiting for us...Our union will be thus be more solid."(Zhang, p.14) The fighting for the woman's rights have to rely on the man's power, which seems ridiculous but really happened in the stroy, what is worse, the woman was totally cheated.
These two stories are kind of ironic of the real society in Taiwan. People who did the political movements looks good but when the truth was showed under the sun, the dirty inside is disgusting. Both of the authors were confusing what is their dream "country." And the political environment in the island is also breath-taking.
I like the fact that you question the authors ideal "country" because in reality there is no perfect country. Each comes with it's flaw. In the story it showed each specific character wanting this ideal country of equal rights and freedom but in actuality things are still favored towards male dominance.
Good analysis on both stories. Through creating a lot of conflicts, those two authors shown their struggling with the future of the lands. In fact, there is no such a way to rebuild a dream country. Just like what Kennedy said, "no perfect country. each comes with its flaw". Those stories discovered the problems of the society, but did not tell us how to rebuild a new land.
I really liked that you said that "The fighting for the woman's rights have to rely on the man's power". I think this was the reason the authors wrote their stories in a perceptive of a woman. They wanted to show the inequality of women. Although a woman is talking, a man is the one controlling what is being said like the author controls what his characters do and say.
Ch’en Ying-chen "My brother K’ang-hsiung" writing style is very simple, he described a similar age with his boys – K’ang-hsiung, K’ang-hsiung committed suicide. Read through sister brother brother's diary found many strange dreams, such as set up clinics, schools, and orphanages for the poor in his imaginary utopia.(P31) Has these dreams you want to do, but seemed powerless. Because nothing so went to the self-destruction.
I like this article because it reminded us in the growth process, we will have an ideal starting point. Whether we finally doing what kind of work, do not forget our original ideals. Perhaps, finally, we will talk to the social compromise, but as long as this ideal is still, and we can hold this ideal to reflect on and review their own.
I support your idea that everyone have an ideal staring point but the problem is how to handle it. Thats the reason we should keep an original heart to live.
Your English was a little hard to follow, but the point of having the process of growing and holding on to an idealistic existence got through; and I would agree that this is an important point.
“My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by a male but from the perspective of a woman. This was interesting because of the way the story plays out. The story entitles Christianity, nihilism, Communism and other religious traditions to demonstrate her trying to understand her brother, K’ang-hsiung, throughout the story. I believe “the brother” in the story symbolizes the way the people of Taiwan wanted to live the ideal life. They did not want to be tied down to one religion or all the moral laws that came with each one. “I did not expect a person like me, who had pursued nihilism for so long, would end up unable to escape religion’s moral law. Above the altar of the church hangs suspended the body of the crucified Jesus on His cross. Standing there before his flesh, which never knew an instant of craving desire from birth to death, I see the supreme beauty that my loathsome self does not deserve to enjoy. I know I belong to the devil. I know my fate (Chen 32).” This is the last quote from K’ang-hsiung before he committed suicide. It is perfect in understanding his feeling towards religion and how he felt about himself.
“The Wall” was also written by a man in the 1980s from the perspective of a woman. Understanding the roles of women in Taiwan in this time period is the strict purpose of these stories. This story was about a woman who was cheated on by 2 men. They lied to her about her importance to the democracy but in fact they just wanted to have sex with her. I believe the following quote symbolizing something other than the wall. "A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. No one even has to catch sight of the other (Yingzhen, 1).” I think the wall symbolizes women and how men viewed them at the time. It didn’t matter what one man did to a woman, the other men will never be able to tell. It just portrayed the little respect men had for women and how if women wanted to be anything it had to be through men.
In “The Past and Punishment”, written in 1980s, mentions the past quiet frequently. The main point of this story is to remember and learn from the past. “The fact is that you’ve always been deeply immersed in your past. You may feel cut off from the past from time to time, but that’s merely an illusion. A phenomenon that, at a deeper level, indicates that you’re relay much closer (Yu, 117).” Do not feel cut off from your past. Embrace it.
I like how you used the wall as an interpretation of the men's perspective! It was true that even though females were beginning to be apart of society they were still looked down upon
Very nice interpretation of "My Kid Brother" being an interpretation of how the Taiwanese people wanted to live life. Also pretty interesting how a male author, speaking through a female character, portrays gender inequality.
I agree with you viewpoints about "The Past and Punishment". I also think that the main point of the story is to remind us of remembering and learning from the past. Do not feel cut off from your past!
I agree with that you said about "Past and Punishment" as well the past is what makes us who we are today and if we do not reflect on it continually to better ourselves then we are accepting that fact that we will always be complacent.
I agree with your opinion about "The Wall". These two men cheated the woman just because they want to have sex with the woman. That is really bad and it also reflected the social chaos in that period of time.
The quote you used for "The Wall" was great. But I had a different interpretation of the wall. Instead of it being about the two ways that women were viewed, could it be the two opposing groups that existed after the cultural revolution?
This weeks's readings are quite interesting because each story was written by a male author but from a women's perspective. How could this be during these times of China? Females did have a part in society and they were beginning to show up in other places but for a male to write out what a women was thinking was nearly unfathomable. The first story that I want to talk about is "The Wall". In the story the wall was mentioned many times over as if it was trying to emphasize something much greater than just an ordinary wall. I wonder as to why nobody would challenge it. Then there was this obvious undertone of manipulation through out the story which we do come to find that there was. "Don't any of you try to manipulate me. We'll see...What? He knew? You all knew?" (Pg 20 Change Ta-Chuan) show's that people were willing to do whatever just because someone else who had a greater authority over them. "She dashed out of the coffee shop and bumped against the wall quite by accident. The impact shook the all a bit." (Pg 21 Chang Ta-Chuan) represents that even with the manipulation going on in the background she was not going to be the ones who stay blind to the truth but in fact will challenge it. The wall shaking is a representation of a great change that was going to take over China. In the story of "My Kid Brother" there were lots of contradiction, ideas, and moral judgment. The characters in the story relatively stay very down and depress. "As parts of this broken world, Ch'en Ying-Chen's characters find themselves caught by what Marcel term's "being caught in a situation" (Pg 19 Ch'en) shows that even in this story the world is still in this sort of chaos as seen in "The Wall". I common idea that I have come to from reading both of these stories is that in the state of the current society people are just trying to live the way they want to live: Their ideal life
The authors writing these stories from the perspective of the opposite sex intrigues me. It makes me wonder what messages they were trying to portray that couldn't have been touched on if written from a male character perspective. Also, it was easy for me to forget that the authors were makes at times, which makes me wonder how they knew so much of the struggle that women may have faced and whether they were active in easing that struggle.
The story "My Kid Brother" by Ch’en Ying-chen is written from a woman's perspective, despite the author being a male, as she deals with her younger brother's death over the course of two years. She is finally able to read his diary for herself, and she hopes that this will help her understand her brother, because she is constantly trying to understand him and what he was going through. This story encompasses different religions and political ideas. She gets married soon after his death which gives her mixed feelings. "The whole affair gave me a feeling of defiant joy. But of course this joy was accompanied by a deep, hopeless mourning" (Ch'en, 31). She feels sad about her brother, but also her lost dreams from when she was a girl that she could no longer pursue.
The Wall, by Chang Ta-chuen is the story about a girl who is being used by men to satisfy their own needs. It is like My Kid Brother in that the author is also a male writing from a women's perspective. It spoke a good deal about the wall that was like a bulletin board. The words she wrote on it on page 7 of the story I found very telling on her views of democracy: "Democracy for you is the bitter defrosting of your chastity, the melting of the sugar coating around a memorial archway" (Chang).
The Past and the Punishments by Yu Hua talks a lot about March 6th 1965, although the story itself takes place in the summer of 1990 and the main characters are the punishment expert and the stranger. The story itself was dark and talked a lot of death and its tranquility it brings.
I like that you pointed out that the narrator is affected by "her lost dreams." It seemed to me that her brother's death caused her to experience extreme disillusionment.
"The Wall" and "My Kid Brother" were written from the perspective of Taiwanese authors, while "The Past and Punishments" was written from the perspective of a mainland Chinese author. These stories were written in the 1980s, so roughly a decade after the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong. Each story is dripping with symbolism and you can find metaphors almost everywhere throughout the readings, however the atmosphere in "My Kid Brother" and "the Past and Punishments" can only be described as morbid and grotesque. The former deals with an older sister reading the twisted diary of her nihilistic little brother who commits suicide because he says "I see the supreme beauty that my loathsome self does not deserve to enjoy. I know I belong to the devil. I know my fate." (Chen Yingzhen , 32) The latter is a surreal interaction between "the stranger" and "the punishment expert" as they discuss various execution styles and plan their own deaths.
One point of interest to me was that in most other stories we've read so far, there was the concept of wanting to marry who you fall in love with rather than who was arranged for you. In "My Kid Brother" the main character puts her father's happiness above her own and marries into a wealthy family. Next point of interest is the use of the dates in "The Past and Punishments". The main date that is constantly being referred to is March 5th, 1965, which I assume corresponds to the death of Chen Cheng, the Vice President of the Republic of China. I thought the story alluded to him being hung to death, "the hypothesis that someone intimately connected with the stranger's past had died by hanging on March 5, 1965, began to seem not entirely far-fetched." (Yu Hua, 119) however that was not the case (he died from tumors). Knowing what each date represents as well as who the stranger and the punishment expert represent is key to understanding the full meaning of the story.
"The Past and Punishment" was written in 1980s after the Cultural Revolution, but people could not forget the past, and it cast a big shadow. You said that the story is dripping with symbolism and metaphors. I agree with this, and I guess the punishment expert implies the government and the stranger implies the common people at that time.
The stories told during this period of the reform show us how the real the struggle is between the two sides. The two sides both see a better life after the reform whether it takes place or not. The story The Wall is about two young people who are trying to consider all of the opportunities that living in America could bring to them. It talks of the American dream and how great it would be to live in a country where you were truly free to do as you want, and you have no limits to where you can take your life. On the other hand My Kid Brother talks about more negative aspects and issues that are controversial.
