Questions for the Story "Gold Boy, Emerald Girl"
1. What does the work mean and why do you think that? Explain the writing's overall significance or message to its readers.
2. Tell about how you feel toward this writing or its author and why.
3. Does this work confront or confirm your personal beliefs? Explain.
Write about 150 to 200 words in one or several paragraphs.
Online copy of story (for easier copy and paste quoting)
18 comments:
Yiyun Li makes me feel some melancholy truths of being human in her richly detailed tale of three “lonely and sad people.” Each character is eccentric: Siyu with her “reputation as unmatchable”; Hanfeng, a gay man who went to America; Professor Dai chasing “a strutting owl down a dimly lit hallway.” Li paints a picture of life that seems to me realistic: to be surprised, for example, as Siyu is by the fact that she is “no longer a young woman” when matchmakers propose marriage to men about her father’s age. Hanfeng, at forty-four, who realizes that his “ambitious business plans” were more a convenient way to explain why he was returning to China, rather than admitting to friends the attraction of, with his mother, “reading the same newspapers and comparing notes on the stories that interested them both.” This tale of “half orphans” is a pleasure to read (and read again) with its insights into human nature, the effect of our choices on our lives, and the realization that, sometimes, it is better to live a “lonely and sad” life in the company of others than to endure alone.
—190 words
-Question 3:
After I’ve read “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl,” I was so confronted with my beliefs because the story ends with confusion, which makes me angry. Especially when Hanfeng’s mother pushes his own son, Hanfeng, to marry Siyu despite of knowing that his son is obviously a gay, it’s sickening to me even having to think about it.
And, I can’t even to imagine Siyu agrees to marry Hanfeng just because she is longing for a motherly love, and it would be ok to live as long as she would get his mother’s love, that is so weird. I think all of the characters are sick in their minds because how can human beings even to think about push his or her adult children into a marriage.
Also, I still can’t believe what Hanfeng’s mother said to her future daughter-in-law about a marriage: “When you are young, you marry for passion,” and later “When you’re older, you marry for companionship” nearly at the end of the story. I think no matter how old the person is he’s getting married for a passion, not for a companionship. And, if he wants a companionship, he should get a pet, not a person.
-202 words.
Tell about how you feel toward this writing and why.
My feelings toward the story, “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” are surprise and sympathy. When we were asked, why do people get married?, my lists were: people get married because they love someone and want to be with them; people get married because they want kids and need someone to share their lives secrets with. But after reading the story, I was surprised so see none of the reason I thought people get married for. Instead, it’s a reason I would have though is stupid, yet possible; the two characters in the story get married for “companionship”, not any of my listed reasons. The story shows that some people get married for motherly love, which I never thought of, but makes me feel sympathy toward Siyu because she lost her mother when she was only for months. Though she might get the motherly love she was craving, would she still get the husbandly love that I think she needs the most? Would she still have married Hanfeng if she knew he was a gay? Those unanswered questions make me wonder about the story as well. I might have yearned for motherly love if I were Siyu, but getting married to someone I don’t love just to get it? I’m not sure if I would’ve gone that far in seeking it.
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1.What does the work mean and why do you think that? Explain the writing's overall significance or message to its readers.
The story impressed me about how the people in the society, who lived not according to the major basic norm of society, struggled powerlessly and eventually fell into the norm in their own unique way.
Siyu, since turning twenties, has been matched making by acquaintance and neighbours to find a husband. Women in China were urged by the society to get married before thirty the latest so that she carried the duty of reproduction at the right age.
Again, professor Dai - a headstrong woman with “her faith in the notion of living one’s own life without having to go out of one’s way for other people” – could be deemed to face nosiness and hostility of the world. However, she eventually wished her son not to repeat her fate.
Hanfeng at the age of forty-four eventually made the decision to marry Siyu and doubted “he would feel any deficiency in his life without a wife.” Perhaps, in society’s point of view, a man or a woman should eventually get married and live a normal life.
With the arranged marriage, three of them eventually became the normal norm in other people’s eyes.
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3.
This writing definitely confronts my personal beliefs towards marriage. In “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl,” Siyu and Hanfeng are set up on a date by Hanfeng’s mother. I think this is a combination of cultural and social reasons. Professor Dai, who is Hanfeng’s mother, even knew that her son was gay. I don’t agree with encouraging gay people to pretend they aren‘t just because there seems to be a stigma. I think that everybody needs to follow their heart and marry for love, not just for company. If we do this, I truly think that people would be happier. I am very fortunate to live in Canada, where we have the freedom to have choices. We live in a society where it’s socially acceptable to marry men or women of any colour, and I cannot imagine living anywhere that isn’t like that. Arranged marriage is like forcing two people together and saying “now, be best friends.“ You can’t force any type of relationship upon anyone. I wish the ending was written differently. I feel sorry for the main characters who are going to get married, as they will never be fully satisfied with the lives.
