Zhang Ailing's "Love in the Fallen City": By depicting the marriage and love of secular men and women, it shows an endless desolate world

"Love of the Allure" is a novel created by the modern Chinese writer Zhang Ailing, first published in the September and October 1943 "Magazine" volume 11, no. 6, the first issue of the 12th volume, included in the August 1944 Shanghai Magazine "Legend", the Chinese mainland edition was included in the novel collection "The Love of the Allure".

The novel tells the story of Bai Liusu, the daughter of the old school, and Fan Liuyuan, the son of the new school who studied abroad, from the beginning of the lack of intersection to the marriage created by the fall of Hong Kong. By depicting the marriage and love of secular men and women, the novel shows the accident and inevitability of fate in the interweaving of war and love, as well as a complex society of endless desolation.

Synopsis

Bai Liusu and Fan Liuyuan, one is a woman whose marriage has failed in a traditional family, and the other is a new-school prince who was drunk in Yanliu Powder Lane, and the blind date of Bai Baoluo, the tassel sister, intersects for the first time. Fan Liuyuan invited the Bai family to the dance hall, and the family sat like a wooden chicken, only the tassels could dance, and danced with him for two or three times. Fan Liuyuan, who was originally close to Bai Baoluo, fell in love with tassels. A few days later, the introducer Mrs. Xu came to the White Mansion and said that Fan Liuyuan was no longer in Shanghai, and she also offered to let Bai Liusu accompany her to Hong Kong, and the tassel agreed. When he arrived in Hong Kong, Tassel saw Fan Liuyuan and had expected this in his heart. In the days that followed, Yanagihara took the tassel around, but he didn't even touch her hand, and he took the trouble to let the tassel go to Hong Kong, wanting to keep her away from the worldly gossip, just wanting her to return to pure love. Tassel wants a home, she feels that Fan Liuyuan will have a relationship with herself, she only needs to let him not get easily, maybe he can become Mrs. Fan, but Fan Liuyuan has not acted. Until on the beach, the two people crackled and laughed. The tassel was suddenly offended, stood up and walked toward the hotel, but Yanagihara did not follow.

Later, a chance encounter on a rainy day made the two reconcile and continue to play in the mountains and rivers as before. Until one midnight, the phone rang suddenly, and the phrase "I love you" made Tassel's heart beat wildly, which was Fan Liuyuan's confession, but Tassel felt that if she loved me, she should marry me, instead of just saying beautiful things. Fan Liuyuan was angry. The next day when they went out, when they were called "Mrs. Fan", the tassel's face was ugly, and only Yanagihara told her not to take this name in vain. Tassel thought that he had made it impossible for her to prove that they had not had a relationship, and there was no second way but to be his mistress. However, she did not want to give in, so she told Yanagihara that she planned to return to Shanghai. Back at home, there was always a glimmer of hope, so she had to put up with it anyway. At the end of November, Fan Liuyuan sent a telegram from Hong Kong asking her to come. She was well aware of her situation, she was no longer young, and with the pressure from her mother's family, she had to compromise. Fan Liu originally planned to go to England in a week, so he rented a house for fringe. On December 8, the war in Hong Kong began. Unable to make it, Yanagihara returns home and takes the tassel to the Repulse Bay Hotel. After the armistice, they returned to their rented house to live. Finally, Yanagihara decided to marry Tassel. Soon, they returned to Shanghai.

Creative background

Zhang Ailing wrote in the article "Honesty about the Love of the Fallen City" that when she wrote "The Love of the Allure", she wanted to show the love of the desolate life. She believes that the novel is not bad, it is a beautiful and intimate story. She likes the jagged contrast because it is closer to the truth. In "Love in the Fallen City", the tassels that came out of the rotten family, the baptism of the Battle of Hong Kong did not transform her into a revolutionary woman; the Battle of Hong Kong affected Fan Liuyuan, making him turn to a plain life, and finally got married, but marriage did not make him a saint, completely abandoning his past living habits and style. Therefore, the ending of Yanagihara and Tassel is still vulgar, and they can only do so.

Thematic ideas

The tragic consciousness in Zhang Ailing's novel is rooted in her clear understanding and profound understanding of the dilemma of women's survival, and at the same time, she also sees the helplessness and pain of women's struggle. And "Allure of Love" presents readers with a sad picture of women's survival. In the feudal autocracy of the patriarchal society, women are always in a weak position, there is no so-called fairness to speak of, they always play the role of dependents, can only blindly obey and execute, they are the victims and victims of the times. It is precisely because Zhang Ailing sees the sadness and helplessness of women, she fully understands the hardships of women's survival, she gives sympathy and understanding to the dark side of women, she said that those people she wrote, what is bad about them, I can forgive, sometimes still love, just because of their existence, they are true. Zhang Ailing used her unique perspective in "Love in the Fallen City" to show the survival dilemma of women in the old era.

