A Brief Analysis of Nationalism in Field of Life and Death
A Brief Analysis of Nationalism in Field of Life and Death
Introduction
Xiao Hong is one of the representative female authors of the modern China in the 1930s. Her Field of Life and Death is a masterpiece in that era to fight against the Japanese Invasion and advocate for the nationalism. This novel depicts how people in a remote Northeastern village change their attitudes and fight against the oppression due to their awakening national awareness. Xiao Hong vividly depicts the distinctive personality of each character from a sensitive female perspective, based on her miserable childhood experience. This novel is an anti-war novel, which reflects people’s nationalism when faced with Japanese invasions. But men and women show different attitudes due to their different social statuses and different feudal influences. This paper aims at discussing men and women’s different responses to the issue of national identity and the author’s position on nationalism by the analysis of three characters: Golden Bough, Chao San, and Mother Wang. The analysis shows that men have a clear understanding of their nationalist responsibilities due to the inherent feudal gender definition while women are struggling with the national identity due to their long-term sufferings under the oppression, but the author expresses her position on nationalism through the character mother Wang, calling for women’s rebellious spirit against nationalist oppressions to achieve their self-redemptions
Golden Bough: An Obedient Traditional Woman
To begin with, women are struggling with their national identity, a strong hate for Japanese invasions but a timid determination to fight back. Golden Bough represents obedient traditional women who get used to the oppression. She gets pregnant before marriage, so she has to marry to Cheng Ye. People see her as an immoral woman and laugh at her. After marriage, her husband treats her badly with a total attitude change. He scolds her lazy all the time and hits her sometimes. Her response is very typical as a traditional woman. She endures all the inequalities and blame all these to her bad fate, even though it is her husband who makes her suffer all these miseries. Even when her daughter is killed by her husband, she still chooses to endure her hate instead of fighting back for justice. The traditional gender discrimination and the unequal ethics standard oppresses her so heavily that she has to endure all her miseries and accept her tragic fate. The war, the death of her daughter, and the extreme poverty all fail to arouse her courage to break the bondage of feudal oppressions. Her mother, the only spiritual support for her, cares more about the money she makes in the city than the pain she suffers. Finally, when she is fed up with the cold human relationships and the oppressions from men, she says at the end of the novel “I hate nothing but Chinese people” (Xiao 47)! She decides to be a nun and gets away from all these miseries, only to be told that there is nobody in the nunnery.
Before the pregnancy, Golden Bough is also a naive girl dreaming of love and happiness. However, the distorted ethics value and the gender inequalities break her dream. Her pregnancy gets no mercy from her families and people in the village, including her husband. Unlike Old Mother Pockface, who is unconditional obedient, Golden Bough has the desire to fight, but she doesn’t have the courage to put it into actions. When her daughter is killed by her husband, she cries heavily and hate her husband, but she never fights with her husband for his cruelty. She has the desire to fight, but she doesn’t have the courage due to the oppression she has suffered. This is a common characteristic of women under the feudal oppression. They have the desire to fight, but they are so powerless due to ethics restrictions and gender discriminations (Lau 80). This limited rebellious desire also determines their attitude towards the national identity. They hate Japanese for their cruel behaviors to innocent girls. Their desire of rebellions come from their sympathy towards others and the pain from poverty, not from the perspective of justice and nationalism. Thus, most of the traditional women hate Japanese, but they dare not participate in the battle and fight back. They also know few about “Huzi” and not enlightened enough to join the Communist. They are struggling with their national identity. They have the desire to fight against the invasion to protect their villages, but they don’t have the justice to protect their country and recognize their nationalism.
Golden Bough is a combination of traditional women and enlightened women. She is not stupid and dumb enough to obey the oppression unconditionally like Old Mother Pockface, but she is also not enlightened and brave enough to join in Communist and take revenge of Japanese like P’ing. She has a strong desire for self-respect, so she prefers to be a nun rather than make money as a prostitute. She hates Japanese for their invasions and murders, but all she plans to do at last is to be a nun and escape from the invasion, instead of fighting against this invasion due to the justice of nationalism. In some degree, Golden Bough hates Chinese because she realizes the weakness in people’s national nature (Idema 71). She hates Chinese because they are weak and selfish, not strong enough to protect their homeland. However, her sense of self-redemption and sense of rebellion against the invasion are still limited. That is why she blames Chinese people for their weakness and at the same time, makes the same choice as others to avoid the invasion instead of fighting against the invasion. Women’s limited power, low social statuses, and the long-term obedience determine that even though they have the sense of nationalism to protect their homeland, they still cannot make effective actions to make a difference.
Chao San: From a Hero to a Coward, Then Back to a Hero
In addition, men are clear about their national identity, which enables them to fight against the invasion and achieve self-redemption. Chao San is a complex character in this novel. He used to be brave and try to kill the landlord for the unreasonable rent. He can be a leader and pursues the justice. However, when he realizes that he accidently breaks a thief’s leg, not kills the landlord, his sense of achievement and courage suddenly disappear. Instead, he lives in fears and despairs. When he is put into the prison because of his crime, he exposes his weakness as a farmer. He submits to the landlord for his freedom and assists the landlord raise the rent. Suddenly, he falls from a hero to a coward. Even his wife looks down upon him. This is a battle between the feudal landlord class and the traditional farmer class, but Chao San fails in this battle. He loses to his own fears and follies.