-195 words
Tell about how you feel toward this writing or its author and why.
Throughout “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl”, I think Yiyun Li conveys a message that is about a kind of warmth hidden in a world that tends to be imperfect and eccentric. Each character in the story has an imperfect life. Siyu lost her mother when she was very young, but fortunately she had a most loving father who once “insisted running beside her” every morning on her way to school just to protect her away from accidents. Similarly, Hangfeng gets a special way of love from his headstrong mother who raises him by herself and obviously worries about her son but “never [presses] for any details of his American life, sparing him the pain of explaining himself.” Lastly, the two half orphans decide to get married with the “love for his mother that they could share with no one else.” Although they have their own reasons for the sadness and loneliness and they all have their own pities for the dreams they can’t realize, it’s the warmth of the love that makes them be able to create “a world that would accommodate their loneliness”, “with great care.”
--186 words
Question #3
Professor Dai, the second generation after “liberation” shadows the destiny of her son and her old student. It seems that everything is in her control, even the death of her poor husband following her wish. The eagle-like shadow of her personality is such strong that made her poor, lonely son, grown up without father feels low confidence as man that became a gay. Such terrible self- denies is a brutal revenge from her. They seem like two lonely islands near together that the small one, desperately, tries to be similar to the dominant one. And the girl, Siyu with her eccentric personality, denies her own father that spent almost all his youth to grow up her, and she, instead, pastes to the strange professor just because she wants a mother. Professor Dai is in charge of her life, too. She will decide when they will meet and with who she has to marry. I, really, do not like the old woman.
The mood of the story is totally strange and about three gloomy, sad, odd people that gathered around each other to escape from their inside nightmares and loneliness. Yiyun Li is a skilful painter of those people.
This a "guest" comment from one of the Grade 11 students, Linda. In it, she gives some good background information on some of the cultural context of the story.
I have to admit this story introduces very complicated relationships. Four characters involves in four types of relationship: man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, parent and child. No wonder some of my classmates may get confused about how and why those relationships go with the plot in an obscure way. To figure out who is who, I have to read this story four times but still confusing. Then I realize that, as a Chinese student, I have an obligation to give some explanation about the culture background of this story. I hope it could be a little help to those who have to write comments but are not familiar with Chinese culture.
Let me start with the title: Gold Boy and Emerald Girl. It is a kind of Chinese idiom talking about two meanings. Literally, it refers the stereotype of a good couple. According to Chinese traditional recognition, good-looking appearance, similar age and background altogether make a good marriage. When the boy and girl meet the above expectation and then get married, they are thought to be a good couple. The figurative meaning is, however, not easy to recognize: it refers an arranged marriage based on either family’s or society’s expectation. When people match this “golden rule”, they’d better to be together as a couple. As for whether they are happy or not, nobody really cares. I believe this might be the reason that the author uses this idiom as the title of her story. The two generations both encounter the arranged marriage: for Hanfeng’s parents, for Hanfeng and Siyu. The story suggests the unhappy marriage the parents had; as you can see the mother convinces Siyu that” you could feel trapped by a wrong man, you would have to wish for his death every day of your marriage, but, once the wish was granted by a miracle, you would never be free of your own cruelty.”(page9)
Besides the title, I would like to talk about the setting. Although the author doesn’t tell directly about the time, we still can find clues from the description. There are two clues reveal that this story happened in late 1990s. First one is from Hanfeng’s confession(page3), “what he had made in the States at the tail end of the dot-com bubble would not be sufficient to support a life of idleness,” therefore we know it happens during the time when internet is becoming prevalent over the world—it is 1990s. The other clue is revealed when Siyu doubts the café shop owner is” a rich-man’s mistress.” It is since later 1990s, the Mistress or Affair becomes popular with china economy-booming and occurs in Chinese lexicon.
As you may notice, there is the hints that Hanfeng may be gay and his mother may be lesbian. I am shocked by finding this, but it is seemingly true. To convince you about this, I give the evidence as following: Page 5, it says Hanfeng got heartbroken when his first lover engaged with a girl; then he lives his live like a loose fish in the States, and ironically dumped by his last lover. Page 9, Hanfeng recalls a woman’s reaction, as she self-claimed “a very old friend of his mother.” When she met his mother, “ she was “ pale at sight of his mother, and her hands, which let the peas falls into the pile of shells had stayed with Hanfeng.” You might question why they behaved that way? Why couldn’t they just speak out their sexual-orientation? It is because the years of 1990s, when same-sex relationship is still thought to be insane or immoral in Chinese society. People have to hide their true feelings behind the mask or they could be killed by the knives of tongues. This can explain why the mother lives her life all alone: it is not only because of her remorse of cursing her husband’s death but also because her love to another female. The mother must have suffered a lot of social pressure; otherwise, she wouldn’t set up a date for her son since she “had long ago accepted who he was”. Because she “would like to see that he didn’t repeat her fate.”
