Transforming Gender and Emotion: the Butterfly Lovers Story in China
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Published in the United States of America by the University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-fr ee paper 2021 2020 2019 2018 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Cho, Sookja, author. Title: Transforming gender and emotion : the Butterfly Lovers story in China and Korea / Sookja Cho. Description: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017038272| ISBN 9780472130634 (hardcover : acid-fr ee paper) | ISBN 9780472123452 (e- book) Subjects: LCSH: Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai. | Folklore—China. | Folklore— Korea. Classification: LCC GR335.4.L53 C46 2018 | DDC 398.20951—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017038272 2RPP Legend says that these [butterflies] are The transformations of the souls of the couple, The red one being Liang Shanbo and the black one being Zhu Yingtai. This kind of butterfly is ubiquitous, Still being called Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Feng Menglong (17th- century China) On a hot midsummer day, a little girl is crying, Hiding under the shadow of flowers. A yellow butterfly is flying around her and trying to sit on the edge of her hair ribbon. The girl said, “I’m not a flower, I dislike the flower that is withered by the cold wind after sunset. I will not cry any more, and will fly like a butterfly.” Kim Sungon (1982, Korea) 2RPP 2RPP To my friend Park Chanyoung and her family 2RPP 2RPP Acknowledgments This book is a direct result of the wonderful support I have received through- out the research and writing of it. I only now realize how ambitious I was when I started this project and how fortunate I have been since. My deepest gratitude goes to my advisors Beata Grant and Robert E. Hegel at Washing- ton University in Saint Louis. They are my academic parents, heroes, and intellectual champions. They helped crystallize my interest in the cultural exchange between China and Korea and deserve any praise this study might earn. Without their limitless guidance and support this book could not have been completed. I am also grateful to Lingchei Letty Chen, Steven B. Miles, Lori Watt, and Jamie Newhard at Washington University, who served on my dissertation committee and offered many valuable suggestions for trans- forming my dissertation into a book. This project has its origins in a trip to Zhejiang, China that I made in 2000 with my friend Park Chanyoung, to whom this book is dedicated. Despite being ill during that trip, Chanyoung took care of many details so that I could focus solely on exploring places related to the Butterfly Lovers story. Her enduring support and friendship, which began when we first met in college, gave me the will to complete this project. I am also profoundly grateful to the two eminent Chinese scholars, Wang Zhaoqian and Cao Lin, who generously offered me their help but unfortunately left the world before they could hold this book in their hands. At Arizona State University, I am grateful first of all to Sally Kitch at the Institute of Humanities Research and to Juliane Schober at the Center for Asian Research. They saw the value of this book and extended their full sup- port for me to conduct extensive archival and field research in Asia and the US. This vote of expression of confidence from my own school, along with other invaluable support from the Association for Asian Studies, the Kyu- 2RPP x • acknowledgments janggak Institute at Seoul National University, and the Harvard Yenching Institute, were crucial to the completion of this project. My special thanks go also to Nina Berman, director of the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State, and to Anthony Cham- bers, Cynthia Tompkins, David William Foster, Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Helene Ossipov, Juliann Vitullo, Markus Cruse, Daniel Gilfillan, Hilde Hoogenboom, Alvaro Cerron-P alomino, Miko Foard, Tomoko Shimomura, Anne Feldhaus, Pori Park, Aaron Moore, Jennifer Quincy, Qian Liu, and Henry M. Stevens. Each of these colleagues provided unstinting guidance, assistance, and encouragement. I also would like to thank scholars at other universities, especially Allan H. Barr, Binbin Yang, Chan E. Park, Ji- Eun Lee, Jing Zhang, Joanna F. Han- dlin Smith, Kelly Yoojeong Jeong, Michael J. Pettid, Ross King, Richard D. McBride II, Ronald Egan, Sunyoung Park, Wilt L. Idema, Yanning Wang, and Zeng Yongyi. They provided valuable advice and criticism, and sent me any sources they thought might be helpful. In particular, the comments by Allan Barr, Joanna Smith, Kelly Jeong and Michael Pettid on earlier versions of this book and the sources provided by Wilt Idema and Jing Zhang were immensely helpful. I also appreciate the many friends who read parts of the book at various stages. Burton Zhenwei Pu helped proofread my translations from the Chi- nese, while my friend and former colleague Tarah Demant and her associ- ate Christine Bumpous critiqued the manuscript at its earliest stage. Molly Haight and Victoria R. M. Scott helped fine tune the later drafts, bringing to bear their long years of editing experience. