A Severed Family Severs Tradition

Joe Basalla

In Pa Chin’s Family, he tells the story of the large extended Kao family that lives, all four generations together, in a compound in China around the time after the May Fourth Movement. The Kao family, a rather wealthy bourgeoisie family, has deep roots in traditional Chinese culture, mainly in the older generations, and as the family line goes down, the reader can see that the ties to tradition are strained from the offset of the book. Each of the older family members has a stake in following tradition because, by natural progression, they are the next in line to inherit the wealth and, more importantly to most, the prestige that comes with being an elder or the head of the family. The younger children, however, see tradition as a barrier and in direct opposition to their individual wants and desires.

Early in the book the reader can see the sides forming and characters beginning to take certain stances. Pa Chin, following in the tradition of radical authors like Lu Xun, uses these characters as a vehicle to discuss the political climate in his country and the obstacles and solutions to these obstacles that anarchists such as himself must address. Not only can Pa Chin’s anarchist ideology be seen in his writing, but also the struggle, assumedly his struggle, to balance his engrained sense of Confucianism and his want of individuality, tradition versus progress, and his contempt for superstition.

Pa Chin does a good job of developing his characters and in using them as instruments to get his larger points across. The three main characters in the book are the brothers Chueh-hsin, Chueh-min, and Chueh-hui. Each brother represents one of the dominant ideological positions in China at the time. Chueh-hsin is conservative and unwilling to disrupt the family and traditional values, Chueh-min is moderate and appears indifferent at the beginning, and Chueh-hui develops into the main character and a main source of untamed radicalism and contentious action.

Pa Chin singles out these three characters and makes Chueh-hui into the hero of the story, since he is the only one willing to severe his ties to the constraints of contemporary society and stand up for his beliefs. He flees from the wrath of tradition, leaving behind him the dominant practices of arranged marriage, filial piety, ancestor worship, and the possession of concubines. Ultimately, Pa Chin backs Chueh-hui’s exit from the family, not because the family needs to be destroyed like some anarchists, such as Han Yi, at the time were saying, but because of its inherent flaws and its destructive nature.

It is my belief that Pa Chin wanted the family to be restructured, which can be seen in his depiction of the three brothers and their relationships with each other. I claim that Chueh-hui loved his brothers more than anything and always wanted to be in their presence. Whenever the other two were busy, he was lonely and wanted nothing more than the companionship of one of his brothers, usually Chueh-min. Chueh-hui did not want his family destroyed. He loved his family; he wanted egalitarianism and the right to determine his own future, not a dictatorship.
Chueh-min also became a hero in the book, but not until he decided to rebel against tradition, especially arranged marriage. Pa Chin designates his cause as noble and even has Venerable Master Kao forgive him for his transgressions. Venerable Master Kao, before his death, shows the true meaning of family that Pa Chin believes in, not an overarching structural entity, but a group of people that love each other and want to be around each other. Pa Chin also shows what family shouldn’t be with his portrayal of Chueh-hsin.

Chueh-hsin’s ultimate failure is belief in superstition. This belief is the cause of Jui-chuech’s death, Cousin Mei’s depression and ultimate death, and could have lead to Chueh-min’s arranged marriage and despair, had he not fought against it. Li Shi-zeng, an anarchist like Pa Chin, considers superstition, “a form of tyranny over the mind.” Pa Chin probably feels the same way because he portrays Chueh-hsin’s life as endless depression and misery entrenched in struggle after struggle. Not until the end of the book does he feel relief and happiness and that is when he approves of his brother leaving and even offers him help. Thus happiness lies in one’s ability to free himself/herself from the oppressive family structure. Destruction of that specific structure is necessary, but not destruction of the family as a whole.

A Fork in the Road

Andrea Brown

Many youth of China in 1931 were struggling in the wake of a cultural revolution, a time when the question was arising among them: Do we as young people have to suffer, to deny ourselves identity and personal dignity in order to respect Confucian family tradition? In the first half of the twentieth century, China’s traditional society was being pressured to change and adopt modern Western ideals, and in the most turmoil were the young people, who recognized that their lifestyle could change—that they did not have to sacrifice themselves to a corrupt social system—but that this change would come at the expense of the family’s respect, which they were always told was of the greatest value.

In Pa Chin’s fictional novel Family, Cheuh-hui Kao, the youngest and most liberal-minded of three brothers, is constantly noticing and attacking the “contradictions” within his family: believing in progress but practicing old tradition, or believing in the maintenance of old tradition but practicing what conflicts with those values. These contradictions are present in every character of the story, including the most radical Cheuh-hui and the most conservative Venerable Master Kao, and are what signify the cultural struggle of the time. This is Pa Chin’s way of showing that all men have the desire both to be free and to belong; it is dangerous and difficult for an individual to pursue his or her self-interest without regard for family, while the consequences of an individual living a life defined and controlled solely by the family is eternal suffering and self-loathing.

Pa Chin portrays his characters as very human; not one of them shows true consistency in their actions versus their opinions on social modernization or family traditions and rituals. The Venerable Master Kao, the head of the household and keeper of Confucian order within the family, is criticized internally by his grandson Cheuh-hui for “patronizing female impersonators” and for his fondness of his “coarse, unattractive” concubine that is an ironic taste when considering Master Kao’s fondness of elegant books and art (65). Though the grandfather claims his every word is final, he eventually cancels the arranged marriage for the middle Kao brother, Cheuh-min, after Cheuh-min runs away in opposition to the idea. “I was wrong,” the old man admits (289). Even the “crusty Confucian moralist” shows kindness and compassion to his grandsons after they try to defy him. It is here that Pa Chin shows hope for social progress; despite Confucian order, many men know what is best for their family even if it contradicts those firmly set rules.

The contradictions found within the youth of Pa Chin’s novel, such as in the Kao brothers’ female cousin Chin, represent the opposite end of the spectrum from Master Kao’s contradictions. Though Chin is considered very brave and admirable in her efforts to attend a co-ed school and publish articles about cutting her hair, she calls herself weak when she realizes she does not have the courage to actually cut her hair—even if it would pave the way for their “future sisters”—because of how her family would react to it. Chin says, “I love my future, but I love my mother, too” (197). It is this struggle within Chin that illustrates how many youth of China in the 1930s wanted so badly to exercise freedom of choice, but respected their family’s opinion to such a degree that they could not disobey it. Being a member of the upper class, Chin is handed many opportunities for academic success, but she still can not have all that she desires because that would entail hurting her mother, of whom she is very fond. Chin could break free—that is a real option—but she chooses not to. This is not Pa Chin rejecting traditional family values altogether, for he does not portray Chin as completely victimized by these values.

In Family, Pa Chin presents Chinese youth overcoming the old social order as well as succumbing to it. In this sense, he is not directly attacking the role of family in Chinese society, but rather realistically portraying how the youth deal with the conflicts they face concerning the role of family. Whom should they appease: themselves or their families? It is difficult for Chinese youth, or any youth, to completely reject one of these options, and many find that they can not do so. Pa Chin illustrates this through the use of the characters of Family, and it is up to the reader to decide who is better off in the end.