Prayer 01

親愛的天父，

感謝你今天賜予我的一切美好。

我知道，我生命裡所有美好的事物都是你的賜。

願你借著你的良善和榮美，向我展現你的真我。

奉耶穌基督的名禱告，

阿們🙏

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for all the good things you have blessed me with today. 

I know that all the good things in my life are gifts from you.

May you reveal your true self to me through your goodness and beauty.

In Jesus' name I pray,

Amen 🙏

The Ultimate Release

Su Tong raises an extremely realistic issue through his character concerning the problem of the self in Chinese society. What does it mean to be an individual living in China during the time of the 1950s and beyond? What are the consequences of a man who yearns so hard to lead his own life and to release himself? Through the instance of Sanmai, then perhaps there is no release in life on this earth. The only release is through death – the ultimate release from life.

Chen Senmai’s kites are the representation of his desperate hopes and dreams of being free. In his eyes, they are magical. They symbolize the happiness that fate will not allow him to have. As the sites’ strings snap in the wind, their fates seem to be “unpredictable and ever-changing.” As the end of the story approaches, as the end of Chen Senmai approaches, the ends of the kites are revealed that they are caught by the trees in a forest of nature. Perhaps the kites will never be freed from the hands of their foes or perhaps they will, but Chen Senmai will never be able to see them freed, just as he was never freed.

“If I ran to the ends of the earth, I could never escape.’ Those were my uncle [Chen Senmai’s] last words.”

No other title would be as fitting as “Escape,” because that is the life of the story. It is the life of its characters, rather it be Chen Senmai or his wife. His wife is not released from her ties with her husband until his death. That is when “her heart was completely cleansed” and has nothing left to worry about. Given the narrative mode of the story, she will never escape the constrictions of her status as a female in society. She does not have her own voice, even the story of her own husband is told from a retelling told by a relative who calls her “aunt;” thus, a relative who is supposedly younger and inferior in terms of generation status. She never even has a name in the story.

Regardless of male or female, the question of self and the vulnerability of an individual remained a significant issue of Chinese society in the 1950s and its later years. It was a time powered by nationalism. There should be pride in the history and unity of the people’s nation. There was pressure from constant reminders that the culture as well as literature must reflect the class interest of the common people and promote mass organizations in order to ensure centralization. Those against the community were in essence against the country. There was no room for criticism and opposition.

Su Tong may not be focusing on the political aspects of China in those times, but he convincingly illustrates the pains and torments from trying to balancing society while trying to preserve the individual.

“Escape” is a profound tale filled with many messages ranging from simple family dynamics and basic life issues to the question of humanity and the meaning of living freely. It is a story of life.

"Escape" (1991)

“Escape,” a short story written by Su Tong, describes the tragic life of a poor man who spends the majority of his life trying desperately to escape – to escape family, to escape obligations, to escape living, to simply escape – and even when death is only a footstep away, he still yearns for this release. Chen Sanmai’s desire and weakness not only leads him to his ultimate demise but also damages the life and spirit of his wife, who remains nameless throughout the tale. Their family saga closely depicts how helpless and dysfunctional humans are as they are caught up and blinded by their innermost obsessions. Su Tong does not hesitate to reveal the vulnerability and depravity of his characters to show the ugliness and conflicts of people and their effects.

Escapes mar the past of Chen Sanmai. There seems to be nothing that he did not run away from, but every escape seems to only lead to horrible results. Sanmai “ran away when [his family] asked him to eat; he ran away when [his family] asked him to take a bath…when he grew up and [his family] found him a wife, he still ran away.”

He runs to the city but has to leave when he catches a horrible disease. He leaves his home quickly after his return and is forced to join the army out of sheer self-preservation, and it is because of self-preservation that causes him to leave the army to return home. And again, it is self-preservation that makes him believe that he had to leave home or else he will die in the hands of soldiers hunting for deserters like him. Even as his wife finally finds him in his last hiding place by his deathbed, he is still waiting and staring with wishfully of his kites with broken strings that are trapped on trees.

Chen Sanmai portrays the struggles and despairs of a man who is suffocated by society’s restrictions and demands. This can be seen throughout his long history of escapes from the orders and wills of his parents, from his abandonment of his wife, and from his desertion of his military obligations.

He can never do what he wants. He is trapped even in his home. The home, supposedly a place of comfort, only acts as a further entrapment on his life and self. There is no freedom anywhere. There is no genuine control over one’s life. Under such pressures of conformity, the only thing that Sanmai wants to do and can do is to run and escape, but he cannot even do that. He cannot escape.

Under the Lights

The dim, yellow lights above guided our path to my house, and I found myself laughing lightly again at his words.

It was his first time visiting them here.

He’d met them before but still I felt nervous. He squeezed my hand gently as if I hadn’t responded to something he said or asked. I looked up and smiled softly at his face. He gave me comfort however unknowingly.

We had finally arrived.

