Love in a Fallen City

“The Golden Cangue” is set in early 20th-century Shanghai, just before the end of the Qing dynasty. It opens with Feng-hsiao asleep in the servant’s quarters of the Chiang household. She is an enslaved girl who has been brought there by the newly arrived Third Mistress. Feng-hsiao talks with the personal maid of the Second Mistress, Little Shuang. Shuang tells her that the Second Mistress, Ch’i-ch’iao, comes from the Ts’ao family, who owns a sesame oil shop and is of a lower class than the Chiangs; despite this class difference, the marriage was approved because Second Master has a disability and the family needs someone to look after him. Little Shuang tells Feng-hsiao that Ch’i-ch’iao and Second Master have been married for five years with two children and that Ch’i-ch’iao’s brother is suspected of having stolen things from the house. Old Mrs. Chao tells them to stop gossiping and go to bed.

The next day, Feng-hsiao is helping Third Mistress Lan-hsien get dressed when Eldest Mistress Tai-chen comes in. She tells Third Mistress that Second Master and Ch’i-ch’iao smoke opium together. Third Mistress and Eldest Mistress Tai-chen wait outside Old Mistress’s room to greet her. While they wait, they help the second daughter, Yün-tse, crack walnuts. Ch’i-ch’iao arrives, complaining that her room is dark and that it is a burden to care for Second Master. Then, she tells Yün-tse that her hair is thinning. Ch’i-ch’iao goes in to talk to Old Mistress and Yün-tse overhears her telling Old Mistress they ought to marry Yün-tse off quickly. Yün-tse is upset by this.

Third Master Chiang Chi-tse arrives and eats a bunch of the shelled walnuts. Ch’i-ch’iao walks out and gives a backhanded compliment to Chi-tse about his new bride, commenting that it is good Chi-tse hasn’t “fooled around outside for a month or so” while aggressively giving his new wife, Lan-hsien, a shoulder massage (184). Lan-hsien gets offended and leaves. Ch’i-ch’iao complains to Chi-tse about having to look after his brother and begins to weep. She asks Chi-tse to sleep with her, but he turns her down and leaves.

Eldest Mistress Tai-chen returns and complains about how many walnuts Chi-tse has eaten. Little Shuang arrives and tells them that Ch’i-ch’iao’s brother and his wife are there. Ch’i-ch’iao goes to see her brother and tells him that he ruined her by marrying her to Second Master Chiang. She says, “You walked away just like that, but I couldn’t leave” (189). She tells them to leave, but eventually, they sit down and share family news. Ch’i-ch’iao gives them presents and tells them it is better if they don’t visit again. After they leave, her sister-in-law says Ch’i-ch’iao seems unstable. Ch’i-ch’iao reminisces about her life working at the family sesame oil factory.

Ten years later, Ch’i-ch’iao’s husband and Old Mistress have died. The Ninth Old Master, her husband’s uncle, is there to divide up the family estate. Ch’i-ch’iao, her son, Ch’ang-pai, and her daughter, Ch’ang-an, do not get as much as they hoped for. They move out of the family home and do not see the Chiang family very often. One day, Chi-tse comes to visit. Ch’i-ch’iao assumes he is there to borrow money. He tells her that he hasn’t seen his wife in some time. He confesses that he spent so much time outside of the house because he was so attracted to Ch’i-ch’iao that he couldn’t stand to be home with her. Ch’i-ch’iao admits to herself that she had married into the Chiang family because of her love for Chi-tse. Chi-tse tries to talk her into selling some land. Ch’i-ch’iao thinks he is trying to swindle her out of her money, so she spills plum juice on him and tries to fight him until he runs off.

As the months go by, Ch’i-ch’iao’s behavior becomes more erratic. Before Chinese New Year, her nephew, Ts’ao Ch’un-his, comes to visit. She catches him playing around with her daughter, Ch’ang-an, and screams at him to get out of the house. As Ch’i-ch’iao smokes opium, she tells her daughter that now she is turning 13 she should know that “men are all rotten without exception” (207). She decides to bind Ch’ang-an’s feet even though it is no longer the fashion. After about a year, she stops, but the damage has already been done.

Ch’ang-an is sent to a boarding school, where she is constantly losing her things in the laundry. Ch’i-ch’iao says she is going to yell at the school administrators, so to save face in front of her friends and teachers, Ch’ang-an tells her mother she prefers to drop out of school. She spends more time at home and becomes more like her mother.

Ch’ang-pai is quickly married to a girl named Chih-shou after he starts going to sex work establishments with his uncle, Chi-tse. At the wedding and afterward, Ch’i-ch’iao criticizes the bride relentlessly. One night, Ch’ang-pai spends the whole evening telling Ch’i-ch’iao negative things about Chih-shou. She tells the gossip to the other women, including Chih-shou’s mother, the next day over mah-jongg. Ch’ang-pai spends the next two nights in his mother’s room doing the same thing. Chih-shou becomes very depressed. His mother gets him a concubine, Chüan-erh, to discourage him from going to sex work establishments and convinces him to smoke opium with her. When Ch’ang-an gets dysentery at the age of 24, Ch’i-ch’iao doesn’t take her to the doctor but rather tells her to smoke opium, and Ch’ang-an develops an addiction.

At 30, Ch’ang-an’s cousin, Chi-tse’s daughter Ch’ang-hsing, sets her up with a man named T’ung Shih-fang. Meanwhile, Ch’i-ch’iao becomes ill and takes to bed. Ch’ang-an arranges to meet with Shih-fang without telling her mother. They like each other and want to get engaged. Third Mistress meets with Ch’i-ch’iao to convince her to allow the engagement. Initially, she agrees to it. However, when she sees how happy Ch’ang-an is with Shih-fang, she starts to complain. She suggests that Shih-fang has a secret wife overseas and that Ch’ang-an had conspired to make it look like Third Mistress had arranged the marriage. For a while, the plans go forward despite Ch’i-ch’iao’s objections to the wedding. However, Ch’ang-an finally agrees to call off the engagement because of her mother’s objections. Shih-fang is disappointed but does not argue.

Despite the end of the engagement, Shih-fang and Ch’ang-an remain friends. When Ch’i-ch’iao finds out about this, she invites Shih-fang to dinner. He arrives and has a drink with Ch’ang-pai. Then, Ch’i-ch’iao enters the room and he realizes how erratic she is. She tells Shih-fang that her daughter will be down when she is done smoking opium. Ch’ang-an walks down and sees them together but does not enter the room. Ch’i-ch’iao leaves to join her. Then, Ch’ang-pai is called away because his concubine is having a baby. Shih-fang starts to leave when Ch’ang-an meets him in the courtyard. He bows and leaves.

Miss Chüan has the baby. Two weeks later, Chih-shou dies of pneumonia. Miss Chüan marries Ch’ang-pai and a year later she takes her own life by overdosing on opium. Ch’ang-an no longer tries to find a husband. Ch’i-ch’iao knows that her children and everyone else hate her.

Eventually, Ch’i-ch’iao dies and Ch’ang-an moves out. There is a rumor that she was seen with a man buying her garters.