Book of the Month, April 2009, 巴金's 家

[Lu]

I finished 家 (only, oh, 9 months too late :-) )!

Some of my thoughts, with lots of spoilers:

It's great to see the three brothers develop through the book: Juehui growing up a lot, loosing his innocence, realizing that if he wants to live his life the way he wants to, he needs to make a break with his family, and finally making that break; and Juexin giving up, giving in, but in the end still rebelling as much as he feels he can, which isn't very much. Juemin doesn't develop very much, I think, he starts out very moderate and in love with Qin, and ends up pretty much the same.

It's interesting how everybody was in love with Qin. It seems to me, for example, that Qianru, radical New Youth that she is, would have been a good match fro Juehui, but no, he too falls for Qin-jie. I think it's because she's the perfect combination of a New Woman and a traditional woman: educated enough that a man can talk about books and social politics with her, without being so educated that she'd consider getting her own life. In the end she still isn't going to the school where she wants to go, and seeing that she's probably marrying Juemin soon and will have babies, I don't see how she's ever going to go to university, as she planned.

I read a story once, I forgot by whom but it was about that same period of making a New China: a young man, well-educated and reformist and all, is looking for his dream wife. She must also be well-educated and New, of course. He looks far and wide but doesn't find the right woman, and so he decides he will marry a young, uneducated girl and educate her himself, Pygmalion-style. So he does, first she's uninterested, but gradually she begins to grasp the idea of a New Society and get enthused. But to the man's dismay, she also buys into the idea of women suffrage, and equality, and such. That was not what he intended. They fight, and eventually she leaves him, finding him not modern enough.

I thought of that story when I thought of why Juehui would prefer Qin over Qianru. Qianru is too modern for his comfort.

Did anyone else wonder about the style and way of telling the story sometimes? It seems this book was such an easy read because it only uses a very limited number of words, after a while I could almost fill in the rest of the sentence once I'd read half of it. The style seemed very simple. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that, but in my modern (and Western) eyes, if I took a step back (and considered how I would translate this or that) it looked rather simple and childish at times. I wonder how it would have looked to contemporary readers.

And there was a LOT of crying. Everyone was bursting into tears at a moment's notice all the time. Not that they didn't have reason to, but, well, it seemed they were overdoing it sometimes. Funny was that at the end, when Juehui tells Juexin that he's going to leave, Juexin cries in self-pity, but Juehui doesn't, he's determined not to cry.

The last chapters, the goodbyes, I found very touching. And little has changed in a century, goodbyes still feel that way, and it's always a bit of a rush when you're actually leaving.

[renzhe]

Well done! I'm still slacking off with Autumn, I should finish it one of these days.

The characters keep developing in the following two books, and Juemin and Qin play a greater role there than in the first book (and they have to, since Juehui has buggered off, and Juexin is wallowing in self-pity and obedience) so it's something to keep in mind.

I read a story once, I forgot by whom but it was about that same period of making a New China: a young man, well-educated and reformist and all, is looking for his dream wife. She must also be well-educated and New, of course. He looks far and wide but doesn't find the right woman, and so he decides he will marry a young, uneducated girl and educate her himself, Pygmalion-style. So he does, first she's uninterested, but gradually she begins to grasp the idea of a New Society and get enthused. But to the man's dismay, she also buys into the idea of women suffrage, and equality, and such. That was not what he intended. They fight, and eventually she leaves him, finding him not modern enough.

Have you seen "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress"? An interesting take one the same idea, starring a younger Zhou Xun. The movie was banned in China because of the portrayal of the Cultural Revolution.

Regarding the simple writing style, I really enjoyed it, but I do understand what gato meant when comparing Ba Jin with more technically skilled writers. On the other hand, it makes it a very comfortable read, and the characterisation of the main actors is just wonderful. There are probably half a hundred characters across three books, and they are all believable, whether likable of loathable.

[gato]

It's interesting how everybody was in love with Qin. It seems to me, for example, that Qianru, radical New Youth that she is, would have been a good match fro Juehui, but no, he too falls for Qin-jie.

I got the sense that Qianru is more plain-looking, kind of a tomboy, which wasn't too appealing to the brothers, but Qin, on the hand, was very pretty. Guys think with their lower half, right? Haha.

[Lu]

Renzhe: Yeah, now that you mention it, Balzac... is a bit of the same idea. I haven't seen the movie, but read the book. It's not the story I mean though, that was a short story.