The Wall was written in the 1980’s around Taiwan’s movement to becoming a democracy. The two stories are similar because they are both written from the view of a woman by a male writer. Understanding women and their role in society at this time was very important. The Wall contains this excerpt "A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. No one even has to catch sight of the other (Yingzhen, 1).” This story shows that men during the time could treat women how they saw fit and they were obligated to show them as little respect as possible. Men believed that by so doing they would be perceived to be more masculine but in fact this shows their weakness.
The Past and Punishment was also written in the 1980’s this is a story that continually reflects on the past so that the reader will learn from the mistakes made long ago and do as best they can to lead the country to never make the same mistakes again.
The story “My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by Chen Yingzhen. This is a sad story. Although K’ang -hsiung was a immature boy, his thoughts are profound. He once said in his dairy “Poverty itself is the greatest evil...it inevitably debases and sullies a person to some extent.”(Chen P29). He had very deeply understand about the the consequences of poverty. After he died, his sister chose marry the rich in order to change the poor family. This story reflects during that period of time people who live in Taiwan quest for freedom and wealth.
“The Wall” was written in the 1980s by Zhang Dachun. This story mainly talk about two man cheated a woman in order to have sex with her. They emphasized the woman’s work is pretty important for the revolution in Taiwan. The woman finally See through their plots, she said “Don’t any of you try to manipulate me! We’ll see.(Zhang P20). However, the woman couldn’t be able to change the situation. This story reflects the political movement’s cruelty.
“The Past and the Punishments” was written by Yu Hua. This fiction is abstract and profound. Author wanted to let us pay more attention to our history, and learn something from the cruel history. “But sometimes you can be cut off from the past. Right now, something is tearing me away from my past.”(Yu Hua p117). Author used personification way to show us the true nature of the history and remind us don’t forget history.
The quote about poverty stuck out to me as well during the reading, and reminded me a lot of Lao She and Teahouse. I wonder how much the author was influenced by those earlier writers and the cultural revolution.
My favorite of the two short stories was “My Kid Brother” by Chen Yingzhen. Written by a man through a female perspective, it portrays a very philosophical approach to deep-rooted social issues, increasingly prevalent in the China after the Cultural Revolution. One interesting aspect to note is the frequency of Christian symbolism. Typically characteristic of Western literature, the author is bringing a diverse element into his piece. The young woman is conflicted in the story over which man to marry, though she experiences active choice. Even deeper reflected in this struggle is her search for identity, as she wrestles through the intellectual thoughts contained in her brother’s journals. The story reflects Taiwan’s wrestle for a distinct identity.
Contrastingly, in the other Taiwanese piece, “The Wall” by Zhang Dachun, the politics of the text are much more apparent. Also written from a female perspective, gender and class struggles are much more apparent in the characters’ interactions with the wall and relationships surrounding it. Taiwan’s struggle for democracy in the 80s can be seen within the story, “We must not let this wall become immobile or become petrified. We should be able to move it to wherever it is needed at anytime. We will never desert it; we stand around it; we will not let it fall” (3). Both stories are very different in their approaches to changing political and social landscape of Taiwan.
I also noticed a very large presence of politics in the "The Wall," and agree with your point of views. In my opinion, it was the essential motivation for the writing.
Both stories were written during a period of reform within the nation of China. Both stories also show how conflicting ideals and attitudes within society can clash with each other. However, the two stories are different in many ways. The main symbols differ from each other with the two tales. In "My Kid Brother", they symbolism of it is revolved around money. Apparently, it both creates and solves problems within society in China. In "The Wall" the symbol is obviously a wall. This wall represents the division of two different perspectives and the blindness of one perspective in regards to understanding the other. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Page 1, Chen).
A wall can be used in many ways such as protecting oneself or keeping others out. The wall in the story may be a mixture of both, keeping on side safe from others but also keeping them ignorant.
I really like your response, especially your analysis of how money both causes and creates problems in China. I believe that this is true in all societies, however. I also enjoyed your analysis of the wall.
In “My Kid Brother,” “The Past and the Punishments,” and “The Wall,” the authors use different methods to create a similar overall mood. Among these three works, each author uses a different point of view. “My Kid Brother” by Ch’en Ying-chen is written in first-person, but the reader never learns the narrator’s name. Similarly, in “The Past and the Punishments,” the characters go by the epithets “the stranger” (Yu, p. 114) and “the punishment expert.” (Yu, p. 115) Yu Hua tells this story in third-person limited, as does the third author, Chang Ta-chuen. Unlike both Yu and Ch’en, Chang names his narrator as well as other central characters in “The Wall.” Despite the fact that each author uses a different point of view in his respective story, there is a sense of disconnectedness from the main character, as well as the secondary characters, in all three works. A plausible reason for this detachment is that the authors did not want the characters or the plots to overshadow the political and social commentaries prevalent throughout each piece. The best example of this is in the short story, “My Kid Brother.” In his introduction to the story, Lucien Miller says about Ch’en Ying-chen “…the narrator seldom conveys a privileged knowledge of the inner world of every character. This one-sided emphasis…sometimes creates an uneasy sympathy or separation.” (p. 13) While Miller hypothesizes that Ch’en’s vagueness implies that the author wanted the reader to fill in the blanks himself (p.13), I think it was that Ch’en didn’t want the reader to get so caught up in the plot or the fate of a character that he or she missed the relevant social points that he was presenting. In each of the stories, the characters are vessels for illustrating a message, and nothing more.
I'm surprised more people haven't praised you and your analysis on how the authors created this sense of detachment from the main characters in order to allow the audience to focus on the social points they were wanting to convey. Either I am extremely dumb and everyone but me saw this or people are just overlooking this post. I never would have seen it this way and I completely agree. Awesome analysis Anne!
"The characters are vessels for illustrating a message." This is an awesome quote. The stories are all full of social and political points that are very important to notice and understand.
I think your analysis is special, I haven't noticed the writers wrote these stories in first-person and third person. "Despite the fact that each author uses a different point of view in his respective story, there is a sense of disconnectedness from the main character, as well as the secondary characters, in all three works. " I like this and I think you did a good job.
Chen Yingzhen wrote the story “My kid brother-K’ang-Hsiung” in 1959 and he base on narrative view to talk about K’ang-Hsiung is filled with love and dream. He dreamed people will build up slum, hospital and orphanage in Utopia. However, his dream is collapsed because of conflict between puritanism and radicalism and finally he choose suicide. “ I adopted the heroic view of the philosopher and said to myself: ‘From this time forward, may everything die!’”.(P30) attract me because K’ang willing to suffer all the guilty and be nailed to the cross like the Jesus. K’ang’ sister decide to revolt his internal world like K’ang. Zhang Dachun wrote the story “The Wall” in 1984 and the wall refer to “Bamboo wall” and symbolize democracy setting. “Why is it you always wear your glasses except when we are together? Then you take them off.” The character “she” is different from the K’ang that the girl is hesitates about going America with the guy. Thus, Zhang use conversation to express what a girl’s mind under the wall. Chen used narrative view “K’ang’s sister to reveal the society’s phenomenon.
Both of the readings were written from the Taiwanese authors. “My Kid Brother” was written from Chen Yingzhen in 1960. “The Wall” was written from Zhang Dachun in 1980. The first person in the readings is female. However, female positions in the two readings are different.
In the “My kid brother”, the sister narrated her brother’s story after she read the three diaries. “Nihilist that I am, I am devoid of that wild life which was Shelley’s. Shelley lived in his dreams, but all I can do is make time like a prophet. How fascinating- a nihilist prophet” (Chen, P31). Her brother is nihilist. He has a lovely heart. He built hospitals in the his utopia dreams. However, as he wrote, “ Nothing is really beautiful, but truth”(Chen, P32). Because of her brother, she chose to get marry with the man who has high position in Christians. She said that her father is happy because her father’s utopia dream came true. What’s the female in this position? I think as she said, she used her beauty coming true his father’s dream. Women have no choice in this period.
In “ The wall”, the society was developing. “ It was nothing like what was in the wall today: Blue Mountain Coffee NT $70yuan……” (Zhang, P2). The society accepted the western culture. So, how did female position change? In the society, they identify woman as gender or sex? It seemed that women had powers. However, the truth was that woman rights doesn’t exist.
In Ch’en Ying-chen’s “My Kid Brother, K’ang-hsiung” I believe the introduction served as an important role in understanding the significance of the text. If one were to only read the text and not the introduction, the text would present itself with a confusing and misguided story. The information provided in the introduction that I found key in understanding the nature of the story were three things
1. How Ch’en Ying-chen was truly unique as an author because of his honesty; realized that the vast majority of Chinese are rootless (2) 2. The death of his younger brother (age 9) and how his neighboring “older sister” figure was sold (age 20) affected him as an author 3. What he learned from Lu Hsun (I’m guessing this refers to the author Lu Xun but is just spelled differently). “It was then that I knew the poverty, ignorance, and backwardness of China, and that China was me.” (Miller, 4)
I found these three points vital in the purpose of his text. The first point and third point almost go hand-in-hand. This is because his brute honesty is present throughout the text as he describes his brother’s “nihilistic” outlook on life. I believe this constant use of the word “nihilism” showed the side of China that felt they were giving up their culture, or “uprooting” it as Ch’en Ying-chen stated. Even though this text was written a decade after the Cultural Revolution, the battle between modernism and maintaining cultural balance was still tense. However, Ch’en Ying-chen also states within the sister character that “a person ought to do her utmost to rid herself of the evil ghost of poverty, just as she ought to do everything to cast off sin” (30) This instance, the father was referring to narrator. Even though the narrator wanted to marry the painter she was in love with, she obeyed her father and married out of poverty. Just like how China wanted to maintain their individualism, they knew they had to accept the modernization and outside influences to maintain a prosperous nation. As for the second point, the characters are obviously represented in the text; the brother as the narrator’s brother in the text, and the “sister-like-neighbor” is represented as the narrator in the story. Using these characters allowed for Ch’en Ying-chen to provide life, purpose, and a message to be delivered to the audience.
