"The many splendoured Thing" by Han Suyin, is an autobiographical work about the tragic relationship of love between the half-Chinese Suyin and the American war-correspondent Mark Elliott, in the background of the Korea-War in 1948/49. Originally published 1952, this German edition is from 1953.
The world seems to change fast, but this impression was as well shared decades and centuries before. A possible way to understand the present world a little bit, can be tracked back in the past (but be careful with historical researches !!). When it comes to China and its global means, it is very important to shed light on the mentality of the folk, that is, in my opinion, wrongly accused by popular media though to ignorance and superiority... The lack of individuality would be an example of accusation, but it is often unmentioned, that the Chinese folk had to learn terms like group cohesion that is strenghtening the cooperation for an higher aspiration, like the aim of becoming a World Power again.
In the novel of Han Suyin, the love Story between an Eurasian Woman and an American war-correspondent appeals to be in the foreground, but we can also see this as a strategy of the followed narrative of demonstrating the many aspects of Chinese culture that lead to the diligent and relentless effort, where created under huge pressure (British Colony) and established a viability, that is the secret of the general mental resilience and economic recovery. Just to make it short...
"What could they expect different, after our preaches, in China? We combined Christ with emanzipation, the social-reform and the building of hospitals. We had the seed for this montrous power, which governs China and will astonish the world. We, the missionaries, and not Marx or the Russian. We, with our missionary-schools and universities and Christian Organisations for Young Men and Women. The Communism came later and occupied the strenght and power, gave them names of forms - because we could not give you anything else. We made the youth get used to form groups. We used to laugh about your introvert tendencies and your disgust against the masses, destroyed it finally. We have made your aestheticising scholars give up their poetry and teached them using feather and language, instead for individual joy, as a benefit for millions (...)"
Han Suyin is emphasizing multiple times, that the sense of community aroused by the missionary work and the Chinese folk was traditionally a folk of individuals, in which each of them were able to survive through to self-sufficiency. Throughout the novel the cultural gap can not be bridged, even the love appears to be too shallow, Han Suyin has some very radical and rigorous thoughts on patriotism and her sharp rhetoric, when it comes to protect what she considers as valuable.
The novel can be considered as a work with perennial motifs, Suyin pursues with her publications to potray her fatherland (her mother is Flemish; noteable here is the ethnic discrimination in China, we should not underestimate !!! ) in critical view with European post-colonial legacy. In Suyin's novels political and cultural conflicts between "East and West" are not only potrayed, but are key functions of her depiction.
"O Heaven!, I whispered. "Have mercy with me" Finally I knew, what love is in its eternity: That God has chosen us, with this death-likely passion, so we can give each other the life. The life, that never ends. Like in the fairy-tales, where they still live happily together, where they are still joyfull, when they aren't past away yet, because the Normal was the Unreal and the Vanity (...) A little while I cried, full of sorrow, that the Normal was not meant for us, that the ease and comfort between man and woman, the steady calming of humane warmth against the humane loneliness, was not meant for us."
Hollywood was not afraid to film "A Many Splendoured Thing" in 1955 as a kitschy love movie (typical serving manner for the audience :') ..), which she never saw and distanced herself from it. Suyins ambition was it to "to make a new Asian literature, not teach Dickens." The Chinese Communist Party honoured Suyin and her work, calling her "the old friend of the Chinese folk", but I can not figure out her present meaning in China.
It was uncommen, but fun to read and partake this journey, I am also always glad, when I can collect poets from all over the world and time, as I have gathered some fragments, I would like to share:
Nah Lan (no information found yet..) Li Po I see the people of this world; They live, then return again to death. Yesterday morn they were still sixteen, Hale and hearty, men of ambition. And now they’re over seventy, Their strength thwarted and their bodies withered. They’re just like blossoms on a spring day: At dawn they bloom, and by night they fall
Li Ho Chu Ask the Lord, how much pain can a soul bear? As much, as the river of spring-time, a flooded river that flows to the East.