Gato: I guess that goes even more for Juehui's infatuation with Mingfeng, with whom he had even less to talk about (not that he was in the least interested in what she may have had to say, most obviously in the scene where she went to see him just before killing herself). Juehui and his comrades say that women should also have better lives and more opportunities in their New China, but when it comes down to it they'd rather their women stay home and look pretty.

I guess now I'll have to read Chun (I actually have that book, so the more reason to read it) and see what happens next with Qin.

EDIT: Thinking about it a bit more made me realize I'm not being fair to Juehui. The kid was seventeen at the time, of course he falls for the first pair of 水汪汪的眼睛 that looks his way.

Then another thing that I noticed was the convenient deaths. Mei-jie is back in town, the necessary drama is played out, and once that is done, she conveniently dies. I would have liked to keep her around, see if perhaps she does have some future, some life ahead of her. Same with grandfather, the conflict between him and Juemin comes to a standstill, some solution has to be found... and then Ba Jin kills of grandfather to solve the issue. As to Ruijue, really nobody was to blame for her death, imo she had just as much of a chance of dying had she stayed in the city.

Edited January 18, 2010 at 01:30 PM by Lu

[renzhe]

The deaths are a very important part of the story. There was no future for Mei and Mingfeng, and that's the point Ba Jin is making. At least not in the society the way it was. The inability to prevent these deaths (and other forms of suffering) is what Ba Jin objects to with Juexin. Although he doesn't agree with the old ways, he still plays along out of cowardice, unlike the two younger brothers.

The death of the grandfather becomes important in the following books, especially Autumn. The family really changes for the worse in the absence of a strong hand in charge. The conflict between Juemin and the grandfather is interesting because it shows the difference in the approach that the brothers take. Juehui would openly oppose. Juexin would play along obediently. Juemin's was a path of passive resistance. He tries to stay true to his ideals, but still have enough influence within the family to help his cousins when needed. This is especially important in the second book and second sister Shuying. Personally, I found Shuying's story the most interesting out of all the characters in the trilogy.

There are more deaths in the next two books. For one, people used to die more often in that time due to factors like medical care. But it is also a condemnation of the society of the time.

[gato]

An ironic thing about Ba Jin is that though he was an anarchist, his book inspired a lot of people towards "Communism" (in practice, really the polar opposite of anarchism)....

You can read Ba Jin's memoir here, where he talks about his experiences being indoctrinated into Maoism and then later recovering.

http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/index_39587.html

巴金晚年代表作：随想录

[Lu]

There was no future for Mei and Mingfeng, and that's the point Ba Jin is making. At least not in the society the way it was.

I agree with their lack of any future. Already in the beginning, when you see Juehui & Mingfeng, I was wondering how that could ever end well, and indeed it didn't. But to have them just die when their part is played seemed a bit mianqiang, the writer deciding now's a good time.

Lin Yutang wrote a book, Moment in Peking, with a story somewhat similar to Mei's: a young woman has a man picked for her, and lucky for them they love each other. Then he gets sick, the family wants them to get married asap so perhaps he will live (mixin), but he dies the day after the wedding. She lives on, decades longer. That feels more believable to me than Mei dying when her part has been played.

I agree on Juemin playing it by the rules as much as he can without compromising his own ideals.

[renzhe]

An ironic thing about Ba Jin is that though he was an anarchist, his book inspired a lot of people towards "Communism" (in practice, really the polar opposite of anarchism)....

Many anarchists consider themselves communist, only they seek a libertarian form of organisation. People like Kropotkin and Malatesta, or even Ba Jin's friends Berkmann and Goldman come to mind. Not all anarchists, mind you, but certainly many.

You could say that anarchist communists agreed with the final goal of communism (which, according to Marx, is a stateless society), but not with the methods followed by Lenin, Stalin and Mao.

But it is true that it is ironic that Ba Jin inspired people to dream about a social revolution, and this same revolution destroyed his life after it took place.

[Lu]

Now reading 春, only four chapters or so in but I like it as much as I expected.

I'm trying to repress my anger at Qin at this point. Shuying is terrified of her future, and with reason, and appears seriously depressed: can't sleep, takes walks in the garden at an ungodly late hour, such things. Qin tries to console her, but all she does is oppress Shuying further: Don't talk that way. Don't think like that. Stop feeling sad. I know she means well, but it makes me want to kick her. Interestingly, at times I think Ba Jin actually agrees with me that this type of 'consoling' is useless at best. Shuying only cheers up a bit when Qin proposes to actually do something about the problem instead of telling her to stop thinking about it.