“The Wall” written by Chang Ta-chuen I also believe served the same purpose as “My Kid Brother”. The biggest symbol we see throughout the story is the wall. What does a wall do? It acts as a barrier, but more importantly, it acts as a divider. I believe this represented the Chinese people at the time; divided as if a wall were between them. “Hung had a similar statement here under the wall. It was the night when people from the other wall were singing chorales. Hung gathered some strangers and formed their own singing group. They sounded sad compared with the heroic tunes of the opposition.” (11) Here it is clear; with the specific rhetoric the author presents that the wall was used more as a dividing aspect rather than a barrier. The two sides were in opposition
As for “The Past and Punishments” I believe this is a great way to comment on the one’s past (China) and to learn from it. “I haven’t cut you off from your past. On the contrary. I have brought you into intimate conjunction with it. In other words, I am your past” (Yu Hua, 118) One’s past is one we seem to overlook. Judging where someone is now than judging where he or she have come is a principal many still do not understand.
I believe each of the text is similar in that each of the text requires a “past” knowledge of both the author and how it reflects on their writing. Each of the main symbols in the text, the brother and the wall, both come from a past that is needed to understand the nature of each. (The brother grows, as the wall is built. Both have a past)
“My Kid Brother,” “The Wall,” and “The Past and the Punishments” are all short stories that have many similarities and differences. Some of the major similarities are that the short stories are written with a ton of descriptive language. This is shown in “My Kid Brother” when the author writes, “Still another black crow, like an arrow, cut through the ash-grey sky.” (Pg 33) This type of language is used extensively throughout the three short stories to set the stage for the settings. These stories also have many differences. Some of these are that the short stories are written from two different perspectives, which are Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese. Along with these different perspectives are the focuses and struggles of each character in the stories.
I also agree with your opinion, the stories all have a lot of symbolism, especially symbolizing the movement during this period. I think this is really evident in The Wall, but how every character in every story has different perspectives but represent something different depending on the reader.
In "My Kid Brother Kangxiong," by Chen YingZhen, the narrator compare her choice of life with her brother Kangxiong's. Kangxiong was a boy who has a lofty ideas and ambitious and he have a dream to built up a perfect place for all the people who were ill or poor. However, his dream did not come true because the controversy about Puritanism and radicalism. Finally he suicide. One thing that I feel ironic is three men did not get rid of the poverty no matter they how hard to make it but Kangxiong's sister made it. She was vengeful to her life and married to a wealthy men. The whole story was based on her thoughts and her normal life was a kind of differs from her thought. So the story was tragic and feel helpless for the reality.
Kang xiong dreams of creating many slums, hospitals and orphanages, because of the controversy about Puritanism and radicalism, he choose to suicide. People just have no power to do what they want at that time.
I also found it ironic how she was the only one able to escape the life of poverty in the story, but I think that was also the fascinating part of the narrator. How beyond the reality of having her brother be someone who essentially had a lot of ideals and beliefs no make it and her marry into a comfortable life.
“My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by Chen Yingzhen. The author, whom is a male, writes in the role of a female. This is very interesting because it shows the importance of women at that time period. Chen uses the female voice to describe how hopeless many people felt during that period in China. The main character described her life and the life of her brother, whom is dead. She felt the same hopelessness that her brother had felt and decided to get married for money. “Nihlist that I am, I am devoid of that wild life which was Shelley’s. Shelley lived in his dreams, but all I can do is mark time like a prophet. How fascinating-a niglist peophet!” pg31. These words of Kang Hsiung showed how sad the Chinese society has become. The people are living without a religion They believed that life is meaningless. This is probably due to the failed reforms at that time. “The Past and Punishment” represented how the revolution is actually hurting people. The author wrote it in a very different way. The main character was named “Punishment expert”. This may be a symbol for the government. Many people at that time were not satisfied with the new government.
I thought the change was a reborn to the girl. She actually still kept her dream in deep. Even she married to "money", but at the moment, i thought she was not actually happy. The marriage was a kind of revolt to the reality, which probably was the only action she could made for her dream under the pressure. And after the marriage, i thought she could be more closer to her kid brother and started to understand the behaviors of him. To the past and punishment, i did not understand this article to a 100 percent. But the punishment expert, i thought was not presented the government, but the thing that always stay in shadow and pushed people in trouble, a thing that led people to create their new "past" and "perform" the lives on the present. :)
I found "The Wall" to be very interesting because of the woman's perspective, though it is written by a male author. The purpose of this story is to show the roles of women in Taiwan during the 1980s. Even though women and men were becoming more equal in terms of the government, women were still treated very disrespectfully by men. For example, the main character in the story, a woman, was cheated on by two different men. The men deceived her and just used her for sex. While women were supposed to be treated as equals, Taiwanese women knew that if they ever wanted to become something better, they would need a man's help to do it. Women's lives were still limited. "My Kid Brother" was another story written by a man, a devout Christian, but from the perspective of a woman. The thing that I found most interesting in this story was the abundance of Christian symbolism. This was a different from the stories we've read so far because none incorporate the idea of Christianity because it is more of a Western ideology. She attempts to understand her brother, who ends up committing suicide. I think he was upset with the idea of following and obeying just one religion, and he felt he wasn't right for it, leading to his death.
The story “My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by Chen Yingzhen, and “The Wall” was written in the almost same period of time by Zhang Dachun. In the “My Kid Brother” used sister as first person. She narrated her brother’s story after she read her brother’s diaries. “ I did not expect,” he cries out helplessly, “that a person like me, who has pursued nihilism for so long, would end up unable to escape religion’s moral law.”(p.32) It can represent why her brother death in the end. I think a lot of people during that period had that kind of ideas. Some of them decided to overcome, and some of them were not. Sister and her brother could represent two different kinds of people. In the story “My Kid Brother”, “Nothing is really beautiful but truth.”( P32) I like this sentence. The world is unfair and has dark part, and not all things are beautiful.
“The Wall” used a man to describe a woman idea. “A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. No one even has to catch sight of the other (Yingzhen, 1).” I love this sentence. A wall has two sides, man and woman has different minds to see it at the same. All things have two sides; we cannot focus on the only side. Sometimes, you will make mistakes if you just pay attention to the one part, like as Mao during the Cultural Revolution.
Ch’en Ying-chen’s “My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s, describes a have ideals and love’s boy who named K’ang-Hsiung. He was dream to establish many slums, hospitals and orphanages in utopia. But his ideals were bedashed in a personal moral puritanism and radicalism of the intense contradiction. At last he committed suicide. The whole story return to secular life and used "sister" tone to speak. Make the novel whole covered with sorrow, repentance, reflection. It makes this novel have a strong artistic appeal. “K’ang-Huing’s funeral was one of the loneliest imaginable. In P’ing-yang Kang we did not have a single relative, not even a distant one. Following behind the rough wooden casket were only a withered old man and a disheveled young girl.” (Chen, page 33) “The Wall” this novel was written by Chang Ta-chun in 1980s. It mainly talked about a woman who was cheated on by 2 men. During the revolution in Taiwan, the woman’s status is still not optimistic. When she knew these two men only want to sex with her and not true emotion, she realized that women's status still faces severe challenges. “I don’t like to be manipulated by your people.” “Don’t any of you try to manipulate me! We’ll see.” (Chang, page 20) The wall in my words means the same political system. It cannot be always be there. It should change. “She dashed out of the coffee shop and bumped against the wall quite by accident. The impact shook the wall a bit.”(Chang, page 21) So, “shook” in this sentence I think means that women's status began to slowly development in Taiwan. Both stories were by male authors but from a women's perspective. They all described the real situation at that time in Taiwan. Although the two author’s describe different aspects of women, but reflect Taiwan need for reform at that time and to build a democratic society.
Taiwanese writers composed both of this week’s readings, which first of all is very interesting to me, since their subjects were correlated with the aspects similar to the reforms going on in China in last week’s readings. The role reversal within these stories proved that the controversial events relating to the setting of cultural/society movements made many people feel many different ways. For example, “The Wall” was written by a male, who wrote as a female. A similarity that stood out to me from these readings was how powerful symbolism can be through text. In “The Wall,” the wall clearly depicted a separation. This separation could be characterized through the differences in opinions and ideals. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Chen Yingzhen , 1). While these sides were opposing, there was room for entrance or exchange on both parties. This aspect was clear in “My Kid Brother” also, simply in the division of people based upon their religion. Christianity was not in any way shape or form traditional, and was considered Western ideology. While both of these stories share the act of separation occurring, they also share one unified, common goal, and that goal is the act of living in a utopian society. Everyone just wanted to be happy, and live in a perfect world, but in real life (in the stories) this was not the case.
"My Kid Brother" written by Chen Yingzhen which is a male writer but had written the story in the perceptive of a woman in the story. This story showed that the people of Taiwan wanted to live in peace and live in their own ideal country. But there are conflicting ideas to their own. Not everyone has the same ideal world. K’ang-hsiung was used to show this. He wasn't able to find his ideal world because there were others things in the world that conflicted with him such as religion.
"The Wall" written by Zhang Dachun was also a male writer but also wrote his story through the eyes of a woman. I think the wall shows a lot of symbolize between Taiwan and Mainland China. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Chen, pp. 1). Although both are so close physically, neither side can see each other or interact in anyway. Their idea and words never reach each other. Everything is stopped by the "wall". Because of this "wall" it is hard for people of Taiwan and people of mainland China to understand each other. The wall is used to show the relationship between the two places.
I think the reason both writers wrote their story in the perceptive of a woman was to show the inequality between men and women. Having a man write the words for a woman was to show that the power of women all depend on the men. Without the men there is no power for the women and no story for them to tell. I think the writer made the story like they did for this purpose.
"The Past and Punishment" was written by Yu Hua. This story talks about the past and tries to tell people not to forget the past and learn from it. “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us” (Yu, pp. 117). This quote to me means that the past is always there. You can't run from, no matter what happens in the future, it can never change what has already happen. No matter how bad things were or how gruesome it is, you shouldn't forget.
"My Kid Brother” was written by Chen Yingzhen in 1960. It is a story of a young man with ideals and love. He dreams of creating many slums, hospitals and orphanages, but his dreams were shattered because of the cruel reality of the conflict in this world. And finally he chosed to commit suicide. The whole story speaks out as a "sister", to make the whole story full of sorrow, repentance, reflection's feelings.
"The Wall” was written in 1980 by Zhang Dachun and "The Past and Punishment" was written in 1980s after the Cultural Revolution. These works represent a sophisticated and often disturbing revolution in the Chinese literary tradition, drawing inspiration from several strains of traditional Chinese narrative as well. It takes us on a haunting and harrowing journey from classical China through the Cultural Revolution and into the new era of economic reform, exploding along the way our preconceived notions of what Chinese literature and culture are all about in the 1980s.
