''Raise the Red Lantern''
(), originally known as ''Wives and Concubines'' (), is a 1990
novella by
Su Tong
Tong Zhonggui (; born January 23, 1963), known by the pen name of Su Tong () is a Chinese writer. He was born in Suzhou and lives in Nanjing.
He entered the Department of Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 1980, and started to publish nove ...
, published by (遠流出版公司),
that describes a female former university student whose mind is broken by the concubine system in
1930s China. It was adapted into the 1991 film, ''
Raise the Red Lantern
''Raise the Red Lantern'' is a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaptation by of the 1990 novella '' Raise the Red Lantern'' (originally ''Wives and Concubines'') by Su Tong. The film was later adapted into an ...
'', by
Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou (; born 2 April 1950) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor and former cinematographer.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retriev ...
.
Gary Krist of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote that the novel is "a subtle, profoundly feminist tale that nonetheless has all the gamy melodrama of pulp entertainment".
Title and translations
The first edition of the novella, published in Taiwan,
[ had the name ''Wives and Concubines''. However the name used in the second edition in Taiwan and in the Hong Kong edition became ''Raise the Red Lantern''.][ - The translator's note was written by the translator himself.] Krist wrote that the use of ''Raise the Red Lantern'' by other editions was "presumably to ride on the movie's popularity".[
The novel was translated into English by Michael S. Duke, and this translation was published as a collection of stories by Su Tong, named ''Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas'', published by ]William Morrow & Company
William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981, and sold to News Corporation (now News Corp) in 1999. The ...
in 1993.[ Duke used Hanyu Pinyin in his translation. He stated that he chose to romanize the names of male characters as such characters did not have important themes in their names. He chose to translate names of female characters as their names were "thematically important references to nature and the cycles of nature" as well as having the function to "delineate" said characters.][ Duke used frequent semicolons to try to keep Su Tong's practice of, in Duke's words, "very long multiple sentences marked with commas only", something uncommon in current Chinese literature.][ The other two included works in the compilation are ''Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes'' (), and ''Opium Family'' ().][
The French version, under the title ''Épouses et concubines'', was translated by Annie Au Yeung and Françoise Lemoine, and published by ]Groupe Flammarion
Groupe Flammarion () is a French publishing group, comprising many units, including its namesake, founded in 1876 by Ernest Flammarion, as well as units in distribution, sales, printing and bookshops (La Hune and Flammarion Center). Flammarion b ...
in 1992. The film had not yet been released in Europe when the French version was released. Later editions in French are a part of the imprint Le Livre de Poche
Le Livre de Poche (literally "The Pocket Book") is the name of a collection of publications which first appeared on 9 February 1953 under the leadership of and published by the , a subsidiary of Hachette. In terms of its influence on the mainstr ...
of the publisher Hachette Hachette may refer to:
* Hachette (surname)
* Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing
** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary
** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm
See also
* Hachett ...
. The novella was published in German as ''Rote Lanterne'' ("Red Lantern"), by Goldmann Goldmann is the surname of several people:
* Erich Goldmann, German ice hockey player
* Friedrich Goldmann (1941–2009), German composer and conductor
* Hans Goldmann (1899–1991), Swiss ophthalmologist
* Lucien Goldmann, French philosopher and so ...
, in 1992. The German translation was done from the French version, with assistance from Sinologists, instead of directly from the Chinese version. Ulrike Kloepfner, the editor, stated that there was not enough time to obtain the manuscrupt of the Chinese version as the publishers wished to release it when the film was released.[
The Dutch translation, ''De rode lantaarn'', published by , was released in 1994. The Italian translation, ''Mogli e concubine'', was first published in 1992 by . Later Italian versions were published by . The Japanese version, using the ''Wives and Concubines'' title (妻妾成群), was translated by Takumasa Senno (千野拓政 ''Senno Takumasa''); this was included in Volume 1, Issue 20 of ''Quarterly Modern Novels of China'' (季刊中国現代小説), January 1992, published by Sososha (蒼蒼社). The Russian translation, ''Жены и наложницы'', was done by Natalya Vladimirovna Zakharova (Наталья Владимировна Захарова), published in 2007 by the ]Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...
