Проблемы литератур Дальнего Востока. Часть 1

Новые вопросы изучения классической китайской литературы... Issues of Far Eastern Literatures. Vol. 1. 2018 363 a mother and an adult son living together evince hostility towards each other that transforms into hatred  1 . They are for themselves a reciprocal source of pain and suffering, in daily rituals they are tormenting and psychically bullying each other. When the son, humiliated again, in his desperation murders the mother (when he sees that her watered skin melts off, he persuades her to bath, closes the bathroom and then finds inside only a bowl with dirty, foamy water) it turns out that even her death does not release him from being haunted by her and does not bring relief and freedom. He still hears a derisive and haunting voice which eventually makes him crazy. He behaves like a mad dog, runs over the street barking and biting — the mother wins even from behind the grave. The another character deviating from the stereotypical image of woman appears in the novel entitled ӄ俉㺇 ( Five Spice Street )  2 . The main role plays the exceptional type of character — an independent, liberated woman who at any occasion breaks social taboo and lives only according to her own rules. Such a character is Mrs. X who personify an independent, liberated woman, living in spite of any social and moral conventions. The secrecy, independence and promiscuity of Mrs. X ruin the peace of the whole street because her very existence underpins the actual order of things and questions the ideal of Chinese woman — gentle, obedient and modest. Mrs. X is the strongest and the most independent character in all Can Xue’s works. No one knows how and why she, her husband and son came to the Five Spice Street — the closed area isolated from the rest of the world. She is an intruder who destroys the peaceful existence of inhabitants. She is so sketchy and mysterious that even such a trivial matter as her age causes heated emotions: “Madam X’s age became a major issue on our street. When anyone left a group, he stood his own ground, and so at least twenty-eight different views flourished. No one wanted to argue continuously anymore”  3 . The controversies also apply to her appearance, the street inhabitants argue about her beauty or its lack, and in the novel there are many descriptions excluding each other: “The controversy about her age was part of a generally vague and contradictory image of Madam X. She is a middle-aged woman, very thin, with white teeth, a neck that’s either slender or flabby, skin that’s either smooth or rough, a voice that’s either melodious or wild, and a body that’s either sexy or devoid of sex. When this obscure image takes us by surprise and ‘‘discloses its true face,’’ everything unfathomable becomes clear, but only for an 1 Can Xue ↻䴚 , Wushui shang de feizao pao 㰉㯜ᶲ䘬偍䘪㲉 , Xin chuanzuo ᪂ ⇃ἄ , 1985, 1. 2 Can Xue ṧ㞷 , Wu xiang jie ஬㤶⾤ , ᾏᓙᩥ 刢↢䇰䣦 , 2002. The novel has been rele- ased for the first time in 1998 titled ✺ ⚜堐㺼 , but due to the author’s decision from 2002 it is continued under the new one. 3 Can Xue, Five Spice Street , Yale University Press, 2009, p. 5.