THE WOMAN DANCING WITH A RED UMBRELLA A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Master of Fine Arts Zhixia Zhang May, 2018 THE WOMAN DANCING WITH A RED UMBRELLA Zhixia Zhang Thesis Approved: Accepted: ___________________________ _____________________________ Advisor Dean of Arts and Sciences Dr. Christopher Barzak Dr. John Green ___________________________ _____________________________ Faculty Reader Executive Dean of the Graduate School Mr. Eric Wasserman Dr. Chand Midha ____________________________ _____________________________ Faculty Reader Date Dr. Robert Miltner _____________________________ Interim Department Chair Dr. Sheldon B. Wrice ii ABSTRACT An innocent and beautiful country girl, Xiaoxia, lived in a comparatively simple and less corrupted environment before she went to college and experienced city life. She was terribly unprepared for the ugliness and complexity in the city; she got bullied in her first semester in college. She was quick to learn, and she was brave. She won her first battle in the city, and she gained her wisdom and power. But, when she was forced to confront the corruption in the justice system and in politics, her wisdom and power could not help her win the tough battle. In the process of saving her parents who were victimized and sentenced to death in a famous high-rise explosion case, she saw the cruel and painful reality that she is still vulnerable in face of the big wheel of corruption controlled by the rich and the powerful. After all her efforts of saving her parents failed, which included writing to the president and the prime minister of China, she tried to protect her orphaned little brother and get a better life by making more money. She allowed herself to be seduced and become the lover of a young charismatic vice mayor. After she found out the vice mayor was the chief of the heinous “man-fishing” project, which killed the innocent people like her parents in order to fish out the real criminals for huge amount of money, she knew that she could not love the vice mayor despite that he lavished money and love on her. She tried to flee from him and the ugly corruption he represents. But the vice mayor was obsessed iii with her innocence and her beauty; he would never let her go. She had to choose murder to defend her dignity. The murder is a strong symbol in this story—it symbolizes the horrible loneliness of an innocent and beautiful girl struggling in a country full of corruption and lack of justice. The murder, for her, is not a revenge for her wronged parents and her boyfriend, who was killed by a thug hired by the vice mayor; it is rather the only option for her to live. What she saw and experienced made her realize that if she did not kill the evil vice mayor, his evil and corruption would ruin her life. Therefore, she conquered the hesitation she felt due to her Buddhist faith, and she designed a perfect murder. The highlight of her design was on her dance—a seven-layer-scarf dance inspired from Salomé’s seven-layer-veil dance. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals. Xiaoxia loved dance and had a natural talent for dancing, but she never danced in front of her family because of the conservative culture in her village; and she never danced in front of her beloved boyfriend because she related dance with something of dark attraction, like the siren’s songs. She made use of her dance to carry out a well-planned murder, and to get freedom. Dance, for her, is a sharp weapon to fight and win a battle, which is so fatal that she would die if she failed. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I.. SHE IS THE BUDDHA BUT SHE DOES NOT KNOW….…….......................….1 II. SWEET SURRENDER IN THE RAIN..........................…….………...………….12 III. UNDER THE HARD SHELL OF A LUXURIOUS SHIP..…..........................….33 IV. IF THE WORLD IS A FEMALE CICADA.............................…………………...48 V. THE FATTEST PIG GETS KILLED FIRST ..........................…………………….66 VI. IT IS HARD TO FIND TENDERNESS ............................………………………86 VII. ALL THE BIG DREAMS CARRY BIG PRICE TAGS .............................…...105 VIII. WHY ARE YOU HERE................................………………………………….125 IX. BEAUTIFUL BIRD IN THE HIGH MOUNTAINS ............................……….. 141 X. WHY ME ..........................