[renzhe]

Shuying is maybe my favourite character in all three books. In any case, I found her story to be the most inspirational out of the lot.

EDIT: I'm still finishing the third book....

[Lu]

That would mean she'll find a way out of her current bleak prospects, I'm looking forward to reading about that!

[imron]

I'm also about halfway through this book at the moment - I've also flicked through later parts of the book and also 秋, and so know certain things that are going to happen already.

I'm not sure I have a favourite character yet.

[realmayo]

After looking at this thread I've started reading 家 -- which, apart from a handful of short stories, will be my first novel written in Chinese. Two chapters in and it's perfect! Enough new words to me to be increasing my vocabulary, but not so many that I'm ever bogged down by them.

[renzhe]

加油! I think that, at least as far as language level goes, it's one of the best novels to start with. If you can get through it alive, you're ready to tackle more challenging things.

[Lu]

Well, I was still reading 春 and determined not to drag it into the next year, and lo and behold, I finished it just now.

The story seemed to go very slowly (might be that it just seemed that way because I read it so slowly), with not much happening for most of the book. In the end I got a bit worried: only 40 pages to go and Hui still had to die and Shuying had to get away.

What Shuying's story showed most of all, in my view, is how incredibly isolated (rich) girls in that time and place were. She is so touched by the love story she sees in the play, she had no idea something like that existed. There really was hardly any way out for her, unlike Juemin she had no friends where she could run off to. She virtually doesn't know anyone outside her family.

Juexin and Hui really would have been a good match, in the face of trouble both of them cry, pity themselves and obey. Most egregiously in the scene where Juexin manages to get Hui a Western doctor, only to have her immediately agree with her mother-in-law that a Western doctor is no good and have him send away. Although I did think that Juexin grew a little, in those last pages he doesn't cry but gets anrgy instead. When Juemin & Qin told him of the plan I was worried that Juexin would return to his 没办法 attitude and rat out Shuying, but he didn't. All that seemed like progress.

And until the last page I was a bit worried about Jianyun accompanying Shuying: here he is, saving the day, on a boat all alone with the woman he is in love with, miles to go and nobody around she knows. But he turned out to be very sincere. Poor Jianyun.

What's 秋 about? I'm curious how Shuhua will fare, and worried about Shuzhen (all she manages to do in the face of trouble is cower and cling to Qin, she'll need more strength than that if things are to turn out okay for her), but with my reading speed, perhaps I should not spend another year on 巴金.

[renzhe]

秋 was my least favourite of the three. It basically depicts the total downfall of the family, with many topics repeating themselves. It's still interesting to see how the characters develop though.

Only read it if you think that you can make good speed, I'd say.

[imron]

Haha, 《秋》was my favourite of the three!

Although it is the downfall of the family as a unit, at the same time, that brings hope and freedom to those that were being restrained and repressed by the family unit and tradition.

I also found 《春》 to be slow reading, but mostly because there was so little happening, it was difficult to keep trying to find the motivation to keep at it. 《秋》is much better in that respect, and the story clips along at a much better pace.

I'd say, if you've read 《家》and《春》, then you might as well go for closure and read 《秋》.

[Lu]

Hm, now I'm hesitating again... I think I'll read another book first and see if I run into 秋 somewhere (I don't have it), and perhaps I'll 'go for closure'. Glad to hear the slow pace wasn't because I read so slowly.

Going back to this thread yesterday I saw that I started on 春 partly to find out what happens next with Qin. Turns out that nothing whatsoever happens with Qin in this book.

Came across this article just now, about Pakistani young women going out of the house into the work force.

Most women said that they had never left the house before taking a job. Many spent the first five months missing buses and getting lost. When they first arrived at work, they stuttered nervously in the presence of men.

Now, they know better.

Sounds a bit like how Shuying would fare. Somebody should translate 春 into Urdu.

[Gleaves]

I figure it is about time I read some modern literature and 家 has been leering at me from my shelf for about two years now. So I just started this one today.

Thank you for the character list. I made it into a little cheat sheet and taped it to the back cover.

[Lu]

Great! Be sure to keep us updated in this thread on what you think, I'd be interested in reading it.