Spring Pearl: The Last Flower

The Cage

Doggy turns sideways to keep the baskets from swaying too much. With his foot, he kicks at the gate to announce that Miss Chou has arrived. An old man comes and opens the gate. Doggy steps inside the gate, and jokes around a bit with the old man who opened it for him. The carriers set the chair down, Doggy pays them in cash, and Spring Pearl steps out.

She notices both the granite stones that pave the large courtyard and the weeds that grow through the cracks of some of the broken ones. But what impresses her most is the quiet. It’s strange to come into a peaceful place after the commotion of the streets.

Stone columns support tiled roofs to form a veranda that shade the other three sides of the courtyard. There’s carved wooden screens and rice paper that covers the windows of the rooms. Large stone jars in front of them must have held flowers at one time, but now they only hold weeds. Doggy whispers to Spring Pearl that she shouldn’t gawk as he tucks some extra cash into his sleeve. Suddenly, Spring Pearl understands his trick.

Spring Pearl points out that the chair was supposed to be brought to her house to pick her up for the whole trip. Doggy chuckles. He says to consider it a tip. Now, Spring Pearl should put a frown on her face, for her troubles are starting.

Doggy struts toward a pair of girls that are lounging on the steps. They wear expensive silk clothes, so Spring Pearl assumes they are Master Sung’s daughters. But before Spring Pearl bows, Doggy stops her. They are not Master Sung’s daughters. Apparently, they are servants! A girl named Snow Goose rises slowly, and saunters off to tell the family that Miss Chou has arrived. Her friend studies Spring Pearl. So, she is the crazy man’s daughter. Spring Pearl comments that he was a famous painter. The girl shrugs. If he was such a famous painter, why is Spring Pearl living on their charity? Doggy points out that this is Master Sung’s house, not the girl’s. So, he can do what he likes.

Spring Pearl, blushing, says that living there is just temporary, until she can figure out what to do next. Doggy shoots an exasperated look at Spring Pearl as the girl laughs. That’s what all the leeches say. Snow Goose comes back, and says it’s time for Spring Pearl to meet the rest of the family. Doggy dips his head, and says he’ll bring her things to her room.

Snow Goose leads Spring Pearl across the front courtyard into a second one, where the family lives. Rooms with verandas lay on three sides, and in the center, there’s what looks like a garden, but now is just a scrap of wilderness. It’s ten times larger than Spring Pearl’s old little plot back home, but it’s in far worse shape. Snow Goose explains the gardener died two years ago, and they never replaced him.

Snow Goose and Spring Pearl enter a room in the right wing of the mansion, and Spring Pearl hears enough yelling for a rooster fight. Snow Goose loudly announces that Miss Chou has arrived, and the room falls silent. Incense tickles Spring Pearl’s nose. Three girls lounge in chairs, fanning themselves with expensive fans. The oldest girl looks about Spring Pearl’s age.

Each of them is dressed well enough to be a princess. The servants and their fancy clothes now seem shabby compared to them. The oldest girl wears a dazzling jacket of chevrons. The chevrons look like angular rainbows marching one after another. Her hair rises above her head in four large loops. She says her name is Miss Emerald. The other girls are her sisters, Miss Willow and Miss Oriole. Spring Pearl can feel their eyes appraising her as carefully as her mother had inspected a piece of cloth. Spring Pearl gives her full name, and Miss Emerald slyly comments that she should be called Miss Ratty. When Spring Pearl questions what was said, Miss Oriole pipes up that she came from the Rat’s Nest, whatever that is. She probably lived in a dirty shack before. Miss Oriole looks about eight and Miss Willow about ten.

Miss Oriole’s dressed in a blue jacket and pants with an intricate geometric design of diamonds and squares. Her hair is coiled into buns on either side of her head, and decorated with gold hair pins. Miss Willow wears a jacket and trousers of tan color with a complicated design of waves and golden thread. Her hair is twisted into braids that are woven intricately into a bun above the crown of her head so her head seems to tilt forward. Spring Pearl bows politely, thanking the family for taking her in. But her house was no shack like what the girls may think. It was quite nice, and they had a garden too. Spring Pearl used to help her mother tend it.

