The Ghost Bride

“As I considered this web of relationships, I couldn’t help feeling a frisson of excitement. It was a world of wealth and intrigue, much like the crudely printed romances that my father was so dismissive of.”

In this passage, Li Lan reflects on the complex and dramatic Lim family history, with its many tragic deaths and complicated familial relationships. She compares it to a romance novel, and in doing so, signals that The Ghost Bride also draws on many of the same romantic tropes in its own plot. This quote is another example of foreshadowing, as it hints at the way that Li Lan will be drawn into the Lim family plot more deeply and the fact that her family and the Lims are much more connected than she realizes.

“But as I gazed at my reflection, it seemed as though there was someone in the corner of the room watching me. Glancing round, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Yet in the mirror I had the distinct impression of a figure standing near the large wardrobe. Uneasily, I continued to stare into its depths.”

Li Lan has not yet realized that the dream she had in which she met Lim Tian Ching was more than an ordinary dream. In this quote, Li Lan has an ominous feeling that she is being watched, which suggests that her ghostly visit was in fact very real. This moment also highlights one way that the world of the dead can exert its influence in the world of the living: in this case, through hauntings and foreboding moments of dread.

“We Chinese did not like to give certain gifts for superstitious reasons: knives, because they could sever a relationship; handkerchiefs, for the portended weeping; and clocks, as they were thought to measure out the days of your life.”

This passage illuminates how superstition and the supernatural pervade much of the novel, hearkening back to the notion of fate. By giving Li Lan the gift of a watch, Tian Bai may in fact have invited bad luck into Li Lan’s life. Because clocks and other time pieces are also associated with death or its approach, it also hints at Li Lan’s impending fate: that she will all too soon pass from the land of the living into the afterlife. 

“It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another’s superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts.”

In this passage, Li Lan has just finished her visit with the medium and is reflecting on the stark differences between religious and funeral traditions in Malaysia. She considers how, though death is the same for everyone, these traditions so frequently remain distinct from one another. She expresses some regret or sadness at this fact, thinking that perhaps if they shared more than just the tales of hauntings and ghosts with one another, they may all be able to view death and what comes after with less fear and more hope.

“I told myself all that I wanted was oblivion, to sleep and forget. I told myself this even as I gulped it down, gasping at the bitter taste. Now, in retrospect, I asked myself why did I do that? Why didn’t I wait for Amah to come back, to prepare it for me as carefully as she would surely have done? I was angry, despairing, and careless. But I truly don’t think I meant to die.”

Li Lan not only continues to be haunted by Lim Tian Ching, but she has also just learned that the object of her affection, Tian Bai, has entered into a marriage agreement with another woman. At this moment, she feels at her lowest and claims to want to use the mixture provided by the medium to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. However, the final line of this passage suggests that Li Lan is not fully aware of her emotional state. Though she says she did not intend to die, this moment implies that she may have been hoping for more than just sleep as a means of escaping her situation.

“Madam Lim nodded absently, but as she turned away, Yan Hong shot her a look of pure, unguarded hatred. Surprised, I followed her upstairs into a bedroom, despite my anxiety about leaving. Bolting the door, she lifted the lid of a heavy wooden chest. At the very bottom of the chest was a cloth-wrapped bundle. Yan Hong wavered for a moment, then untied the knots as though she felt compelled to check something. She unrolled a corner and paused with a sigh of relief. Swiftly she wrapped it up again, but not before I had glimpsed the discolored rim of a celadon teacup.”

This passage reveals a great deal to Li Lan about Yan Hong’s true feelings and her possible connection to her half-brother’s death. Although she has up until this point been kind and helpful, her disdainful glance at Madam Lim highlights that their relationship may not be a very positive one. Moreover, the fact that Yan Hong has hidden Lim Tian Ching’s teacup is incriminating evidence that she may have had a hand in his death—and that the rumors that he was poisoned may be more than the idle gossip of servants. This is a key moment for Li Lan that further motivates her to determine just what happened to Lim Tian Ching though doing so may come at a great risk to her.

