Craft Essay: Sounds of the River by Da Chen

“...Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

Abigail Adams

Da Chen in his memoir Sounds of the River: A Young Man’s University Days in Beijing once again weaves threads of elegant and poetic language throughout the text. 

“Qiu –– the Chinese word for autumn –– brought to mind lotuses, floating on calm water, dreaming; bubbling crabs scaling noisy bamboo baskets, escaping; lychee trees sunk low with red fruit, burning; the bottomless sky; deepening; and silky clouds, thinning” (Chen 91).

Sounds of the River examines Chen’s life as a college student.  Within this examination of his life Chen encounters struggle after struggle only to triumph in a blaze of glory. Instead of focusing on the life of Chen, and his struggles I want to examine the roles of his female characters, within the text based on Chinese traditions and stereotypes.  Within this examination could be the keys to why the female characters are portrayed the way they are.

                        “Did you see any beautiful white girls with golden hair?  Mo Gong asked.

                        ‘The store was filled to the brim with them.’

                        ‘Were they cute?’ Mo Gong (asked) again.

                        ‘They certainly were.’

                        ‘Forget blondes.  Your story is too delicious.  Let’s eat” (Chen 141).

            When you put Western women and Chinese men together, some Chinese men imagine that Western women are no more than his mistress — as they say Western women are viewed as the ultimate one-night stand. Western women are not marriage material, but they will give him a good roll in the sack. 

The age-old stereotype has always been Chinese girls, foreign men. But now more than ever Western women are studying, working and marrying in China, and they are discovering the appeal of their Chinese husbands.  Some common stereotypes, according to certain studies, of the image of Chinese men in the Western women’s eyes are that Chinese men were complimented as being family-oriented, willing to spend money on women and serious about relationships, but there were also some negative characteristics. They had ungentlemanly manners, poor physique and a lack of personal opinion.  Does the above text from Chen’s memoir foster the ideas of Chinese men wooing Western women?  Or does the text serve to support the yearnings of a young Chinese man, whose eyes catch any beautiful woman?  

                        “Come on Da, every girl likes to flirt, and every woman likes to fuck.’

                        ‘How do you know?’

‘I know because I’m married to three girls, and I better start educating you before you turn into another rusty Communist screw” (Chen 95).

One has to wonder what is the true role of Western women within the text as seems to be that Western women are seen as ideal woman but Chen does not pursue this thinking with the characters of Western Women. Most cultures men have always been free to explore their sexual desires and experiment freely without consequence unlike women, hence if something isn't as forbidden it becomes cheap, unlikeable.  It would have been interesting to see how Chen would have handled the Western woman, Chinese man relationship within t he narrative.  However

By tradition the Chinese family has been the most significant unit of civilization, and this is still true. Men have been seen as the center of the family. In rural areas, where about 74% of China's people exist, the classic family consisted of the head of the household, his sons, and their wives and children, often-living under one roof.

“I kept seeing Mom wiping her tears with her apron as he waved good-bye, my dad stopping the bus in the middle of the road as he passed pears to me, and my grandpa’s coffin burning up in flames” (Chen 5).

Confucianism hoped that through the repetition of ritual everyone would presume to fulfill the duties of their roles (The Washington Post).  In these roles, women were to concede to their husband’s wishes and of those of closely related males.  After Confucianism women were to be lenient, compliant, amenable, submissive, philosophical, and peaceful.  Men were to lead and women were to simply, silently and obediently follow.  Girls at a young age were to be skilled in the seven virtues appropriate for a woman: humility, resignation, subservience, self-abasement, obedience, cleanliness, and industry.

“I could see my grinning parents standing on our front porch.  Mom was wiping her hands on her apron as always…. Mom thought I had lost weight (Chen 123) … But Mom had to check on last thing.  She unbuttoned my collar and found them with delightful chirping laughs ––– the monstrous rings around the collar, shiny and waxy” (Chen 124).

Among the daily chores performed by rural women are grooming and washing the children,

preparing drinks for the men, making meals, cleaning the enclosures of animals, tending the family's crops, selling and buying stuff at the market, milking animals, making butter or cheese, collecting and processing dung, washing, pounding or inspecting rice or grain, spinning cloth, threshing, separating beans from their pods, hoeing and weeding the fields, carrying firewood, transporting the harvest, fetching water, housekeeping and looking after the children. 

