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4. Choose two characters in any one or two of the texts and explore how their inner
struggles are represented. You can focus on the narrative techniques and literary devices
(e.g. symbols, imagery, metaphor, allusion, dialogue, monologue, etc.) and consider the
subject of their internal struggles.

Identity Dishonesty: Homosexuals as Heterosexuals

Introduction
“They were lonely and sad people, all three of them, and they would not make one another less
sad, but they could, with great care, make a world that would accommodate their loneliness” (Li
231). This ending sentence from the China based story “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” by Yiyun Li
sums up the underlying theme of the short story: solitude. The two main characters, Hanfeng and
Siyu, cross paths due to the command of Professor Dai, Hanfeng’s mother, who persuades
Hanfeng to marry her ex-student, Siyu. The two then end up in a platonic relationship to fulfill
the wishes of their matchmaker, who is not aware of her son and student’s sexual orientation
identity: homosexuality.

Attitudes towards homosexuality in China is still stigmatized, despite the fact that it was
unmarked as illegal in 1997 and no longer considered as a mental health disorder in 2001 (Yan).
The agreement of the two main characters to get married, although having non-romantic feelings
for each other, reflect how Chinese homosexuals stay inside the closet due to family’s
expectations of their children to form a family. Due to this pressure, they therefore “conform to
traditional expectations and eventually end up in heterosexual marriages” (Lin et al. 5). This is
the exact internal struggle of Hanfeng and Siyu, where both characters hide their true sexual
identity due to the fear of coming out. This essay will examine how the traditional values of
Chinese culture caused the inner struggles of Hanfeng and Siyu and how these inner struggles
are represented in “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl”.

Representation of Hanfeng’s internal struggle

Hanfeng’s inner struggle of hiding his identity is represented as a metaphor of running away
from his problems when he moves back to China from the US:
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Twenty-three, and in love with a childhood friend who was dating a chirpy girl…
America, at first glance, seemed a happy enough place, and when his friend called with
the news of his engagement, Hanfeng sought out companions. All he wanted was to have
some fun, he replied when more as asked of him... But eventually the reply came back to
taunt him: I thought we would have some fun and that’s all, his last lover had said, a
Chinese boy, a new immigrant, as Hanfeng himself had once been, whom Hanfeng had
helped support through college. (Li 212-213)

The above passage indicates that Hanfeng has had unsuccessful homosexual relationships in the
US. Due to this, he decided to move back to China in which he tells his friends that “his mother
was getting old… the thought that he, too, was no longer a young man in need of adventures he
kept to himself” (Li 207) but inexplicitly mentions that it was due to his unsuccessful
relationship.

The decision of Hanfeng returning to China due to the fact his mother, Professor Dai, is aging
reflects Hanfeng’s strong morals of filial piety. In the Chinese culture, filial piety is viewed as
the primary respect to family members of age such as parents and grandparents (Mack). Hanfeng
offers support to his mother when he “deposited half his money into his mother’s account” (Li
207) and since his mother raised him up alone, he is obligated to “be the one to protect her from
the hostility of the world (Li 209). Whyte mentions that these obligations for children to fulfill
parents’ wishes and needs are more significant than the wishes and needs of the children (qtd. in
Lin et al. 6), which correlates with the reason why Hanfeng gave up his own dreams: “making up
ambitious business plans that he knew he would not carry out” (Li 207).

