The Sexuality And Narrative Of "Flowers In The Mirror"

In the history of Chinese novel,"Flowers in the Mirror" is a fairly controversial fictionwith distinctive features,which mainly discusses various kinds of knowledge and art,diversesources of literary quotations and classic works. Thus it enjoys the special fondness of thegeneral public. Some scholars even label it "A Miscellanist’s Novel". With flowers’s unionand separation as the main clue, it describes a series of activities after the get-together of TangAo, Tang Xiaoshan, as well as these flowers. Both ideological content and structure, there ismuch worth academic study.Li Ruzhen makes flexible use of the "Book of Mountains and Seas" mode, integratingmyth and reality harmoniously with a mixed serious and entertaining style,thus demonstratinghis own thinking on social reality, and exhibiting certain social ideals. By means ofdescriptions concerning exotic flowers and rare herbs,strange birds and unique animals aswell as numerous travels in overseas countries, this novel reveals the characteristics ofmetaphysics；meanwhile, this novel also embodies the criticism and complaint towardssociety,which takes the mask of humor and fun. In this way, the author obtains psychologicalbalance."Flowers in the Mirror"ponders on "women issues",which is often praised by academicsand many scholars commend it as"a fiction to discuss women issues." This fiction inherits thetradition of fictions which highlight women’s role in society since the late Ming and earlyQing and carefully shapes various images of talented women. Hence a bold challenge to thetraditional androcentric is presented. Thinking from different aspects of women issues dothink, the author manifests his advocacy for gender equality and the respect for women’srights. All these have certain positive significance. However, the author does not correctlyhandle the relationship between his own knowledge and artistic creation, because as theartistic images of one hundred talented woman,these women are typed groups, who areconstructed on the basis of the author’s ideal talented women and lack their distinctivepersonalities. As for tragic sentiment for the fate of women,"Flowers in the Mirror" is outshined by "Dream of Red Mansions" for its lack of unforgettable tragedy sentiment. Theauthor stands a male’s point of view to write women,so this fiction still embodies maleconsciousness. In this sense, the author’s view towards women has not substantially changed."Flowers in the Mirror" is characteristic of the arrangement of the narrative structure.The overall structure of the book is travels-featured, namely unfolding the narration of TangAo, Tang Xiaoshan’s two overseas travels. Through their eyes, various social phenomena arepresented. Besides,this fiction also adopts two tactics including restricted perspective andthe omniscient perspective,which mainly rely on three characters,namely Tang Ao, TangXiaoshan, Mengzi Zhi. Their whereabouts in travel hold the whole fiction together in asystematic way, thus achieving the purpose of the "metaphysics".