“Yes, yes. Of course, we are still very much in the living plane. And you also see these cobblestones beneath our feet an, and the moonlight shining on this fountain. This is not really the afterlife, my dear. It is merely the very tail end of living. From here we all go on.”

These words are spoken by the ghost of an old Dutch man, when Li Lan is shocked that he is able to see and hear her. She is surprised that, though they are of different faith and cultural backgrounds, they are able to coexist in the afterlife. The Dutch man explains that the realm where they currently find themselves is more like a stopping point, rather than the actual afterlife. It bridges the planes of the living and the dead. His explanation highlights the tensions and connections between life and death, which is an overarching theme throughout the course of the novel.

“Old Wong wrinkled his brow: ‘I can see ghosts. Have been able to since I was a boy. Some people are born with it; others acquire it through spiritual practice. In my case I didn’t realize for a long time that many of the people I saw weren’t alive.’”

Li Lan learns that Old Wong has spiritual powers that enable to speak with ghosts, and although Li Lan is not a true ghost yet, this allows her to communicate with another being in the living plane. This presents a new perspective on the character of Old Wong, who has until this point been portrayed as a skeptic who rolls his eyes at ghost stories and superstitions. In fact, he is keenly aware of how close death is to all of them but has elected to keep his abilities a secret, rather than drawing unwanted attention to himself and the ghosts he might encounter.

“I noticed a girl who did not look quite Chinese. She was about my age, with a distinctive, almost foreign appearance. Her heavy-lidded dark eyes and creamy complexion with olive undertones reminded me of orchids grown in the shade. As she turned to the woman beside her, I noticed three small moles on the pale skin of her neck.”

In this quotation, Li Lan is observing a young woman who is a fixture of Tian Bai’s dream, in which he is remembering his time as a student in Hong Kong. The prominence of this young woman in the dream, the fact that she draws both Li Lan’s and Tian Bai’s attention, suggests she was a significant person in Tian Bai’s life. Her beauty also makes her stand out: Li Lan picks up on many details of her appearance, which are evidently things that Tian Bai himself remembers, which contributes to a feeling of insecurity and jealousy in Li Lan. She is curious about the nature of Tian Bai’s relationship with this woman.

“The man in the bamboo hat was wearing Han clothing. That is to say, he wore a robe tied crossover, the left over the right, and bound by a broad sash. Beneath it he wore loose trousers and boots. I recognized the garb because it was used in books, paintings, and historic plays.”

Li Lan is remarking on the strangeness of Er Lang’s appearance. In this moment, she has not yet met him or realized who he is, so she believes he must be a particularly odd human who is fixated on the Lims for an unknown reason. However, the historic nature of his clothing and the fact that it looks so out of place points to the fact that he is not human and, indeed, not of this world. That like an actor in a play, he is playing a part of some kind.

“But if another uprising were to upset the spiritual balance of this world, it wouldn’t just be natural disasters that occurred. The moral equilibrium will slip and shift so that nations will turn their thoughts to war. The world may yet burn from China to Europe, and even in the jungles of Malaya.”

Er Lang is explaining to Li Lan the gravity of his investigation into the corruption in the Courts of Hell. He notes that in the past, when issues of the afterlife have spilled over into the land of the living, they have manifested as natural disasters. This time, however, the depth of the conflict in Hell is so great that there is a risk of a great conflict occurring in the world of the living as well. The statement that the war would stretch “from China to Europe” is meant to evoke World War II, which will not occur for several more decades, but which will certainly affect nearly every nation, including the colonial outpost of Malaysia.

“A strong wind buffeted me, stirring up the leaves and branches in a whirling maelstrom. I closed my eyes against this onslaught and when I opened them again, Er Lang was gone. Far off in the night sky I saw a streak of light undulating like an eel in the ocean, but it passed so swiftly that I wondered whether I had imagined it.”