However, when faced with Japanese invasions, his attitude changes due to the influence of Li Qingshan. When Chao San is telling stories of the organization he established when he was young, his wife laughs him as a “dog” and can never become a “wolf” because of his weakness. Chao San is still a coward because he is not young anymore and has to endure in order to survive. However, after witnessing the damage Japanese invaders bring to the village and hear Li Qingshan’s speech, his hesitations and fears disappear. He leads a group of young men to hold a ceremony to swear their determinations to save the country because “all Chao San knows is that he is a Chinese” (Xiao 32). Once again Chao San becomes a brave hero and earns others’ respect.
Chao San has the class limitation as a farmer, so he is timid and fearful when he meets real troubles, like the threat of the prison and the fear of crimes. That is the reason he becomes a stooge of the landlord to exchange his freedom. As a normal farmer, he is deeply influenced by the feudal concept. He tries to kill the landlord because the rent is too heavy to keep their living. He accepts the rent as long as it is within a reasonable range. He is never enlightened enough to fight for the real democracy and equality. However, when faced with invasions from other countries, he could clearly realize his national identity and prefers to sacrifice his life rather than live as the slave of Japanese. This is the inherent rebellious spirit in traditional Chinese men. They could endure the feudal class oppression, but they can not endure the loss of national dignity (Ferrari 31). This nationalism has existed in the Chinese culture for a long period. Men have the responsibility to protect their homelands and fight on the battlefield, which is the obligation they should take for their superior social status in the society (Swanstrom 26). Thus, even though these farmers don’t understand the revolution very much, they still feel their responsibilities to protect the homeland as men. Thus, the timid and stupid Two-and-a-half Li finally participates in fighting against Japanese invaders at last.
Mother Wang: A Rebellious Woman with Nationalism
Last but not least, the author intends to take Mother Wang as a model for traditional women to fight against the repression and insist on their nationalism with a rebellious desire for patriotism. In this novel, women not only suffer the feudal oppression from the landlord class, but also from men. One special characteristic of this novel is that Xiao Hong always uses metaphor to depict women as animals to indirectly reflect women’s social status. For example, when Old Mother Pockface is busy with cooking after washing clothes, she is as sloppy as a bear, and when she talks, she is as clumsy as a pig. These metaphors mean that women exist in this society like animals, and their meaning for this society is to reproduce for men. When women get raped by men, they are blamed for their immortality. Even though they are victims, they have to endure the moral oppression from the feudalism. Their unconditional obedience is established in the long-term oppression and the helplessness of the miserable life.
However, Mother Wang is an exception. Mother Wang has three marriages for the happiness of her and her daughter. This is a rather immoral behavior in the feudal society. She doesn’t believe in the fate and always argues with Chao San instead of keeping obedience to her husband like other women. She pursues individualism and show her feelings bravely. She looks down upon her husband when he quits the organization and submits to the landlord. After she learns about his son’s death, she tries to kill herself. Her attempt at suicide doesn’t mean she is too weak to shoulder the sorrow. She tries to kill herself because she is desperate about the injustice and meaninglessness of the pain she suffers. After she fails to commit suicide, she drinks all day and keeps away from the housework. She is a brave woman who dares to show her feelings and expresses herself, quite different from the feudal moral and concept of a good woman. Comparatively, when Golden Bough loses her daughter, she could only bury her hatred in her heart and blames her fate. Her rebellious spirit and bravery enable her to recognize her national identity and fight against the Japanese invasion. Her son’s death doesn’t scare her to keep obedience in order to survive. On the contrary, she encourages her daughter P’ing to join in Communist and take revenge. Also, after P’ing’s death, she accepts the reason that “revolutions should not be afraid of death. It is a glory death, much better live as the slave of Japanese” (Xiao 39). Though Mother Wang suffers all the oppressions as other traditional women, she takes a different attitude as a strong character on the field of life and death. In order to survive, women must be strong and rebellious. They should fight against the individual interest, then the gender interest, finally the national interest.
Xiao Hong shows her hope of traditional women on the character Mother Wang. In some degree, Mother Wang is partly the epitome of the author herself (Dooling 434). She breaks the feudal moral restrictions of women and pursues the individualism freely. She dare fight against the gender oppression and tries to be equal to her husband. Meanwhile, she is brave enough to challenge the Japanese invasion for her national recognition and try to revenge for her son. Finally, she accepts her daughter P’ing’s death and achieves the self-redemption. Her nationalist awareness has awakened when she realizes that nationalism is more important than the individual life. Through this character, Xiao Hong intends to show her position on nationalism that nationalism is more valuable than an individual’s life. It is better to die in a glorious way rather than live as the slave of foreign invaders (Friedman 35). Traditional women should take courage to fight against the feudal oppression, the gender oppression, and the foreign oppression. People’s nationalist awareness should be awakened to achieve the value of their lives. Even farmers in remote Northeast village should be enlightened and join in the battle against Japanese invaders to protect their homeland.
Conclusion
In Field of Life and Death, the author Xiao Hong discusses the feudal oppression and the nationalism in a remote Northeast village. By vivid descriptions of characters like Golden Bough, Chao San, and Mother Wang, the author reveals men and women’s different attitudes towards the national identity. Men, represented by Chao San, are easier to recognize their national identities and fight against Japanese invaders. They will abandon their weakness under the class oppression and protect their homeland due to the inherent gender responsibilities. However, women, like Golden Bough, are struggling with the national identity because even though they are aware of the weakness in people’s nationalist nature, they still have limited courage and abilities to put this awareness into practical actions due to their inferior social statuses and long-term sufferings under the oppression. Nevertheless, the character Mother Wang is an exception. She is full of rebellious spirits and fight against all kinds of oppressions bravely. The loss of her children finally enables her to achieve the nationalist awareness that it is more glorious to die in the fight to protect the nation than live as a slave of foreign invaders, which is also the author’s position on nationalism.