51 pages • 1 hour read
Eileen Chang, Transl. Karen S. KingsburyLove in a Fallen City
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1943A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Preface-"Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier"Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Preface to the Second Printing of Romances Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses drug abuse, domestic violence, commercial sexual exploitation of children, and suicide.
The stories in Love in a Fallen City are selected from an earlier collection of Chang’s short stories and novellas entitled Romances. When the second edition of Romances was released in September 1944, Chang included this preface to the collection. The preface opens with Chang describing her desire to talk to the booksellers about how well her book is selling. She's eager to have her work published and appreciated. She puts this desire in context with the changing world of Shanghai, where she lived at the time. As she notes, “Our entire civilization—with all its magnificence, and its insignificance—will someday belong to the past” (1).
She continues by describing her interest in old-fashioned “Hop-Hop” folk opera, a traditional form of Chinese theater. Very few people want to go with her to the opera, but eventually, she finds someone to accompany her. She describes the play’s melodrama and the huqin music that accompanies it. In the show, there is a scene where a murdered man's ghost tells an official that his wife killed him. They follow the ghost to the widow, and she insists that her husband dropped dead of his own accord. The audience applauds the performance.
Chang’s preface ends by noting, “In the wilderness that is coming, among the shards and rubble, only the painted-lady type from ‘Hop-Hop’ opera, this kind of woman, can carry on with simple ease” (3-4). Chang feels sad about the coming future but that for the moment, it has not yet arrived.
“Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier” Summary
The story takes place in Hong Kong before World War II. It opens with a young girl, Ge Weilong, arriving at the house of her aunt, Madame Liang. Weilong notes that the house and its garden are a beautiful combination of traditional and modern. Madame Liang was estranged from the rest of the family after she became a concubine to one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest men, Liang Liteng, who left her a great deal of money when he died. While Weilong waits outside the entrance she hears her aunt’s housemaids, Glint and Glance, discussing her presence. They speculate that she could be a relative of “Young Mistress,” who is out swimming with Thirteenth Master Qiao.
Young Mistress, who turns out to be Madame Liang, arrives in a car with George Qiao. Qiao does not come into the house, angering Madame Liang. Madame Liang gets out of the car and tells Glint that Qiao is trying to make a fool of her but that she won’t let him. Then, Weilong introduces herself to her aunt. Even though Madame Liang is angry and doesn't want to let Weilong in the house, Glint convinces her to do so. Madame Liang goes to rest, and while Weilong waits, she hears the servants talking about how Madame Liang is angry because Glance went out with Qiao. Eventually, Weilong explains to Madame Liang that her family came to Hong Kong to escape the potential wartime conflict in Shanghai. However, now that the danger has passed, her family is planning to return to Shanghai, and Weilong wants to stay in Hong Kong to finish her studies. Weilong asks Madame Liang to help her. Madame Liang agrees as long as Weilong stays at her house.
Weilong tells her parents she will be staying in Hong Kong to finish school. Her family returns to Shanghai, and Weilong returns to Madame Liang's house. Madame Liang is entertaining that evening, and she isn't sure that her niece will mix well with the others. One of the guests, the wealthy businessman Situ Xie, is about to return to Shantou to marry, and Madame Liang is worried that “if he [is] to take a liking to Weilong he might not go back to Shantou after all—and that could get complicated” (27). Glint shows Weilong to her room, which is full of beautiful clothing Madame Liang bought for her. The next day, Weilong watches Madame Liang slap Glance for continuing to see George Qiao. Then, she learns that Glance has been sent away.
Madame Liang wants to find a suitable match for Weilong. One day, Glint, who has become Weilong's friend, tells Weilong that Madame Liang is trying to set Weilong up with Lu Zhaolin, a man in their weekly choir group. At a garden party the next day, Weilong sees Madame Liang talking with Zhaolin. However, Zhaolin appears interested in another girl, Zhou Jijie. Weilong talks to Jijie, and she hears Glint trying to prevent Jijie’s half-brother, George Qiao, from joining the party. However, he gets in and tries to get Madame Liang’s attention, but she ignores him. Weilong introduces herself to George, and he flirts with her. Then, Madame Liang arrives with Zhaolin, telling Weilong and Jijie to play something on the piano for the guests. That night, Glint teases Weilong about George’s flirtatiousness. Glint tells her that he is bad news and doesn't have any money.
Weilong continues to run into George Qiao at parties, and Madame Liang continues to see Zhaolin. However, when Situ Xie returns to Hong Kong, Madame Liang sees him instead. One night, Weilong, George, Xie, and Madame Liang are at a banquet together. On the ride home, Xie gives Madame Liang and Weilong diamond bracelets. Weilong tries to refuse, but Madame Liang makes her take it. Weilong is troubled by his behavior and reflects on what has happened to her over the past three months. She realizes that she has true feelings for George Qiao.
At a picnic, George and Weilong talk about the future. He says he cannot promise her marriage or love, only happiness. That night, George goes to Weilong’s room and the two have sex. As he is leaving, he runs into Glint. He tries to bribe her to keep quiet, and they enter the house together after a brief struggle. Meanwhile, Weilong thinks about how she is sure George loves her. She cannot sleep, so she goes to the window. From her balcony, she sees Glint and George embracing in the garden. She cries all night. The next day, Weilong beats Glint with a wet rag. Madame Liang arrives, and Glint tells her everything.