The connection that sticks out to me the most from these three stories is the plague of haunting memories that flood the minds of each protaganist. In "The Wall," we find the main character dwelling on her decision to follow this man, Hung, to the ends of the earth, hoping that her cause will be acknowledged and that Hung is as perfect as he seems. Throughout, she mentions moments when Hung said or did something that was unsettling to her, like at the rally when Hung got a group of people together to sing, only to out sing the other participants across the way; she claimed to really have no desire to sing, but with time she "allowed the wave of music to overpower her confused thoughts," and when she looked up to see Hung, she realized that "he was only mouthing words" (p.11). She continued to reflect on these moments where she should have noticed that this man and his "regime" seemed a little too good to be true, and found herself in despair because of it. As for "The Past and The Punishment," it is obvious that the stranger finds his past hard to just ignore, and has set out to determine what the date March 5, 1965 means to him. Along the way, he runs into the punishment expert, and found that he was "a kind of elusive link to his past" (p 116). The punishment expert proceeded to coach him on his past and the ways of punishment, confirming that the stranger was indeed engulfed by his past: "Actually we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us" (p 117). We soon find out that each date mentioned by the stranger has a connection to some form of punishment and death that has plagued his memory, and we find a hint a foreshadowing on page 119 and 120 that death by hanging was, for some reason, traumatizing to the stranger. Furthermore, "(the stranger) began to imagine what it would be like to encounter his dreams naked" (p 123); I think this symbolizes the stranger's new willingness to approach his memories with honesty, depsite the brutality, in order to be at peace with his past. By the end, the punishment expert has hung himself in his room, leaving a note for the stranger noting the date: March 5, 1965 (p 131). As for "My Kid Brother," the nararrator is plagued by the death of her kid brother, K'ang-hsiung, and reflecting on how he would think of her new lifestyle of wealth. Following his death, the protagonist adopted the following motto: "From this time forward, may everything die!" (p. 30). In detail, we see that she still contemplates things like her brother's funeral (p 33), how he took poison to kill himself (p 31), his letter to her (p 34), the cross and how she had imagined him at her wedding (p 34), and seeing his corpse lie against the wall (p 33). Despite these memories, we find her summarize her feelings in the following statement: "In the face of my sumtuous new life, my greif for the one I revered has gradually wasted away" (p 29).
The first reading, “My Kid Brother, K’ang-Hsiun” was a story about a sister reading her volumes of her brother’s diaries after his death. She married shortly after her brother’s death, to a man that was very wealthy when she had grown up less fortunate. In the beginning of the short piece, she quotes from her brother’s diary about wealth and poverty and comparing that to the way she has turned out to be after her marriage. “Wealth can poison much that is fine and delicate in human nature. Poverty itself is the greatest evil.. it inevitably debases and sullies a person to some extent” (Chen, 29). During this time, Taiwan was in the democracy movement and when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in charge. I think that the emotions and thoughts of the people in Taiwan for their future can be seen through the emotions and thoughts of the characters. Her brother who was very confusing in his thoughts and emotions decided to take his future into his own hands; whereas the narrator ended up marrying a man she didn’t love to live a better life. The second reading “The Wall” is a very good way of showing the divide during the time of democracy. “A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other,” (Yingzhen, 1). This quote is powerful in that it shows that the divide in perspectives then, between the ideologies of the new ideals one side and the old on the other. The third reading “The Past and Punishment” was also written in the same time 1980s during the time of reform. Was based on the government and the common people, the common people represented by the stranger character in the story and those in charge as the punishment experts, KMT. The stories differ on their approaches to the movement at this time and the different characters represent the different emotions at the time.
In 50s Taiwan, under the white-terror, those left-wing people were full of dreams, but had no chance to put those ideas into actions in life. It is kind of mournful. Kang’s father, sister, and his sister’s boyfriend were all finally knuckled under the stress of white-terror. His sister did not get married to her unappreciated artist boyfriend, but eventually chose a rich man, which betrayed her and Kang’s dreams. Kang killed himself with his sense of guilt. “A mere boy, one who had innocently played the role of immoralist in the forbidden garden. In his innocence he had stolen a taste of passion’s forbidden fruit, and now he had naively destroyed his life.” (pp. 33)It was hardly for those left-wing people to change anything, even to keep dreaming their dreams.
In “Past and Punishments”, the stranger was summoned back to the past, a different one he had never experienced. Everything was disordered and could not be controlled by him. Each clue he had seemed to guide to a different future, but the one always being untouchable. Something in shadow always pushed him in trouble and made him struggle after he met the punishment expert. He was told, “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” (pp. 117) The interesting story the expert told to the stranger was about the scholar. After the scholar was sentenced to death, he suffered a terrible psychological torment in the ten hours. But this to the punishment expert was a perfect punishment and finally he died this way in his bedroom. The infinite beauty was born from the extremely painful agony. That's what probably the author wanted to tell us through the stories.
Both articles were set on past or memories and been valued as critiques of the present political environment. I felt both authors were trying to hide something in their stories, which somehow confused me, but also interested me so much at the same time.
I thought the premise of "My Kid Brother, K'ang-Hsiun" was very interesting. The fact that you learn about the brother from the perspective of his sister reading his diaries after his suicide is an interesting idea. I particularly liked the quote: "I sought a fish and got a snake, I sought food and got a stone." from page 32.
I also enjoyed "The Wall". My favorite quote was: "You just try to understand that you are giving up everything here to go to America to set up business, to do research, to expand the organization." from page 19. I liked it because it really made me realize how much many of these individuals immigrating from China were giving up to come to America.
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ReplyDeleteThe stories that were told during the period of the reform tend to show a sense of struggle between two opposing sides while looking forward at what life would be like after the reform takes place. In “The Wall,” two youths are considering all the prospects that living in a place like America can bring. “My Kid Brother” by Zhang Dachun’s, on the other hand, is a story about a youth’s philosophies on the contradictory issues of poverty and money, and nihilism as well as anarchy.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Wall,” the time period that was characterized by the reform was full of clashing ideologies and attitudes, with two completely opposing perspectives. This separation or mutual blindness was embodied by a wall. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Chen Yingzhen , 1). For the author, this period was full of debate. There were two ideological sides which were divided, symbolized by a wall. This quote means that the old-thinkers and the new-thinkers needed to have that space to debate and not be able to see each other's perspectives.
In “My Kid Brother,” two conflicting ideas are also in opposition. The author records two dualistic views in his journal. In the beginning, he suggests that money is a downfall for the human spirit. He then contradicts himself by saying that lack of wealth degrades the character and emphasizes our faults. He also swings from preaching anarchy to becoming nihilistic, saying that even radical action can be futile.
Nice quotation of "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other." I think it is kind like the relationship between Mainland and Taiwan. People behind this side of the wall cannot be able to see the other side.
DeleteI also used this quote. I thought it was great symbolism separating the 2 sides and not allowing one side to know what the other side is doing. i actually said this could be another symbolism of the way women were also viewed at the time.
DeleteThis quote clearly separates the two sides and shows its symbolism. you also caught very well on how women were viewed and treaded during this time which adds to your response.
Delete“My Kid Brother” was written in 1960s. Kang is a kind and aspiring young man, and he set up clinics, schools, and orphanages for the poor in his imaginary utopia. But finally “K’ang-hsiung died in a mournful spirit of self-rebuke.” (Chen, pp.31) He had pursued nihilism for so long, but ended up unable to escape religion’s moral law. I think this is the reason why the narrator decided to marry a rich man she didn’t love after her brother died. She compromised and lived a mundane life. I think the story shows us that people in Taiwan wanted to live their “ideal life” at that time.
ReplyDelete“The Wall” was written in 1980s around Taiwan’s democracy movement. The same as “My Kid Brother”, “The Wall” is written by a male writer from the viewpoint of woman. They both detailed described the females’ mentation. The Wall tells a story about men, women, love and revolution also. “In that case why did you ask me about my inspiration?” Tsao Ti-yi added quickly, “You! Undemocratic!” (Zhang, pp.6) The background of this story is Taiwan’s democracy movement. I think the Wall is kind of implying democracy.
. The Past and Punishment was written in 1980s after the Cultural Revolution, and this short novel is marked by the Cultural Revolution. I think the punishment expert implies the government while the stranger implies the common people. The short novel talks about the past and the body punishment, violence. It also discusses how the Cultural Revolution affects the characters’ minds. “The content that the four dates concealed had hollowed, crumbled to dust and nothingness. But their aroma lingered on, and the stranger had the vague impression that if it weren’t for these four dates, his strange encounter with the punishment expert would never have transpired” (Yu, pp.121) “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” (Yu, pp. 117) I think this is an interesting viewpoint of “past” from the author and he wants to remind the readers of past. It is necessary for us to remind of the past.
Part agree with your opinion that "the story shows us that people in Taiwan wanted to live their 'ideal life' at that time." Some of the scholars, who have complex feelings about the "ideal life," but for most normal people, all they want is to live without hunger and poverty.
Delete"Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” Great quote! The author continuously talks about the past and how we should remember it and learn from it,
DeleteI like your emphasis on the female writers' voice. This is something I could have focused on in my response. It seems like female voices and perspectives were being considered more in this period of history.
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DeleteEveryone want to need a ideal life , without gap of wealth，equality of men and women.
DeleteI really like the quote you used, “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” It's telling the readers not to just forget what has happen in the past because it affects their future. They should keep the past in mind and learn from it.
DeleteI think at that time the "ideal life" is not life what people love to choose. It is the life that people have to choose. Like his sister married a man who she was not love, but she could have a good life. This was not a real "ideal life".
Delete“My Kid Brother” was a saddening story of a woman to be wed and her younger brother who dies by suicide. He was a young man who begins as an anarchist but then moves into nihilism. Being unable to find work he begins living in a Church. He makes the claim that even a man like him cannot escape the moral law of religion. Upon the woman’s wedding day, she sees the image of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, and is reminded of a scene of her brother’s pale, lifeless body being prepared to be buried.
ReplyDeleteThe third short story “The Past and the Punishments” was quite a macabre read of gruesome “punishments” of various forms of providing death. A stranger was plagued with the memory of 5 dates of death. After meeting the “punishment expert”, the stranger believed he could be “reunited” with his memories. Perhaps the stranger was feeling remorse over these executions and sought to be redeemed.
