Moral Hypocrisy
Family takes place during a period of Chinese history when citizens were re-examining traditional Confucian values, morals, and manners. The characters in Family represent varied moral and political ideologies, from hard-line Confucianism to liberal anarchism. What unites these diverse beliefs is that nearly all the characters exhibit some degree of moral hypocrisy. The narrative affirms that no individual is immune from internal contradictions, no matter how righteous their morals.
The clearest example of moral hypocrisy in Family is the Venerable Master Kao. The family patriarch represents old-school Confucianism and the patriarchal family system. An active member of the Confucian Morals Society, the Venerable Master Kao demands his family follow restrictive roles and conduct themselves in accordance with Confucian manners. However, the Venerable Master Kao published racy poetry in his youth and frequented female-impersonating opera singers. The Venerable Master Kao gives Chueh-hui the book "On Filial Piety and the Shunning of Lewdness." Yet, the Venerable Master Kao shamelessly celebrates his sixty-sixth birthday with erotic opera performances.
Uncle Ke-ting demands deference and respect from his nephews, yet his crude behavior and avarice threaten to ruin the family. Ke-ting accrues gambling debt, smokes opium, and pawns his wife's silver jewelry. Even after the family discovers his crimes, Ke-ting still commands a high position within the family and demands a sizeable portion of the Venerable Master Kao's estate.
Chueh-hui, "the Humanitarian," contradicts his own ideals on several occasions. His sympathy for the serving class is inconsistent and often shallow. For example, Chueh-hui refuses to be carried in a sedan chair yet still orders around the Kao servants, especially Ming-feng and Mama Huang, two women he supposedly loves. Chueh-hui purports to disdain bourgeois classism, asking, "just because our grandfather and father are members of the gentry, does that mean we, also, have to become gentry?" Yet, when the opportunity to defend and possibly marry Ming-feng arises, Chueh-hui's "bourgeois pride" cannot handle marrying a bondmaid.
Gender Inequality
Family outlines how the patriarchal family system victimizes everyone who participates in it, even its leaders, like the Venerable Master Kao and Chueh-hsin. Though the narrative centers around Chueh-hsin, Chueh-min, and Chueh-hui, male members of the gentry, Family also explores how the patriarchal family system uniquely victimizes women.
Though male family members often sacrifice their happiness for the sake of the family, it is the women who endure physical victimization. For example, Shu-chen, a young girl, is physically crippled with bound feet; though she was only thirteen, Shu-chen was "already a victim, an object of sacrifice," because of her social standing and gender. Mei, whose entire happiness was bound up in Chueh-hsin, dies young. Her mother, Mrs. Chien, loses her daughter, not her son. Similarly, Jui-Chueh is forced to give birth outside of the family compound to appease a superstitious belief that would protect the corpse of the Venerable Master Kao. Jui-chueh dies; Chueh-hsin and his sons live. Jui-chueh's mother, Mrs. Li, arrives to see her daughter's body. Mrs. Li already lost another daughter to an abusive marriage and miscarriage; the Li daughters' bodies and lives were sacrificed to maintain the gentry class and patriarchal system.
Classism
Though the protagonists of Family are members of the gentry, the narrative explores how the patriarchal system victimizes the serving class and perpetuates social inequality. In most instances, though they are not the central focus of the narrative, the Kao family servants struggle significantly more than the Kao family. Due only to their unlucky fates, the servants do not have an education or choices about what to do with their lives. They work harder than the gentry and live in worse conditions. The majority of servants are illiterate; Ming-feng can only read because the Eldest Young Miss taught her. Ming-feng and Wan-erh are both given as objects to strengthen the social relationship between Feng and the Venerable Master Kao. Ming-feng commits suicide instead of living as a concubine. As a servant and a woman, Ming-feng does not have the option of running away to Shanghai, like Chueh-hui, and her only escape is death.
Kao Sheng and Uncle Ke-ting both become addicted to opium and steal to pay their debts. Though their crimes are nearly identical, Ke-ting suffers only private humiliation for his crimes, while Kao Sheng, a servant, is sent to prison and then becomes a beggar. This injustice highlights how the patriarchal system forces servants and gentry to live in two different realities.
In Chapter 4, sedan carriers wearing straw sandals carry Mrs. Chang and Chin home through the snow. Exhausted and freezing, they daydream about playing games after work as a way to relax. Mrs. Chang, by contrast, is exhausted from playing twelve rounds of mahjong, during which she strategically nurtured social relationships. Mrs. Chang's "work" is the sedan carriers' dream of entertainment. Chueh-hsin makes a similar observation about different types of labor between the classes. He says about himself and his role: "I'm not a wastrel or a spoilt child of destiny. I'm a worker. I put on my leather apron and work in my own dark workshop." Chueh-hsin means that despite its luxurious appearance, being a member of the gentry in the patriarchal family structure is no different from any other type of work. Maintaining the family structure is an all-consuming labor that demands personal sacrifices.
According to the narrative, the serving class possesses a luxury the gentry are not afforded. Without the pressures of maintaining respectability, the serving class can form authentic relationships. The servant Yuan Cheng poignantly observes that "only rich people" have nonsensical, self-imposed rules and customs. Though the Kao family possesses material luxury, their class restricts how they can love, behave, and look.