This quote provides the first clue for Li Lan and the reader that Er Lang is not a human being and not of this earthly plane. He is able to vanish in a strong burst of wind, pointing to the fact that he has great powers at his disposal. After his disappearance, Li Lan notices a strange light in the sky that, based on its size and movements, is something bestial and mythical, which foreshadows the eventual revelation that Er Lang is a great loong or dragon of Chinese lore.

“‘The first time I saw all these flowers, I thought it was paradise,’ [Fan] said. Clearly, things appeared differently to her. I kept my own observations to myself.”

Li Lan, with Fan as her guide, has entered the Plains of the Dead, where she is shocked to see a vast and barren wasteland stretching before her. To her surprise, Fan remarks on the beauty of the landscape in front of her. This is the first inclination that Li Lan has that she can see “the unseen” or at very least that, based on her unique position as someone who is not quite dead, that she can perceive things differently than other ghosts and spirits, which may work to her advantage.

“The streets became increasingly familiar in a strange way. Part of them looked nothing like what I remembered, yet there was a spatial recognition, some trick of proportion that sang out to me.”

In this passage, Li Lan is describing her experience trying to navigate the streets of the city of Malacca in the Plains of the Dead. She notes how easy it is to get lost because this cityscape is different from its counterpart in the material plane. At the same time, it is both foreign and familiar, giving it an uncanny quality that allows her to eventually find her way, using a kind of memory or instinct. This description of this city of the dead points out the uncomfortable relationship between life and the afterlife by highlighting that death is strange and new while also entirely familiar.

“The Lim family. All paths led back to their door. Our destinies seemed darkly tangled, and for the first time I considered the burden of the Buddhist Wheel of reincarnation. Groaning beneath its weight, individual lives were forced to play out a farce time and time again.”

In this passage, Li Lan has just learned that her connection to the Lim family goes much further than her former betrothal to Tian Bai and Lim Tian Ching’s obsession with her. Her mother was once the object of Lim Teck Kiong’s affection, but she rejected him, forcing him to marry her cousin instead. Thus, Li Lan considers the notion of fate once again, wondering if her life was always meant to intersect with the Lims and that her own story is one that has repeated itself in some way throughout generations.

“We’re technically the privileged ones, who can spend some time enjoying the fruits of filial piety before going on to judgment at the courts. Still, we don’t use our true names, understand? My grandchildren want to think I’m enjoying an afterlife of leisure and I want to preserve that illusion. So no names.”

The head cook of the Lim family’s ancestral home in the afterlife is explaining to Li Lan the systems in place in the land of the dead. Because his family has burned offerings dedicated to him, he is able to spend time in the Plains of the Dead, but he, like many others, has taken a job in the meantime. In order to ensure that the living don’t somehow discover that the land of the dead is not all relaxation and decadence, they’ve instituted a policy of anonymity. No one shares who they are or what family they’re from, which works to Li Lan’s benefit, as her true identity must remain undetected in order for her to be an effective spy for Er Lang.

“The whole place was burdened with an outdated ambience that I barely saw in Malaya. I wondered what the afterlives of Sikhs, Tamils, Malays, and Arab traders were like. Indeed, what was the Catholic paradise? For some reason, Tian Bai’s dream of the Portuguese girl Isabel Souza crossed my mind. If she died, I thought, did she have to scuttle around the grounds of a hostile mansion like this? I had my doubts.”

Li Lan is reflecting in this moment on the many and varied versions of the afterlife that must exist, especially in as diverse and multicultural a place as Malaysia. She also notes that whatever afterlives exist, they must be mere echoes of the land of the living, not unlike the way that the Lim ancestral home is an unfamiliar version of their home in the material plane. This passage also indicates that Tian Bai is still at the forefront of Li Lan’s mind in spite of all that has occurred. She is still also experiencing jealousy from Tian Bai’s attentions to Isabel in his dream. She is even envious of Isabel’s death, as Isabel would not be subjected to the same harrowing experiences that she is currently facing.