………………………………………………………145 v CHAPTER I SHE IS THE BUDDHA BUT SHE DOES NOT KNOW A white butterfly struggled against a spider web that was weaved among the twigs of a red dogwood; the desperate, yet delicate, fluttering of the trapped butterfly attracted a small crowd. “The spider will eat the butterfly if the butterfly cannot fly away,” a little girl gawked at the dogwood and let out an anxious scream, yet she didn’t make a move to save the butterfly. No one made a move to save the butterfly. A muddy puddle sat between the road where the small crowd was gathering and the dogwood on which the butterfly was struggling; to save the butterfly, one would have to wade in the mud and climb up to the hilly dune where the dogwood was perched. Neither the wading nor the climbing appealed to anyone in the crowd. Everyone simply wanted to claim the fun that the city park promised with the entry ticket priced twenty Yuan. The citizens who strolled in the park on that Sunday morning loved their shoes and comfort too much to walk into the dirty mud for an unfortunate butterfly. 1 The butterfly could have screamed if it had been given a voice. The butterfly began struggling even more vigorously, but only in vain. A big black spider began to crawl its way toward the butterfly. “Do not eat the butterfly!” The little girl screamed again. The dramatic show staged on the dogwood began drawing more attention. The eyes in the audience were glimmering; many cell phones were raised high, ready to catch the imminent killing and death. Soon, the fluttering and the struggling of the butterfly slowed down and became listless. The fat, eight-legged spider, as if it was performing a quirky dinner dance with unsteady steps, crawled excitedly toward the butterfly. The prey’s death was largely looming. The spider web quavered in the cold breeze, and the green leaves on the red twigs rustled in soft sighs. A young monk strode forth from a banyan tree that was behind the red dogwood. His shaved head and long maroon gown caught the sunlight as if he were put on a spotlight on stage. His face was smooth and serene, and his long, slim fingers twiddling one of the ocher prayer beads threaded by a maroon string. “The monk will save the butterfly!” the little girl shouted to the crowd. “E Mi Tuo Fo,” the monk murmured his prayer to the struggling butterfly. The monk raised his prayer beads in the sunlight, reciting the anti-killing mantra his Shifu (master) had once taught him at the temple, which was made of the most precious sandalwood and sat upon a high mountain. Praying that the mantra would extinguish the killing will of the spider, and the butterfly would be saved by the 2 merciful hand of Buddha. With his eyes shut tight, the monk recited and prayed in silence. The monk heard cheers and applauses. The Buddha is coming, he thought. The cheering crowd didn’t see the Buddha; instead, they saw a young beautiful girl with a red umbrella. The girl was petite. Her beauty did not stem from her stunning physical features, but rather from a mysterious glamour emanated from her doe-like black eyes and the profound sadness inside them. The girl carried her sadness just as the monk carried his prayer beads; there was no trace of impatience but only serenity and silent prayers—although their prayers were different. The girl waded into the mud to save the butterfly. She jumped into the dirty puddle in her spotlessly white leather shoes and her white long-flared skirt. She ran towards the red dogwood, pushed open her red umbrella in front of her. The shelter made of the umbrella looked like a giant red shield. Like all spiders, this black spider was also blind; it neither saw the girl nor her red umbrella. It kept crawling toward the white butterfly, its legs wriggling and its appetite getting sharper and sharper by the second. The tip of the red umbrella pieced the spider’s web, and with a determined push, broke the slyly-weaved trap into pieces. The white butterfly was set free. The monk opened his eyes to the roaring applauses. Then he saw the girl. He saw her beautiful eyes and the deep sadness welling up in her marvelous beauty. Buddha of Mercy! The monk put his palms together and worshiped the god in his heart. 3 The girl saw the monk and his palm-to-palm worshiping gesture. The girl said in a low voice, “You could have saved the white butterfly if you raised your hand to break the spider web, but you did not. Why?” “I came to the city to see the fleeting vanity and cut off my attachment to the mortal life. My Shifu once told me I should never raise my hand to disturb a creature, and I should never be tempted by the false glory disguised as the honor of doing something good. I leave the butterfly to the merciful hand of the Buddha.” The monk avoided the girl’s bright black eyes; his heart was beating fast. “Tell your Shifu, doing something good is not an honor, but a duty.