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.
Symbols & Motifs
Moon
One of the dominant symbols in Love in a Fallen City is the moon. It primarily symbolizes feelings of desire and the Instability of Sexual Desire, Romance, and Marriage. For example, in the novella “Aloeswood Incense,” the first time Weilong walks away from her aunt’s house, “a crescent moon appear[s] […] and as she walk[s] the moon seem[s] to grow whiter and more translucent” (23). This symbolizes the dawning of the romantic love with George. When she meets George for the first time, the moon is again present, this time “like the scorch mark left on a jade-green satin when a burning ash of incense falls into someone’s needlework” (42). When George comes to visit her at night, the moon is shining. Finally, when Weilong comes to terms with the destructive, toxic nature of her relationship with George, the fireworks thrown at her “[race] like meteors toward the moon” (76), symbolizing the ultimate destruction of her desire. The different phases of the moon demonstrate the passage of time and the way Weilong’s desires grow and change over that period.
Similarly, when Chaunqing in “Jasmine Tea” runs away from Danzhu, “the moon shin[es] on row upon row of stone steps that [prance] boldly before his eyes” (107). This is representative of Chaunqing’s desire for Danzhu and ultimately causes him to turn back to her. In “Love in a Fallen City,” Princess Saheiyini is described as a personification of the moon and therefore object of men’s desire: “[A] group of Western gentlemen stood clustered around a woman, like stars around a moon” (136).
Mirror
In Love in a Fallen City, the mirror is used as a symbol of self-reflection. It indicates how characters see themselves or highlights aspects of their circumstances. As the translator Karen Kingsbury notes in her introduction, the mirror “recall[s] and restor[es] an ancient, anterior sense of selfhood in the midst of modernist, wartime rupture and dislocation” (xvii). For instance, in “Aloeswood Incense,” Weilong catches sight of herself smiling in a mirror after spending a pleasant afternoon with George Qiao. When she sees herself smiling and realizes what she has done, “she quickly wipe[s] off the smile” (46). In “Love in a Fallen City,” Liusu watches herself dancing to the huqin, which is thereby transformed: “the huqin no longer sound[s] like a huqin, but like strings and flutes playing a solemn court dance” (121). Engaging in modern forms of dancing is how she secures the attention of the wealthy Fan Liuyuan, but when reflected in the mirror, her dance is shown to actually be a classical, “solemn” form of courtship and an example of how Liusu demonstrates both Tradition and Modernity in a Changing Society.
In “Red Rose, White Rose,” the mirror is used in a different way. When a mirror shows Zhenbao a reflection of the sex worker he has had sex with in Paris, he sees that she has “a cold, severe, masculine face, the face of an ancient warrior (259).” This sight shakes him and drives him to “create a world that was ‘right,’ and it carry it with him wherever he went” (259). In this instance, the mirror sparks self-reflection through the sight of another person.
Clothing
Throughout Love in a Fallen City, descriptions of clothing are used as a symbol for elements of a person’s character. Clothing is indicative of class position, personality, relationship to tradition and modernity, and in some cases, erotic desire. For example, Nie Chuanqing’s father, Nie Jiechen, is “wearing a grease-spotted vest of light green satin over his undershirt” (85). The satin is emblematic of his wealth, but the fact that it is “grease-spotted” suggests gluttony and lack of care for his appearance. In essence, the outfit indicates a wealthy but dissolute man, which the narrative will reveal him to be. In “White Rose, Red Rose,” Jiaorui greets Zhenbao wearing “a long dress that trail[s] on the floor […] cut a bit too small” (271). Because this outfit is not a traditional style or cut of dress, it is an indication of Jiaorui’s modernity. It is also suggestive of her erotic desire for Zhenbao as it is implied that she is wearing the dress to get his attention. In contrast, Wu Cuiyuan in “Sealed Off” wears “a white linen cheongsam with narrow blue piping all around—the navy blue, next to the white, looked like the dark border around an obituary” (240). A cheongsam is a traditional Chinese gown and indicative of Cuiyuan's essentially traditional characteristics despite her modern position as a university educator. Further, the muted colors that Chang compares to an “obituary” demonstrate the extent to which Cuiyuan uses her clothing to highlight her lack of erotic desire and general chasteness.
