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Logan Anderson
Professor Rehwaldt
Professor Wood
Orange Humanities
September 30, 2016
The Differences of Family Structures
Wild Swan surrounds the tale of the history of a grandmother,
mother, and daughter. It tells about the history of the family growing
up from generation to generation. As the natural narrator of the book
as a whole, she focuses on the life and times of her grandmother, her
marriages, her daughter, and the families they come across. Each
family is held to a different standard of living, yet they were each just
as equally impactful. They came from different cultural backgrounds
and grew up during this difficult time of civil wars.
The Yangs were from a Han Chinese culture. In China, sons were
of the utmost importance. The people strived to have sons to carry on
the family. If they didnt have a son it would amount to the greatest
possible betrayal of ones ancestors (Page 22). In the Yangs family, her
great grandfather was the only son and that made him of supreme
importance. They wanted him to become an official, because becoming
an official meant more power, and more power brought in more money.
Not only would it provide for the family, it would also keep them safe.
There was no proper legal system and violence was big during this

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time; people wanted to do whatever they had to do to protect
themselves and their families. He followed the tradition and got
married at a young age to a woman that was six years older than him.
The couple never met before the marriageit was arranged by their
caretakers. Falling in love was something that didnt happen among
this culture. They were always arranged marriages because falling in
love was considered taboo. They couldif they were luckyfall in
love after getting married. He was only fourteen years old at the time
he got married and he was scared he didnt want to go into the
wedding chamber.
A year after they were married they brought into this world a
beautiful baby girl named Yu-fang. She was brought into a world full of
suffering and devastating defeats. Wars between China and Japan were
brutal and full of deaths. Right away when the daughter grew of age to
marry he wanted send her off. She was a prized possession with her
beauty. Most importantly the parents followed the tradition of binding
feet, making her even more desirable. She had her feet bound at the
age of two and the process of it all lasts years. These women go
through excruciating pain and in the long run they could not walk far.
Bound feet in Chinese tradition were supposed to have an erotic effect
on men of this culture. The Yangs did everything to secure their
daughter future happiness and to make sure she would be well off.

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After his daughter left and was married off as a concubine to a
great warlord, the Yangs familys perspective changed. The father
(great-grandfather) had abandoned any pretense of being a family
man anymore. Since he married his daughter off to a well-known
warlord, his status in the world raised up too. He was now a deputy
chief of the Yixian police and had become filthy rich. He picked up bad
habits, such as smoking opium and took on having a concubine. Soon
after he picked up more concubines, a man in his position wanted to
have as many as possible to show his status. He took favor to his
concubines and the great-grandmother was at their mercy. She finally
gave birth to a son to secure her place but that did not help much. The
great grandfather still paid her no attention and his daughter was bad
luck since she returned home. The household was not the same as it
used to be.
General Xue was a great warlord. He also followed the
Manchurian culture and was an owner of many concubines. When it
came to the grandmother, he was kind, understanding and giving. He
showered her with gifts and threw her an elaborate wedding where she
was carried throughout the town. She was treated better than most
concubines would have been treated and he even gave her a home
away from his other concubine women to let her stay close to her own
family. He in a sense favored her and really did care for her at first, but
as wars grew deeper he spent more time away from her. The

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grandmother ended up having a beautiful baby girl with him, but he
was away for so long he never got a chance to see her. When General
Xue fell ill he begged the grandmother to come to his home with his
wife and other concubines to see his daughter. She made the trip to go
see him and when she got there the wife took over and immediately.
She took away her daughter and restricted her all her rights. She
couldnt see the husband unless the wife was in the room and she
couldnt speak to him. She had little rights to speak or go anywhere.
She knew she had to escape from there to save her and her daughters
life. She snuck out one night and escaped with her daughter and
returned home in hiding. She eventually received a letter from the wife
saying that she is free and for her parents to take her back.
After General Xues death she met Dr. Xia. Once she returned
home, her father constantly badgered her to get remarried, but since
she had been a concubine before the men that offered were poor ones.
Mr. Yang did not want her in the house anymore but she had nowhere
to live. As a female could not get a job. She broke under the pressure
and had a nervous breakdown. They called in a doctor, who happened
to be Dr. Xia. When the doctor first met her he was so struck by her
beauty he had to leave the room to recollect his composure. The
grandmother, although not supposed to talk to a man that is not her
husband, opened up to Dr. Xia. He was gentle and warm to her and she
felt understood by him.