We see all the relationships in the story have obvious deficiency; those deficiency are like the scars in their minds, which deeply influence their later lives. However, those are still mingled with human kindness and tolerance that warm the readers’ hearts. That is the clue to understand the theme of the story. I’d like to talk about the theme more, but I am afraid the teacher would give me “zero” mark as I have written too much beyond the word limit. So I have to stop my writing here. Hope my piece of writhing could help others to dig out the theme and other relationship in this story.
--807 words
This is a weird story about three strange people and their abnormal lives.
Many questions still confuse me after the third-time read: What’s the truth about Siyu’s mom’s suicide? What’s the betrayal between Hanfeng’s mom and that woman coming from a southern province and having been an old friend of her? Why does Hanfeng’s mom think her marriage with an “always praised as the gentlest person” a trap with a wrong man? And finally, what is on earth the need that people would feel to get married?
Siyu, a spinster who is raised by her father on his own and with an Oedipus complex, seems to have found her needs: having a man, whom she had dreamt to have as her boyfriend when she was an eighteen-year-old girl, as her apparent husband; and having an old woman, who is the same persistent and independent as herself, as her mother. Hanfeng, a gay who is brought up by a solitary mother, seems to find his, too: getting another woman, who has the similar life experience with him and similar character with his mother, to accompany him in the rest of his life and making her mom satisfied with a marriage with a woman chosen by her. A widowed mom, who has been living solitarily for decades and totally disappointed to the marriage, chooses a marriage for her son herself. So, these three eccentric people, who are all absolutely loyal to their own “notion of living one’s own life without having to go out of one’s way for other people,” decided to found a family to “make a world that would accommodate their loneliness.”
Then, we will see another “gold boy and emerald girl” marriage.
I do believe people would get married for many or any reason, but this story still makes me surprised about the need that makes people to get married.
3. Does this work confront or confirm your personal beliefs? Explain.
Nowadays, many young man and woman married after getting old or lost chances to marry like Siyu, thirty-eight years old, and Hanfeng, forty-four, in “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl”. Only a few young man and woman could be married on time after looking for their spouse sincerely and eagerly. A matchmaker considered Siyu’s spouse as “a widower or divorce in his fifty or sometimes sixties.” Hanfeng was in love with a childhood friend in his twenty-three, but he left to USA to advance studies. At that time he lost a good chance to get married.
Professor Dai told that young one marry for passion and older one marry for companionship. I think it is not so much disagreeable. Even though some couple married for passion, it changed with companionship when they are getting old. Desirable marriage means married in their twenties and live for a long time altogether without separation by illness, accident or divorce. In this viewpoint, all the people in this story “were lonely and sad people” as mentioned at the last sentence.
177 words
I think the author wants to tell us some problem of single parent family through this story. The story first introduces Siyu to us, a woman who was raised only by her father. We know that she has “a reputation as unmatchable”, so she remains single even she is thirty-eight years old. I think the reason of this situation is her growing environment. She lost her mother when she was a baby and brought up by her father. Her father loves her very much so that “he would get up every morning and run after her”. In Siyu’s heart, she loves and relies on her father so much. That’s the reason why she feels abandoned when her father remarried and refuse to marry a man. In the same way, Hangfen lives only with her mother. He respects her mother and obeys his mother’s mind. So when his mother said “Do you dislike something?” he will do something that he doesn’t like as he finally agree to marry to Siyu though he don’t love her. Also that’s the reason why he became a gay because he just want to “have fun” when he didn’t live with her mother.
2．
While reading Yiyun Li’s story, ”Gold Boy, Emerald Girl,” the portrait of the three main characters, like survivals of the past age, makes me feel cold and depressed.
I think that Siyu and Profession Dai ‘s loneliness is more like their own choice. It’s not convincing enough for me that Siyu, for almost 20 years since she turned twenty , has not met any man whom she even “would bother trying to impress”. It’s neither all the faults of those matchmakers and innocent men, nor the faults of her loving father and early-dead mother, as she denies. Am I a bit cold-hearted? Not at all, if compared with Hanfeng’s mother who had never taken a family photo with her son since her husband died. I would keep a distance with such a headstrong woman who “loathes most activities that a woman her age enjoyed” and tries to put everyone under her control. That’s why I sympathize with Hanfeng most because I heard of a theory that a headstrong mother probably makes a weak-personality son. I can see from many details in the story that Hanfeng, a 44-year-old man, is still living under his mother’s shadow. Why did he “intend to claim a place for himself” when he moved to America right after college? His mother didn’t contribute to his happiness; on the contrary, in my opinion, his mother did contribute a lot to his life style which is “different” with normal people.
