Summary
Chueh-hui and Chueh-min return home from the Chang compound. The entire Gao family and the servants celebrate the New Year with dice games and mahjong. Chueh-hui suddenly feels lonely and separated from the group, and he decides to take a walk. When he pauses to sit in front of his Sister Shu-hua’s room, Chueh-hui overhears Ming-feng and the bondmaid Wan-erh discussing a rumor that one of them will become a concubine for Feng, a friend of the Venerable Master Kao. Ming-feng believes that Wan-erh will be chosen and tries to reassure Wan-erh that the life of a concubine is not a bad one. Wan-erh accuses Ming-feng of being in love because she has been acting strangely recently. Ming-feng admits that she is in love but refuses to say with whom.
After Wan-erh leaves to serve a member of the Kao family, complaining that she cannot even rest on New Year’s, Chueh-hui pokes a hole in the paper window and watches Ming-feng. Ming-feng appears anxious and forlorn, wondering aloud what the future will hold for her. Chueh-hui makes his presence known and speaks with Mingfeng through the window. Ming-feng vows she will never go with another man and would rather die than be married off.
The New Year dawns, and the activity on the family compound dies down. The Kao family says prayers to the gods, the men make social calls, and the women go outside the compound without closed sedan chairs for the only time during the entire year. The family then sleeps through the day.
For several days, the Kao family and their guests, including Chin and her classmate Hsu Chien-ju, enjoy the holiday, playing games, preparing food, and telling stories at the “Frangrance at Eventide” building. One evening, the youngsters invite the older generation to watch a fireworks display. They set off fireworks from a boat on a lake, then play music; first is Shu-ying on the bamboo flute and Chueh-hsin on the hu chin. Then the group sings; they join in a chorus of laughter, and they float colored lanterns on the water. The display is excellent, if unusual, and briefly brightens the lives of the older generation. Uncle Ke-ting invites the group to see a dragon dance the next day.
On the ninth day of the lunar year, members of the gentry assemble in the Kao family compound to watch the dragon dance organized by Uncle Ke-ting. The performers arrive, and the gates are promptly shut behind them to keep out any uninvited spectators. The dance initially goes well; a young boy carries a ball of streamers ahead of the dragon dancers, who mime chasing the ball. Then, Uncle Ke-ting brings out “fire tubes,” hollow tubes of bamboo filled with gunpowder and copper coins. The tubes explode, sending sparks onto the bare-torsoed dancers, forcing them to shake to keep the copper from sticking to their skin. The servants and gentry laugh at the dancers’ distress, and Uncle Ke-ting comes with more and more fire tubes. The dancers try to escape, but the exits are blocked on all sides. The boy holding the ball of streamers is injured, and his streamers are set aflame.
Once Uncle Ke-ting has run out of fire tubes, the dancers leave the compound, angry, injured, and their intricate costumes ruined. Uncle Ke-ting invites the group back for another dance the next day. Chueh-hui, angered by his Uncle’s cruelty, says that he has seen enough. Chin and Chueh-min do not understand Chueh-hui’s anger because the gentry had fun and the dancers were paid, so the interaction seems just. Chueh-hui argues that people should not have to be exploited or injured for others’ amusement and accuses Chin of seeing the world with her eyes “half-closed.” Chin thinks about the issue but does not reply to Chueh-hui.
Chueh-hsin, Chueh-min, Chueh-hui, Chin, Mingfeng, Shu-hua, Shu-ying, and Shu-chen decide to spend the Lantern Festival, which is the final night of Chin's visit, rowing on the lake. Guided by the light of an exceptionally full moon, the group walks through a bamboo grove to the lake. Shu-hua is scared of the ghosts in the garden about which her mother has warned her. Chin comforts the girl while others mock her.
Chueh-hui throws a stone into the water, disrupting its serene calm. The peaceful surroundings irritate Chueh-hui, who feels himself apart from his relatives. On the boat, Chueh-hui again disrupts the stillness by bellowing into the silent night.
Abruptly, Chueh-hsin moors the boat and goes ashore. In his absence, the others begin to discuss him and Mei. Chueh-hsin returns and, having overheard the conversation, is melancholy. This triggers a conversation about how the group will inevitably break up as the girls marry off. Shu-chen proclaims she will never marry, despite having had her feet bound. She thinks back on the tortuous process of having her feet broken and twisted, being beaten by her mother throughout the process, and enduring the ridicule of her siblings when they saw the odd look of her bound feet. Realizing her pain is for nothing if she doesn't marry, which she does not want to do, Shu-chen weeps. The others do not understand her pain and try to console her, until they eventually grow fed up with her weeping.
The boat travels under a bridge and enters into a perfectly still expanse of the lake, which Chueh-min describes as being "like satin." Chin remarks that, though the lake is lovely, it lacks the warmth and fragrance of an autumn night. Chueh-hsin rebuffs her, saying she is too hard to please, and the winter night has its own qualities to be admired.
The sound of a distant gong calls the group back. As they row to shore, Chin asks the female cousins if they have successfully convinced their mothers to support female education. The girls say they will be taught by the same private tutor who teaches their brothers. Chueh-hui observes that it is not such a big deal for the girls to be educated by this tutor because it costs no additional fee. They will only be educated in the classics, and, as most daughters are now somewhat literate, it would actually save Yeh-yeh face to have the girls educated.
The group sails past the "Fragrance at Eventide" building on more tumultuous waters. Electric lights now light the night, and the moon is dimmed by mist. Chin asks the group if they want to go back, and Chueh-hui answers that sweet dumplings are waiting for them at home. As they enter the garden, Chueh-ying and Chueh-chun inform the group that it was just reported in the National Daily that the governor ordered a punitive campaign against General Chang.