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Before long, the two fell in love and Dr. Xia had proposed to her.
He did this not just as a concubine but to be his proper wife. He wanted
to raise her daughter as his own. Since he was a decently wealthy, well
known doctor, her father approved right away. The only difference they
had was that Dr. Xia was a Manchu, not a Han Chinese like them, but
he was such a kind man and many times treated poor people for no
cost. He was a big family man in taking care of his family. He was sixtyfive, a widower, and had three grown up sons and one daughter,
compared to the grandmother in her mid-twenties, a widower, with one
daughter. All of Dr. Xia's children were married and his three sons lived
with him. Between the three sons they had eight children, in which one
was married as well with a son. When he told his family of his plans
they were not fond of this plan and looked at him in disbelief. They
wanted their father to take her on as a concubine but he disagreed
because he wanted her as a proper wife, as a stepmother.
In the Manchu culture the younger generation has to pay their
respects to the elders every morning and evening. This means that the
men have to kneel or kowtow and the women have to curtsy. The sons
did not want to have to show obedience to someone of an inferior
status who was a concubine and to someone that was much younger
then themselves. The whole family got together and were in outrage.
Every single family memberfrom daughters-in-law all the way to
great grandchildrenbegged and pleaded with him not to marry her,

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for a man of his status should not marry a past concubine and a
woman of the Han Chinese. The family fought against him hard and did
not ease up, but Dr. Xia was set with his decision and was happy. He
wanted to make the grandmother happy as well. His children did not
stop and when Dr. Xia had enough of the back talk from his children.
He struck the oldest one that spoke out the most. He struck him so
hard he broke his walking stick. When his son gained his composer of
being hit he pulled out a pistol. He looked his father in the eyes and
said, A loyal subject uses his death to remonstrate with the emperor. A
filial son should do the same with his father. All I have to remonstrate
with you is my death! (Page 49) He shot himself in the abdomen and
was rushed to the hospital, where he died the next day.
Dr. Xias sons death had devastated him and although he felt
responsible for his death, he continued getting married. They had a
traditional Manchus wedding. When the grandmother moved in to Dr.
Xias house she tried her hardest to treat his family with respect and a
smile, and to adjust to the Manchu culture. The family caused her hell
when she was there. They attacked her daughter and the grandmother
did her best to hide everything in respect of Dr. Xia. It took until his
family almost killed the daughter for him to leave and want Break up
the family. He wanted them to be happy even if they had to start over;
they made it work and in the end they were happy together.

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All of these family structures differ in so many ways. There are
the Yangs that started out very family oriented like the Xia, but ended
up falling apart because Mr. Yang let the power get to his head.
General Xue wasnt very family oriented, he just followed the tradition
of having concubines and a wife but he never treated the grandmother
in any negative way. He just went along with balancing his women
while wars were going on. Dr. Xia had the best family structure.
Although his family was against his marriage decision and he had to
lose a son because of it, Dr. Xia was always a kind man to everyone
and anyone no matter the circumstances. Once he moved away from
his children life was a little bit better for him and he was still a strong
family man. With each of these families coming from a different culture
background, I believe that has a major effect on how each family is
structured. From growing up rich to poor, gaining power, and the wars
that were going on, it wasnt the easiest time to raise a family. Mr. Yang
was the only son that a family of their culture would put their all into
for the best life. He gained his power by having his daughter take to a
powerful man. Xue was a famous general who didnt live for very long
and had no sons to pass on his name. He was busier with being a
general than spending time with his family. Xia was a well-known
doctor with many children mostly sons and cared for everyone. He was
humble about himself even when he had to start over being dirt poor,

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but wanted his family happy. Dr. Xia did things out of love where as Mr.
Yang and General Xue did things for the power.