Ineptitude of Authority
The narrative presents a critical disdain for authority and often characterizes authority figures as both corrupt and inept. Most notably, the Venerable Master Kao, despite being dictatorial and unchallenged in his authority, loses his grip on the family. He cannot prevent Chueh-hui from joining the student movements; he cannot force Chueh-min to marry Feng's grandniece; and Ming-feng, the woman the Venerable Master Kao chose as Feng's concubine, kills herself rather than heed the patriarch's order.
The Venerable Master Kao also suffers personally. He possesses neither his family's love nor respect, and "the results of his strenuous efforts had brought only loneliness." Eventually, the Venerable Master Kao succumbs to a respiratory illness, the same as Mei, a woman who had no agency over her own life or influence over the Kao family.
Family's criticism of authority extends outside of the home to political authorities. In the narrative, the Chengdu government does nothing to stop soldiers who attack innocent students. Though the initial government is usurped and the replacement promises reforms, no noticeable change occurs.
Facade
The Kao family uses rituals, Confucian manners, and displays of affluence to maintain an appearance of respectability. One of the most significant symbols of facade is the Kao family compound. The compound is a serene and beautiful world that houses internal conflicts and strife. In the compound gardens, artificial hills, pruned trees, and curated flowers simulate organic nature.
The rituals and celebrations in which the Kao family partake illustrate the theme of facade. For example, the Venerable Master Kao's birthday is not a celebration but an occasion for the Kao family to flaunt its wealth. When the Venerable Master Kao is ill, Ke-an, Ke-ting, and Ke-ming perform a ritual "so exaggerated it appeared ludicrous," behaving solemnly despite the fact that just hours before they had been gambling, drinking, and fornicating. As the Venerable Master Kao's sickness advances, the elder generation calls in a witch doctor to "drive out the devils." Only Mistress Chen truly believes in the witch doctor's power; Ke-ming plays along to give "the impression he was a dutiful son." Even at the Venerable Master Kao's funeral, which should have been a time for mourning, is a facade; "everyone was busying the occasion to maintain face and display his own affluence."
Throughout the narrative, there are several points where the Kao family's facade cracks. The night represents the illumination of truth. In Chapter 4, the compound residents are "stripped of the masks they had worn all day," and truly contend with themselves. A more dramatic example of a cracked facade occurs when war rages in Chengdu. The Kao family disperses, revealing "its inner emptiness. No one cared about anyone else. Each was concerned only with his own personal safety." Despite prioritizing the wishes of the family over their own desires, in the face of certain death, the members of the Kao family do not stick together.
Duty and Responsibility
Throughout the narrative, characters of every social class and gender make choices heavily influenced by their sense of duty and responsibility to others. The tension between individuals' authentic desires and what they perceive as their "duty" is a constant source of conflict, with frequently deadly consequences.
The Kao family structures relationships around what each member is "due." For example, Chueh-hui only sees his grandfather once every morning and evening to formally greet him in the way Confucian manners require. Chueh-hsin's father arranges a marriage and career for Chueh-hsin, against Chueh-hsin's desires, to "fulfill[...] his duties as a father." This choice, made specifically to fulfill an obligation, unwittingly results in Chueh-hsin's lifelong despair and Mei's early death. When Chueh-hsin's father dies, Chueh-hsin inherits the duty to care for his younger siblings and stepmother. Because of this heavy responsibility, Chueh-hsin feels he "never had a youth."
Chueh-hsin expresses that before his mother died, she gave him the responsibility to "study hard, in order to be somebody who would make her lot worthwhile." The responsibility of vindicating his late mother weighs on Chueh-hsin and informs his policy of non-resistance.
The Kao family is obligated to protect the Venerable Master Kao even after his death. Jui-chueh gives birth in dangerous conditions to protect the patriarch's corpse from a curse in which few truly believe. Jui-chueh, a devoted wife, feels it is her responsibility to protect Chueh-hsin from looking unfilial. She complies, and as a tragic result, Jui-chueh dies in labor.
A crushing sense of duty is not limited to the Kao family. Chin and Hsu Chien-ju, female classmates and friends, express that they are responsible for future generations of women. Chin and Chien-ju make choices in their youth "to open a road for sisters who come after" them. However, Chin hesitates to cut her hair because she feels obligated to protect her mother's happiness and reputation.
Romanticization of the Past
Several characters cope with their present unhappiness throughout the narrative by dwelling on and romanticizing their memories of the past. Some characters, such as Mei and Chueh-hsin, romanticize their own memories and childhoods, while others, such as the Venerable Master Kao and Mama Huang, glorify the "golden days" of the Confucian patriarchal family.
Mei, whose dreams revolved entirely around her relationship with Chueh-hsin, considers her memories of Chueh-hsin her only source of life and happiness. She says that she "lives almost entirely on [her] memories now," comparing memories to sustenance. However, dwelling on these memories ultimately causes Mei to lose her will to live because, though "[she] 'd love to return to those carefree days...time cannot flow backwards…"
Even those who do not benefit from the Confucian patriarchal system romanticize its past glory. For example, Mama Huang complains that the family is not as good as it used to be. She compares the family now as "muddied waters" compared to the "good old days" of "clear waters" of the Confucian hierarchy's heyday.