Analysis
The Kao family celebrates the New Year with mahjong and dice games. Games symbolize willful forgetting throughout the narrative. Chueh-hui sees the games and feels immediately separated from the group. Chueh-hui, unwilling to forget past wrongs or accept injustices, sees himself as distinct from his family due to his values and beliefs.
When Chueh-hui sits in front of Shu-hua's room to eavesdrop on Ming-feng, he hears Ming-feng nonchalantly reassure Wan-erh that the life of a concubine is a good one. This is ironic because earlier Ming-feng told Chueh-hui she would rather die than leave him.
On the New Year, the Kao women go outside for their annual "trip abroad," when they walk in the streets outside the compound without being veiled by sedan chairs. Except for Chueh-hui, the gentry travel in covered sedan chairs when they leave the compound. By veiling themselves from view, the gentry creates a microcosm of the family compound to shelter themselves from the outside world. Without the symbolic protection the sedan chair provides, the women rush back into the compound, scared by their freedom. The women's freedom is so limited within the compound that even a brief glimpse of the outside world is terrifying; they mistake opportunity for danger.
The young gentry then stage a display on the lake, whose still waters represent the status quo. They invite the older generation to watch. The youngsters set off fireworks, disrupting the stillness like their new ideas disrupt antiquated Confucian "harmony." They play music, demonstrating their talents, artistry, and culture. This performance represents how art and culture, such as works of vernacular fiction and songs, were essential tools for transmitting revolutionary ideas during the New Culture Movement. They also sing, laugh, and float colored lanterns on the water. The display is unusual; the older generation does not understand it, but they are delighted by the performance. This disconnect shows the unbridgeable divide between the New Culture generation and their predecessors; within the narrative, the new generation makes beautiful, if hard to understand things, that the older generation can either enjoy or reject.
The youngsters' performance also shows that cultural performance and art unite the Kao family despite generational and ideological differences. This principle affirms that Chinese cultural traditions and the Confucian order are distinct within the narrative, which recalls the New Culture principle that China is a nation and not a distinctly Confucian culture.
The performance, an authentic expression of the younger generation's feelings and view of the world, is immediately contrasted with Uncle Ke-ting's organized dragon dance. Ke-ting tries to repay the youngsters' performance with a spectacle, but Ke-ting's performance causes pain and anger. Ke-ting's dragon dance represents how the Confucian system's good gifts, such as order, wealth, and security, harm the gentry and the working class.
The Kao family trapping the dragon dancers shows that outsiders are permitted entry into the Kao world so long as they are of service or entertainment to the gentry. Uncle Ke-ting's use of fire tubes shows that the sacrifice of health, happiness, and bodies is not only required for the Kao family in practices such as footbinding but reveled in and enjoyed. Spectacle and the pain of others entertain Ke-ting, whereas truth and beauty inspire the younger generation's performance.
Though they are injured, in pain, and furious, the dragon dancers are shut into the compound and physically barred from escaping Ke-ting's fire tubes. The closed compound symbolizes the inescapability of the patriarchal system.
Chueh-hui is the only one righteously indignant over the performance, saying that the gentry should not exploit people for their own entertainment. Chin and Chueh-min do not see the performance this way; Chin argues that everyone got what they were promised, as the gentry had fun and the dancers were paid. Chueh-hui believes they should have been promised different things. This observation recalls Chueh-hsin's criticism of the patriarchal family. Chueh-hsin received everything due to his station under the patriarchal system; a beautiful wife, a job, and authority, but these things damaged him beyond repair.
Chueh-hui says Chin's eyes are half-closed, a metaphor for her surface-level understanding of oppression. Chin responds differently to Chueh-hui in the face of criticism; where Chueh-hui becomes angry and defensive when others criticize him, Chin ponders the issue, observes more, and then forms her judgment.
The younger generation ventures out onto the lake without supervision. This trip represents how the younger generation forges their own path and fosters harmony without the help of the Confucian order.
An exceptionally full moon illuminates their path. Imagery of the moon is used throughout the text as a motif that illuminates truth and beauty. Close to the compound, where social pressures remain, the moon is clouded over or dimmed by artificial lights. When the group is far away from the compound on the lake, the moon is full, representing a reprieve from family pressures.
Chueh-min comments on Chueh-hui looking for buried treasure; Chueh-hui rebuffs him, saying that Chueh-min is always looking for buried treasure. Chueh-min's "treasure" is Chin, as Chueh-min prioritizes his love and romance. Chueh-hui's "treasure" is his freedom; he looks for it in the student movements and his love for Ming-feng, which allows him to traverse class lines. The treasure is "buried" because both brothers have to sift through family and society expectations to find and obtain it
The peaceful surroundings irritate Chueh-hui, who is not content unless the status quo is being stirred up or injustices plucked out. Chueh-hui throws a stone into the water, disrupting its serene calm. Again, stone-throwing is symbolic, and the stone represents Chueh-hui's actions, which disrupt the peace that the still water symbolizes. Before, when Chueh-hui's stones did not reach the water, he had not professed his love for Ming-feng, defied his grandfather, or publicly denounced Ke-ting. now that Chueh-hui has done these things, his actions and words have an impact, and the stone reaches the water.
When the group rows back to shore, the moon clouds over, and electric lights glow. The unnatural lights and cloudy sky show that the youngsters' brief excursion away from Confucian rules has come to an end, and they have to return to the reality of their family order.
