The Great Wall Lovers

There is a saying in China about movies. Americans go to the movies to have a good time, to imagine a better life. Chinese go to the movies to have a bad time, to remind themselves of what life is not. We can see this phenomenom far beyond the advent of cinema, to the very stories on which our civilisation is built. As such, the stories I grew up on did not teach me about hope and a better future but of the angst of love and longing, the type that can transcend time and space itself.

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"A long time ago, during Qin Shi Huang's time, when the Great Wall was still being built, there was a pair of lovers that were separated. Qin Shi Huang had drafted the man to build his wall. When winter came and her husband had yet to return, the wife decided to bravely venture towards the wall, bringing with her some winter clothes that had cost her all she had.

"She arrived, only to find that her husband was long dead, his bones buried in the wall itself. She fell to her knees, crying and gnashing her teeth, begging the gods to take pity on her, to let her give her husband a proper burial or to let the gods take her with him. The gods took pity and struck the wall apart with a bolt of lightning, revealing the hundreds of bones and bodies buried in the wall. She went from bone to bone, pricking her finger over and over. If the bones were her husband's, the blood would be absorbed into the bone. And slowly, she collected every single one of her husband's bones until she held all that was left of him in her arms again.

"The emperor heard of her dedication and was impressed, asking her to marry him. She agreed on a single condition—that he build a tower, larger than anything ever seen before, to honour her dead husband. The emperor readily agreed and built the tower. When it was built, the wife climbed to the top of the tower and threw herself off, loyal to her husband to her last breath."

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You might be wondering, why would such a depressing story be my favourite? Why not Cinderella or Mulan or some other happily ever after? Why not choose Chang E, someone whose story at least does not end in death?

This story taught me about life and love. That even someone as gods-chosen as our leading lady can lose her love, and there is nothing one can do about it. Happy ever after is a construct--there is always life after the ever after, and the life is not always happy. So to end on a happy note is to end on a lie.

But perhaps most importantly, to love and to bear witness to love is the most human of human conditions. And yes, the story of Chang E is brilliant too, a testament of another love. I simply find it even more isolating and depressing. To love someone so much that you turn into the moon for them, only to be parted with them for all of eternity. The kernel of hope would be more hurtful to me than simply death, where you will at last be reunited with your lover.

If you enjoyed this myth, please check out my piece where I tell the story of Chang E! I did make a slight error in it--Hou Yi turned into the sun, not the moon.

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