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Maioyu
An
Ho, 1993, watercolor on silk mounted on rice paper using traditional
Chinese technique, 54" x 88"
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"unshaved nun," Miaoyu comes from a well-educated family. She
was given to sickness as a child. When the purchase of "proxy
novices" on her behalf failed to improve her health, she joined
a religious order and became a lay sister, in effect a nun with
a full head of hair. She was invited to take up residence in Prospect
Garden after the Imperial Concubine decided to have Baoyu and
his female companions live there. By the time she appears on the
scene, she has already lost her parents. She is known to be extremely
fastidious and eccentric. Thus when the peasant woman Liu Laolao
drinks from one of her antique teacups she immediately orders
it to be thrown out. A talented poet, she once brings to a close
a poem Daiyu and Shi Xiangyun have begun. The fact that the character
yu (jade) in her name is the same as the yu in Daiyu and Baoyu
indicates that Maioyu has a special affinity with them. According
to the Main Register and the commentaries, Maioyu will one day
leave her religious order and lose her chastity like a piece of
jade cast into muddy water. In thesequel, she loses control in
meditation and becomes possessed by sexual desires. In the end
she is kidnapped by robbers. |
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