hong lou meng

New poetry club “The Crab-flower Club” 海棠社 just dropped, and Daiyu is sweeping up sunsets. Meanwhile Baoyu can’t seem to keep on-prompt…

“Why should the founding of poetry clubs be the sole prerogative of the whiskered male, and female versificators allowed a voice in the tunable concert of the muses only when some enlightened patriarch sees fit to invite them? Will you come, then, and rhyme with us?”

New poetry club “The Crab-flower Club” 海棠社 just dropped!

The latest installation of our exploration of Dream of the Red Chamber ( Hongloumeng, 紅樓夢, 红楼梦).

Baoyu expounds upon one of his favorite topics, his notion of the ideal death, linking it to idle visions shared by his soulmate. He then goes off in search of a song, only to find the baleful laments of a caged bird in a hall of mirrors. 

Baoyu is poorly regarded by visitors, and Baochai sends subtle signals to Aroma. We discuss families and fortunes. 

Note: I’ve preserved a weird audio effect at the end of the episode for a behind-the-scenes feel, and because I thought it was funny.

Daiyu is expertly trolled by a bird, and Baoyu tries to charm Silver. Baoyu tries to get Grandmother Jia to praise Daiyu, but she praises Baochai instead. Meanwhile we attempt to ascertain the social-hierarchical significance of who serves whom, and who sits when. 

Is love disgusting? Why wouldn’t it be? If your love is not reaching toward some infinite embrace, the quality of being unqualified, is it love? After a discussion of the handkerchief verses, we discuss Xue Pan and the “dark social alchemy” of violence and quantification. 

In the aftermath of the beating, who really cares and who is putting on appearances? What pain can more tears rebalance? A stained handkerchief can be a symbol, and a medium for artistic response. There is mutual understanding developing in the garden, but does falsity fatally ruin the whole concept of meta-cognition?

Baoyu is beaten! How does the ideology of filial piety inform this scene, when it is intra-familial conflict that, in part, brings it in being? 

An actor, the female impersonator Jiang Yuhan, has exited the Prince of Zhongshun’s stage, his gifted sash contradicting Baoyu’s claims of ignorance. Which path of fate is being depicted, and why must extreme violence befall Baoyu? 

The death of Golden 金釧! Who is at fault for her premature demise? Is there any agency in, and meaning to one’s actions, when symbols prefigure, and fate seems fixed? 

A short Xiangyun 湘雲 episode! We attempt to decipher her thoughts on yinyang 陰陽 philosophy and how it relates to her relationship with her maid Kingfisher 翠縷. The metaphysics of golden qilin 麒麟 in Dream of the Red Chamber/ Story of the Stone (紅樓夢, 红楼梦) are also briefly addressed.

What are the ethics of using an object? Is it immoral to break something just for the sound of it? What social, political, and economic sacrifices are justified, when performed for those closest? DISCLAIMER: no fans were hurt in the recording of this episode.

What meaning could reside in a hairpin? When is a hairpin a pen, and which character is being written? Would a false Xi Shi 西施 dream of real roses? Part 2 of our discussion of Chapter 30 of "Dream of the Red Chamber" Hong lou meng 紅樓夢, "Story of the Stone" (石頭記).

Plays within plays, and a meta-cognitive dispute! Is every jade tear still a microcosm? Do two false representations make one shared reality? Part 2 of our discussion of Chapter 29 of Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢，红楼梦), Story of the Stone (石头记).

In Chapter 29 of Dream of the Red Chamber (Hongloumeng 紅樓夢, Story of the Stone 石頭記), the crew is out and about in full force. Even before the plays begin, a spitting is delegated, a collision is mitigated, and a famous jade is investigated.

The poetry party, an artistic dream within a dream, continues! Readers of Dream of the Red Chamber (Story of the Stone 石頭記, Hongloumeng 紅樓夢) are here first introduced to the poetic stylings of Xue Pan 薛蟠, arguably the first postmodern brutalist poet in the classical Chinese literary tradition! 

Baoyu and Daiyu try to work through mutual misunderstanding, and matters of medicine reemerge. At Feng Ziying’s party, verses are improvised on the subject of female joys and sorrows, yet another poetic opportunity for red chamber dream projections.  

In this episode we broach one of the most central questions of Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 — why bury fallen flowers? Attempting to answer this question, we discuss cuckoos, mottled bamboo, the end of spring, cold pillows, inner chambers, and tears of blood. We also touch upon the relationship between interpretative spaces and values to live by.

Baoyu seeks Daiyu, who is notably absent bemoaning the season. Baochai chases butterflies, and Crimson enumerates a bewildering array of ladies.

A scion of great wealth demonstrates a dearth of erudition, while a legendary worrier transcends nature’s limits.