My mother and aunt were drinking tea in the family room. I could hear the easy chatter even at the front door.

I walked past the threshold and said to the two of them just as I turned towards the stairs,

“Hi mom, hi Aunt May. I’m just going to grab something real quick. I’ll be right back. He’s here for a little bit, but we’re going to out again real soon.”

I left him alone with the two of them, and he sat by my mother, across from my aunt. They nodded and smiled at each other. My mother and aunt continued to smile politely but tried to speak to each other in a softer tone.

When I finally came back down, I saw him get up and said to them, “I’ll go get us something to drink.” To which my mother gave another smile and a nod.

After I saw him walk out of the family room, I asked my mother, “Did you know what he said?”

My mother gave a light shake of her head and a small smile, almost remorseful and defeated, and said,

“Child, you know I don’t understand Him.”

Right. That's right..you don't understand. I was ready to leave. I had already taken a few steps to face away from the table, but the words in my mind could not stop repeating themselves like the background static of a radio with poor reception.

He was standing by the doorway, patiently waiting for me.

Under the bright, white lights of our home, his pale complexion stood out even more compared to my own skin.

He was different. He wasn’t bad. He was decent. I was happy enough with him. It was fine. But was it enough?

Was this enough?

Before I could take another step towards him, I paused and looked back over my left shoulder at my mother.

They had already resumed their private conversation filled with smiles and gentle laughter.

I could not tell whether or not I had a smile on my own face.

~ November 5, 2011

"Raise the Red Lantern" (1991)

Director Zhang Yimou makes it easy for the audience to be captivated with the life of a nineteen years old girl who is forced into a world full of schemes, deceit, hatred, and constant battles for attention as she becomes the third concubine of a rich landowner.


The beauty of “Raise the Red Lantern" is that it uses a simple storyline to convey flawlessly the ugliness of human nature and its horrifying and damaging results. It is a film that not only focuses on the atrocious oppression and objectification of women, but also concentrates greatly on the helplessness and vulnerability of those trapped within such a system. “Raise the Red Lantern” does well to describe to the society of China in the 1920s, a society full of traditions, hierarchies, and the need for self preservation.

Song Lian may have had half a year of college education, but that does little to rid her of the dependence on men through family and marriage and to help escape her fate as a woman of the times. Her education may have set her apart from the three other mistresses of Master Chen, but it is simply a feature that poses as a temporary advantage to further entice her master before he grows tired of her company.

Although there may be a social difference between an educated woman and an actress (as in the case with the Third Mistress), as women, there is no difference; the two are both subjected to the same fate. Whatever they do and whatever is done to them is for the sole purpose of serving and pleasing men. A woman is “a piece of clothing” for the man to control when he wants to wear, toss, and destroy that insignificant item.

Yet, women still actively participate in the perpetual struggle for attention, power, and status in order to secure a desirable position in this vicious human food chain to preserve the individual. Song Lian’s independent will and pride of an educated female is broken down as she sheds tears for her surrender to such a life, and eventually she feels the need to lie about her pregnancy as she tries to be calculating like the other mistresses. The exposure of her lie is her failure to fight effectively. It not only leads her to a life of isolation, but also to the destruction of her spirit.

She comes to the conclusion that the endless competition is meaningless; life is meaningless. Everything is simply an act; everything is a lie.

Yet, that is the life you must lead. That is the life that you are forced to lead.

The world of Master Chen and his four mistresses is no different than the dog-eat-dog world that exists outside the walls of their home. There is no security. There is no truth. Those who rebel or fail to obey the valued customs and rules of tradition are ultimately destroyed.

What is human in such a society? It is one step away from being a ghost, and perhaps there is not even a difference.

The last scene of “Raise the Red Lantern” is particularly haunting. Song Lian is at last driven to insanity after she witnesses the murder of the Third Mistress (the punishment for the Third Mistress’ adulterous acts), and she wanders aimlessly inside an enclosed, rectangular area of Master Chen’s household surrounded by brightly lit red lanterns.

She is forever trapped in this place of red lanterns, a place where one man controls all the lives of those inside his walls.

She is forever subjected to lead a life in which she has no control over.

She is to live a life that cannot be claimed as her own.

What is human?

What is life?

The Fall of Tradition

“An Old and Established Name” is a fitting title for such a tale, because it is essentially a life story of the business The Fortune Silk Store.
“The Fortune Silk Store – an old and established name of years standing! – now demeaned itself into employing every kind of trick to rope in customers. Xin Dezhi’s mouth hung so far open in dismay that his face began to look like a dumpling that had split apart while boiling. An old hand, an old and established name, old rules – all had vanished along with Manager Qian, perhaps never to return again. Manager Qian had been very honest and gentlemanly, so much so, in fact, that the Fortune Silk store lost money.”
The business begins as a place that exercises solely on old rules, but as quickly as the leave of its old manager, its old customs are gone. There is a strong focus of the past practices of the Fortune Silk Store as a constant reminder and simply to emphasize how strong and important to these ideals once were. The old and established name was what the store sold; it did not need anything else.

