Raise The Red Lantern

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Raise The Red Lantern

Anthropology of Women
Raise the Red Lantern
All the worlds a stage; all of us are taking the elements of plot, character, and costume and turning into performances of possibilities(Ward1999: 5)
Raise the Red Lantern tells a compelling and sorrowful story of a young women whose life is destined to be ruined in a male-dominated society. This can be an awakening of some sort to any woman. As Ward states in her text, women learn the rules of our half of the world as well as those of the other half, since we regularly move in and out of the male world. There she defines womens culture.
The term has also been used in its anthropological sense to encompass the familial and friendship networks of women, their affective ties, their rituals. It is important to understand that womans culture is never a subculture. It would hardly be appropriate to define the culture of half of humanity as a subculture. Women live social existence within the general culture. Whenever they are confined by patriarchal restraint or segregation into separateness, they transform this restraint into complementarily and redefine it. Thus, women live a duality- as members of the general culture and as partakers of womans culture. (Lerner 1986:242)
Much like the quote stated, Raise the Red Lantern is set in Northern China in the 1920s. For thousands of years the people of China have formed family life around patrilineal decent. The assessment of traditional China life was patriarchal. A basis of this set up would be from Confucius.
In childhood, Before marriage, Obey your father
In adulthood, During marriage, Obey your husband
In widowhood, After marriage, Obey your son
States in the text, the lowest moment of a womans life was her wedding day. Cut off from her natal family, the young bride was an outsider and the object of deep suspicion in her new husbands household. The only was to earn a place for herself was to have sons.
Songlian quits college after her father has passed away and becomes Zuoquian Chens fourth wife. When Songlian, who chooses to walk from her house to Chens house instead of riding in the wedding carriage, arrives at Chens house, there is no sign of a celebration, an omen of things to come. Bound by tradition and inflamed with jealousy, none of the three wives come out to greet the new bride. An old housekeeper welcomes and acknowledges the arrival of Songlian, and he guides her to her new room through the houses elaborate structure....

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