During the time period Wild Swans is written, marrying someone for love was the last thing on someone’s mind. In this day and age of china, people married for money, power, to move up in a class, or to better their family. This was the way of life for the Manchuria people. Marrying to make yourself happy wasn’t an option and that was accepted. People who married for happiness were considered selfish and a disgrace for not thinking of their family first. This was the problem for Dr. Xia and his family. Through the course of the second chapter in Wild Swans, the conflicts between Dr. Xia and his family over his marriage are brought to the surface to inform us about the family culture in Manchuria.
Most of the time, women weren’t even the true wife of a man. The majority of young women became concubines to men that already had wives. Being a concubine, you had the same duties to the man as the wife did but you also had duties to the wife. As a concubine, you were basically a servant to the wife. You were also there to produce children for the husband. As a man, the more concubines you had, they more power …show more content…
Yes, people are selfish and people will talk bad on someone for making a stupid decision but it is not common for people to go as far as shooting themselves over a marriage. All of these examples of how the Manchurian family culture was leads to nothing but selfishness and cold hearted. Dr. Xia had raised his kids in a respected class and they were very well off. He saw that all of his kids were happy and all he wanted was to be happy himself but his kids would not have it. The Manchuria people did not believe in marrying for love so when Dr. Xia was doing so, no one could accept it. Living in a world full of bitterness and selfishness just proves that the Manchuria citizens cared about no one but themselves and nothing was going to be good enough for them unless they benefited from the
Most of the time, women weren’t even the true wife of a man. The majority of young women became concubines to men that already had wives. Being a concubine, you had the same duties to the man as the wife did but you also had duties to the wife. As a concubine, you were basically a servant to the wife. You were also there to produce children for the husband. As a man, the more concubines you had, they more power …show more content…
Yes, people are selfish and people will talk bad on someone for making a stupid decision but it is not common for people to go as far as shooting themselves over a marriage. All of these examples of how the Manchurian family culture was leads to nothing but selfishness and cold hearted. Dr. Xia had raised his kids in a respected class and they were very well off. He saw that all of his kids were happy and all he wanted was to be happy himself but his kids would not have it. The Manchuria people did not believe in marrying for love so when Dr. Xia was doing so, no one could accept it. Living in a world full of bitterness and selfishness just proves that the Manchuria citizens cared about no one but themselves and nothing was going to be good enough for them unless they benefited from the