However, because of the external forces of societal and cultural changes, the business cannot carry on to operate as it once did. It must change with the times in order to continue. Everything must change. The arrival of the new manager brings along with him the needed transformation. The old vanishes, and the new takes over. There is no return to the past even if one tries.

The life of The Fortune Silk Store embodies the conflict between the traditional culture and doctrine and the new and foreign western capitalism. The presence of capitalism in the city and in the country brought upon significant cultural change and cultural split in Chinese society in the 1930s. The changes in business operations resulted primarily from the increasing brutal competition and social transformation. There was a great urge to modernize simply to survive in the city, in the country, and in the world.

The demise of the old and established store symbolizes the losing battle of tradition against modernization. No matter how hard tradition fought, it cannot compete with the new, and ultimately, it will be overpowered. Honesty and simplicity can no longer guarantee survival; only facades and deceits can ensure a position in the new world.

Lao She’s “An Old and Established Name” is a direct representation of the struggles and failures in preserving the tradition in a new society as well as a clear representation of the conflicting inner turmoil of those helplessly affected by their surrounding environment.

"An Old and Established Name" (1936)

“An Old and Established Name” by Lao She depicts the striking contrast between an old, traditional society and a new, modern society during a constantly changing and competitive time. The story follows Xin Dezhi, a senior apprentice of operations in the Fortune Silk Store, as he witnesses the change from the honest Manager Qian, to the hustler Manager Zhou, and back to Manager Qian, and concludes with the final fate of the Fortune Silk Store.

Told from the perspective of a side character, the focus is not on the change in personnel of the business, but rather the audience is drawn into the business and its transformations through the protagonist’s earnest response on the subject matter. Lao She clearly illustrates the value of a person experiencing continuous emotional waves and survival difficulties.

Without a doubt, the thoughts and emotions of Xin Dezhi makes the story most intriguing. Throughout the whole ordeal, he never once abandons his ideals of maintaining and valuing the traditional culture, morals, and doctrines. Although he cannot refute the fact that Manager Zhou’s management can prosper the business, he cannot bring himself to fully admire and accept such new ways of doing things. He observes that in order to make money, one has to be a “combination magician and burlesque comedian.”

When Manager Qian returns and the store is back to the way that it was in the past, Xin Dezhi readily welcomes the reversion because he truly loves the good times that the store once had. Even as reality and fate finally arrives at the Fortune Silk Store & it can no longer escape their hands, Xin Dezhi comforts Manager Qian with tears in his eyes to not to worry.

As sorrowful as it is to witness the gradual dismiss of his beloved old values all the while knowing deep in his heart that the past cannot be recovered, Xin Dezhi held on as long as he could to the shattered bits and pieces until the new inevitably took over.

"To Live" (1994)

“To Live,” a film directed by Yimou Zhang, follows the life of a man and his family as they are forced to adapt constantly in order to survive the drastic transformations that China undergoes during a short period of thirty years. The powerful presentation style along with the sorrowful plot filled with countless sufferings and obstacles effectively captivate the audience through the truthful depiction of people’s living conditions at the time. Such a film deserves recognition because it successfully illustrates the adversity and injustice throughout history and exemplifies universal themes that trigger the deeply rooted emotions residing within the human heart.

Fugui began as a stubborn, spoiled, and privileged man, and solely from his own doing, he loses everything that had given his family the high status that he used to frequently exploit. Yet, it is because of this seemingly terrible loss in becoming ordinary citizens that allows him and his family to follow the strong and unpredictable currents produced by the rise of the revolution and that ultimately grants them survival thereafter.

Viewers follow intensely to witness exactly how much Fugui must endure and how far he must bend his character simply to live – to live under constant anxiety, fear, and pressure. The tension remains for the rest of the movie, and there is no lasting, dependable source of relief. However, life does not stop for the person, and people must move on with life nonetheless. The arguably sole source of comfort is in the person’s ability to survive and remain resilient. Such is the pain and the inescapable living conditions forced upon people due to the radical political changes.

The challenges in Fugui’s life demonstrate the many different yet common and significant values for people, such as the importance of family, the devastation and repercussions of loss, and the power of love. They draw upon deep emotions in order to build a substantial connection and relationship by making the characters’ lives relatable to the external party. There is a strong sense of empathy from the audience because of the great focus on family unity and individual as well as family survival. In spite of all the tragedies, people can remain strong and endure the hardships thrown at them, for we cannot give in so easily. Humans are adaptable creatures, and in time, we learn to live with the sorrow and pain that mold and shape us into who we are today.

“To Live” truly is a movie that not only touches, but digs deep into the issues of the heart. Its realistic representation of the significant political events and their effects on mere citizens speak volumes about people’s mentality and approach towards life.

“To Live” is a movie for those who want to experience and witness how people deal with the complicated emotions that come with unexpected turmoil that arise in life.