Madame Liang tells Weilong that she has endangered both of their reputations by seeing George. Weilong tells her that she will go back to Shanghai. Madame Liang calls George to find a solution, and he sends flowers. Weilong begins making arrangements to return to Shanghai, but she gets very sick and is unable to leave. One day, while on a walk, she sees George's car following her. She returns from the walk and asks Madame Liang if George would marry her if she were able to make money (presumably from escort work). Madame Liang says if Weilong can learn to be charming, the plan might work. By Christmas, George and Weilong are engaged. George is uncertain about the marriage, but Madame Liang tells him that when Weilong stops earning as much money “seven or eight years from now” (72), he can simply get a divorce. After the wedding, George and Weilong live in Madame Liang’s house, where Weilong lives in servitude to her husband and aunt.
On Chinese New Year’s Eve, Weilong and George go to Wanchai to visit the market there. While in the market, Weilong feels like her future is “only endless terror” (74). Weilong's dress catches on fire from a firework, and George puts it out. George tells her that one day she will resent him for everything she sacrificed to be with him, even though he doesn’t love her. She chides him for trying to ruin her happiness on New Year’s Eve. As they walk through the market, she sees a drunk sailor soliciting children who are commercially sexually exploited. Some of the drunk sailors start throwing fireworks at Weilong, so Weilong and George leave the market. On the car ride home, Weilong tells George that the only difference between her and the children being trafficked is that she willingly chose this life.
Preface-“Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier” Analysis
The preface establishes the collection’s thematic interest in women’s experiences and introduces “Hop-Hop” opera, which serves as a metaphor for both the collection’s structure and its engagement with history and the contemporary present. Chang writes the preface in the first-person perspective and narrates her experience following the publication of her short story and novella collection, Romances. In the preface, she describes the experience of going to see a “Hop-Hop” opera, a type of traditional Chinese theater that fused with several other styles to establish the popular Republican-era opera style of ping or pingju (315). Chang’s reference to “Hop-Hop” opera figuratively sets the stage for the collection as pingju opera is a form of traditional theater that responds to contemporary events (Liu Yu. “Chinese Traditional Opera—Pingju Opera.” Beijing Tourism, translated by Zhao Huinan.) Similarly, the stories in Love in the Fallen City rely on traditional elements of Chinese storytelling to address the contemporary moment when they were written. The “Hop-Hop” performance Chang watches demonstrates the changing Expectations of Women in the Republic of China. The stage performance tells the story of a woman who insists she did not kill her husband; rather than villainizing this woman, the audience supports her and celebrates her emancipation. Many of the stories in the collection begin and end with a framing device in which the narrator directly addresses the reader. This framing device gives the impression of someone telling a story as in a theater, another reference to the “Hop-Hop” opera mentioned in the preface. Apart from the framing device, the stories in the collection are written from a third-person limited perspective.
The first novella in Love in the Fallen City, “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier,” is an essentially tragic story that highlights the changing Expectations of Women in the Republic of China through Ge Weilong’s narrative arc. When Weilong first arrives at her aunt’s house, she is hoping to stay in Hong Kong to complete her studies. However, she is soon pulled into a world of sexual exploitation based in part on her desire for wealth that she cannot hope to earn as an educated worker. Weilong represents how the modernizing aspects of Chinese society, namely women’s education, intersect with the material reality of the old imperial system, including patriarchy and female exploitation. Weilong’s transformation is foreshadowed early in the story when she sees all the clothing her aunt has purchased for her and thinks to herself, “Isn’t this just how a bordello buys girls?” (28). By the end of the story, Weilong compares herself to the children being sexually exploited at the New Year market. Weilong’s narrative arc illustrates the tension between societal expectations and individual aspirations in a rapidly evolving society and underscores the insidious nature of oppressive forces like patriarchy and sexual exploitation.
Highlighting the theme of the Instability of Sexual Desire, Love, and Marriage, Weilong’s love for George Qiao precipitates her downfall. Despite knowing that George is a playboy who has chased after her aunt, the maids, and other women and doesn’t love her, Weilong decides to marry him and forego her education. The symbol of the Moon represents the volatile power of Weilong’s erotic desire. The night Weilong and George sleep together, the text notes, “Hong Kong girls are just as capricious, just as unpredictable, as the island’s steamy climate. And […] that night, the moon shone” (55). Their resulting marriage is an unhappy one that takes Weilong from a stable lifestyle to a fraught, sexually exploitative future.
The story’s title, “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier,” introduces incense as another guiding symbol. The opening framing paragraph of the story references this incense. The title is something of a play on words, as the Chinese word for “aloeswood” “shares a character with the place-name ‘Hong Kong’” (316). As indicated by the title, this is the first of a paired set of stories. The other story, “Aloeswood Incense: The Second Burning,” does not appear in this collection but has similar themes. As a symbol, incense embodies the paradoxical notion of consuming oneself or another for material gain. Just as incense is burned to produce a sweet perfume, George and Madame Liang sacrifice Weilong for financial benefit, and Weilong allows herself to be exploited out of her love for George. Weilong's burning dress at the New Year market reflects this same sacrifice as her clothing—a material signifier of the wealth she has gained through sexual exploitation—catches fire, threatening to physically consume her body in flames.