“Mom lingered around me like a shadow, murmuring something, forgetting it, then repeating the murmur… Mother was worried.  Her face should have been smiling, but many times she was found crying under her quilt because she would have to kiss her son one more goodbye” (Chen 304).

In many rural societies women do two-thirds of the farm labor. During the harvesting and planting season men and women work about equally but when those tasks are done women do much of the day to day farming chores while the men often goof around. Women often do so much of the farm work, men are often encouraged not to come to agricultural meeting.

“Mom had to beg our neighbor for permission to fetch cucumbers, and since it took away our neighbor’ air rights, Mom was careful to share every fifth one with them with an accompanying apology” (Chen 146).

Women in rural areas have few opportunities to make money other than selling stuff at the market or on the streets in a town or city or performing menial labor.  A noble, selfless woman who swallows hardship and drinks tears to put away every tasty morsel for her beloved offspring is what most men want to pursue as wife and mother. She is the omnipresent nurturing bosom, a bottomless well of encouragement and sympathy, the tirelessly cooking and cleaning hands.

“I asked her to cook some of my favorite childhood food, the fried rice noodles that she would make with the freshest seafood bought from the fisherman’s wife in the misty morning street” (Chen 304).

One of the primary responsibilities of village women and girls is making sure there is enough water for washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking. Women carry water from a communal well or stream to their homes everyday. Most of the time there is a well in the village. But not always. Sometimes women and girls walk several miles everyday fetching water. Village women seem to spend more time washing clothes by hand than doing anything else. From dawn to dusk the shores of lake and rivers are lined with women scrubbing, ringing and rinsing their families clothes. These women are also skilled at taking a baths in rivers and streams with their clothes on.

Part of the Communist appeal in rural areas was based on their advocacy of overturning ancient patriarchal traditions that dominated the countryside.  With their rise to power, the Communists established the All-China Women’s Federation to promote the Party’s state-based goals that included land reform, marriage law campaigns, construction, and economic reconstruction.  (Ursillo)

“I learned a lot from reading all those foreign magazines you sent us,’ Huang said.  ‘… and the oldest is a toothless jewel trader … in the company of her customers, Taiwanese visitors.’

‘Taiwanese?  Aren’t they forbidden to come to the mainland?’

‘Not anymore.  They come through Hong Kong” (Chen127)

In post-Cultural Revolution China, women faced a persistent vulnerability to sexual and physical violence simply on the basis of being female.  The traditional culture of China was such that women were subordinate and obedient to men. 

“Gloomy men with sunken cheeks and hollow eyes roamed around looking for things to do, anything to do.  Each soul looked scarier than the next.  Their eyes emitted loneliness, hungry for warmth and companionship that was unavailable” (Chen 75).

            Yet during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party encouraged an upturning of traditional societal norms, hoping that a promotion of class warfare would strengthen the country and the Party (Ursillo).  There seems to be a lot of excuses for the blatant sexism in Chinese society. “It’s the government’s fault.” “Men do more work and therefore deserve more respect.” “Women want it.” “It’s right; Confucius (a man) said so.” Et cetera, et cetera.

“I’d love to make a brother-in-law out of you,’ he said thoughtfully.  ‘ that is, if my sister is still alive.’

‘Hey, bring your sexy sister here and I’ll be horny like a bull.  And I’ll personally make an honest wife out if her” (Chen 173).

            The sexism in Chinese society cannot be blamed on anything other than Chinese society,

culture, and tradition. The medieval west was sexist, but in some cases, they almost seemed enlightened compared with what some Chinese believe.  Sexual segregation among upper-class families and the general degradation of women into second- or third-class citizens was late in coming to China, however.  When the Communists came to their revolution, they moved quickly to win the favor of this very large and politically, socially and economically disinherited group by implementing certain policies. They gave women total emancipation and the right to participate in productive labor. Consequently, in the countryside, women now work in the fields but they are usually assigned the most backbreaking labor. The stereotypes about women not needing an education because they will simply move away after marriage still persist in rural areas.

