A man's tail

Author: Jinlu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Jinlu's novel A Man's Tail tells the story of Qin Wendao and Zhao Xiaodie, a young couple. The male protagonist, Qin Wenda, is the owner of the upscale restaurant "Golden Coast" in the city. Born into a farming family, he ventured into the city with nothing but a coat of dust and eventually accumulated tens of millions of assets through sheer hard work. Zhao Xiaodie's mother came from an official family and, during the Cultural Revolution, was forced to marry a worker and had Zhao Xiaodie. She was determined to raise Zhao Xiaodie as a proper lady. However, her dissatisfaction with her husband's roughness led to their divorce, and she passed away from a sudden heart attack shortly after. Afterward, Zhao Xiaodie lived with her aunt, a Communist Party committee official, and her uncle, a factory technician. She received a good education, but the sudden change in her environment left her with emotional scars. Fortunately, she persisted in learning the piano, passed the entrance exam for an art college, completed her graduate studies, and eventually became a faculty member there. Qin Wenda and Zhao Xiaodie met during a trip and married out of mutual convenience. The cultural differences and psychological gaps caused by their different backgrounds and upbringings made it impossible for them to live together harmoniously after marriage. They tortured and hated each other, and both engaged in extramarital affairs. Qin Wenda's lover was Zhao Xiaodie's elementary school classmate, Lan Dongxia, while Zhao Xiaodie's lover was a piano player at a bar, Kuang Yichuan. When the truth came to light, their marriage was already beyond saving. The title of the novel, A Man's Tail, suggests that the author focuses on the male protagonist, Qin Wenda. It attempts to convey the idea that a man, despite his success and wealth, is ultimately defined by his origins. His upbringing always reveals his background in subtle ways, much like the unchangeable tail of Sun Wukong, which always reminds people of his monkey identity. To make this idea more compelling, the author intentionally includes the story of Zhao Xiaodie's mother and her aunt's marriage as additional evidence. Zhao Xiaodie's mother married a worker because her parents were sent to a labor camp during the Cultural Revolution. She tried to change her husband's rough ways but failed. Zhao Xiaodie's aunt also married a worker during a difficult time, but fortunately, her father was reinstated to his position, and with her sharp mind, she gradually improved her husband's status, eventually making him the chairman of a large state-owned enterprise. However, in the end, her husband was punished by law for visiting brothels abroad and harming national interests, and she ultimately tasted the bitter fruit of her husband's lack of refinement.
When I first read this novel, my focus was always on the female protagonist, Zhao Xiaodie. In other words, I believed that Zhao Xiaodie's marital tragedy was not only due to Qin Wenda's "tail" but also to her own flaws in character. That is to say, Zhao Xiaodie was not the refined and elegant lady Qin Wenda imagined her to be; she came from a broken family and had spent many years living with others. She had suffered numerous wounds and discriminations both at home and in school, leaving her with deep psychological scars. Her superficial artistic refinement could not truly heal the wounds in her heart. These scars always manifested in various ways in her life. Therefore, while Qin Wenda had his "tail" of origin, Zhao Xiaodie had her own "scars" of the soul. In this sense, their marriage was tinged with a sense of mutual sympathy. If they had understood and forgiven each other, their marriage might have been happy. Regrettably, they did the opposite, each falling into the other's misunderstanding. On Qin Wenda's side, he harbored suspicions due to his farming background and felt that Zhao Xiaodie looked down on him; on Zhao Xiaodie's side, she consciously or unconsciously ignored her own trauma and her inherent sense of superiority deeply wounded Qin Wenda. As a result, instead of loving each other, they seemed like water and soil trying to mix, or stones colliding with each other. In this way, the breakdown of their marriage was almost inevitable.
To be honest, over the years, I have read many long novels by female writers on the themes of love and marriage, such as Zhang Jie's A Wordless Story, Xu Kun's Twenty-two Nights in Spring, He Xiaoqing's Petals and Candy: A Wandering Year, and A Ming's When I Went to Germany to Be a Bride. Perhaps due to the awakening of female consciousness, we can clearly see in these novels the moral critique of male characters by female writers. However, at the same time, we must admit that this stance lacks transcendent power and often descends into attacks and curses. After reading them, one often feels that this gender war lacks meaning, and many of the descriptions, though emotional, lack depth. In contrast, I found that although the author Jinlu may have intended to critique the moral character of the male protagonist, her realistic narrative approach gave A Man's Tail a perhaps unintended effect. In my view, she initially inclined her sympathy toward the female protagonist, Zhao Xiaodie, but the writing effect seemed to contradict her intentions. The realistic narrative exposed too many flaws in Zhao Xiaodie's character, making it clear that the blame for the tragedy of Qin and Zhao's marriage could not be placed solely on Qin Wenda. This is a subtle shift in emotional focus, transforming the simple critique of men suggested by the title into a more complex critique of both genders.
When I read A Man's Tail for the second time, I realized that the author's realistic approach not only had a dual critique but also, further, had a social critique. Originally, the novel was about Qin Wenda, a sudden success who could not hide his "tail" of humble origins. However, upon closer reading, one can see that the novel's character development has long surpassed this initial premise. In the novel, not only is every character's marriage unhappy, but more importantly, everyone's mentality is twisted. Qin Wenda married to hide his lack of artistic refinement, while Zhao Xiaodie married to escape the hardships of living with others. They were like this, and their predecessors were even worse. Zhao Xiaodie's mother and her aunt were both meticulous and well-thought-out in their marital decisions, but surprisingly, the only thing they did not consider was love. Qin Wenda had various emotions toward his wife, lover, and brother, but he never had love. Zhao Xiaodie, too, had no gratitude or compassion for her husband, classmates, or the aunt who raised her. Zhao Xiaodie's aunt and uncle, who had been through thick and thin for decades, had children and grandchildren together, but beneath the surface of their apparent harmony, there was still indifference and disdain.
A detail in the novel deeply moved me: Qin Wenda's mother prayed for a son and, following traditional customs, placed many paper cuttings in Zhao Xiaodie's wardrobe. However, Zhao Xiaodie, upon discovering them, felt that they had dirtied her underwear and threw out all the clothes that had been touched by her mother-in-law. This act led to the old woman's death. I believe this detail is both emotionally powerful and intellectually symbolic. The emotional power comes from the strong conflict of origins it portrays, while the intellectual symbolism comes from the collapse of tradition it represents. In fact, there are many similar scenes in the novel that seem ordinary at first but are deeply disturbing upon closer examination. They seem to suggest that our real lives have lost some basic principles of human morality. I think this is a very frightening picture. I think Jinlu's novel, while portraying the strong Chinese desire for wealth and self-respect, and showcasing the powerful material and status ambitions of the Chinese, unintentionally exposes the lack of love in the Chinese heart. It presents a loveless desert that could crush all dignity. In this city, he has exhausted the strength of a man and is considered a wealthy man, but she has long noticed his aversion to "farmers." Her every word, whether conscious or unconscious, stabs at his most vulnerable points, with devastating effect. Before he could even raise a hand, he had already lost. Thus, the tragedy unfolded within this aversion. The author's profound pen, amidst the tumultuous plot, shows us the spiritual and physical worlds of a city couple from different backgrounds, reflecting the various family structures and the myriad worries of life in today's world, where the gap between the city and the countryside is narrowing and intersecting. It carries strong realism, provokes deep thought, and leaves one to sigh.