Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
One version of the front cover of the novel
Author(s)	Dai Sijie
Original title	Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise
Translator	Ina Rilke
Genre(s)	Historical, Semi-autobiographical novel
Publisher	Anchor Books
Publication date	2000
Published in English	2001
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	184 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-375-41309-X
OCLC Number	46884190
Dewey Decimal	843/.92 21
LC Classification	PQ2664.A437 B3513 2001

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Dai Sijie, and published in 2000 in French and in English in 2001. It is the author's first published novel. Its original French title is Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise. A film based on his novel was released in 2002, directed by Dai himself.

Plot Summary

The novel, written by Dai Sijie, is about two teenagers. Luo,“a genius for storytelling,”^[1] and Ma, “a fine musician,”^[2] (referred to as the narrator throughout the novel), are sent to be re-educated after the Chinese Cultural Revolution. They are sent to a mountain called "Phoenix of the Sky" near Tibet, because their doctor parents have been declared enemies of the state and "reactionaries of the bourgeoisie" by the Communist state. There, while forced to work in the coal mines and with the rice crop, they are captivated by and fall in love with the daughter of the local tailor, the Little Seamstress. Throughout the novel, the farming village of Phoenix of the Sky delights in the storytelling of the two teenagers. They even are excused from work for a few days to see films at Yong Jing, a nearby town, and later relate the story to the townspeople. One of these films, a North Korean film entitled The Little Flower Seller and identified by the narrator as "a propaganda film like no other" (39), closely resembles the 1972 Korean film version of The Flower Girl (1972) in the melodramatic scene of the death of the eponymous character's mother.^[3] Other talents and possessions of the two boys at which the townspeople wonder include Luo's clock and Ma's violin,on which they love to hear "Mozart Is Thinking of Chairman Mao," their improvised, Communist-friendly name for a Mozart Sonata.

At the same time, they meet Four-Eyes, the son of a prominent poet, who also is being re-educated. Although he is succeeding in re-education, he is also hiding French, Russian, and English novels that are forbidden by Chinese law. The boys convince Four-Eyes to lend them the book, Ursule Mirouët by Honoré de Balzac. After Luo stays up all night reading the book, he gives the book to Ma (Narrator) and leaves the village in order to tell it to the Little Seamstress, “the region’s reigning beauty"^[4]that both characters are attracted to, and Ma becomes “completely wrapped up in the French story.”^[5] When Luo returns, he is carrying leaves from the tree that he and the former virgin, the Little Seamstress, had sex under.

The character of Luo is then motivated to educate the Little Seamstress and “ma[k]e her more refined, more cultured.”^[6] This motivation spurs Ma and Luo to steal the rest of the books from Four-Eyes’ home, “knowing that [Four-Eyes] will be afraid to call the authorities.”^[7]Particularly inspirational to the narrator is the translation by Fu Lei of Romain Rolland's Jean-Christophe, which the narrator credits as giving him a newfound sense of individualism. Luo and the Seamstress's romantic relationship grows as Ma silently and jealously watches. After their successful robbery, Ma recites the tale of The Count of Monte Cristo in his cabin to Luo and the visiting tailor. The village headman, described as a passionate Communist who has just returned from an unsuccessful dental surgery, threatens to turn in Luo and Ma for spreading the counter-revolutionary ideas found in The Count of Monte Cristo if they don’t agree to fix the headman’s teeth. Faced with the threat of prison, the pair fix the village headmans teeth, but they operate the drill “slowly. . . to punish him.”^[8]Later, when the headman is calmer and thankful to the two for repairing his teeth, he allows Luo to leave the village for two months to look after Luo’s ailing mother. During Luo’s absence, the Little Seamstress concludes that she is pregnant. Her character confides this in Ma, for “when [Luo] had left the previous month she was not yet worried”^[9] about missing her period. However, since it is illegal to have children out of wedlock in the revolutionary society, and her and Luo are too young to marry, Ma must set up a secret abortion.

Three months after the abortion is performed and Luo returns, the pair's mission of educating the Little Seamstress backfires. At first, however, it seems as if their plan is working perfectly – she adopts the city accent and begins making modern clothing. Yet, one day, she “comes to understand her own sexual power,”^[10] and leaves without saying farewell. In his grief, Luo becomes inebriated and burns all of the foreign books “in [a] frenzy,”^[11] ending the novel.

