City and Space True, Dream

¶ … City and Space

True, dream love in Eileen Chang's Sealed Off: How the compressed nature of space gives rise to the illusion of love

Sealed Off by Eileen Chang depicts the complex social relationships that are negotiated in the enclosed space of a tram car frozen just on the outskirts of Shanghai, a city in China during the time of the Japanese invasion. The main drama of the piece revolves around Lu Zongzhen, who has a thirteen-year-old daughter that is the object of lust of Dong Peizhi, a social-climbing prospective son-in-law. At first he tries to hide from Peizhi, then he attempts to deter the man from coming over to him by engaging the attentions Wu Cuiyuan, whom he believes obviously wants to make a pass at her. Out of this defensive action, Cuiyuan and Zongzhen actually establish a momentary connection which causes them to believe that they have fallen in love. Chang does not suggest that the two are actually in love, but the intensity of their feelings suggest that their encounter unmasks the loneliness, desperation, and isolation of their plights. Just as the city is sealed off, so are both protagonists, emotionally, until their encounter.

The humor of the piece derives from the switching of perspectives, from Zongzhen to Cuiyuan. Cuiyuan, unaware of the real reason for Zongzhen's interest is initially shocked that a businessman can speak so sweetly. But both of them see through one another, more than the other person realizes. For example, while Cuiyuan pretends to be uninterested, Zongzhen notices that she breaks into a tiny smile that he believes women only have when they feel very attractive. However, in reality, he sees Cuiyuan's arms and body as unpleasantly white and shapeless as squeezed-out toothpaste. And Cuiyuan does not see herself as stunningly attractive -- in fact, Chang tells us, even her mother had difficulty characterizing her daughter's face as round or long.

Their ages 'seal off' the protagonists as well as their location. As part of his flirting routine, Zongzhen pretends that Cuiyuan believes her to be so young that she must still be a student at the university, even though Cuiyuan considers herself to be old at twenty-five. Zongzhen is considered old by his nephew at thirty-five. The sense of advanced age these relatively young lovers have clearly lies in their mutual sense that their lives have stalled, much like the tram car itself. And their attitude towards their lives is often tired and stale: Zongzhen, playing along with the pretence of flirting, is not above using cliches. Cuiyuan mentally anticipates his patter, chuckling internally that she knows he will say his wife does not understand him, even though she looks sympathetic and surprised when he speaks the words, only moments after she anticipates his sentiment. Also, when Zongzhen complains about his wife, Cuiyuan pretends to be understanding, as she must, according to social conventions but really she thinks that the failures of every marriage are rooted in the shortcomings of both people, both the husband and the wife.

Despite the unprepossessing nature of their circumstances, these two individuals begin to fall in love. Because they act like two lovers, Cuiyuan out of loneliness and politeness, and Zongzhen out of a desire to avoid an unfortunate social encounter, they begin to feel like two lovers. The act of interacting with another human being causes them to realize hidden emotions within themselves. Although Cuiyuan expresses world-weary attitudes about the nature of men and women in her inner monologue, Zongzhen clearly spots a desire for a connection with another human being in her eyes. And Zongzhen thinks he is merely avoiding Dong Peizhi, but he is also unconsciously avoiding his wife. Dong Peizhi is his wife's nephew, and part of the disgust Zongzhen feels towards Peizhi is clearly tied to his unhappiness in his own marriage. That is why he blames his wife for Peizhi's persistence, just like he resents being forced to buy spinach buns by his wife -- even though he clearly likes them, as he eats them to pass the time, while he is stalled on the tram.

The spatially constructed flirtation between Zongzhen and Cuiyuan becomes real, partially because of the unconscious needs of the protagonists but also because of the enforced closeness of the train car. The arbitrary nature of their meeting is underlined by the extraordinary circumstances of their encounter: the train has stopped, and most of the passengers have filed out to wait. Zongzhen and Cuiyuan are left together, but they do not move closer until the new influx of passengers force them closer. This is a metaphor for the fact that exterior circumstances and chance force them together, not genuine feeling.

When the two contemplate entering into a relationship, the reasons for their dissatisfaction come into shaper focus. Cuiyuan's parents want their daughter to marry a wealthy husband. She wishes to rebel against their values by becoming involved with a married man who does not have much money. She resents being pressed to become an English teacher at a young age, and then is reproached for not being married. She is unreasonably angry when Zongzhen refuses to take her as a mistress (after only knowing her for a few minutes), sarcastically calling him in her mind the one good man left in the world. Yet rather than write down her phone number, she only tells it to him aloud, believing that if he really 'loves her' he will remember it.