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of my manuscript. Their intellectual acumen and constructive comments have been of great help. Finally, working with the Uni- versity of Michigan Press has been a sheer joy. The book benefited greatly from the considerate and meticulous work of Elizabeth Frazier and Mary Hashman, and I am especially grateful to Editor Christopher Dreyer, who gave me the best support an author could hope to receive. Last but not least, I’d like to thank my professors and colleagues in Korea for their support on my path as a scholar. My heartfelt gratitude goes to the famous Chinese classics scholar Na Kapchu, with whom I studied the ancient Chinese classics beginning in my freshman year of college. I miss him so much, particularly his harsh criticism of my laziness and sloppiness—I’ m still struggling with this—and his rare words of encouragement regarding my scholarly potential, both of which continue to echo in my ears decades 2RPP acknowledgments • xi after his passing. Next in my thoughts are the professors and colleagues from my undergraduate and graduate studies and other venues related to my research: Liu Jong-M ok, Jung Jae-seo, Yi Chaedon, Yi Chongjin, Oh Soo- kyung, Lee Chang-S ook, Jung Min, Kim Usŏk, An Sangbok, Yi Chŏngjae, Hong Yŏngnim, Kim Sunhŭi, Shin Jeongsoo, Jeong Wook-jin, and Kim Seong-K on (of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea). Though they were not directly involved in this project, their strong encouragement of my research only increased as time went by. In the same vein, I extend my spe- cial gratitude and profound respect to Liu Jong- Mok, my graduate advisor at Seoul National University, who showed me just how much a teacher can help a student. It was his infinite trust in my potential that laid the founda- tion for my studies and professional career in the United States. Words can never adequately express my gratitude to those mentioned here. My debt of love for them will remain forever, waiting for a chance to be paid off. 2RPP 2RPP Contents Introduction. Liang- Zhu: More Than Just a Love Story 1 1 Stories in Transit: From Local Legend to Butterfly Lovers 15 2 Adventures in a Male Space: Troubled Gender and Sexuality 53 3 Between Women and Men: Friendship vs. Love 79 4 From Sorrowful Separation to Convivial Excursion: The Aesthetics and Poetics of a Parting Journey 113 5 Transformation and Deification: Butterflies, Souls, and Cross-C ultural Incarnations 143 Epilogue. The Interconnected Worlds of Liang- Zhu 179 Notes 187 Bibliography 249 Index 287 2RPP Introduction Liang- Zhu: More Than Just a Love Story In China and Korea, the felicitous union between a man and a woman has often been represented by the image of flowers and butterflies on a fresh, warm spring day. To women, especially those confined to the inner quarters, butterflies embodied imagined male lovers while they themselves were like flowers, enticing but immobile.1 What many discussions of these themes overlook is that this common gender-specific imagery has evolved by way of a range of emotional stories that invert traditional notions of gender, continually morphing them to reflect the needs and desires of audiences in different eras and regions. In other words, against the back- drop of that single, eternal image of butterflies and flowers, multifarious narratives have arisen to address the reality of day-to-day emotions and relationships. Instead of an idealized romance, these themes are centered on the question of what constitutes an ordinary human life, specifically a happy and meaningful one. The popular folktale of Liang Shanbo 梁山伯 and Zhu Yingtai 祝 英台 (hereafter abbreviated to Liang-Zhu) weaves a tapestry of stories revolving around the romantic butterfly-and- flo wer image.2 In the nar- rative, a young girl and boy share their life paths like a pair of butter- flies.