Love at first sight and true love were things that existed for ordinary women, but not for women like her, not for prostitutes.
Juxian’s life as a prostitute has meant never falling in love, but living a comfortable life. Of course, by definition being a prostitute has a price to pay in return for comfort, so comfort is a relative thing. The notion expressed in her story is that this is actually a universal concept that depends upon a flexible definition of prostitution. What does one give up in life in return for security and what is one willing to risk in return for experiencing something they’ve never known?
Peking opera was a tool of the ruling classes of the old China, the Party theorists said. It was population by feudalistic characters like emperors, noblemen, generals, and officials, in addition to reactionary Confucian scholars and frivolously outmoded beauties. The opera was just a way to infect the People with the crippling disease of feudalistic ideology.
Who knew a story that revolves around the world of opera could be so exciting? Opera is many things to many people, but mostly for most it is an art form whose appeal defies understanding. The novel presents an education on the art form and by the end one may still dismiss opera as a bunch of overweight people with really loud voices killing themselves over love, but one will no longer be confused as to what turns so many opera lovers into fanatics. The portrait of opera presented through the narrative runs deep and the manner in which it is intricately connected to so many themes reveal why it remains a popular if significantly less dominant art form even today.
His once deformed hand became the embodiment of feminine beauty as his wrists circled elegantly, the posed fingers of his “orchid hands” weaving through the air.
The worlds of opera and prostitution collide in the thematic exploration of gender identity engendered in the relationship between Xiao Douzi and Master Guan. This relationship becomes the primary focus of both the plot and the marketing of the renowned film adaptation of the novel. In the novel, the multiple disparate elements that bring these two together becomes the focal point by all the myriad themes are connected and explored. Sexuality, Chinese politics, class distinction, and cultural revolution are all embodied in the complications of this relationship and the way it intersects with their relationships to the two other principle characters in the story.