Nice interpretation of the stranger feeling remorse over these deaths. There is definitely a lot of significance and meaning behind the 5 dates and the corresponding styles of death.
DeleteI agree with your idea that moral law of religion influence our life. It makes us know the social norm that a good act will be reward and bad act will be punished.
DeleteI agree with you. But I think Kangxiong suicide for the controversy about the real life and his belief.
Delete"My kid brother" was written between mid 1950s to 1960s. Kang- Hsiung is "my" brother. He dreamed about the Utopian world and believed that one day the society could be the fair, happy and free one. But when he met the real society, he felt despair. So he end up his life. But "I" choose to yield to the real world. "I" married a rich man and do not want to suffer with "my" dream. "I could get my powerful father-in-law to use his influence in the church so that Kang- Hsiung might have a cross over his grave; I want to make up for the feeling of inferiority and humiliation that is deep within me." ( Chen, p.34) The two main characters reflected the conflicts of the author. During this period, the Taiwan Island was under the control of KMT party. The whole society was confusing about the future. So the two feelings of the author made this short story.
ReplyDelete"The walls" was written in 1980s. The woman actually was cheated by two men. They identified the importance her work for the island's democracy but in fact they are just want to have sex with her. Things happened behind the wall just played an ironic role in the story. "There are more exciting and more worthwhile jobs waiting for us...Our union will be thus be more solid."(Zhang, p.14) The fighting for the woman's rights have to rely on the man's power, which seems ridiculous but really happened in the stroy, what is worse, the woman was totally cheated.
These two stories are kind of ironic of the real society in Taiwan. People who did the political movements looks good but when the truth was showed under the sun, the dirty inside is disgusting. Both of the authors were confusing what is their dream "country." And the political environment in the island is also breath-taking.
I like the fact that you question the authors ideal "country" because in reality there is no perfect country. Each comes with it's flaw. In the story it showed each specific character wanting this ideal country of equal rights and freedom but in actuality things are still favored towards male dominance.
DeleteI agree with your opinion. These two stories reflect during that period of time Taiwan Socio-political Instability.
DeleteGood analysis on both stories. Through creating a lot of conflicts, those two authors shown their struggling with the future of the lands. In fact, there is no such a way to rebuild a dream country. Just like what Kennedy said, "no perfect country. each comes with its flaw". Those stories discovered the problems of the society, but did not tell us how to rebuild a new land.
DeleteI liked the quote you chose for the wall and how you chose to interpret it.
DeleteIt's really interesting that you focus on women's rights in this story. The sexualization of women is an important point to consider.
DeleteI agree. The author of "My Kid Brother" used the role of Women to describe how people felt in the society.
DeleteIn the history of women's rights has been an inevitable topic. Taiwan writer, from a view of women to write on the necessity of political reform
DeleteI really liked that you said that "The fighting for the woman's rights have to rely on the man's power". I think this was the reason the authors wrote their stories in a perceptive of a woman. They wanted to show the inequality of women. Although a woman is talking, a man is the one controlling what is being said like the author controls what his characters do and say.
DeleteCh’en Ying-chen "My brother K’ang-hsiung" writing style is very simple, he described a similar age with his boys – K’ang-hsiung, K’ang-hsiung committed suicide. Read through sister brother brother's diary found many strange dreams, such as set up clinics, schools, and orphanages for the poor in his imaginary utopia.(P31) Has these dreams you want to do, but seemed powerless. Because nothing so went to the self-destruction.
ReplyDeleteI like this article because it reminded us in the growth process, we will have an ideal starting point. Whether we finally doing what kind of work, do not forget our original ideals. Perhaps, finally, we will talk to the social compromise, but as long as this ideal is still, and we can hold this ideal to reflect on and review their own.
I support your idea that everyone have an ideal staring point but the problem is how to handle it. Thats the reason we should keep an original heart to live.
DeleteYour English was a little hard to follow, but the point of having the process of growing and holding on to an idealistic existence got through; and I would agree that this is an important point.
Delete“My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by a male but from the perspective of a woman. This was interesting because of the way the story plays out. The story entitles Christianity, nihilism, Communism and other religious traditions to demonstrate her trying to understand her brother, K’ang-hsiung, throughout the story. I believe “the brother” in the story symbolizes the way the people of Taiwan wanted to live the ideal life. They did not want to be tied down to one religion or all the moral laws that came with each one. “I did not expect a person like me, who had pursued nihilism for so long, would end up unable to escape religion’s moral law. Above the altar of the church hangs suspended the body of the crucified Jesus on His cross. Standing there before his flesh, which never knew an instant of craving desire from birth to death, I see the supreme beauty that my loathsome self does not deserve to enjoy. I know I belong to the devil. I know my fate (Chen 32).” This is the last quote from K’ang-hsiung before he committed suicide. It is perfect in understanding his feeling towards religion and how he felt about himself.
ReplyDelete“The Wall” was also written by a man in the 1980s from the perspective of a woman. Understanding the roles of women in Taiwan in this time period is the strict purpose of these stories. This story was about a woman who was cheated on by 2 men. They lied to her about her importance to the democracy but in fact they just wanted to have sex with her. I believe the following quote symbolizing something other than the wall. "A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. No one even has to catch sight of the other (Yingzhen, 1).” I think the wall symbolizes women and how men viewed them at the time. It didn’t matter what one man did to a woman, the other men will never be able to tell. It just portrayed the little respect men had for women and how if women wanted to be anything it had to be through men.
In “The Past and Punishment”, written in 1980s, mentions the past quiet frequently. The main point of this story is to remember and learn from the past. “The fact is that you’ve always been deeply immersed in your past. You may feel cut off from the past from time to time, but that’s merely an illusion. A phenomenon that, at a deeper level, indicates that you’re relay much closer (Yu, 117).” Do not feel cut off from your past. Embrace it.
I like how you used the wall as an interpretation of the men's perspective! It was true that even though females were beginning to be apart of society they were still looked down upon
DeleteVery nice interpretation of "My Kid Brother" being an interpretation of how the Taiwanese people wanted to live life. Also pretty interesting how a male author, speaking through a female character, portrays gender inequality.
DeleteI agree with you viewpoints about "The Past and Punishment". I also think that the main point of the story is to remind us of remembering and learning from the past. Do not feel cut off from your past!
DeleteI agree with that you said about "Past and Punishment" as well the past is what makes us who we are today and if we do not reflect on it continually to better ourselves then we are accepting that fact that we will always be complacent.
DeleteI agree with your opinion about "The Wall". These two men cheated the woman just because they want to have sex with the woman. That is really bad and it also reflected the social chaos in that period of time.
DeleteI also enjoyed how you mentioned the fact that the detailed perspective of a woman was actually by a man.
DeleteI agree with what Matthew was saying about our own personal connection to our past. The past directly reflects who we were, are, and will ever become.
DeleteI liked the quote from Past and Punishment that you used and how you said that we should embrace our past.
DeleteThe quote you used for "The Wall" was great. But I had a different interpretation of the wall. Instead of it being about the two ways that women were viewed, could it be the two opposing groups that existed after the cultural revolution?
DeleteReally good analysis. After all the things that the China had went through, it is no wonder that people felt cut off from their past.
DeleteI liked how you described the symbol of the wall: women and how men view them. That's an interesting way to look at it.
DeleteI agree that the brother symbolized that Taiwanese wanted to live the ideal life.
DeleteI like your opinion that the wall symbolizes women and how men viewed them at the time. I have the same feelings with you.
DeleteThis weeks's readings are quite interesting because each story was written by a male author but from a women's perspective. How could this be during these times of China? Females did have a part in society and they were beginning to show up in other places but for a male to write out what a women was thinking was nearly unfathomable. The first story that I want to talk about is "The Wall". In the story the wall was mentioned many times over as if it was trying to emphasize something much greater than just an ordinary wall. I wonder as to why nobody would challenge it. Then there was this obvious undertone of manipulation through out the story which we do come to find that there was. "Don't any of you try to manipulate me. We'll see...What? He knew? You all knew?" (Pg 20 Change Ta-Chuan) show's that people were willing to do whatever just because someone else who had a greater authority over them. "She dashed out of the coffee shop and bumped against the wall quite by accident. The impact shook the all a bit." (Pg 21 Chang Ta-Chuan) represents that even with the manipulation going on in the background she was not going to be the ones who stay blind to the truth but in fact will challenge it. The wall shaking is a representation of a great change that was going to take over China.
ReplyDeleteIn the story of "My Kid Brother" there were lots of contradiction, ideas, and moral judgment. The characters in the story relatively stay very down and depress. "As parts of this broken world, Ch'en Ying-Chen's characters find themselves caught by what Marcel term's "being caught in a situation" (Pg 19 Ch'en) shows that even in this story the world is still in this sort of chaos as seen in "The Wall".
I common idea that I have come to from reading both of these stories is that in the state of the current society people are just trying to live the way they want to live: Their ideal life
The authors writing these stories from the perspective of the opposite sex intrigues me. It makes me wonder what messages they were trying to portray that couldn't have been touched on if written from a male character perspective. Also, it was easy for me to forget that the authors were makes at times, which makes me wonder how they knew so much of the struggle that women may have faced and whether they were active in easing that struggle.
DeleteThe story "My Kid Brother" by Ch’en Ying-chen is written from a woman's perspective, despite the author being a male, as she deals with her younger brother's death over the course of two years. She is finally able to read his diary for herself, and she hopes that this will help her understand her brother, because she is constantly trying to understand him and what he was going through. This story encompasses different religions and political ideas. She gets married soon after his death which gives her mixed feelings. "The whole affair gave me a feeling of defiant joy. But of course this joy was accompanied by a deep, hopeless mourning" (Ch'en, 31). She feels sad about her brother, but also her lost dreams from when she was a girl that she could no longer pursue.
ReplyDeleteThe Wall, by Chang Ta-chuen is the story about a girl who is being used by men to satisfy their own needs. It is like My Kid Brother in that the author is also a male writing from a women's perspective. It spoke a good deal about the wall that was like a bulletin board. The words she wrote on it on page 7 of the story I found very telling on her views of democracy: "Democracy for you is the bitter defrosting of your chastity, the melting of the sugar coating around a memorial archway" (Chang).
