Wild Swans Chapter 2 Flashcards

1933-1938

Yu-fang's parents should take her back.

He became rich and well connected, and was promoted to deputy chief of the Yixian police.

<p>His immediate boss gifted him a Mongolian woman when he was promoted.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Women were treated as mere sexual objects and possessions. They were objectified and second-class citizens.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Having multiple concubines established a man's status in the society.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Her mother and sister Lan were resented by her father who looked at them as a burden.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Yu-fang was considered an additional burden by her father. She was also considered a jinx and ill-luck as she lost her husband early in life.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>As a legal wife, she was superior to them. Moreover, she gave birth to a son, which meant all the wealth and property would go to him after Yang's death.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Women were restricted to the private space of homes. Enforced monogamy for women and polygamy for men led to struggles for power within the households. Women derived their power through association and favor of the man of the house.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They stepped up the psychological warfare by alienating her in her own house.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She was stronger than her mother. The hardships of the past decade had toughened her up. Even her father was in awe of her. She had decided to fight for herself and her mother.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She was a concubine, and her social status was low. Moreover, only the poor men were proposing marriage, which was beneath Yang's expectation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She wanted to escape the spitefulness and petty vengefulness of the concubine world which was a choice between either victimizing or being a victim.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Yu-fang had a nervous breakdown because of the constant pressure to marry that was built by her father.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He was stunned by her beauty and hurriedly backed out of the room.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She was able to open up her heart and pour out her grief. She felt understood like never before.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He wanted to marry Yu-fang and also bring up her daughter as his own.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He was a well-known traditional Oriental doctor, known for his kindness as he treated the poor for free.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They were older than her in age, and yet they would be required to respect her and kowtow to her, according her the venerable status on par with her husband.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Yu-fang had been a concubine, and the age gap between Dr.Xia and her was disturbing for them. Moreover, the fact that they would have to do obeisance to someone of inferior status was not agreeable to the sons.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They tried to evoke the ethnic differences between the two as an indirect factor for not marrying her.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They considered it irresponsible and even thought he was going senile.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>If she was taken only as a concubine, she would lose status in society and his household, and she would be a mere slave.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She appealed to her better instincts with a percept from the sage rather than directly saying no.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>When all forms of appeals failed, the older son began to abuse Yu-fang and defame her, which angered Dr.Xia and he hit him with his walking stick.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He felt humiliated, and to regain face within the household, he shot himself. He probably had not meant to kill himself but just to make a dramatic gesture. But he died.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A woman could not just walk into a man's house; this would imply a severe loss of status. She had to be seen to be taken, to denote the requisite reluctance.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Yu-fang had to sit on a kang, motionless and alone, for hours, facing the window observing the double happiness paper cut symbolizing the absence of restlessness that was deemed to be an essential quality for a woman.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He would be celebrating with his guests.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>1935</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Dr.Xia could never talk about pain or sorrow that he felt for his son's death. He could not share it with Yu-fang as Chinese men were supposed to be stoic and bear it all.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She felt alienated and stifled as strict Manchurian practices were followed which did not allow her to have freedom with her husband. Neither did the other members treat her well except for paying her the required respect during the rituals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It reveals the importance of status and symbolic gestures of status that men held in esteem in Chinese society.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>While it was the time of real measure of freedom for the first time, it also had a degree of entrapment.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>De-hong - Hong meaning 'wild swan' and De - the generation name meaning 'virtue'. She also took on the surname of Dr.Xia.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She was bullied by all the younger members and many times physically abused. She was even pushed into a dry well which led to her having a broken hip and a permanent slight limp.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'Big Old Lee' - Dr.Xia's coachman and some pets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He told her many animal lore and also how to survive wild animal attacks.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He decided to break up the extended family. He distributed his wealth among his children and moved to Jinzhou city in 1936 with Yu-fang and De-hong.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Jinzhou was a strategic city in controlling Manchuria. The seizure of it became the focus of major diplomatic dispute between Japan and the United States resulting finally in Pearl Harbour ten years later.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>There was no custom of husband and wife taking walks. Moreover, her bound feet made walking a miserable experience for her.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She experienced liberty from the rituals for the first time, made friends which was something new for her, and had the love of her husband with her daughter.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Women would gather and play tunes which consisted of simple, repetitive notes and rhythms and they would make up the lyrics as they went along. The married women sang about their sex lives, and the virgins asked questions about it. Being illiterate, women used this method to learn about the facts of life. Through their singing, they also talked about their lives and their husbands, passing on gossips.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Home visits allowed doctors to be paid directly. Moreover, they were given handsome rewards if the patients were grateful.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He prescribed medicines for both the governor and his wife and 13 concubines. Several of them became pregnant.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>1937</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He was a member of Zai-li-bui (Society of Reason) and so never touched alcohol or tobacco. He subscribed to the theory that a man over 65 should not ejaculate. He took cold showers even in -10 degrees F. He refused to take medicines as he believed it only cured a part of the body while having side effects.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She was excited by the festivals which came once a month as the Chinese had no concept of workday weeks and only took a break when the holidays came.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>People were poor under the Japanese invasions, and only on festivals was meat in reasonably abundant supply at home, allowing De-hong to satisfy her stomach.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A statue of a woman being sawed by two men in half. She was being sawed by the two men because she was a widow who remarried and therefore, was the property of both men.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They were frightened of being divided into two in their afterlife and so did not remarry. Some of them even committed suicide to avoid remarrying.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It revealed women's status in society and the difficulty that her mother faced in making a decision to marry Dr.Xia.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'Big Old Lee' - Dr.Xia's coachman and some pets.</p> Signup and view all the answers