Dragonfly Eyes by Cao Wenxuan

Dragonfly Eyes is a story about a Chinese-French family and their life in Shanghai during the middle of the 20th century. At the heart of the story is the intergenerational relationship between the family's French grandmother Nainai and her granddaughter Ah Mei.

Nainai's husband and Ah Mei's grandfather was Du Meixi, who was the son of a wealthy Chinese silk merchant. The family's silk business was extensive extending into Europe. Du Meixi's father travelled throughout Europe establishing the European part of their sick business in Lyons, where he eventually settled. 

At twenty-five, Du Meixi, recently widowed, refused to join his father in Lyons to take charge of the silk business. Instead, he became a sailor, signing on to a French steamer that sailed between Shanghai and Marseilles. Meanwhile Du Meixi's family in Shanghai continued to care for his son and daughter.

In 1925, during a stopover in Marseilles, Du Meixi met a lovely Frenchwoman named Oceane in a café. Seventeen days after meeting, they travelled to Lyons to meet his father.  When Du Meixi's father first met Oceane, he was astonished at the power she held over his son. He felt Oceane was his son's port. That night Du Meixi's father gave him two exquisite oval glass balls, called dragonfly eyes. He told Du Meixi to have them set in a necklace to give to her on their wedding day. Du Meixi handed in his notice to the steamer company and he and Oceane were married. This allowed Du Meixi's father to return to Shanghai to run the silk business while his son managed the European end from Lyons.

Du Meixi was called Yeye and he called Oceane, Nainai. Yeye and Nainai had four children: a son born in 1927, a second son in 1929, Ah Mei's father in 1931, and a girl in 1933. The children spoke French and Shanghainese. The family and the silk business prospered. Yeye and Nainai took their children often to visit family in Shanghai.

In 1937, the Japanese occupied Shanghai. As the world slipped closer to war, the Du family silk business in Europe collapsed. In China, the family silk business was also struggling to survive and Yeye's father was struggling physically and financially. Yeye decided he needed to return home, but at the insistence of Nainai, the entire family packed up and travelled to Shanghai. This decision would seal the family's fate in the coming years, as the Communists came to power in China and life changed in ways they could never have predicted.

Discussion

Dragonfly Eyes is a novel about the fictional Du family set first in France and then in China and covers the period from the 1920's to the 1960's. The novel focuses primarily on "the family life of Du Meixi, a Chinese man from Shanghai, and Oceane, a Frenchwoman from Marseilles, their four children and ten grandchildren, against the background of war and political upheaval, particularly in China." The novel immediately engages readers with the delightful and romanticized description of Du Meixi (Yeye) and Oceane (Nainai) meeting and subsequent marriage. It then moves swiftly from their tranquil and prosperous life in France before World War II to their move to Shanghai, China and their difficult life under communism.

Wenxuan's narrative is a gentle telling of a fictional family's experiences during the first decades of the Communist revolution in China but it lacks the rich historical context needed to give it depth and   perspective. In the very brief Historical Note at the back, author Cao Wenxuan writes that "...the historical events are mentioned only lightly", meaning that there is only indirect mention of what is actually happening within Chinese society and therefore very little context to what the Du family is experiencing. Whenever events are mentioned, the description is brief with little explanation offered. Most authors of historical fiction, even for children's novels, strive to identify and inform readers about the political and social events occurring so readers can better relate to what is happening to the characters.

For Cao Wenxuan's Dragonfly Eyes, this connection is not easily made because young readers are not given the background information to do so. This lack of context is especially egregious because most Western readers have little knowledge of events like the Great Chinese Famine, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution or the Gang of Four. It's as if the author doesn't want to connect the devastating impact on the Du family to the failed policies of China's Communist government. These policies were used to entrench communism in China, quell any remaining resistance, and destroy China's rich cultural history and identity. The policies of Mao Zedong directly resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese citizens. 

