Zhang Ailing - “Sealed Off” & “Lust Caution”

Part I “Sealed Off” The story takes place in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of the city during World War II. A tramcar stops when an air raid alarm bell sounds. The city comes to a standstill and the people on the tramcar wait. Two passengers, Lu Zongzhen, an accountant with wife and children, and Wu Cuiyuan, an English instructor and single, strike up a semi-flirtatious and serious conversation.

1. How does the setting or rich description in Zhang’s writing reveal theme or plot? Give a clear example and use a quote.

2. Find one or two quotes from the story that reveal one of the following themes: a moment frozen in time, awkwardness in relationships, choices characters make, how people appear versus their inward state, war settings and how this affects human relationships, or alienation and isolation of humans in the 20th century.

3. Here time almost stands still Write a description or orally present a moment in your life when “time stood still.” Try to capture as many sensory details as possible and relate it to a quote in the story.

4. After Cuiyuan reflects on how she is a good daughter and a good student, she realizes “there are more good people than real people.” Comment in regards to Chinese society at the time and/or a theme in her work.

5. Identify where the word “real” is used and how the word gives us clues into Wu Cuiyuan’s emotional life?

6. As readers we are positioned almost as eavesdroppers. Discuss an experience on the subway or public place where you observed two or more people in a public place and write a description the dialogue or experience. What impressions are gathered from this captured moment? Tie it back to a moment or quote in the story?

7. The urban setting shapes the characters’ response to the Japanese occupation. Within this setting, are the war and the possibility for social mobility it creates portrayed in a positive or negative light? Why does the war allow these characters to think/feel/do things they might otherwise not be able to do? 8. How does Cuiyuan, the heroine in Sealed Off, feel trapped by her position as a progressive woman in Shanghai.

9. How does the story explore women’s roles and marriage in this society?

10. How is the story a critique of male attitudes?

11. How are the real and fantasy worlds of Zongzhen and Cuiyuan revealed in the story? What does this show us about their character?

12. How is this a “modern” story? What makes it modern?

13. What social expectations are revealed in this story?

14. How is the story playful or ironic? Give an example and use quotes

15. What is the significance of the title “Sealed-Off”? What are various levels of meaning for this title? The story has also been translated as “Blockade.” Does the translation make much of a difference for you? 16. How does Lu Zongzhen’s attitude towards Wu Cuiyuan’s physical appearance change? Why is this important?

17. How is boredom in every day life addressed here?

18. Find a passage that reveals how for each character the story’s revelation of their inner incomplete lives points to their need for a new world.

19. Which character, Cuiyuan or Zongzhen, is most realistically and sympathetically portrayed? With which character do you empathize the most? Why?

20. Comment on one of the following quotes – be sure to discuss how it relates to the story as a whole

• “They simply had to fill this terrifying emptiness – otherwise, their brains might start to work. Thinking is a painful business.” • “At close range anyone’s face is somewhat different, is tension-charged like a close-up on the movie screen.”

• “Men in love have always liked to talk; women in love on the other hand, don’t want to talk, because they know, without even knowing that they know, that once a man really understands a woman he’ll stop loving her.”

• “If a woman needs to turn to words to move a man’s heart, she is a sad case.”

Part II: Lust Caution

The novella, Lust, Caution, was written in 1950, yet it was not published until 1979. It tells the story of Wang Jiazhi, a young actress that takes up the role of mistress to a Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yi, during the occupation of Shanghai in order to kill him in a plotted assassination.

A. Why did she do it?

B. How does the novella explore the concept of female and/or male desire? – give examples

C. Discuss how the notion of love is revealed and complicated here.

D. Zhang/Chang’s work is often misunderstood as being too apolitical and not patriotic. Do you agree? Try to discuss this in terms of women’s issues.

E. Comment on the following quote from Ang Lee(he adapted the novella into a feature length film under the same title).

i. “To me, no writer has ever used the Chinese language as cruelly as Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang), and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as “Lust, Caution.” She revised the story for years and years--- for decades---returning to it as a criminal might return to the scene of a crime, or as a victim might reenact a trauma, reaching for pleasure only by varying and reimagining the pain. Making our film, we didn’t really “adapt” Zhang’s work, we simply kept returning to her theater of cruelty and love until we had enough to make a movie of it.” Ang Lee from Recreating Old Shanghai”--- Eileen Chang, Ang Lee Lust, Caution F. Chang’s work is filled with sensuous description of the sights, sounds, and smells of the city- give an example

G. Tie in Chang’s own quote on Shanghai to your response:

i. “Shanghai people are distilled from traditional Chinese people under the pressure of modern life; they are the product of a deformed mix of old and new culture. The result may not be healthy, but in it there is also a curious wisdom.” Zhang Ailing, “Daodi shi Shanghai ren” [I am after all a Shanghai person], in Liuyan

ii. [Gossip], Taipei: Huangguan, 1984, p.56. H. Following are some excerpts from C.T. Hsia’s book A History of Modern Chinese Fiction From Chapter 15 on Chang/Zhang – comment on one or two.

• [Chang] “combines ‘gusto for life’ plus ‘tragic awareness’ of the human condition.” 393

[she captures] “unflinching psychological realism.” 407 • “Her stories of modern as well as traditional Chinese life are civilized, profound, and often relentlessly tragic.” 500-501 • “In many of Eileen Chang’s short stories we find a probing of passion that goes underneath the cloak of custom and habit.” 503

• [Chang is] one of four modern Chinese writers who have created worlds stamped with distinctive personality and moral passion.” 506

I. How does the setting or rich description in Zhang’s writing reveal theme or plot? Give a clear example and use a quote.

J. Use at least 2 quotes from the story and discuss how the theme is revealed through the passages

K. Discuss Chang’s representation of how an internal conflict is revealed in Lust Caution

L. What point of view does the author use? How does this affect the story?

M. Chang met her first husband Hu Lancheng in 1943 and married him in 1944 in a secret ceremony because he was still married to his third wife. Chang loved him even though he was accused as a traitor for collaborating with the Japanese. After the marriage, Hu Lancheng went to Wuhan to work there he was involved with 17-year-old nurse, who moved in with him. When Japan was defeated in 1945, Hu used went into hiding, used a fake name and hid in Wenzhou, where he fell in love with yet another country girl. When Chang found him, she realized she could not salvage the marriage. They finally divorced in 1947. Does this information inform your interpretation of Lust Caution?