The Past and the Punishments by Yu Hua talks a lot about March 6th 1965, although the story itself takes place in the summer of 1990 and the main characters are the punishment expert and the stranger. The story itself was dark and talked a lot of death and its tranquility it brings.
I like that you pointed out that the narrator is affected by "her lost dreams." It seemed to me that her brother's death caused her to experience extreme disillusionment.
Delete"The Wall" and "My Kid Brother" were written from the perspective of Taiwanese authors, while "The Past and Punishments" was written from the perspective of a mainland Chinese author. These stories were written in the 1980s, so roughly a decade after the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong. Each story is dripping with symbolism and you can find metaphors almost everywhere throughout the readings, however the atmosphere in "My Kid Brother" and "the Past and Punishments" can only be described as morbid and grotesque. The former deals with an older sister reading the twisted diary of her nihilistic little brother who commits suicide because he says "I see the supreme beauty that my loathsome self does not deserve to enjoy. I know I belong to the devil. I know my fate." (Chen Yingzhen , 32) The latter is a surreal interaction between "the stranger" and "the punishment expert" as they discuss various execution styles and plan their own deaths.
ReplyDeleteOne point of interest to me was that in most other stories we've read so far, there was the concept of wanting to marry who you fall in love with rather than who was arranged for you. In "My Kid Brother" the main character puts her father's happiness above her own and marries into a wealthy family. Next point of interest is the use of the dates in "The Past and Punishments". The main date that is constantly being referred to is March 5th, 1965, which I assume corresponds to the death of Chen Cheng, the Vice President of the Republic of China. I thought the story alluded to him being hung to death, "the hypothesis that someone intimately connected with the stranger's past had died by hanging on March 5, 1965, began to seem not entirely far-fetched." (Yu Hua, 119) however that was not the case (he died from tumors). Knowing what each date represents as well as who the stranger and the punishment expert represent is key to understanding the full meaning of the story.
"The Past and Punishment" was written in 1980s after the Cultural Revolution, but people could not forget the past, and it cast a big shadow. You said that the story is dripping with symbolism and metaphors. I agree with this, and I guess the punishment expert implies the government and the stranger implies the common people at that time.
DeleteI wasn't aware of the date's significance outside of the story, so it is interesting to find out what actually happened on March 5.
DeleteThe stories told during this period of the reform show us how the real the struggle is between the two sides. The two sides both see a better life after the reform whether it takes place or not. The story The Wall is about two young people who are trying to consider all of the opportunities that living in America could bring to them. It talks of the American dream and how great it would be to live in a country where you were truly free to do as you want, and you have no limits to where you can take your life. On the other hand My Kid Brother talks about more negative aspects and issues that are controversial.
ReplyDeleteThe Wall was written in the 1980’s around Taiwan’s movement to becoming a democracy. The two stories are similar because they are both written from the view of a woman by a male writer. Understanding women and their role in society at this time was very important. The Wall contains this excerpt "A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. No one even has to catch sight of the other (Yingzhen, 1).” This story shows that men during the time could treat women how they saw fit and they were obligated to show them as little respect as possible. Men believed that by so doing they would be perceived to be more masculine but in fact this shows their weakness.
The Past and Punishment was also written in the 1980’s this is a story that continually reflects on the past so that the reader will learn from the mistakes made long ago and do as best they can to lead the country to never make the same mistakes again.
The story “My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by Chen Yingzhen. This is a sad story. Although K’ang -hsiung was a immature boy, his thoughts are profound. He once said in his dairy “Poverty itself is the greatest evil...it inevitably debases and sullies a person to some extent.”(Chen P29). He had very deeply understand about the the consequences of poverty. After he died, his sister chose marry the rich in order to change the poor family. This story reflects during that period of time people who live in Taiwan quest for freedom and wealth.
ReplyDelete“The Wall” was written in the 1980s by Zhang Dachun. This story mainly talk about two man cheated a woman in order to have sex with her. They emphasized the woman’s work is pretty important for the revolution in Taiwan. The woman finally See through their plots, she said “Don’t any of you try to manipulate me! We’ll see.(Zhang P20). However, the woman couldn’t be able to change the situation. This story reflects the political movement’s cruelty.
“The Past and the Punishments” was written by Yu Hua. This fiction is abstract and profound. Author wanted to let us pay more attention to our history, and learn something from the cruel history. “But sometimes you can be cut off from the past. Right now, something is tearing me away from my past.”(Yu Hua p117). Author used personification way to show us the true nature of the history and remind us don’t forget history.
The quote about poverty stuck out to me as well during the reading, and reminded me a lot of Lao She and Teahouse. I wonder how much the author was influenced by those earlier writers and the cultural revolution.
DeleteMy favorite of the two short stories was “My Kid Brother” by Chen Yingzhen. Written by a man through a female perspective, it portrays a very philosophical approach to deep-rooted social issues, increasingly prevalent in the China after the Cultural Revolution. One interesting aspect to note is the frequency of Christian symbolism. Typically characteristic of Western literature, the author is bringing a diverse element into his piece. The young woman is conflicted in the story over which man to marry, though she experiences active choice. Even deeper reflected in this struggle is her search for identity, as she wrestles through the intellectual thoughts contained in her brother’s journals. The story reflects Taiwan’s wrestle for a distinct identity.
ReplyDeleteContrastingly, in the other Taiwanese piece, “The Wall” by Zhang Dachun, the politics of the text are much more apparent. Also written from a female perspective, gender and class struggles are much more apparent in the characters’ interactions with the wall and relationships surrounding it. Taiwan’s struggle for democracy in the 80s can be seen within the story, “We must not let this wall become immobile or become petrified. We should be able to move it to wherever it is needed at anytime. We will never desert it; we stand around it; we will not let it fall” (3). Both stories are very different in their approaches to changing political and social landscape of Taiwan.
"my kid brother" was also my favorite of the three short stories.
DeleteI also noticed a very large presence of politics in the "The Wall," and agree with your point of views. In my opinion, it was the essential motivation for the writing.
DeleteGreat post! I really enjoyed reading your response. I thought that your quote supported you ideas very well.
DeleteBoth stories were written during a period of reform within the nation of China. Both stories also show how conflicting ideals and attitudes within society can clash with each other. However, the two stories are different in many ways. The main symbols differ from each other with the two tales. In "My Kid Brother", they symbolism of it is revolved around money. Apparently, it both creates and solves problems within society in China. In "The Wall" the symbol is obviously a wall. This wall represents the division of two different perspectives and the blindness of one perspective in regards to understanding the other. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Page 1, Chen).
ReplyDeleteA wall can be used in many ways such as protecting oneself or keeping others out. The wall in the story may be a mixture of both, keeping on side safe from others but also keeping them ignorant.
DeleteI agree with Bradley. I Think it was mainly though to keep them ignorant.
DeleteI think the wall represents the division of gender and class.
DeleteI really like your response, especially your analysis of how money both causes and creates problems in China. I believe that this is true in all societies, however. I also enjoyed your analysis of the wall.
DeleteIn “My Kid Brother,” “The Past and the Punishments,” and “The Wall,” the authors use different methods to create a similar overall mood. Among these three works, each author uses a different point of view. “My Kid Brother” by Ch’en Ying-chen is written in first-person, but the reader never learns the narrator’s name. Similarly, in “The Past and the Punishments,” the characters go by the epithets “the stranger” (Yu, p. 114) and “the punishment expert.” (Yu, p. 115) Yu Hua tells this story in third-person limited, as does the third author, Chang Ta-chuen. Unlike both Yu and Ch’en, Chang names his narrator as well as other central characters in “The Wall.” Despite the fact that each author uses a different point of view in his respective story, there is a sense of disconnectedness from the main character, as well as the secondary characters, in all three works.
ReplyDeleteA plausible reason for this detachment is that the authors did not want the characters or the plots to overshadow the political and social commentaries prevalent throughout each piece. The best example of this is in the short story, “My Kid Brother.” In his introduction to the story, Lucien Miller says about Ch’en Ying-chen “…the narrator seldom conveys a privileged knowledge of the inner world of every character. This one-sided emphasis…sometimes creates an uneasy sympathy or separation.” (p. 13) While Miller hypothesizes that Ch’en’s vagueness implies that the author wanted the reader to fill in the blanks himself (p.13), I think it was that Ch’en didn’t want the reader to get so caught up in the plot or the fate of a character that he or she missed the relevant social points that he was presenting. In each of the stories, the characters are vessels for illustrating a message, and nothing more.
I'm surprised more people haven't praised you and your analysis on how the authors created this sense of detachment from the main characters in order to allow the audience to focus on the social points they were wanting to convey. Either I am extremely dumb and everyone but me saw this or people are just overlooking this post. I never would have seen it this way and I completely agree. Awesome analysis Anne!
Delete"The characters are vessels for illustrating a message." This is an awesome quote. The stories are all full of social and political points that are very important to notice and understand.
DeleteI think your analysis is special, I haven't noticed the writers wrote these stories in first-person and third person. "Despite the fact that each author uses a different point of view in his respective story, there is a sense of disconnectedness from the main character, as well as the secondary characters, in all three works. " I like this and I think you did a good job.
DeleteChen Yingzhen wrote the story “My kid brother-K’ang-Hsiung” in 1959 and he base on narrative view to talk about K’ang-Hsiung is filled with love and dream. He dreamed people will build up slum, hospital and orphanage in Utopia. However, his dream is collapsed because of conflict between puritanism and radicalism and finally he choose suicide. “ I adopted the heroic view of the philosopher and said to myself: ‘From this time forward, may everything die!’”.(P30) attract me because K’ang willing to suffer all the guilty and be nailed to the cross like the Jesus. K’ang’ sister decide to revolt his internal world like K’ang.
ReplyDeleteZhang Dachun wrote the story “The Wall” in 1984 and the wall refer to “Bamboo wall” and symbolize democracy setting. “Why is it you always wear your glasses except when we are together? Then you take them off.” The character “she” is different from the K’ang that the girl is hesitates about going America with the guy. Thus, Zhang use conversation to express what a girl’s mind under the wall. Chen used narrative view “K’ang’s sister to reveal the society’s phenomenon.