“Despite myself, I colored. When Lim Tian Ching had complimented me, I had merely felt revulsion, but praise from Er Lang made my chest flutter unexpectedly.”

Er Lang has arrived to help Li Lan escape from Lim Tian Ching’s bedchamber and he tells her that she is much more attractively dressed than she was the last time he saw her. Although his comment is marked by his haughty and teasing demeanor, Li Lan feels pleasure knowing that he has noticed her. This moment hints at Li Lan’s growing feelings toward Er Lang, as well as his own affection for her, though he attempts to hide this fact with smug and sarcastic remarks.

“‘You don’t need me. Li Lan,’ she said. ‘You’re no longer a child. But you must go now. If they catch you it will all be for naught. Don’t let them capture you!’”

Li Lan has finally learned that Auntie Three, and not the Second Wife of the Lim household, is, in fact, her mother. She begs her to ride away with her and escape the Lim mansion, pleading that she needs her, but her mother assures her that she no longer needs her help. By noting that Li Lan is no longer a young girl, Li Lan’s mother highlights how much Li Lan has grown and changed over the course of the novel. Further, even though part of her goal was to find her mother, Li Lan is more than capable of surviving without her—and perhaps has been capable of doing so for quite some time.

“‘If I remove [my hat], you will never treat me the same way again.’ His tone was so serious that I was afraid I had offended him.”

After Er Lang is injured helping Li Lan escape from the Plains of the Dead, he is reluctant to show Li Lan his true face. Li Lan assumes that he must have scars or be “monstrous” to look at, when in fact this moment foreshadows that Li Lan will soon learn Er Lang’s true form is a mythical dragon. Later, gazing upon his features does fundamentally change their relationship because it will cause Li Lan to be more attracted to and have stronger feelings for him.

“I wanted to say something, to question him further about Yan Hong. But as soon as he uttered those words, the dream broke and I was falling, twisting, despite my best attempts, until I found myself staring down at Tian Bai’s sleeping face once more.”

As Li Lan visits Tian Bai in his dream on her way back to her family’s home in Malacca, she notices that it is surprisingly difficult for her to maintain the shape and scope of the dream. While this is partly because Tian Bai recognizes that he must be dreaming, Li Lan still observes that she is unable to shape and control the dream world around her the way she could before. This experience, coupled with the information that Tian Bai shared about their engagement, created a feeling of dread for Li Lan. It is evident that something has happened to Li Lan’s body in the material plane that is affecting the actions of her spirit.

“It isn’t necessarily a good thing, but you’ll see all of the next century, and I think it will be an interesting one.”

Er Lang reveals to Li Lan that, in giving her his qi to sustain her life, he has in fact given her an extraordinarily long life. He notes that this may be viewed as either good or bad, a blessing or a curse. Nonetheless, he assures Li Lan that in the course of her long life she will witness many “interesting” and even amazing things. In referencing the “next century,” Er Lang is referring to the 20th century, which will indeed be noteworthy, as Li Lan will live to see multiple wars, Malaysia’s independence, and astonishing technological advancements.

“Tian Bai touched my hair briefly. His calm demeanor, his ability to handle difficult situations; these were all qualities that I admired. He would be a good husband, levelheaded and dependable.”

As the end of the novel approaches, Li Lan is faced with a difficult decision: to marry either Tian Bai or Er Lang. Despite the clear passion she feels toward Er Lang, this quote indicates that she is still enamored with Tian Bai, at least to some degree. Perhaps most importantly, she recognizes that he is, above all else, a good man who will take good care of her. He represents responsibility and familial devotion, both of which are ideals that Li Lan once found extremely important in her own life, ideals that she considered a priority for her marriage and her happiness.