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The play "Golden Child" written by David Henry Hwang and directed by James Lapine is put on by the American Conservatory Theater. It is an intriguing story told by the ghost "Ma" who remembers her childhood events when the western culture invaded her tradition bound Chinese home.
As a child, "Ma" lived in the harem with her mother and two other wives of the master of the village. There is a old Chinese saying -- "three women make a play." Recently there has been a number of stories, movies and soap-operas that depict the harems of old China. Since there is no more harem in China, the mysteries surronding it are a surefire way of intriguing the audience. "Golden Child" is another harem story with three women locked in a deadly power straggle because the husband has accepted western Christianity and only one of them will remain as the wife. This is my first impression of the play. On this level, it is simply an exotic story from far away and long ago. However, there are three points that stuck in my mind long after the play was over. They represent three aspects of the old Chinese culture: family, religion, and tradition.
In American I often hear such cliche as "family is the core of society." In Chinese tradition, family is everything in a person's life and it provides everything. When one is young, the parents provide food, clothing, job, friends and marriage partners. When one is old, the family cares for him. The family stands together and provides safe heaven to every member. In exchange for all the protection, everyone's primary responsibility in life is to honor and protect the "face" or maintain the good apparence of the family. This responsibility includes: honor the ancestors, obey the olders, appear honorably and dignified in front of others, treat the guests with hospitality. In most villages in China, parts of this tradition are still preserved and practiced. In the village where I grow up, many peasants will sell significant portion of their food to provide a feast for their guests. To treat the guest with everyday food is considered disrespectful and the host loses "face." This kind of hospitality warms the heart of everyone who has ever experienced it.
The conflicts depicted in "Golden Child" also let us peek into another aspect of the complex family dynamic of old China. For a rich man, it is common for him to have many wives. According to the tradition only the first wife is considered as the mistress of the family. The rest are pretty much treated as high status servants though they may have servants themselves. Consequently, the children bore by those wives often do not enjoy the same privilege as the children of the first wife. Most of these conflicts have been depicted in other stories, for example, "raising the red lantern." The particular conflict depicted in "Golden Child" is caused by the introduction of Christianity into the family. In the process of the converting to Christianity, the master of the family must choose the "one-and-only" wife. This is sure to cause enough drama to capture the everyone's attention.
***A Chinese family is bound together by blood and honor and responsibility.
***A Chinese family is bound together by blood and honor and responsibility. This core value of family life is questioned by the hero of the play. The cause of the doubt is the result of contacts with Christianity. According to Christian doctrine, a man is to leave his parents and bound with a woman. What hold this family together is the love of God and the love between the man and the wife. In most Chinese marriages, "love" is not of the primary concern though as far as I can tell most Chinese appreciates a good love story just as much as any one else. The master has decided to convert to Christianity. Now his marriage must be based on a completely new concept. However, the choice is not in the hand of our hero.
Religion is a big part of the plot, however, I found this subject has been treated very superficially. In "Golden Child", all four main characters repeated praying to their deceased parents. They offer money, food and servants to their dead parents. There is even a scene where a mother scares a child by telling her if she does not do what is asked, her children will not offer her anything after her death. After the play, I was left with a very strong impression that Chinese people are parent-worshipping superstitious primitives. If this was the intend of the play writer, he has done a wonderful job. However, if he intended to say something about the the state of the religion in old China, he is only managed to show a simple stereotype. The dominant religious practice might be parent worshipping in some part of the country, but I couldn't believe that is the only thing the writer was able to come up with. The old tradition calls for a three year of morning after the death of a parent. In my own observation, I have seen ceremonies for the first 49 days following the death. This is supposed to the time taken by the dead to travel to their place in heaven. After that, the soul of the dead may reincarnate. After reincarnation, the soul is supposed to lose all memory of its previous life and therefore is unable to answer any prey. This belief or variations of it has long existed and even survived the oppression of the communist for more than thirty years. After the communist lift the ban on religion, the practice of ancestor worshipping is still quite common in China. The main forms of organized religion is Buddhism and Taoism in old China. At the moment, Christianity might have more followers than any other in parts of China.
Chinese has a long history. Traditions passed from generation to generation and everyone has the responsibility of preserving the traditions and passing it on. This certainly has been a stabilizing factor in the history of China. Calamities have often fall on the Chinese. For example, many times the outside forces have taken over the middle kingdom and every time the Chinese people survived and managed to keep moving on. One particular tradition is called to question in the play -- modesty.
***A Chinese person is to be modest under all circumstance.
***A Chinese person is to be modest under all circumstance. It is the way to show respects. There are many rules and taboos related to this. For example, there are special terms for one to refer to his own family member. In contrast, much nicer terms are used to refer to the listener's family. The subtlety and complexity is evident in most ancient writings. The play has many hilarious moments where this modesty is carried out to the uttermost extreme. Western culture puts more emphasis on a good self-image. In fact, morden American culture has put so much emphasis on maintain a good self-image, I seldom hear people has any humble words about himself. It is difficult to be humble and maintain a good self-image. Nevertheless, it is a virtue not only called for by Chinese tradition by also called for by Christianity and other belief systems. Watching the play and laughing with the audience made me somehow feel better about this tradition.
Chinese are also practical people. Near the end of the play, "Ma" advise her father, I paraphrase, "Papa, You should go back to Malina (where his business located), if your business fail, whichever god you believe is not going to help you." Chinese are survivors. In the last 150 years, there are particularly many turmoils and tragedies for Chinese people. Even on this land of freedom, Chinese has suffered prejudice and discrimination [1] [2]. For the most part, we suffered quietly. This is also part of the tradition. When we achieve great things, we are to be modest and not talk about it. When we suffer, we are to be dignified and not talk about it either. It is very exciting to see a play finally talking about these.
Many of us are too busy with our daily activities and total neglect to tell our neighbors about our values and believes. It is about the time that someone stands up and says something -- not to seek conversion only to seek understanding. I applaud David Henry Hwang and other Chinese American writers for their effort of exploring our roots and educate us all in the process. I will keep my eyes open for more thought provoking discussions on China.
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