Friday, February 24, 2012

Arranged Does Not Mean Without Love

I found it interesting that Mrs. Spring Fragrance views herself in a very subordinate role to her husband, but also has a very loving marriage. The typical view of arranged marriages is that they are essentially loveless, but Sui Sin Far pushes against that with her discreetly defensive view of traditional Chinese marriages. The character of Mrs. Spring Fragrance completely accepts her inferior role as a traditional Chinese wife, but is in no way unhappy about it. For instance, Mrs. Spring Fragrance signs her telegraph “your ever loving and obedient woman” as well as calling her husband part of a “superior sex” (509). However, shortly after she says that “there was never a husband so good and kind as hers” (509). Many Western readers, or “Americans” as they are generally called in this story, would look on this as an impossible combination, but Far shows repeatedly that Mrs. Spring Fragrance is totally in love with Mr. Spring Fragrance and he with her. Also, Sui Sin Far almost challenges a judging reader by showing them how accepting Mrs. Spring Fragrance is of American “love marriage” traditions. If she can be so open to other ideas, can Americans not be accepting to hers? I found this juxtaposition very interesting and telling to the author’s view.

4 comments:

  1. This is a very interesting question to address, and I think it's interesing to explore the dynamics of how American values clash with Chinese values, and why there cannot be an accepting happy medium between them. It's like what I am studying for my Capstone project involving methods of argumentation, how in Western culture, we are so quick to want to counteract our opponent that we completely miss the compromise point. Very interesting!

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  2. I agree, but i think that this story shows a great example of a compromise in culture. I think that maybe Far is trying to show that hybridization happens all the time and is able to work by people willing to try.

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  3. Well said, Amelia. This is a terrific post.

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  4. I second Kyla's point. Sui Sin Far's story works so well, gets at the "blending" point between cultures that both Amelia and Ashley talk about in their posts, by showing how motivated, self-assured people like Mrs. Spring Fragrance make culture work for THEM-- which, interestingly, is what I would call a very traditionally American--enterprising, individualist (and perhaps masculine?--way of being in the world.

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