Characters

• The narrator/Ma — Written in Chinese characters, his name in English translates as "Horse Sword Bell," but in the original French version this is not specified, as he mentions only that the characters making up his name can be drawn as a man riding a horse, a long sword, and a ringing bell. He is a seventeen-year-old violin player, and once is referred to in the novel as "the fiddler." and "very intelligent." He enjoys the Western books that he receives from Four-Eyes greatly and is attracted instantly to The Little Seamstress, despite Luo’s relationship with her. He procures an abortion for her when Luo is visiting his mother.

• Luo — Luo is the only character in the novel with a recognizable name. Luo, is an eighteen-year-old who has a talent for storytelling, is the one who comes up with the idea of trading one of Four-Eyes’ books for labor. He reads novels by Balzac to The Little Seamstress in order to educate her. He takes away her virginity and impregnates her, and after she leaves, he burns every one of the forbidden books that he and Ma own.

• The Little Seamstress, the daughter of a famous local tailor, the Little Seamstress is a rare beauty. She has had no formal education and cannot read, so Luo and the narrator read to her. She is impregnated by Luo, and subsequently gets an abortion. As the novel progresses, the Little Seamstress learns about the outside world by reading the foreign books with Luo’s help. She eventually leaves the mountain and everything that she has known to start a new life in the city.

• The Village Headman,the leader of the village to which the narrator and Luo are sent for reeducation, is a fifty-year-old “ex-opium farmer turned Communist cadre.”^[12] One day, he even blackmails Luo to fix his teeth in return for not sending the narrator to jail.

• Four-Eyes,the son of a writer and a poet, must wear thick glasses to compensate for his nearsightedness. He possesses a suitcase full of forbidden "reactionary" Western novels that the Narrator and Luo covet, and eventually steal. He is referred to as a character who is used to humiliation. He ends up leaving the mountain when his mother convinces the government to end his re-education early and gets Four-Eyes a job at a newspaper.

• The Miller is an old man who lives alone and is a repository of local "folk" songs. The Miller narrates one part of the novel and provides songs to the boys, who then relate them to Four-Eyes. He is one of the characters who chooses not to be involved with the revolution.

• The Tailor, the father of the Little Seamstress and the only tailor on the mountain, is a rich and popular man. He is old but energetic and widely travelled. At one point in the story, the narrator recounts "The Count of Monte Cristo" to him while he spends the night with the narrator and Luo. Through this experience, he gains a slight air of sophistication, and the story begins to influence the clothes that he makes.

• The Gynaecologist, a man around 40 years old with “grizzled lanky hair [and] sharp features,”^[13] performs the Little Seamstress’ illegal abortion in return for a book by Honoré de Balzac.

Major Themes

Power of Education and Literature

Critics have noted that Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress deals with the strength of education and literature. Jeff Zaleski of Publishers Weekly said that the novel “emphasize[s] the power of literature to free the mind.”^[7]Additionally, a New York Times book review by Brooke Allen addresses the themes, such as the “potency of imaginative literature and why it is hated and feared by those who wish to control others.”^[10] This reviewer addresses the evil and ultimate failure of “any system that fears knowledge and education . . . and closes the mind to moral and intellectual truth”as well.

Friendship and Lost Innocence

The major themes of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress include friendship and lost innocence.^[14]

Double Edges

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress addresses issues such as how everything appears to have a double-edge.^[15]

Cultural Superiority

It has been noted that Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress deals with cultural superiority.^[10]

Style

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is notable for its size. Publishers Weekly stated that Balzac was a “slim first novel,”^[7] and Brooke Allen at the New York Times Book Review called the narrative “streamlined."^[10]

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is written in a characteristic style. The novel focuses and “accents on a soft center rather than . . . hard edges” according to Josh Greenfield of Time Europe. A vast majority of the characters in the narrative have “epithets rather than names,”^[12]adding to the relaxed writing style of the novel.

Background

Cultural Revolution

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is during the time known as the Cultural Revolution in China, and this historical event helped to supply the framework for many of the conflicts faced in the novel. The Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong “began in 1966 and continued until the dictator’s death ten years later." The Cultural Revolution in China was “intended to stamp out the educated class and . . . old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits.”^[10]In order to do this, “hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals [were sent] to peasant villages for re-education,”^[7] and within the years of “1968-1975, some twelve million youths were ‘rusticated.’”^[10]

Dai Sijie's Past

Dai Sijie’s own experiences during this time period helped to produce the novel. Sijie himself was re-educated, and “spent the years between 1971 and 1974 in the mountains of Sichuan Province,”^[10] and emigrated to France in 1984.^[15]

Publication History

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress has been translated from the original language. The novel was first published in France in the French language"^[4]in 2000, and since then, rights of the book have been sold in nineteen countries.^[7] However, the novel has not been translated to Chinese because of statements that Sijie has “ blackened the characters of the peasants and treated them like idiots,” and that the changes that the characters go through should be “the result of reading a Chinese book."^[16] The English translation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Ina Rilke is published by the company Knopf^[12] and has been praised for its clarity.”^[7]

Reception

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress received reviews related to “warmth and humor."^[7] It has been stated as well that the novel “abound[s] in gentle humor, warm bonhomie and appealing charm”^[12] in Time Europe.