Artistic features

"Jagged control" technique

"Falling in Love" uses a "jagged contrast" technique, forming a number of tension systems full of stretching and shrinking functions between the characters. The tassel and Yanagihara form the backbone of the reference system, the tassel and sahei are the secondary reference system, and the tassel and the family, including Baoluo and brother and sister-in-law, are the third layer of micro-reference system. The characters jointly reveal the theme of the novel in contrast and contrast, and they are each other's background colors and contrast with each other. Fringe and Yanagihara are always in a vortex of contrast, two people from completely different worlds, and their behavior, thoughts, and ways of doing things are also very different. Tassel is the daughter of a feudal widow family, whose origin determines her character, cautious and rarely in contact with the outside world, she regards marriage as the destination and happiness of a lifetime, and the importance of marriage trumps everything. In the love entanglement with Yanagihara, if she wants to exchange marriage for a stable future, her bottom limit is to keep her body, which is her last capital. And Yanagihara is a new character, a master of the love field and the business field. He pays attention to love and the mood of life, he has both the ability to make a scene and a tenacious personality, completely free and easy to move forward. He never wanted to use marriage as a guarantee, and he thought that whether love could be realized or not had nothing to do with marriage.

Non-closed loop structure with counter-climax

The novel is an unclosed loop structure with an open circle. Tassels went from their home in the Shanghai White Mansion to Hong Kong to meet Liuyuan, and after some open and secret struggle, they returned from Hong Kong to Shanghai lonely, and then from Shanghai to Hong Kong, where they continued to fall in love and eventually married, which is a process of going-back-going. After Yanagihara married Tassel, the author saw the temporary and unstable nature of the marriage, so she said that "enough for them to live together for ten years and eight years," so what will happen after ten years, the future is worrying. When Yanagihara is tired of tassels, after all, they have personality differences and very different cultural backgrounds, and when tassels are also tired of Liuyuan's glitz and wandering, then the end of this marriage is just around the corner, and it may be that Liuyuan returns to Shanghai or goes to another man to continue the next cycle. This process is not already realized, but half-true, half-false, half-real, it can be imagined and can be reasoned. Therefore, the process of going and going back constitutes a reciprocating loop, which is not closed, because the novel ends in a reunion marriage, and the outcome of ten years later cannot be asserted. But the second "go-back" cycle has realities and possibilities.

Works of influence

In December 1944, Zhang Ailing adapted the novel into a stage play and performed it at the Shanghai Sunbeam Theater. In 1983, the film "Love in the Fallen City" directed by director Xu Anhua was released. In 2006, the new drama version of "Love in the City" landed on the stage. In March 2009, the TV series based on the novel", "Love in the City", was broadcast.

Evaluation of works

Translator and critic Fu Lei: A divorced daughter of a "broken" family, she was thrown out of her mother's house by the sneering ridicule of her poor brother and sister-in-law, and fell in love with an old international student who had experienced the world and was cunning and refined. Just as she was about to get stuck in the mire, a sudden change that shook the world rescued her and gave her an ordinary home. An entire story can be included in this line or two. Because it is legendary (as the author says), there is no tragedy seriousness, no sublime, and fatalistic nature; nor is the contrast between light and darkness strong. Because it is legendary, lust has no thrilling performance. The flirtation, which takes up almost a half of the space, is full of cynical hedonists; though so clever, elegant, and funny, it is ultimately the product of a society refined to the point of almost morbidity. ...... Beautiful dialogue, true and false hide-and-seek, are all floating in the heart; attraction, teasing, harmless offensive and defensive battles, covered with hypocrisy. Men are an empty heart and don't want to really find the heart that falls. In short, the brilliance of "Love in the City" trumps the backbone; the flaws of the two protagonists, that is, the flaws of the work itself.

Xu Zidong, professor of the Department of Chinese at Lingnan University in Hong Kong: First, this novel rewrites or subverts an enlightenment model of the so-called "male teaching women" or even "male saving women" in love literature since May Fourth. Second, the novel rewrites the usual love literature story pattern in which men and women fall in love at first sight and then work together to resist external social pressures. It's a different kind of love story, a unique war between men and women, it's (and not just) a contest between men and women, a battle. The estrangement, stereotypes and prejudices between the sexes have led to protracted wars between men and women, which will continue to evolve in the future. It is in this sense that Zhang Ailing has dealt with a very secular theme in "Love in the Fallen City", but her approach is very unique. "Allure of Love" is based on the different needs of men and women, and finally found common ground. The woman's search for a "long-term meal ticket" has also found the truth; the man's start from the erotic game and finally find his family. This is too idealistic.