Women's Fate and Aesthetic Pursuit in Raise the Red Lantern

Abstract

There are thousands of years of feudal marriage in Chinese patriarchal society, which means ancient Chinese women’s marriages were decided by the male family members instead of by themselves, and a man was able to marry a wife and several concubines. Lots of young women born into low-income families had to get married to wealthy older men to be concubines. Still, the life of being a concubine was tough, not only physically but also mentally hurt. The film Raise the Red Lantern describes a tragic story of a woman who turns from a college student into a psychotic abandoned concubine in the feudal Chinese patriarchal society, which reflects the detriment of the square-toed ideas and the yoke for the women in a highly gender-unequal marriage, especially in concubinage.