The Role of Political Change in Farewell My Concubine Lilian Lee 12th Grade

Farewell My Concubine takes place during the Chinese cultural revolution, and throughout the novel the political and social aspects of China are constantly changing. As the novel is based around the Peking Opera, the role of beauty is greatly significant within both the themes and characters, and the author demonstrates how the cultural revolution transforms the idea and purpose of beauty from the beginning of the novel to the end. Throughout Farewell My Concubine, Lilian Lee describes the radical political change in China and demonstrates its effects on the perception of the arts, emphasizing the artificial aspect of beauty and its fragile and adjustable nature.

In the beginning of the novel, physical beauty is portrayed as the key to success, and the author establishes the idea of superiority among the attractive while simultaneously demonstrating the idea of physical beauty as artifice. Firstly, throughout the novel the author puts a great emphasis on the professions of prostitution and acting. When Lee writes, “A prostitute has to make her living by putting on a show of feeling in bed; an actor may be the embodiment of virtue and integrity as he struts upon the stage” (1), she forms a parallel between the two, alluding to...