1. Why did she jump into the well？
China has a historic “well” culture. In Chinese characters, well is 井, belonging to hieroglyphs. From the outline of this character, we can feel its metaphorical meaning of confinement—there are visible walls around, and there is no exit—which could be used to symbolize women’s situation at old times.
Jumping into the well has been preferred by Chinese women of old times, no matter in literature or in real life, to end their lives when they suffered from unequal treatment, or when there was no way out for them. Some Chinese women jumped into the well to prove their innocence, to prove they were as clean and pure as the well water; while others jumped into the well because they had no way to escape, only the well could shelter their souls and wash off their sins.
Is the “no name woman” innocent? At least her baby girl is innocent. The well was the safest place when they were surrounded by the terrible traditions and villagers.
2. What is the meaning of splattering blood of the chickens around the “no name woman”?
In China, there are some superstitious sayings that the blood of animals, usually the blood of black dogs, could help the ghost catchers beat the ghosts. Splattering blood of chickens is also regarded as a protection against evil spirits. In the past, Chinese people sprinkled the chicken blood in front of the door in Dragon Boat Festival to protect their houses from the ghosts.
In the story, one woman “swung a chicken, whose throat she had slit, splattering blood in red arcs about her”, which showed that the “no name woman” was treated as a ghost, or an evil thing by the villagers.
3. What is the relation between the freckle on the chin and fortune in Chinese culture?
In the story, the writer imagined that her aunt dug out a freckle on her chin "with a hot needle and washed the wound with peroxide", because it was "at a spot that the almanac said predestined her for unhappiness".
In China, some old people could tell people‘s fortune from their faces. The freckles on different places of people's bodies have different meanings.
The right picture is taken from a beauty salon. Nowadays some Chinese people still believe in the relation between the position of freckles and fortune. Therefore, they'll go to hospitals or beauty salons to dig out the freckle if it has bad meaning.
The black spots on the girl's face show the bad fortune, while the red ones show good fortune. Around the chin, there are 8 spots, which have different meanings. From left to right, they separately represent disastrous love affair, good fortune in food, wisdom, benefit, richness, food, bringing good fortune to husband, and blessings.
No comments:
Post a Comment