Both of the readings were written from the Taiwanese authors. “My Kid Brother” was written from Chen Yingzhen in 1960. “The Wall” was written from Zhang Dachun in 1980. The first person in the readings is female. However, female positions in the two readings are different.
ReplyDeleteIn the “My kid brother”, the sister narrated her brother’s story after she read the three diaries. “Nihilist that I am, I am devoid of that wild life which was Shelley’s. Shelley lived in his dreams, but all I can do is make time like a prophet. How fascinating- a nihilist prophet” (Chen, P31). Her brother is nihilist. He has a lovely heart. He built hospitals in the his utopia dreams. However, as he wrote, “ Nothing is really beautiful, but truth”(Chen, P32). Because of her brother, she chose to get marry with the man who has high position in Christians. She said that her father is happy because her father’s utopia dream came true. What’s the female in this position? I think as she said, she used her beauty coming true his father’s dream. Women have no choice in this period.
In “ The wall”, the society was developing. “ It was nothing like what was in the wall today: Blue Mountain Coffee NT $70yuan……” (Zhang, P2). The society accepted the western culture. So, how did female position change? In the society, they identify woman as gender or sex? It seemed that women had powers. However, the truth was that woman rights doesn’t exist.
In Ch’en Ying-chen’s “My Kid Brother, K’ang-hsiung” I believe the introduction served as an important role in understanding the significance of the text. If one were to only read the text and not the introduction, the text would present itself with a confusing and misguided story. The information provided in the introduction that I found key in understanding the nature of the story were three things
ReplyDelete1. How Ch’en Ying-chen was truly unique as an author because of his honesty; realized that the vast majority of Chinese are rootless (2)
2. The death of his younger brother (age 9) and how his neighboring “older sister” figure was sold (age 20) affected him as an author
3. What he learned from Lu Hsun (I’m guessing this refers to the author Lu Xun but is just spelled differently). “It was then that I knew the poverty, ignorance, and backwardness of China, and that China was me.” (Miller, 4)
I found these three points vital in the purpose of his text. The first point and third point almost go hand-in-hand. This is because his brute honesty is present throughout the text as he describes his brother’s “nihilistic” outlook on life. I believe this constant use of the word “nihilism” showed the side of China that felt they were giving up their culture, or “uprooting” it as Ch’en Ying-chen stated. Even though this text was written a decade after the Cultural Revolution, the battle between modernism and maintaining cultural balance was still tense. However, Ch’en Ying-chen also states within the sister character that “a person ought to do her utmost to rid herself of the evil ghost of poverty, just as she ought to do everything to cast off sin” (30) This instance, the father was referring to narrator. Even though the narrator wanted to marry the painter she was in love with, she obeyed her father and married out of poverty. Just like how China wanted to maintain their individualism, they knew they had to accept the modernization and outside influences to maintain a prosperous nation. As for the second point, the characters are obviously represented in the text; the brother as the narrator’s brother in the text, and the “sister-like-neighbor” is represented as the narrator in the story. Using these characters allowed for Ch’en Ying-chen to provide life, purpose, and a message to be delivered to the audience.
“The Wall” written by Chang Ta-chuen I also believe served the same purpose as “My Kid Brother”. The biggest symbol we see throughout the story is the wall. What does a wall do? It acts as a barrier, but more importantly, it acts as a divider. I believe this represented the Chinese people at the time; divided as if a wall were between them. “Hung had a similar statement here under the wall. It was the night when people from the other wall were singing chorales. Hung gathered some strangers and formed their own singing group. They sounded sad compared with the heroic tunes of the opposition.” (11) Here it is clear; with the specific rhetoric the author presents that the wall was used more as a dividing aspect rather than a barrier. The two sides were in opposition
As for “The Past and Punishments” I believe this is a great way to comment on the one’s past (China) and to learn from it. “I haven’t cut you off from your past. On the contrary. I have brought you into intimate conjunction with it. In other words, I am your past” (Yu Hua, 118) One’s past is one we seem to overlook. Judging where someone is now than judging where he or she have come is a principal many still do not understand.
I believe each of the text is similar in that each of the text requires a “past” knowledge of both the author and how it reflects on their writing. Each of the main symbols in the text, the brother and the wall, both come from a past that is needed to understand the nature of each. (The brother grows, as the wall is built. Both have a past)
“My Kid Brother,” “The Wall,” and “The Past and the Punishments” are all short stories that have many similarities and differences. Some of the major similarities are that the short stories are written with a ton of descriptive language. This is shown in “My Kid Brother” when the author writes, “Still another black crow, like an arrow, cut through the ash-grey sky.” (Pg 33) This type of language is used extensively throughout the three short stories to set the stage for the settings. These stories also have many differences. Some of these are that the short stories are written from two different perspectives, which are Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese. Along with these different perspectives are the focuses and struggles of each character in the stories.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think there are some difference or writing style between the mainland and Taiwan writers.
DeleteI agree with your point of view, a different rule creating a different society.
DeleteI also agree with your opinion, the stories all have a lot of symbolism, especially symbolizing the movement during this period. I think this is really evident in The Wall, but how every character in every story has different perspectives but represent something different depending on the reader.
DeleteI agree with you. Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese have different perspectives.
DeleteI agree with you and Angel regarding the symbolism in these stories, more so I believe than most of the readings we have done so far in this class.
DeleteGreat response! Yes it is very noticeable the different thinking between the mainland chines and the Taiwanese
DeleteIn "My Kid Brother Kangxiong," by Chen YingZhen, the narrator compare her choice of life with her brother Kangxiong's. Kangxiong was a boy who has a lofty ideas and ambitious and he have a dream to built up a perfect place for all the people who were ill or poor. However, his dream did not come true because the controversy about Puritanism and radicalism. Finally he suicide. One thing that I feel ironic is three men did not get rid of the poverty no matter they how hard to make it but Kangxiong's sister made it. She was vengeful to her life and married to a wealthy men. The whole story was based on her thoughts and her normal life was a kind of differs from her thought. So the story was tragic and feel helpless for the reality.
ReplyDeleteKangxiong ideal is not achieved, suicide is the reality of helplessness, but also to society complaint. But that's the society sees no please not.
DeleteKang xiong dreams of creating many slums, hospitals and orphanages, because of the controversy about Puritanism and radicalism, he choose to suicide. People just have no power to do what they want at that time.
DeleteI also found it ironic how she was the only one able to escape the life of poverty in the story, but I think that was also the fascinating part of the narrator. How beyond the reality of having her brother be someone who essentially had a lot of ideals and beliefs no make it and her marry into a comfortable life.
Delete“My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by Chen Yingzhen. The author, whom is a male, writes in the role of a female. This is very interesting because it shows the importance of women at that time period. Chen uses the female voice to describe how hopeless many people felt during that period in China. The main character described her life and the life of her brother, whom is dead. She felt the same hopelessness that her brother had felt and decided to get married for money. “Nihlist that I am, I am devoid of that wild life which was Shelley’s. Shelley lived in his dreams, but all I can do is mark time like a prophet. How fascinating-a niglist peophet!” pg31. These words of Kang Hsiung showed how sad the Chinese society has become. The people are living without a religion They believed that life is meaningless. This is probably due to the failed reforms at that time.
ReplyDelete“The Past and Punishment” represented how the revolution is actually hurting people. The author wrote it in a very different way. The main character was named “Punishment expert”. This may be a symbol for the government. Many people at that time were not satisfied with the new government.
I thought the change was a reborn to the girl. She actually still kept her dream in deep. Even she married to "money", but at the moment, i thought she was not actually happy. The marriage was a kind of revolt to the reality, which probably was the only action she could made for her dream under the pressure. And after the marriage, i thought she could be more closer to her kid brother and started to understand the behaviors of him.
DeleteTo the past and punishment, i did not understand this article to a 100 percent. But the punishment expert, i thought was not presented the government, but the thing that always stay in shadow and pushed people in trouble, a thing that led people to create their new "past" and "perform" the lives on the present. :)
I found "The Wall" to be very interesting because of the woman's perspective, though it is written by a male author. The purpose of this story is to show the roles of women in Taiwan during the 1980s. Even though women and men were becoming more equal in terms of the government, women were still treated very disrespectfully by men. For example, the main character in the story, a woman, was cheated on by two different men. The men deceived her and just used her for sex. While women were supposed to be treated as equals, Taiwanese women knew that if they ever wanted to become something better, they would need a man's help to do it. Women's lives were still limited.
ReplyDelete"My Kid Brother" was another story written by a man, a devout Christian, but from the perspective of a woman. The thing that I found most interesting in this story was the abundance of Christian symbolism. This was a different from the stories we've read so far because none incorporate the idea of Christianity because it is more of a Western ideology. She attempts to understand her brother, who ends up committing suicide. I think he was upset with the idea of following and obeying just one religion, and he felt he wasn't right for it, leading to his death.
Good summary of these stories, I enjoyed seeing your point of views and comparing them to my own. I like how you related the stories to past readings.
DeleteThe story “My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s by Chen Yingzhen, and “The Wall” was written in the almost same period of time by Zhang Dachun. In the “My Kid Brother” used sister as first person. She narrated her brother’s story after she read her brother’s diaries. “ I did not expect,” he cries out helplessly, “that a person like me, who has pursued nihilism for so long, would end up unable to escape religion’s moral law.”(p.32) It can represent why her brother death in the end. I think a lot of people during that period had that kind of ideas. Some of them decided to overcome, and some of them were not. Sister and her brother could represent two different kinds of people. In the story “My Kid Brother”, “Nothing is really beautiful but truth.”( P32) I like this sentence. The world is unfair and has dark part, and not all things are beautiful.
ReplyDelete“The Wall” used a man to describe a woman idea. “A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. No one even has to catch sight of the other (Yingzhen, 1).” I love this sentence. A wall has two sides, man and woman has different minds to see it at the same. All things have two sides; we cannot focus on the only side. Sometimes, you will make mistakes if you just pay attention to the one part, like as Mao during the Cultural Revolution.