“Mo said later that it was his father who wanted him to marry that plump daughter of the chief… Mo Gong’s glee as a married man did not last long.  The first day was sweet, the second day he felt drowned, by the third day… was shouting, ‘Give me a whore anytime.  I can’t plunge the same hole for the rest of my life” (Chen 143).

            The government of the People's Republic of China has gone a long way toward remedying their failure toward Chinese women but they are still far from having achieved equal status.  Chinese women are caught in the vortex of the cross-cultural winds sweeping the country. Educated women in particular no longer accept age-old idea that they are "the moon reflecting the sunlight" - subordinate to men.  The model woman in China today does not see herself as just tender, virtuous, and obedient according to traditional Chinese values. She believes that she should work hard and have her own professional career without sacrificing her femininity.

“By the way, I’m leaving for England to pursue a graduate degree in linguistics… she hugged me and I disappeared into her bosom.  Her eyes were pearls of dew containing the sunlight from the window… Happiness made one generous, and generosity made her eyes focus a lot better” (Chen 85).

            Professor Lulu is the perfect example of this change in Chinese culture and the role of women as she is pursuing her dreams.  However, Chinese society, they say, is not yet able to accept independent-minded, educated women into its economic and political ranks. Job discrimination on the basis of sex is rampant.

The Cultural Revolution was a lost decade of tragedy and waste. What historians call the chaos, killing and ultimately stagnation claimed lives throughout the country.  Under pressure due to the Great Famine, and unnerved by the Soviet repudiation of Stalin, Mao wielded mass support to see off rivals. Frustrated that Communist ideology had not truly taken root, he also sought to destroy old ideas and institutions. Thirty-six million people were hounded and perhaps a million died in the turmoil unleashed by Mao Zedong in 1966. They were condemned by their political views and social background or someone's whim, enmity or attempt at self-preservation through incriminating others (Branigan).

Patriarchy in society and men’s attitude towards women is a problem. There seems to be an entitlement that men have… It starts when boys are born. They are celebrated and the power and sense of entitlement starts there. It is just about men’s attitude and the way women entertain them in China. The structure of patriarchy gives men the sense that they have the right to harm, to an extent of kill, women. That is the key issue.  This sense of patriarchy seems more evident in this book than in Chen’s Brothers in which the character of Sumi attempts to solve the problem of aloneness versus the union with others.  This attempt brings about the need to rise above a passive and accidental existence and into the realm of purpose and freedom.    Sumi in many ways evolves as a separate “species”.  Sounds of the River, however, does not have a character like Sumi which seems to reduce most of the females characters to that of either objects of sexual desire or saintly –– i.e. the mother as saint.

Mother Chen who comes across as desexualized, maternal, and nonthreatening while usually neat, clean and wore attire that was suitable for domestic duties.  Is it a possibility that Chen as author sees his mother as lacking all sexual and sensual qualities, or is it a possibility that Chen as author wishes to not to face this issue with his mother at this time.  Mother Chen plays a vital role in the household with her duties generally related to the drudgery of caring for her children.  Although Mother Chen, according to Chinese custom, was considered of a lower status, she was still involved in the decisions of the inner circle.  Is there a possibility Chen developed the character of his mother more in other books.  However, here in Sounds of the River, Mother Chen comes across as somewhat underdeveloped.  While the focus is on Chen and his time in college it is, painfully, clear that Chen has an incredibly tight, and loving bond with his mother, which I would have loved to see more developed.

Works Cited

Branigan, Tania. China's Cultural Revolution: Son's Guilt Over the Mother He Sent to Her Death. 27 March 2013. 30 September 2014 <www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/27/china-cultural-revolution-sons-guilt-zhang-hongping>.

Chen, Da. Sounds of the River: A Young Man's UNiversity Days in Beijing. Ed. Robert Jones. First Perennial. New York City: Harper Perennial, 2002.

The Washington Post. "Chinese Cultural Studies: Women in China: Past and Present." August 1995. Chinese Cultural Studies: Women in China: Past and Present. 2014 September 2014

<aac6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/%7Ephalsall/textx/chinwomn.html>.

Ursillo, Dave. "Dave Ursillo." Women in Post Cultural Revolution China. <www.daveursillo.com/wome-post-cultural-revolution-china/>.