. The Swedish version, titled ''Den röda lyktan: två berättelser från Kina'', was translated by Anna Gustafsson Chen
Anna Gustafsson Chen (; born 18 January 1965) is a Swedish literary translator and sinologist. She is notable for translating the work of Mo Yan (the 2012 Nobel Prize in literature winner) into Swedish. Her translations are directly tied to Mo Yan ...
and published in 1993 by .
Plot
Lotus is attending university when her father's tea business goes bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
. She chooses to become a concubine of Chen Zuoqian in the rich Chen household in order to avoid having to work. From the beginning, she does not fit into the household with its three other wives. Initially, the first mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
Joy ignores her, the second mistress Cloud befriends her, and the third mistress Coral acts with outright hostility. Coral goes so far as to interrupt Lotus's wedding night with the lie that she has taken ill.
Chen's elder son Feipu, who is older than Lotus, comes home. He favors Lotus's company and she begins to fall for him, especially because he plays the flute so well and movingly. Meanwhile, one evening when they are playing mahjong, Lotus notices that Coral is flirting with a doctor.
Swallow, Lotus's personal servant, resents Lotus's status as concubine and neglects her duties whenever possible. One day, Lotus accuses Swallow of stealing her flute (a family heirloom) and searches Swallow's trunk. Instead of finding the flute, she finds a doll with pins stuck in its chest. The doll has "Lotus" written on it, and Lotus demands to know who wrote the word for the illiterate Swallow. It is revealed that Cloud was the one who helped her.
That night, Chen Zuoqian admits that he was the one who stole and burned her flute because he was afraid it was a lover's token. Instead of forgiving him, she bursts into tears and he leaves her. Cloud asks Lotus to cut her hair the next morning, and Lotus cuts her ear. Coral is impressed by Lotus' action and warms further to her. Coral reveals that Cloud attempted to poison her and cause a miscarriage when they were both pregnant. Coral nevertheless gives birth to a son, Feilan.
Feipu arrives with his flute teacher and friend, Young Master Gu, as well as a replacement flute for Lotus. Joy interrupts the flute lesson, however, and Young Master Gu leaves because the mood is destroyed by Feipu's absence. Afterwards, Feipu tells Lotus she is different from other women, who frighten him, and leaves on a business trip.
Chen Zuoqian finally decides to see Lotus. He forgives Lotus for her behavior at his birthday party, but Lotus is unwilling to have sex as she cannot stop thinking about Feipu. Chen eventually leaves her in disgust when she is unable to stop weeping. As a result of Lotus' attitude and the manipulations of Cloud, Lotus loses favor with Chen even more. Later, Cloud claims that Coral hired a boy to beat up her daughter Yirong. Only Lotus and Coral know the truth behind the second mistress' façade, and they slowly become closer friends.
Lotus finds a drawing of her on a piece of soiled toilet paper and confronts Swallow with it. Swallow is afraid at being caught and does not want to be sent away. In a fit of anger, Lotus tells her to eat the toilet paper or be forced out of the Chen household. Swallow catches typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...
and Chen is infuriated with Lotus.
Lotus realizes that her twentieth birthday has gone by and determines to celebrate. When the new servant returns with wine, she announces Swallow has died. Lotus is regretful but says that "dying is better than living". Feipu arrives and a tipsy Lotus reveals how she feels about him. Feipu confesses that he likes her but he is too afraid of women to do anything. After he leaves in shame, Lotus gets very drunk and has a hallucination in which Swallow kills her.
The next morning, Lotus wakes up to see Coral leaving for town. When she comes back, she is escorted by several male servants; Cloud has caught her and the doctor in bed. Coral is locked in her room. That night, Lotus sits up expecting Swallow to return. Instead, she watches the household servants taking Coral from her room and throwing her into the haunted well. Witnessing the murder drives Lotus to insanity.