Miss Willow’s mouth twitches. Spring Pearl tended her own garden? Spring Pearl shifts on her feet uncomfortably. She explains if she didn’t do it, no one else would keep the garden alive. Miss Willow pantomimes digging with pale, exquisitely manicured fingers. It must have dirtied her hands to use them that way.

Spring Pearl is puzzled. It was so nice to sit in the garden. Miss Willow continues to make fun of Spring Pearl., until Miss Emerald says that there’s been no one to show Spring Pearl the proper way. They must make allowances.

The only thing that makes Spring Pearl feel good is that Miss Willow compliments her exquisite clothing. It makes Spring Pearl feel proud to find that a rich girl would want her mother’s handiwork. But even such a compliment is diminished when Miss Emerald comments that Spring Pearl’s cuffs should go all the way to the floor. When Spring Pearl says that plenty of girls have pants that length, Miss Emerald leans forward to comment that the other girls don’t have Spring Pearl’s large feet.

Spring Pearl retorts that her feet are only a little larger than Miss Emerald’s. It’s the fashion among rich Chinese families to bind a girl’s feet to make them more attractive. Using ribbons, they would bend a girl’s toes under the sole to shape the feet and keep them small. Bound feet are considered desirable, but they make it hard to walk.

Miss Emerald slides her own feet underneath her chair as if she’s embarrassed. Her mother is half-Hakka and they don’t do that to their own girls. Miss Oriole asks if Spring Pearl’s mother is Hakka, too. Spring Pearl shakes her head. Her mother’s feet were bound, and it was so painful, she vowed she would never do it to her own daughters. But it didn’t stop her from working in the garden.

Miss Emerald raises her hand and says at least they must do something about Spring Pearl’s hair. Spring Pearl reaches up and feels her braids that hang down her back. Miss Emerald comments that girls haven’t worn hair like that for years. Miss Willow snickers. A river rat in fancy clothes is still a river rat.

It sounds as if the Sung sisters have been teased so much about their own unfashionable feet they try to be stylish more than anything else. Spring Pearl thinks they are like peacocks, trying to make up for their ugly feet by displaying the biggest and fanciest tails. Spring Pearl knows that Miss Emerald is trying to help her, but in many ways, her kindness seems crueler than Miss Willow’s contempt.

Suddenly, Miss Oriole and Miss Willow start to go at each other again. Even in the presence of Spring Pearl, they go on and on about going to some party, what shoes they’re wearing, and who would have made fun of who. Spring Pearl stands patiently, waiting for an opening in the argument. She points out that there’s a war, so she’s surprised that anyone would go to a party.

Miss Willow presses her fan to her lips. Of course no one should be afraid of the foreign barbarians. The Chinese troops sent them packing quickly enough. Spring Pearl warns that they’ll come back with more ships and more troops next time. Miss Willow waves her fan as if she could blow the British and French ships back to their homeland with it. She says the viceroy and their brave officers will make the wretched barbarians beg for peace.

Spring Pearl mentions that foreigners have more modern weapons, not the old muskets that the Chinese army uses. The girls look at her as if she’s an annoying mosquito that simply buzzed into the room. They insist that there’s no way Heaven would let them win. Miss Emerald says that the Chinese empire is over 4,000 years old. There is no way that the European kingdoms, which must only be a few hundred years old, could take over the Chinese.

Spring Pearl tries to reason with them but it’s no use. Their tongues are sharp enough so she knows their minds have to match. It seems the girls take no more interest in the outside world than birds in a cage. What concerns them is what happens inside their own mansion and those of their friends. Spring Pearl was wrong. The Sung mansion is not a prison. It’s a fairy tale grotto where time and life follow separate rules from the rest of Canton. And now, she is trapped inside.