|
|
|
|
Wang
Xifeng
An
Ho, 1993, watercolor on silk mounted on rice paper using traditional
Chinese technique, 54" x 88"
|
| A
paternal niece of Baoyu's mother Lady Wang, Wang Xifeng is universally
recognized, not only as the most capable of all the women in the
Jia household, but by some as even more so than her husband. By
winning the approval and favor of the most powerful woman in the
clan, namely the Matriarch Grandmother Jia and by demonstrating
for all to see her formidable managerial skills, Xifeng secures
her dominance over all but a handful of characters in the novel.
The fact that she comes from one of the most influential families
at the time and marries into another makes it possible for her
to extend at will her power and influence beyond the immediate
confines of the Jia compound. There is actually something feminist
about the way Xifeng goes about striving for economic independence.
But in her search for recognition and sexual equality, she often
inflicts irreparable harm on other victims of patriarchal culture.
And all her cunning and native intelligence notwithstanding, in
the final analysis, her inability to produce a son seals her fate.
The need for a male heir to continue the family line gives her
husband free rein to take as many concubines as he desires. The
best Xifeng can do is to trap one of them and induce her to commit
suicide. In the sequel, she dies in shame after mismanaging the
Matriarch's funeral. |
|
