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 and Ma (referred to as the narrator throughout the novel), who are sent to be reeducated in after the Chinese Cultural Revolution. They are sent to the Mountain of the Phoenix of the Sky near Tibet, because their doctor parents have been declared "enemies of the people" and "reactionaries of the bourgeoisie" by the Communist state. There, while compelled 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. At the same time, they meet Four-Eyes, the son of a prominent poet, who also is being reeducated. Although he is succeeding in reeducation, he is also hiding forbidden French, Russian, and English novels. The boys convince Four-Eyes to lend them a book, Ursule Mirouët by Honoré de Balzac. Later, when Four-Eyes's mother comes to take him back to the city, they steal the books.

These books inspire the narrator (called Ma in the film version) and Luo to use them to educate the Little Seamstress, whom they consider uncultured. Luo and the Seamstress's romantic relationship grows as Ma silently (and jealously) watches on the sidelines. This relationship, however, results in the Seamstress's unwanted pregnancy. Ma helps her to arrange an illegal abortion while Luo is away. Throughout the novel, the farming village of Phoenix Mountain 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. Also notable among the stories they retell is Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. Ma mostly assists with the storytelling because Luo is more capable of moving the audience. 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. 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).

Later, Luo's mission of educating the Little Seamstress backfires. At first, however, it seems as if his plan is working perfectly – she adopts the city accent and begins making modern clothing. Yet, one day, she leaves without saying farewell. This sudden change for the two characters leaves them heartbroken and plays a huge role in both of their lives.

Characters

• Luo — Luo is the only character in the novel with a recognizable name. Luo is the son of a famous dentist who bragged of having worked on Chairman Mao's teeth, and is accused of being a reactionary for having committed the sin of suggesting that the Chairman had dental problems. Following this, he is publicly humiliated, and then raped in jail. Luo is audacious, a talented liar, and a storyteller. He evolves throughout the story as the other characters do, and he seems to have gained the knowledge of sexual relationship and learns that one should not try to change who a person is, but should appreciate him or her for who he/she is.

• The narrator — His name is Ma, but since it only is given in Chinese in the book, he just is known as "the narrator." The son of two doctors who have been labeled enemies of the people, the narrator mentions that his name is written in Chinese characters that in English translate 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. The narrator plays the violin and once is referred to in the novel as "the fiddler." His character begins with very low confidence, but, as the novel progresses, the narrator's storytelling skills rival and then arguably surpass those of his friend, Luo, through reading literature. He also becomes more audacious, as he purposefully causes the headman of the village severe pain by pumping the machine that drills holes in teeth very slowly. He also falls in love with the Little Seamstress and becomes her confidante through an abortion although he never is able to steal her heart from Luo.

• The Little Seamstress — Daughter of a famous local tailor, the Little Seamstress is a rare beauty. She is shy and tries to stay away from her many suitors, but falls for the two city boys who visit her often, eventually becoming involved with Luo. She has had no formal education and cannot read, so Luo and the narrator read to her. Amongst the ignorant peasants, she has an air of sophistication due to her relative wealth, though Luo comments early in the novel that she is "not civilized". Luo, however, is only stereotyping her. 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 Headman — The headman is the leader of the village to which the narrator and Luo are sent for reeducation. He has a very arrogant personality and believes that he knows everything even though he only ever has experienced the small, secluded mountain on which he lives. One day, he even blackmails Luo to fix his teeth in return for not sending the narrator to jail.

• Four-Eyes — He is the son of a writer and a poet, but does not seem to have inherited his parents' ability of writing. Four-Eyes must wear thick glasses to compensate for his nearsightedness (hence his nickname). He possesses a treasure trove 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 is the rude and betraying person who ends up trying to use his friends. He says to his mother that the only reason he was friends with Luo was because his father was a great dentist and that if he was friendly enough, they could save some money on dental work. He clearly values possessions more than people. He also does not seem to know how to fit in. He ends up leaving the mountain when his mother convinces the government to end his reeducation early.

• The Miller — He 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 — He is the father of the Little Seamstress. He is richer than all the peasants and is treated almost like royalty. At one point in the story, the narrator recounts a Western story 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.

Interviews and Reading Guides

• 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.