The novel has likewise been seen as an emotional tale. Jeff Zaleski has reviewed Balzac as a “moving, [and] often wrenching short novel."^[7]Dai Sijie has been praised as a “captivating, amazing, storyteller” whose writing in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is “seductive and unaffected.”^[14] In a San Jose Mercury News article, the novel is described as one that will resonate with you.^[15]

Topics in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress having to do with the Cultural Revolution have been elaborated on and reviewed. Dai Sijie, as “an entertaining recorder of China’s ‘ten lost years,’” addresses the Cultural Revolution. Balzac is seen by some as “a wonderfully human tale,” and relatable.^[7] The ending of the novel has received some positive attention. The ending has a “smart surprising bite” says a Library Journal article.^[4]In Publishers Weekly, the conclusion is described as “unexpected, droll, and poignant.”^[7]Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is seen as an unprecedented story, “not another grim . . . tale of forced labor."^[12]Balzac is a popular novel as well. It has been described as “a cult novel."^[16] and was a bestseller in France in the year 2000.”^[7] However, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress has received negative reviews. Brooke Allen of The New York Times Book Review states that the novel is “worthwhile, but unsatisfactory” and that the epithets for most of the characters “work against the material's power.”^[10] In addition, the Chinese government has complained that Sijie “is mocking the nations great revolution."^[16]

Awards and Nominations

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is the winner of several literary awards. The novel is “the winner of five French literary prizes."^[4] Additionally, Sijie won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Balzac.^[17] Among consumers, the novel was a best seller in 2000.”^[7]

Adaptations

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress has been turned into a “French-language film.” The author of the novel, Dai Sijie, has “adapted it as a screenplay, and directed” the film as well.^[18]

Interviews and Reading Guides

	France portal
	China portal
	Novels portal

• Book Drum profile. Summary, glossary, setting and page-by-page illustrated notes in English.
• Interview with Dai Sijie on NPR's All Things Considered. In French with English translation. Originally aired March 17, 2002.
• INA interview with Dai Sijie. Originally aired January 21, 2000.
• Interview with Dai Sijie from bacfilms.com. French.
• http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/balzac_and_the_seamstress1.asp

Articles and Book Reviews

Allen, Brooke. "A Suitcase Education." New York Times Book Review, 9/16/2001, p 24.

Bloom, Michelle E. "Contemporary Franco-Chinese Cinema: Translation, Citation and Imitation in Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and Tsai Ming-Liang’s What Time is it There?" Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 22:311–325, 2005.

Chevaillier, Flore. "Commercialism and Cultural Misreading in Dai Sijie's Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise." Forum for Modern Language Studies, 2011 Jan; 47 (1): 60-74.

Coltvet, Ben McDonald. Review in Christian Century, 1/2/2002, Vol. 119 Issue 1, p 37. Abstract available at http://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2011-05/balzac-and-little-chinese-seamstress-dai-sijie

McCall, Ian. "French Literature And Film In The USSR And Mao's China: Intertexts In Makine's Au Temps Du Fleuve Amour And Dai Sijie's Balzac Et La Petite Tailleuse Chinoise." Romance Studies, Vol. 24 (2), July 2006.

Riding, Alan. "Artistic Odyssey: Film to Fiction to Film." New York Times, 7/27/2005, p 1.

Schwartz, Lynne Sharon. "In the Beginning Was the Book." New Leader, Sep/Oct2001, Vol. 84 Issue 5, p 23.

Silvester, Rosalind. "Genre and Image in Francophone Chinese Works." Contemporary French and Francophone Studies Vol. 10, No. 4, December 2006, pp. 367–375.

Watts, Andrew. "Mao's China in the Mirror: Reversing the Exotic in Dai Sijie's Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise." Romance Studies, 2011 Jan; 29 (1): 27-39.

Wiegand, David. "Painful Truths: Revolution-era Fable Explores the Consequences of Knowledge." San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, October 28, 2001.

References