February 4, 2004
A Poetics and Politics of the Black Lantern
by Inhui Lee
-- In fact, all the red lanterns are already Black lanterns.--
The film Raise the Red Lantern shows the horror and terror of the complete subjugation of women in a system in which there is no social, economic, political, sexual justice for women.
In the story, a vibrant young female university student, Songlian, played by Gong Li, can not continue her university education when her father passes away. Her mother is in need of financial support from Songlian, so she sells her as a concubine for a rich man. In feudal China, a rich man could have as many concubines as he wanted. Songlian is the fourth concubine, and with the rest of the concubines, is confined in the rich man's household, surrounded by high walls with the Woman's Death Chamber on the roof top. In his household, women are pitted against one another. Concubine against concubine. Mistress against housemaid. Old woman against young one. The red lantern is raised when the master picks one of the concubines for his nightly pleasure, thus leaving the rest of the women feeling worthless, helpless, and jealous. These feelings make the second concubine resolve to employ a dark magic to destroy Songlian, who is favored by the master for the time being. The red lantern is raised to heighten the man's sexual pleasure as fortified by his economic power, patriarchal privilege, and a total subjugation of woman. He ravages every inch of a woman's body and soul. No wonder the third concubine, who is an accomplished opera singer, is dragged to the Death Chamber when she seeks her own pleasure by having an affair. Songlian, unable to cope with the horror and terror of a concubine's life, goes mad. She becomes a walking ghost in flesh. It's a complete breakdown of a woman.
Where there is a red lantern, death and madness wait for women with any sensitivity and subjectivity. The minute Songlian exercises her will, she is punished by her master: she thinks if she pretends to be pregnant, the master, in the hope of begetting more sons, will visit her more often, which eventually will ensure her pregnancy. In the meantime, her chambermaid, who dreams of becoming a concubine, and is ever jealous of Songlian, gladly reports the false pregnancy after spotting Songlian's period. To display his displeasure at Songlian's exercise of her intelligence and will and to discourage any act of will on a woman's part, the master orders that the red lanterns by Songlian's chamber be covered in black. No Exit. Black. Ever punitive. Ever threatening the very basic survival of women.
Chitra Divakaruni sees this kind of black -- the total subjugation of a woman -- everywhere in Indian women's lives, too. In her poem, "Nargis' Toilet," Divakaruni describes the ritual of a woman's subjugation at the most intimate level that is carried out by the women in the family. Nargis is adorned with the finest cosmetics and costumes, from skin powder, silk, satin, to henna painting on her hands, completed with burkha. The poet continues,
"If Allah wills, a marriage / will be arranged" (3).
The real horror lies in the elaborate social collaboration by all concerned members of society, including "the grandmothers" who "will chew betel leaves and discuss the heat," as if nothing is happening to Nargis while they -- the grandmothers -- carry out the violent act of patriarchy. The grandmothers are oblivious of their action, and Nargis sees no exit. In this tight silken web of patriarchal control,
"Now all is ready / Like a black candle / Nargis walks to the gate" (3).
In another poem, "Burning Bride," Divakaruni shows the fate of a woman like Nargis after she walks to the gate of the arranged marriage that values dowry more than a woman's life. When the dowry is short, one final ritual waits for the woman -- bridal burning. After a woman is dragged into arranged marriage, as if that is not bad enough, if her family can't supply enough dowry, she is burned to death by her husband's family. In this poem the bride is waiting for her burning to death while she is put to work,
"in that room, windowless/ black on black dust " (58).
Both Songlian and the women in Divakaruni's poems conjure up the feeling of devastation and helplessness that we might feel when sinking into a black hole. Black. Deep Black. So black, no way out, but down, down spiraling -- to death.
with powdery butterfly wingsilky shining,
rice paper thin cover
So feminine, the red lantern lures even enemy soldiers in the dark alleyways of occupied territories. In the economics and politics of capitalism, the red lantern is raised where women are forced to sell their bodies even to enemy soldiers, because there is no other socio-economic support system for them. Underneath the light of the red lantern, a woman hides her pale cheeks and her hungry stomach, her mother and father dying of multiple terminal diseases, her brother needing money to go to college, her sister crying for food.
Where the red lantern is raised, the world is operated mainly on the well greased axes of sexism, racism, patriarchy, colonialism, militarism, yet a woman must sell her own flesh. This is a complete breakdown of a society.
This is where the black lantern enters. To stop all this inhuman suffering. To stop wrongful deaths and madness for women like Songlian and Nargis. The sight of the black lantern is a deflection of the allure of the red lantern. Where there is the black lantern, Songlian's master doesn't enter her room, nor does he enter her body. The black lantern gives an uneasy feeling, a sense of doom. The smell of a bride who waits for her death by burning. The dark air where enemies in ambush wait. The coming revolt by slaves in the night. The escaping souls in the black shrouds of Songlian and Nargis. How can the world be a happy place when women are left without their souls?
The black lantern is raised for us to mourn the loss of women's bodies as their minds and spirits are devoured by the beasts of patriarchal capitalistic militaristic politics.
. . .
The red lantern is also what represents Asia to the West. Everything about Asia is feminized in European and European-American culture, literature and scholarship.
In M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang deconstructs the myth and fetish of Asia that thrive in the perpetual colonial mind of the West:
Now our consideration of race and sex intersect the issue of imperialism. For this formula -- good natives serve Whites, bad natives rebel -- is consistent with the mentality of colonialism. Because they are submissive and obedient, good natives of both sexes necessarily take on "feminine" characteristics in a colonial world. Gunga Din's unfailing devotion to his British master, for instance, is not so far removed from Butterfly's slavish faith in Pinkerton. . . M. Butterfly has sometimes regarded as an anti-American play, a diatribe against the stereotyping of the East by the West, of women by men. (99-100)
The need to subjugate women, especially Asian women by men of both East and West, is fed through socio-economic subjugation of these women, plus cultural misrepresentation, from Madame Butterfly to Miss Saigon. How is it possible that Asian women are willing to die for enemy soldiers? Is it possible to imagine that white women are willing to die for black, brown, yellow, or red men?
The black lantern is here to replace the red lantern. To refuse the symbols and allusions of Asia that serves excuses for the colonization of Asia by Europe and the U.S.
I urge my Asian, Asian-American, and women of color sisters to raise the black lantern, not only for mourning, but also to mark a point of departure: for the victory that we women, who once were subjugated, have won and will continually win, because of our power, intelligence, resilience, persistence and resistance. So feminine like raindrops, with the black lantern in our hands, we can break the rock of classist, racist, sexist, heterosexual, patriarchal and the Western domination. A huge rock seemingly bigger than the whole earth will be broken into dust by raindrops.
The energy of Yin.The dark side of the moon.
In time, the rock crumbles.
An ocean swallows a continent or two.
No more red lanterns!
Take Back the Night!
Women in Black.
Black flag in the red wind.
The black lantern, dancing in the wind, against the red sky of revolution.
The black lantern, everywhere in the vast rice paddies of Asia.
Rise
Rise
A black phoenix rises.
The Black Lantern Mantra
Raise the black lantern where a woman cries tonight.
Raise the black lantern where a child sleeps hungry tonight.
Raise the black lantern where a man walks homeless tonight.
Inhui Lee is a PhD candidate at CIIS in women's spirituality. She is an immigrant from South Korea to this country, a single mother of two teenagers and a struggling writer/feminist. These pages are from her Master's Thesis in Women's Studies at San Francisco State.