In 1949, after the Communist takeover of China, the land of wealthy farmers and citizens was given to poorer farmers. To control the rural population who worked smaller farms and were continuing to practice their traditions, Mao began forcing them into collectives between 1949 and 1958. These collectives gradually increased in size, becoming very large. Private ownership was abolished in 1958 and everyone was forced into state-operated businesses. All religious institutions and ceremonies were banned, and replaced with political and propaganda meetings. In 1956, the hukou was re-introduced. This internal passport system restricted people from living in certain areas.

The Great Leap Forward was another policy developed by Mao Zedong to industrialize the country. This ran from 1958 to 1962 and saw the introduction of mandatory agricultural collectivization. The result was disastrous and led to the Great Chinese Famine which lasted from 1959 to 1961. The policies of the Great Leap Forward that were most responsible for the famine included the use of poor agricultural practices such as deep plowing and close planting, the poor distribution of food and the Four Pests Program. Food was appropriated by the state and stored to achieve quotas and for stockpiling. The result was not enough food left for the citizens and they starved. The Four Pests program saw the extermination of the Eurasian tree sparrow leading to an ecological imbalance that allowed insects such as locusts to thrive and devour the crops. It is estimated than between fifteen and fifty-five million people died in the famine, which was considered the worst man-made disaster.

The Cultural Revolution, launched in 1966 by Mao Zedong, had the intended goal of purging the country of any remaining capitalistic practices and of traditional Chinese culture. Mao believed that some were attempting to reinstate capitalism in the country, so he asked young people - the first crop of new communists - to rebel. They responded by forming the Red Guards, paramilitary groups made up of high school and university students. They were intent upon ridding the country of what were labelled the Four Olds": old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. To accomplish this, many cultural sites and historical artifacts were destroyed. The remnants of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, built during the Qing Dynasty and partially destroyed during the Second Opium war were badly vandalized. The Confucian Temple in Qufu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was ransacked, with many of its historical artifacts lost or destroyed. The destruction of religious sites and cultural art and antiquities resulted in a loss of religious and cultural identity for many Chinese. Schools and universities were closed and National College Entrance Examinations were cancelled. Seventeen million young people were sent to rural villages to learn from farmers.  Many ended up permanently exiled, losing their chance to continue their education. Intellectuals, scientists and scholars were killed or forced to commit suicide. The Cultural Revolution resulted in mass chaos and violence with between half a million to over two million deaths. 

Much of what happens in China does affect the Du family. Du Meixi gives up his family's silk business to the government because he is made to do so. Instead of running his business, he becomes an employee. As the family becomes impoverished, they begin selling off their possessions. The reasons are only vaguely explained and in some cases are somewhat misleading. For example in the chapter, The Piano, Wenxuan writes about the famine in China: "Shanghai had been so vibrant, but there was famine across the entire region now. The situation was serious.

In the sky above China, the sun, like a huge ball of fire, blazed furiously all day: trees were dying, crops were wilting, rivers were running dry...The sparrows that used to be everywhere disappeared, perhaps starved to death, or left with no choice but to fly off to the villages to look for food:..."  

Based on this description, the young reader might believe that the famine China was experiencing was the result of drought and that the sparrows simply couldn't find food. Although there were floods and a drought, these were considered insignificant in relation to previous droughts and floods.  As for the sparrows, they were eradicated, allowing insect pests to proliferate, destroying what crops remained.  As a result, the context of the story that is described in Dragonfly Eyes, where one of Ah Mei's classmates, Qui Qui faints due to lack of food, is lost. She is starving, but not because of drought. Ah Mei's family and her classmates, including Qui Qui  are suffering not from some random event, but from a man-made catastrophe.

This is just one of many events that occur throughout the story where the social situation is described but there is no context given, leaving the younger reader to wonder. The rise of the paramilitary Red Guards is another example. Wenxuan merely describes how suddenly young people have become loud, chanting and yelling, fighting one another in the streets. 

