Introduction
To learn about the expectations for marriage in socialist China, we turn to two stories written before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fully took power.
“The Marriage of Young Blacky” is a short story by Zhao Shuli created in response to Mao’s talks at Yan'an. It tells of how a young couple, Qin and Young Blacky, reject arranged marriages set up by their traditionalist parents, Third Fairy and Liu the Sage respectively, and marry each other with the help of the newly established Communist government. The White-Haired Girl is an opera, which was later produced as a ballet by the Shanghai Dance Academy, written by Ho Ching-chih and Ting Yi that tells of a young girl, Xi’er, who is taken from her home as a concubine by a landlord, Huang, and forced to work in slave-like conditions. She escapes into the mountains, and her hair turns white from hiding during the day and a lack of salt in her diet. Xi’er returns to society and reunites with her lover, Dachun, when the Communist army finds her and overthrows the landlord. In this page, we will analyze how these pieces communicate expectations that personal choice should replace traditional motivations for marriage. Since these two pieces were endorsed by the CCP and are thus inextricably tied to politics, we will also examine how promoting choice in marriage was expected to contribute to the revolutionary cause. |
Motivations for Marriage
Through portraying characters who follow traditional marriage practices as foolish and cruel, both stories convey factors that should not motivate marriage.
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In “The Marriage of Young Blacky,” Third Fairy and Liu focus on traditional values of superstition and money when arranging marriages. For example, the repeated mention of Qin’s would-be husband’s wealth and the lavish engagement gifts he sends implies Third Fairy deems him an acceptable husband because he is rich. She also convinces her husband to support this arranged marriage by declaring it “ordained by heaven” while pretending to be overtaken by a spirit (Zhao 97). Meanwhile, Liu first considers a twelve-year-old girl as a potential bride because taking her in is “a good bargain” financially, and he later confirms this choice by checking the girl’s horoscope matches Young Blacky’s (102-103). Rather than being portrayed as a concerned father, repeated shaming about the foolishness of his beliefs overshadow Liu's worries about his son's future. For example, when he claims that Qin and Young Blacky will “be miserable all their lives” if they married because their horoscopes don’t align, it causes him to be reprimanded by Communist officials and be called a “muddle-head” (103). By ending the piece with the young couple and villagers laughing and teasing the parents about their superstitious beliefs, the story further emphasizes the foolishness of the parents' old traditional views.
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In addition to discouraging superstition and money as motivators for marriage, The White-Haired Girl discourages forced relationships through its negative portrayal of concubinage. When Xi'er's father is unable to repay his debt, Xi'er is taken as a concubine by Landlord Huang as compensation, and her new husband is depicted as excessively inhumane, cruel, and greedy. Viewers witness scenes of abuse, ranging from rape to whipping and even pouring boiling soup on Xi’er’s head, and are taught to associate non-consensual relationships with misery and suffering. In doing so, the story also places much of the blame on the anti-communist bourgeois, such as members from the landlord class. When Huang is brought to justice by the Communist army, the CCP shows that previously accepted aspects of marriage, like coercive relationships and having concubines, should be a thing of the past.
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“The Marriage of Young Blacky” builds on this idea by demonstrating that motivation for relationships and marriage should be based on mutual love and consent. This is seen most clearly through explicit statements from villagers and Communist government officials in the story. For example, the villagers state that “there’s no reason why Blacky shouldn’t fall in love with someone else” and that “nobody should interfere” when Young Blacky continues his relationship with Qin after his father plans for him to marry another girl (Zhao 95). CCP officials further signal the parents’ traditional beliefs are outdated when they reprimand Third Fairy and Liu stating, “Today people choose their own partner” and “if Young Blacky and Qin want to get married, they can whether [the parents] agree or not” (102-103).
These ideas of love and consent are further reflected in the couple’s behavior as they openly reject their arranged marriages and plan to marry without their parents’ consent. Qin goes so far as to throw her arranged marriage engagement gifts on the floor and declares she “won’t have any part of them” (96). Rather than describe Qin as a disrespectful daughter for not obeying her parent as traditional values of filial piety may have done, Zhao Shuli expresses this is a reasonable response, commenting that it is only natural Qin would not listen to her mother’s plans for arranged marriage (96). |
How Marriage is Used
Through the presence and absence of marriage, both pieces showcase how the CCP’s push for greater freedom in marriage is expected to help in the revolutionary cause.
In “The Marriage of Young Blacky,” there is little mention of love and attraction when characters voice support for Qin and Young Blacky’s marriage. Instead, most arguments center on the couple’s right to choose each other. This suggests their marriage is not meant to be seen as merely the consequence of two individuals loving each other but rather, is symbolic of the greater freedoms the CCP advocated. Previously, parents and families possessed the most decision-making power in marriage instead of the individual. Given the chaos that accompanies the couple’s journey to marrying each other and how the process reforms the traditionalist parents, it is clear that discouraging forced marriage can be a means to disrupt traditional systems of power. Rejecting arranged marriages becomes a form of rebellion, and Qin and Young Blacky’s use of this freedom to marry someone of their choice signals a complete triumph over tradition. To make this more meaningful, Qin and Young Blacky are the children of the village’s two most superstitious individuals. This image of a new generation breaking free from old patterns and behaviors mirror hopes for the new generation in China to similarly break free from tradition as the CCP comes to power.
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The White-Haired Girl demonstrates a different way the CCP thought providing choice in marriage would support the revolution. Xi’er and Dachun have a more ambiguous ending as there is no wedding scene. Instead, the ballet ends with them marching together in the army. If one assumes they got married, the absence of a wedding and the inclusion of them marching together would reflect a careful choice to not have individual love draw attention away from the revolution. If one assumes they chose not to get married, it could be interpreted that the two recognized each other as comrades before lovers and chose loving the nation above all else. In either case, The White-Haired Girl showcases how freedom from forced marriages does not necessarily mean more space for individual love but instead frees citizens to love the nation more.
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