Kilian 1 Patrick Kilian Professor Wu CHIN 130: Classical Poetry and Drama 15 April 2009 Musings on Farewell My Concubine

The history-spanning tale of Farewell My Concubine concerns itself with a great deal of subjects, but two of them loom larger in its frames of film than the rest: Chen Kaiges (the director) views on homosexuality and his criticisms of the Red Guard and their perverse psychological effect on China during the Cultural Revolution. On homosexuality, the film uses its characterization of Douzi, later Cheng Dieyi, to suggest that people come into the world as heterosexuals and somehow learn other sexualities. On the Red Guard, Kaige argues that the rampant selfish misuse of power by Mao Zedongs supporters, such as Xiao Si, the child raised by Dieyi, left scars upon the Chinese psyche deeper than any wounds caused by ordinary physical hardship. Furthermore, the melodramas of Farewell My Concubine relate many facets of Peking Opera to an ignorant audience. Especially interesting are the intense scenes of violence throughout the movie which display the trials that young aspirants to the stage must endure to be opera stars in China. In essence, the film concerns the subject of rape, and the ways in which both people and cultural institutions can undergo rape at the hands of a country and its struggles. There has long existed a nature versus nurture debate surrounding homosexuality, with no definitive answer forthcoming. Yet the case of Xiao Douzi indicates that nurture proves the more powerful of the two forces. The opening thirty minutes of the film give two profound examples in this area. Firstly, Douzi cannot remember his lines in the song, repeatedly singing I am a boy, not a girl until Shitou, his fellow student, punishes him, forcing him to relinquish his masculinity for a chance at success on stage. The manner of this punishment further adds to Douzis rape; Shitou forces a pipe into Douzis throat and bastes him with the phallic object until blood flows freely. It is only after this emotional and physical misuse that Douzi learns to sing I am a girl, not a boy, foregoing his initial sexual inclination. Secondly, the real rape Douzi endures at the hands of the opera aficionado to further the troupes prospects leaves him confused and hurt on all levels of being and exposes him very early on to homosexual relations. This early exposure likely sets Douzi firmly on the path that he follows throughout his life by confirming the gender confusion he was already experiencing at the hands of his female opera role. The character of Xiao Si, the orphan child become Red Guard, elicits the strongest moral condemnation in a film full of dubious characters and moral gray area. His treatment of his adoptive parents, without exception, is atrocious, seeking to usurp their successes and tear down their psyches. His actions speak to the tremendous power of the uncontrolled youth in the Cultural Revolution and legitimize the maxim that power corrupts. Despite all the various tortures brought to bear on the two protagonists over their storied lives; the beatings at the hands of their troupe master that left them half

Kilian 2 dead, the fear and uncertainty of the Japanese invasion and occupation of their home country, Dieyis addiction to opium and arduous recovery, or the hurt that only close friends can inflict upon the other hearts, Dieyi and Xiaolou continue to stoically live on and meet the next phase of life with dignity. This betrayal and manipulation by Xiao Si and the Red Guards exploitation of popular opinion however, proves to be too much, causing Xiaolou to publicly denounce his lifelong best friend and even his wife. This in turn leads to the respective suicides of Dieyi and Juxian; the King of Chu has fallen, what reason do his concubines have to carry on living? Director Chen Kaige, in presenting this account, uses the account of his characters to sum up the effects of the fifty-odd years of Chinas history that makes up the chronology of the film. Dieyi and Xiaolou, he says, are not the only victims of this rape by the Red Guard by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, his treatment of the subject led to the features banning in mainland China, which has since been revoked (http://www.reelviews.net/movies/f/farewell_conc.html). Duan Xiaolou here serves as a Chinese everyman, depicting the strong, boisterous, and proud nature of China and its people while highlighting a critical weakness perceived by Kaige: that the populace, and not the individual, ultimately holds sway even within the individuals private life. Xiaolous denial of those most dear to him proves that public opinion, if taken to a large enough extreme, can drive China to the misuse of its people and political power. Dieyi here acts as a foil to Xiaolou, in that he refuses to concede to the opinions of the masses, whether concerning operatic style or his own life. In the end though, he takes his own life because he cannot bear the hurt brought about by Xiaolou succumbing to the crowd. In this way, even the pioneer of individualism is born down by the feelings of his peers, in effect, gang-raped by popular demand. The final effect of punishment and harsh treatment in Farewell My Concubine is that of producing such fine performers in the first place. This rigid and unflinchingly brutal training shows the viewer exactly why Chinese acrobats have no equal and how involved and dedicated they must be to their craft. Their master reprimands and beats Douzi and Shitou even well after they have established themselves as famous and successful stage actors, and to one who has not grown up in such an environment, this seems like nothing else but a system of dominance and control, forcing respect and obedience out of the two main characters regardless of whether or not they merit the beatings. The question to the viewer is how can he or she expect the lives of Douzi and Shitou to turn out normally with such upbringings, and the answer, at least according to Chen Kaige, is that they invariably do not live out peaceful, ordinary lives, but lives full of melodrama and ugly deaths. A Biblical maxim says, What does it profit if you gain the world but lose your soul?, and the peerless performances of these two actors truly do gain them nothing but hardship in the end.