Ch’en Ying-chen’s “My Kid Brother” was written in the 1960s, describes a have ideals and love’s boy who named K’ang-Hsiung. He was dream to establish many slums, hospitals and orphanages in utopia. But his ideals were bedashed in a personal moral puritanism and radicalism of the intense contradiction. At last he committed suicide. The whole story return to secular life and used "sister" tone to speak. Make the novel whole covered with sorrow, repentance, reflection. It makes this novel have a strong artistic appeal. “K’ang-Huing’s funeral was one of the loneliest imaginable. In P’ing-yang Kang we did not have a single relative, not even a distant one. Following behind the rough wooden casket were only a withered old man and a disheveled young girl.” (Chen, page 33)
ReplyDelete“The Wall” this novel was written by Chang Ta-chun in 1980s. It mainly talked about a woman who was cheated on by 2 men. During the revolution in Taiwan, the woman’s status is still not optimistic. When she knew these two men only want to sex with her and not true emotion, she realized that women's status still faces severe challenges. “I don’t like to be manipulated by your people.” “Don’t any of you try to manipulate me! We’ll see.” (Chang, page 20) The wall in my words means the same political system. It cannot be always be there. It should change. “She dashed out of the coffee shop and bumped against the wall quite by accident. The impact shook the wall a bit.”(Chang, page 21) So, “shook” in this sentence I think means that women's status began to slowly development in Taiwan.
Both stories were by male authors but from a women's perspective. They all described the real situation at that time in Taiwan. Although the two author’s describe different aspects of women, but reflect Taiwan need for reform at that time and to build a democratic society.
Taiwanese writers composed both of this week’s readings, which first of all is very interesting to me, since their subjects were correlated with the aspects similar to the reforms going on in China in last week’s readings. The role reversal within these stories proved that the controversial events relating to the setting of cultural/society movements made many people feel many different ways. For example, “The Wall” was written by a male, who wrote as a female. A similarity that stood out to me from these readings was how powerful symbolism can be through text. In “The Wall,” the wall clearly depicted a separation. This separation could be characterized through the differences in opinions and ideals. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Chen Yingzhen , 1). While these sides were opposing, there was room for entrance or exchange on both parties. This aspect was clear in “My Kid Brother” also, simply in the division of people based upon their religion. Christianity was not in any way shape or form traditional, and was considered Western ideology. While both of these stories share the act of separation occurring, they also share one unified, common goal, and that goal is the act of living in a utopian society. Everyone just wanted to be happy, and live in a perfect world, but in real life (in the stories) this was not the case.
ReplyDelete"My Kid Brother" written by Chen Yingzhen which is a male writer but had written the story in the perceptive of a woman in the story. This story showed that the people of Taiwan wanted to live in peace and live in their own ideal country. But there are conflicting ideas to their own. Not everyone has the same ideal world. K’ang-hsiung was used to show this. He wasn't able to find his ideal world because there were others things in the world that conflicted with him such as religion.
ReplyDelete"The Wall" written by Zhang Dachun was also a male writer but also wrote his story through the eyes of a woman. I think the wall shows a lot of symbolize between Taiwan and Mainland China. "A wall has two sides to begin with. we can write on this side, and they can write on the other side, and that would be that. no one even has to catch sight of the other" (Chen, pp. 1). Although both are so close physically, neither side can see each other or interact in anyway. Their idea and words never reach each other. Everything is stopped by the "wall". Because of this "wall" it is hard for people of Taiwan and people of mainland China to understand each other. The wall is used to show the relationship between the two places.
I think the reason both writers wrote their story in the perceptive of a woman was to show the inequality between men and women. Having a man write the words for a woman was to show that the power of women all depend on the men. Without the men there is no power for the women and no story for them to tell. I think the writer made the story like they did for this purpose.
"The Past and Punishment" was written by Yu Hua. This story talks about the past and tries to tell people not to forget the past and learn from it. “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us” (Yu, pp. 117). This quote to me means that the past is always there. You can't run from, no matter what happens in the future, it can never change what has already happen. No matter how bad things were or how gruesome it is, you shouldn't forget.
"My Kid Brother” was written by Chen Yingzhen in 1960. It is a story of a young man with ideals and love. He dreams of creating many slums, hospitals and orphanages, but his dreams were shattered because of the cruel reality of the conflict in this world. And finally he chosed to commit suicide. The whole story speaks out as a "sister", to make the whole story full of sorrow, repentance, reflection's feelings.
ReplyDelete"The Wall” was written in 1980 by Zhang Dachun and "The Past and Punishment" was written in 1980s after the Cultural Revolution. These works represent a sophisticated and often disturbing revolution in the Chinese literary tradition, drawing inspiration from several strains of traditional Chinese narrative as well. It takes us on a haunting and harrowing journey from classical China through the Cultural Revolution and into the new era of economic reform, exploding along the way our preconceived notions of what Chinese literature and culture are all about in the 1980s.
The connection that sticks out to me the most from these three stories is the plague of haunting memories that flood the minds of each protaganist. In "The Wall," we find the main character dwelling on her decision to follow this man, Hung, to the ends of the earth, hoping that her cause will be acknowledged and that Hung is as perfect as he seems. Throughout, she mentions moments when Hung said or did something that was unsettling to her, like at the rally when Hung got a group of people together to sing, only to out sing the other participants across the way; she claimed to really have no desire to sing, but with time she "allowed the wave of music to overpower her confused thoughts," and when she looked up to see Hung, she realized that "he was only mouthing words" (p.11). She continued to reflect on these moments where she should have noticed that this man and his "regime" seemed a little too good to be true, and found herself in despair because of it.
ReplyDeleteAs for "The Past and The Punishment," it is obvious that the stranger finds his past hard to just ignore, and has set out to determine what the date March 5, 1965 means to him. Along the way, he runs into the punishment expert, and found that he was "a kind of elusive link to his past" (p 116). The punishment expert proceeded to coach him on his past and the ways of punishment, confirming that the stranger was indeed engulfed by his past: "Actually we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us" (p 117). We soon find out that each date mentioned by the stranger has a connection to some form of punishment and death that has plagued his memory, and we find a hint a foreshadowing on page 119 and 120 that death by hanging was, for some reason, traumatizing to the stranger. Furthermore, "(the stranger) began to imagine what it would be like to encounter his dreams naked" (p 123); I think this symbolizes the stranger's new willingness to approach his memories with honesty, depsite the brutality, in order to be at peace with his past. By the end, the punishment expert has hung himself in his room, leaving a note for the stranger noting the date: March 5, 1965 (p 131).
As for "My Kid Brother," the nararrator is plagued by the death of her kid brother, K'ang-hsiung, and reflecting on how he would think of her new lifestyle of wealth. Following his death, the protagonist adopted the following motto: "From this time forward, may everything die!" (p. 30). In detail, we see that she still contemplates things like her brother's funeral (p 33), how he took poison to kill himself (p 31), his letter to her (p 34), the cross and how she had imagined him at her wedding (p 34), and seeing his corpse lie against the wall (p 33). Despite these memories, we find her summarize her feelings in the following statement: "In the face of my sumtuous new life, my greif for the one I revered has gradually wasted away" (p 29).
The first reading, “My Kid Brother, K’ang-Hsiun” was a story about a sister reading her volumes of her brother’s diaries after his death. She married shortly after her brother’s death, to a man that was very wealthy when she had grown up less fortunate. In the beginning of the short piece, she quotes from her brother’s diary about wealth and poverty and comparing that to the way she has turned out to be after her marriage. “Wealth can poison much that is fine and delicate in human nature. Poverty itself is the greatest evil.. it inevitably debases and sullies a person to some extent” (Chen, 29). During this time, Taiwan was in the democracy movement and when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in charge. I think that the emotions and thoughts of the people in Taiwan for their future can be seen through the emotions and thoughts of the characters. Her brother who was very confusing in his thoughts and emotions decided to take his future into his own hands; whereas the narrator ended up marrying a man she didn’t love to live a better life. The second reading “The Wall” is a very good way of showing the divide during the time of democracy. “A wall has two sides to begin with. We can write on this side, and they can write on the other,” (Yingzhen, 1). This quote is powerful in that it shows that the divide in perspectives then, between the ideologies of the new ideals one side and the old on the other. The third reading “The Past and Punishment” was also written in the same time 1980s during the time of reform. Was based on the government and the common people, the common people represented by the stranger character in the story and those in charge as the punishment experts, KMT. The stories differ on their approaches to the movement at this time and the different characters represent the different emotions at the time.
ReplyDeleteIn 50s Taiwan, under the white-terror, those left-wing people were full of dreams, but had no chance to put those ideas into actions in life. It is kind of mournful. Kang’s father, sister, and his sister’s boyfriend were all finally knuckled under the stress of white-terror. His sister did not get married to her unappreciated artist boyfriend, but eventually chose a rich man, which betrayed her and Kang’s dreams. Kang killed himself with his sense of guilt. “A mere boy, one who had innocently played the role of immoralist in the forbidden garden. In his innocence he had stolen a taste of passion’s forbidden fruit, and now he had naively destroyed his life.” (pp. 33)It was hardly for those left-wing people to change anything, even to keep dreaming their dreams.
ReplyDeleteIn “Past and Punishments”, the stranger was summoned back to the past, a different one he had never experienced. Everything was disordered and could not be controlled by him. Each clue he had seemed to guide to a different future, but the one always being untouchable. Something in shadow always pushed him in trouble and made him struggle after he met the punishment expert. He was told, “Actually, we always live in the past. The past is forever. The present and the future are just little tricks the past plays on us.” (pp. 117) The interesting story the expert told to the stranger was about the scholar. After the scholar was sentenced to death, he suffered a terrible psychological torment in the ten hours. But this to the punishment expert was a perfect punishment and finally he died this way in his bedroom. The infinite beauty was born from the extremely painful agony. That's what probably the author wanted to tell us through the stories.
Both articles were set on past or memories and been valued as critiques of the present political environment. I felt both authors were trying to hide something in their stories, which somehow confused me, but also interested me so much at the same time.
I thought the premise of "My Kid Brother, K'ang-Hsiun" was very interesting. The fact that you learn about the brother from the perspective of his sister reading his diaries after his suicide is an interesting idea. I particularly liked the quote: "I sought a fish and got a snake, I sought food and got a stone." from page 32.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed "The Wall". My favorite quote was: "You just try to understand that you are giving up everything here to go to America to set up business, to do research, to expand the organization." from page 19. I liked it because it really made me realize how much many of these individuals immigrating from China were giving up to come to America.
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