However, Lin et al. suggested that it is possible for filial piety to be one of the factors affecting
attitudes towards homosexuality in Chinese culture because forming a family and continuing the
family’s name are seen as the main filial responsibilities of children (6). This could be one of the
reasons why Hanfeng was hesitant to answer Professor Dai when she asks him if he dislikes
Siyu, where “it took more than an hour over tea for him to say that he disliked a woman,
Hanfeng thought, but he just shook his head slightly” (Li 212).
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In the short story, Professor Dai appears to be a helicopter parent:

Do you dislike piano? she had asked, when he wanted to give up the instrument at twelve
for games that he could play with boys his age; Do you dislike engineering?, when he
thought of pursuing a literature degree in college rather than the one she had chosen for
him. (Li 212)

The above passage shows evidence that Professor Dai plans Hanfeng’s future for him, therefore
chasing his mother’s dream rather than his own. This shows how both conform to traditional
Chinese culture, where parents give orders to the child and child remains obedient to parent.
Therefore, it is not a surprise to why Hanfeng is so determined in keeping his homosexuality a
secret from his mother because she would probably not be accepting about it, which correlates
with Smith’s suggestion that “older generations tend to hold more conservative views toward
homosexuality than younger generations” (qtd. in Lin et al. 7).

Representation of Siyu’s internal struggle

Siyu’s inner struggle of hiding her sexual identity is also represented through a metaphor, in
which she pretends to be someone she is not. Similarly to Hanfeng, it is evident that Siyu only
marries Hanfeng to fulfill the wish of Professor Dai for filial piety as “she had remained
unmarried for Professor Dai, Siyu thought now, and she would with her blessing, become a
married woman” (Li 220).

Apart from her internal struggle with her homosexuality, Siyu also struggles with societal norms.
As aforementioned, the Chinese culture regards filial piety as the central source of respect.
However, Siyu is considered unfilial towards her father who remarries when she tells him “He
did not need her to complicate his life” (Li 217) and only made him compromise by proposing a
“monthly lunch as their only way of remaining father and daughter” (217). She then goes on by
thinking:
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But how could she stay in his sight when she was going through her life with a reckless
speed known only to herself, all because of a love she could not explain and did not have
the right to claim it in the first place? (Li 218)

Although the passage does not explicitly name Siyu’s unrequited love, it is apparent that
Professor Dai is the answer, because she used to wake up at six in the morning every day to
watch Professor Dai arrive on her bike (Li 206) and decline any invitations to occasions as she
expected Professor Dai to invite her, so in the meantime “she tried to keep herself uncommitted,
which meant that most of the holidays she spent alone” (204).

Conventionally, when it comes to student and teacher relationship, it is unacceptable for a

younger woman to fall in love with an older woman, to which I assume that Siyu is aware of this
“norm.” She, therefore, leads a compromised life by marrying Hanfeng just to be a companion
for Professor Dai, considering it as “an unexpected gift from a stingy life” (221).

Conclusion
In conclusion, two Chinese individuals, Hanfeng and Siyu, from “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl”
struggles internally with their sexual orientation identity, which are caused by the conformist
society of the Chinese culture: where homosexuality is seen as deviant and therefore,
discouraging gays and lesbians to reveal their sexual preference. Despite being homosexuals,
both main characters still conform to traditional Chinese culture by being involved in a
heterosexual relationship to form a family and have children in order to stay filial to elders.
Therefore, both Hanfeng and Siyu, agree to marry each other as a filial act for Professor Dai, his
mother and her companion respectively.

(1315 words)

Bibliography
Li, Yiyun. Gold Boy, Emerald Girl. Random House Inc, 2010. Canvas CityU.
https://canvas.cityu.edu.hk/courses/24119/files/folder/Primary%20texts/Week%2011?pre
view=3359326
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Lin, L., Button, D. M., Su, M., and Chen, S. “Chinese College Students’ Attitudes Toward
Homosexuality: Exploring the Effects of Traditional Culture and Modernizing Factors.”
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, vol. 13, no. 2, 2016. ResearchGate.
DOI: 10.1007/s13178-016-0223-3

Mack, Lauren. “Filial Piety: An Important Chinese Cultural Value.” ThoughtCo, Dotdash, 8 Apr.
2018, https://www.thoughtco.com/filial-piety-in-chinese-688386, Accessed 29 Nov.
2018.

Yan, Alice. “Why China’s gays and lesbians are still stuck in the closet.” South China Morning
Post. Web. 7 Jun. 2017.