"Love in a Fallen City" by Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang)

     How might it be possible to think of this as “not a love story”? Maybe more accurately, it is a story about Chinese traditions that becomes a love story only after the advent of the war. A good question might be why the couple’s relationship did change after the bombing of Hong Kong.
Because “love” here seems more like a conscious manipulation, a kind of strategy towards a merger. A game of cat and mouse. We see the woman powerless in the situation, dependent either on her husband or her family, and as tough-minded and able as Liusu seems to be, she is the victim of these social circumstances as well. If she is wary of falling too easily into a disadvantageous relationship, it is hard to blame her.
Story begins with the echo of the classic tradition. The sound of the huqin. The mention of not following daylight savings time. The Confucian system of naming. In a way, this is China mired in an unfair, unequal, stagnant, impoverished social system. The intellectuals and writers of the day had to rail against the status quo—they might advocate either a modernization (westernization) of China, or the communism advocated and implemented by Maoist forces. Zhang belongs in the former camp, and became a fierce critic of communist China, writing much of her work from exile in the U.S.
The fact that it is Fourth Master Bai playing spoils the effect, somewhat.
2738. We get the suggestion that Liusu return to be the faithful widow of the husband she’s been long divorced from (a ploy to keep the money in the family by the dead man’s family).
‘Distinction between the law and family law—the latter being, in the eyes of Confucian tradition, eternal.
39. “grabbed her son’s collar and rammed it into Liusu, shouting. . .”
40. We find this family in decline has been living off of selling off pieces of their land.
41. We get the sad note that the mother she had and the mother she was praying to were two different people. Along with the specter of her memory from when she was 10.
42. We have the self-inspection, followed by the dance. But the dance ends in a kind of discord, with a “malevolent smile.”
43. According to tradition, Fan Luyuan as bad as a concubine’s child, but because he has been able to inherit wealth, becomes a much sought-after match for many daughters.
49. Note the commercial (read modern) character of Hong Kong. The most striking part of the view was the giant billboards
50. The room begins to be a part of the leitmotif of the story. It is an object of art here, or rather a frame for the art the natural world makes.
Luyuan makes fun of the attempts to maintain Chinese flavor in the Ballroom he finds o be hopelessly dated.
53. The red of the tree. Symbolic of . . . ?
Also the wall—if we can meet here, then maybe we can honestly . . .
57. ? Why did the fly slapping episode lead them to stop seeing each other? Did her leaving count as an admission that the play was stirring her up a bit?
Becomes a great story because no little touch is omitted. The story begins with the sounds of the huqin playing its mournful sounds, which is from an inadequate source.
And from the dreamy and ethereal huqin we get the arrival of Mrs. Xu and the mundane efforts of the variously numbered Masters Mistresses, Young Lady's and etc. All vying for some advantage over the general state of decomposition and malaise.