Shen Cogen’s works The Husband and Xiao Xiao tell the stories of a young woman and a girl who were born into poverty and live out the destination that is designed for them by Chinese traditions. A remarkable thing that unites both works is that the Chinese customs seem to doom and leave no good choice for female characters. However, due to their own will or due to external factors, both women find a way to avoid their unfavorable fate and realize a vision of life in some way. Hence, the paper discusses that both stories can be considered feminist as they show the example of how women can empower themselves and avoid the fate that was destined for them by cultural customs.
The short story The Husband tells the story of a woman who was working in a boat brothel on the river. She came from a rural area, where it was impossible to earn good money and provide a sufficient life. Hence, many women from farms went to work at the brothel at a very young age and gave part of their business profits to their husbands. The name of the woman in The Husband is unknown as she is referred to as a Seventh Maid.
The events of the story unravel when the husband of the story’s main characters comes to visit. He wants to discuss their family matters with her, but customers, who come drunk and aggressive, constantly distract his wife. This upsets both the husband and the wife, as they have no control over their lives and their family matters, and in the end, the wife decides to take all the cash left by two drunken soldiers and leave the brothel together with her husband. This story does not give a detailed view of the reasoning behind this decision but shows how the woman uses the power of her will to escape the business and live her life as she wants it.
In Xiao Xiao, the main protagonist is an eleven-year-old girl, who is orphaned, but was married to a two-year-old baby from a wealthy family as a child bride. This was one of the traditional ways in Chinese society. Due to her young age, Xiao Xiao is naïve and innocent, which makes her vulnerable to the advances of Motley Mutt, who was a farmhand on the family’s property. As a result, he rapes and impregnates her, which is considered adultery, since her marriage with the family’s baby was arranged.
According to Chinese customs, there were two ways in which Xiao Xiao’s fate was to be decided. “By rights, she should have been drowned, but only heads of families who have read their Confucius would do such a stupid thing to save the family’s honor…” was the first option and the second as to sell the girl off (Shen 42). However, the second option is not available because the girl is pregnant, and there are no buyers for her. Therefore, the family chose to keep the girl until she gave birth to a child. After Xiao Xiao gives birth to a baby boy, the family decides to keep them both and continue the marriage to the boy. Here, the faith of the woman is decided for her, and she is portrayed as rather a passive character who is not able to manage her life due to her young age.
Hence, both stories tell the stories of women and their vulnerability to the hardships of life. Society is portrayed in a way that is both supportive and oppressive towards women. For instance, in The Husband, the river warden who was the Seventh Maid’s Godfather was protective of her but still acted mostly in the interest of authorities or customers. The old woman who helped the Seventh Maid on the boat was also sympathetic to her as she also used to serve sexually to the customers. However, the customers themselves frequently threaten and disrespect the workers in the brothel, which makes the women suffer. And there is little they or the river warden can do to protect them from the abuse.
Same in the Xiao Xiao, the girl was a victim of rape, and there was nobody to protect her from it or express sympathy for that experience. Instead, she was at risk of suffering a punishment, one of which was being drowned for sinning. However, again, there is a place for forgiveness and understanding as the family decides not to obey Confucius’s teachings and keep the girl and her child alive and within.
In conclusion, Xiao Xiao and The Husband depict the injustice towards women that was present in Chinese society. However, the stories are rather optimistic as they provide readers with narratives of women who were able to avoid what was destined for them by their own will or by the will of the people that they depended on. Therefore, Shen Congen provided an insight into how oppressive society, in general, can be to women and that there is not much that the people can do to defend women from such social norms and customs.
Work Cited
Shen, Congwen, Zongwen Shen, and Tsung-wen Shen. Selected Stories of Shen Congwen. Chinese University Press, 2004.