he does not, he is literarily expendable. The Sinologist Martin Svensson Ekström presents an interesting notion in an essay on Confucian interpretation traditions. Namely, the poetic narrator is displaced from being a strong, independent woman, with integrity and identity, to a most traditional woman striving to prove strength through arousing the desire of the man. An active feminist of today would perhaps, in light of such an interpretation, comment on the poem with the following words: we are still there! Two to three thousand years later we have just begun our journey towards increased respect, equality, understanding, brother- and sisterhood! Is the woman holding up her “lower garments”, whom at a first glance might be regarded as strong, free-spirited, and eager to take the initiative, in fact simply striving for attention, DGPLUDWLRQDQGSDVVLYHREMHFWL¿FDWLRQ" When I contemplate Gao Xiang's strong poetic and spectacular images, it is clear to me that the interpretation of these images, as with the interpretation of the millennia-old poetry previously mentioned, should necessarily be done with humility before the non-translatable component hidden in all art worthy of its name. I feel helpless as I attempt to grasp the real meaning. As soon as I feel I've touched it, it can suddenly slip away again. The sought- after and delivering “meaning” politely looks away when I try to pin-point what it is I see in his art. Breakneck associations and sidetracks, familiar yet alien and paradoxical, constantly emerge in my brain when I see Gao Xiang's images and try to comment on them. The images gain momentum even as I watch them. Simultaneously, his images are “pure and unveiled poetry” and serve as a pedagogical and perhaps—in the biblical sense of the word—a prophetic purpose, not prophetic in the sense that they lay out an account of the future. Who is the Doll? is by contrast a work of art, which with a loving and critical gaze, expresses and points out one of the great contemporary dilemmas: how are we to live together on the earth, we men and women? We are pulled towards each other, we need each other. But what is actually male and what is actually female, and in which way can our differences and similarities inspire fellowship and create something new, something good? We see a man and a woman on a lit stage. We see a bride and groom. They are actors in a familiar drama. The love is there, but it has to be staged, the actors have to find their roles. Their
and even power. Coming from northern Europe, I find it hard to identify historical counterparts so clearly cut out in my own culture. As a result, the first superficial reading of the Chinese classic Book of Songs will inevitably raise an eyebrow or two:
If you desire me, love me I will hold up my lower garments, and cross the Wei.. If you do not desire me, There are, to be true, other men You most foolish of fools! ȞȞ
This poem, together with the remaining 304 poems collected in the poetry classic, is traditionally dated to 1000 - 600 BCE. A self- FRQ¿GHQWVHQVXDODQGFKHHUIXOO\LURQLFZRPDQLVVSHDNLQJ6KH demands love and respect, speaks seductively of lowering her garments whilst making clear that she and she alone sets time and place for the rendezvous. It may appear as though the poem is far from the porcelain-doll ideal. Yet, attentive reading exposes how fraudulent the poem's portrayal of the “strong woman” actually is. What is she searching for in her supposed lover? Not moral integrity, character, courage, strength, or any other definitive qualities. Her only desire is that the gentleman desires her! If
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