The novella itself does not have the lanterns nor other visual elements of the film adaptation.[
]
Characters
* Lotus (), the fourth mistress
* Coral (), the third mistress
* Cloud (), the second mistress
* Swallow (), Songlian's young servant
* Chen Feipu (), the master's eldest son - Feipu and Lotus fall in love at first sight. Lu Tonglin, author of '' Misogyny, Cultural Nihilism & Oppositional Politics: Contemporary Chinese Experimental Fiction'', stated that this "perhaps" was due to the fact that within the Chen household Songlian and Feipu were the only two educated people.[Lu, Tonglin]
151
**Lotus tries to attract Feipu, but Feipu is afraid of women, so he is uninterested in the affair. He has a homosexual relationship with young Master Gu. Feipu does so not because he prefers men, but out of his fear of women.[Lu, Tonglin]
152
Lu Tonglin said that in the Su Tong
Tong Zhonggui (; born January 23, 1963), known by the pen name of Su Tong () is a Chinese writer. He was born in Suzhou and lives in Nanjing.
He entered the Department of Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 1980, and started to publish nove ...
universe, substitutes are not effective replacements for the originals, and so Feipu's homosexual relationship is not an effective replacement for the heterosexuality he is unable to attain. Lu also said "we have to bear in mind that Su Tong was one of the first contemporary writers in mainland China to explore the subject of homosexuality" and because homosexuality was previously a capital crime in the Mainland, the author's "attempt to explore the topic of homosexuality, however naive and homophobic the experiment may appear (since it is centered on heterosexuality), can be perceived as subversive."
*Joy (), the first wife
*Chen Zuoqian (), the master of the household
**Lu says that Chen Zuoqian "is an accomplished womanizer" similar to Liu Laoxia from '' The Family of the Opium Poppy''.
Adaptations
*''Raise the Red Lantern
''Raise the Red Lantern'' is a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaptation by of the 1990 novella '' Raise the Red Lantern'' (originally ''Wives and Concubines'') by Su Tong. The film was later adapted into an ...
'' (大紅燈籠高高掛), a 1991 Chinese film adaptation directed by Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou (; born 2 April 1950) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor and former cinematographer.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retriev ...
, starring Gong Li
Gong Li ( Chinese: 巩俐; born 31 December 1965) is a Chinese actress. She starred in three of the four Chinese-language films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Gong was born in Shenyang, Liaonin ...
as Songlian ("Lotus")
*''Raise the Red Lantern'' (大紅燈籠高高掛), a 1992 Taiwanese TV adaptation directed by Pu Teng-chin, starring Idy Chan as Songlian
*' (花燈滿城), a 2014 Chinese TV adaptation directed by Stanley Tong
Stanley Tong () is a Hong Kong film director, producer, stunt choreographer, screenwriter, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Early life
Stanley Tong was born on April 7, 1960 in Hong Kong, and he completed his education in Hong Kong and Canada.
Fi ...
, starring as Songlian
The novel was also adapted by the Thai writer Taitao Sucharitkul as "" (มงกุฎดอกส้ม), which means "the crown with orange flowers".
Reception
Krist stated that the novel itself is "remarkable", and that the English translation is "conscientious but often inelegant".[ Kirkus Reviews wrote that the English translation has "distinctive prose searingly describes men and women brutally shaped by their time and place". ]Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
, which states that the "prose is sometimes dense with long, twisted sentences", concluded that the work "leaves the reader chilled".
Paul Bady of University of Paris 7
Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (french: Université Paris Diderot), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 197 ...
wrote that the French translation had in "touches brèves la force et la simplicité de l'original" ("in brief touches the force and simplicity of the original").[
Friederike Freier of '' Die Tageszeitung'' criticized the German version for using a title other than that of the Chinese original and for being "holprig bis zur Schmerzgrenze".][
]
References
* Lu, Tonglin. '' Misogyny, Cultural Nihilism & Oppositional Politics: Contemporary Chinese Experimental Fiction''. Stanford University Press, 1995. , . Pages 134-140, 151-154.
Notes
Further reading
* "Chapter 2: Su Tong and Zhang Yimou: Women's Places in ''Raise the Red Lantern''": Deppman, Hsiu-chuang. '' Adapted for the Screen: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Fiction and Film''. University of Hawaii Press
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, June 30, 2010. , 9780824833732. p. 32.
External links
*
Raise the Red Lantern
' - HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
Discussion questions
An excerpt of the book
Archive
- University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
*
Wives and Concubines
' - Yuan-Liou Publishing
1990 Chinese novels
Chinese novellas
Fiction set in the 1930s
Novels set in China
Chinese novels adapted into films
Chinese novels adapted into television series
HarperCollins books
Novels by Su Tong
{{Su Tong