However, at the end of the story, they choose to “make a world that would accommodate their loneliness.” I like this warm theme which conforms to my belief that even in the darkest forest, there must exist a way out provided we are eager to find it.
2. Tell about how you feel toward this writing or its author and why?
One thing that my interesting point in the story " was that the author made,mentioned about the story from the asian cultural componant. Most of asian country has this sort of cultural behavior that greeting each other from their parents. Surely, parents want to make their son or daughter happy and get a better life, however, it is not the business for the parents. Sometimes, it makes them to take a displeasure feeling. In this story, I felt that Siyu loved Hanfeng but he was not, because he was gay. His mother who was Siyu's teacther tried to get them marry for no more loneliness even though she already knew his son's position. I think it is a parents' heart that they want to make their second generation to get happier then their life but truth is that true love is going to make the person to keep his or her mind from getting cold.
The relationship and each charactor's past happening helps the story can flowing smoothly: Siyu's mother died when she was infant, Hanfeng's father died by accident, etc... so that Siyu treat hanfeng's mother as if her real mother. Maybe Hanfeng wanted to get a assistance from man instead of father, so that he needed to go America for the better cultural liberty.
Gold boy, Emerald girl
Question 2
It is a very interesting story, and I like it very much. Despite the young people are seeking passion and stimulating, the middle-age people’s marriage like a cup of tea, looking flat, but tasting bitter, with some taste hard to tell. The author uses a crafty and abnormal way to describe the relationship between mother and son, woman and men, women and women. Professor Dai said, “When you are older, you marry for companionship,” but dose she still love her son and her students? When people are getting older, they lost their love or not? The writer is trying to tell us they still love each other, but in a different way. Siyu loves professor Dai so she want to be a company of her, and Hanfeng loves her mother so he never disobey her, Professor Dai loves her son so her doesn’t him to “repeat” her lonely fate again. The marriage links them up. However, it is obvious that there is no any chemistry between Hanfeng and Siyu, but they agree to get married. Could this kind of relationship keep a marriage? The author leaves the question to us. Maybe it will turn out a happy future. Anyway, tomorrow is another day.
1. What does the work mean and why do you think that? Explain the writing's overall significance or message to its readers.
The story “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” seems to revolve around the notion of an individual’s personal freedoms and choices verses family obligation. For example in the section where Hanfeng speaks about the engagement dinner, he feels “that it was his duty to say something to avoid silence among the three of them”, this suggests that there seems to be no relationship between the characters but he is planning to marry Siyu anyways. Also given the fact that it is suggested that Hanfeng’s sexual orienation is not hetrosexual reenforces this point.
The story also appears to focus on the different dynamics of what a family is classified as, and yet with their diversities, certain traditional values and beliefs still remain intact. Hanfeng in the story grew up and was raised in China with traditional communist beliefs but later in life, he moved around within various democratic countries and yet with all the new influences in his life he was unable to leave his old traditional values that he was raised with by his mother. No matter how assimilated a person becomes in a given country certain inherent traditional core values still remain.
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Tell about how you feel toward this writing or its author and why.
In the story,”Gold Boy Emerald Girl” written by Yiyun Li conveys a warm reality of a human nature which lead to selflessness, but lies I assume . On the other hand, though, I admire Li’s skillful writings about the” tail of three lonely”, but sometimes I felt shame for them because these weak people (Siyu, Hangfeng, Proffessor Dai) never confronts their true identity, which I felt so bad. Also, Chinese gays and lesbians denies true self because of the fear of” curse of tongue”, I believed it’s true to what I observed when I was in Hongkong, the increasing number of suicide of men was allegedly caused by being gay. Perhaps, Li’s story confirmed the traditional belief of a Chinese. Over all, the story has amused me, but I wish the story of the characters have direct experience among themselves, well, the story maybe changes now they stayed together, right? That would be so interesting!
Reading the short story of Yiyun Li, “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” confronts my belief. To what I know, couples get married because of love and they are passionate about it. In this story, it’s totally the opposite of what I believe in. Hanfeng and Siyu became a couple because of some reasons: they want to be with Professor Dai, and they want companionship.
I have mix feelings after reading this interesting story. First of all, I feel angry about Siyu and Hanfengs’ decision to be in a relationship because of Hanfengs’ mother and not because they love each other. However, I feel sympathy for them as well. Hanfeng don’t have any other relatives but his mother so as Siyu (she only have her father). I am saddened about Hanfeng and Siyus’ situations. Hanfeng decided to be with Siyu because that is what his mother wants. Siyu decided to be with Hanfeng because she is looking for motherly love. And being with Hanfeng is the only way she finds this.
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