If the author felt that providing more historical information within the novel for his readers would add unnecessary detail, a more extensive Historical Note or Author's Note would have helped young readers understand the events described in the story. Although Wenxuan mentions the Cultural Revolution in his Historical Note, it is only to state that this changed how Oceane was perceived.  It is therefore recommended that readers who wish to understand some of the historical background to the events portrayed in Dragonfly Eyes, do some research on China's history. Also helpful would have been a map of China showing the relative placement of Beijing, Shanghai, and Yibin, and a map showing the relative placement of France and China.

 Although the novel concludes in 1968, when Ah Mei is fifteen-years-old,  we know that draconian communist policies did not end with the Cultural Revolution but grew even worse with the implementation of the One Child Policy in 1980, that saw an estimated three hundred forty million babies murdered or aborted. The policy has created a gender imbalance in China's population as well as fewer younger workers to support an aging population.  Ah Mei would have lived through this vicious policy had Wenxuan continued his saga.

Although the historical detail is lacking, Wenxuan does show the heart-breaking impact these social and cultural changes have on members of the Du family. Ah Mei's cousin, Ah Lang looks like his French grandmother, with his brown hair and Western nose. Once a popular student who was considered handsome by many of his classmates, Ah Lang is tormented by his fellow students as the Red Guards create chaos in Chinese society. He becomes so ostracized that he takes to wearing a mask to hide his face and is eventually driven from school, To fit in, he voluntarily takes part in the "Down to the Countryside Movement" in which students were exiled to remote rural areas to learn from farmers. His letters seem to suggest that he is happy but Nainai believes this is not really the case.  

Especially heartbreaking are the attacks on Nainai and Yeye at the Blue House. As suspicion grows towards anyone the different or seen as representing the old bourgeois class, Nainai is singled out as a spy by the Red Guards. They attack the Blue House, vandalizing it and imprisoning both Nainai and Yeye. Nainai is sent to a brick yard to carry bricks and Yeye to a pig farm. Although Wenxuan isn't specific about their ages, except to say they are getting older, it is likely Nainai is at least sixty-years-old and Yeye much older than that. Their harassment by the Red Guards continues with another break-in that leads to act of heartbreaking destruction, robbery and an injury that ultimately costs Yeye his life. Wenxuan's description of the attack on Nainai's beloved apricot tree exposes the senseless violence the Red Guards used to intimidate those whom they felt were subverting the communist ideals they believed in. Even after Nainai returns to Shanghai after fleeing to the countryside for her own safety she is once again taken, this time to be paraded through the streets. Fortunately, that does not happen.

Wenxuan captures the love and devotion that exists between members of the Du family, especially towards their grandparents, Nainai and Yeye. When any difficulty befalls them, their children rush to help in any way they can. Because they treated everyone with fairness and respect, whether it was friends or employees, Nainai and Yeye are often repaid for their kindness when they are in dire need.

Dragonfly Eyes is a well-written but lengthy novel for readers aged nine and up. Although it lacks historical context, Cao Wenxuan's writing is lyrical and emotive, capturing both the intense emotions of this tragic period in China's history and the beauty of the countryside. The description of the area that Mrs. Song lives in, an island in the middle of a river with tall reeds is breathtaking."When the wind blew, the reeds rushed forward, a dark tide of green waves. At their feet, the water rushed too, a white tide of glistening crystals. In the distance there were boats moving on the water, their lamps twinkling in the dark, flickering as they passed behind the reeds..."

Overall, Dragonfly Eyes is a novel to be read mainly because it's one of the few pieces of historical fiction for younger readers that covers the early Communist regime in China and the devastating impact of Communist policies on it's people. Teachers and parents are recommended to supply historical information that will help in understanding what the fictional Du family experienced.

Book Details:

Dragonfly Eyes by Cao Wenxuan
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press 2021
375 pp.